[SOLVED] I5 6500 bottleneck? Stuttering & FPS Drops. (Looking to Upgrade)

[BrettBuhler]

Hello All!

I was looking to upgrade my rig but I had a few questions because I want to make sure i'm upgrading in the right direction.

I have started recording videos for Youtube and it is quite obvious I need to upgrade something. I'm thinking it's my cpu but I wanted to check a few more things before I go out and buy a new one.

For as long as I have had my computer I have got severe stuttering and FPS drops in large games that take a lot of CPU power such as battlefield 1. The new Battlefield 5 is basically unplayable due to the severe FPS drops and Stuttering. I've recently got into Insurgency Sandstorm and i'm getting the exact same thing. I'll run at 60 fps for a good while and then things get crazy in game and I drop down to 40 or sometimes even 24 fps. Changing the graphics settings does nothing which leads me to believe it's a cpu issue and not a gpu issue. I'm running everything at 1080p. Sometimes i'll hop up to 1440 and honestly my FPS is the same so i'm about 90% sure the gpu is not the issue.

However, investigating further, it seems that others don't have the same issues that I have with my i5-6500 and they don't have the stuttering that I do. Watching videos on the subject it runs just fine. So i'm wondering if it's not my cpu and something else. Either that or one of the cores is not working properly like it should. I checked and they all seem to be running fine.

Any advice?

Computer specs:

CPU: i5-6500 (6M Cache up to 3.60 GHz)
GPU: MSI RX 480 4GB Gaming
RAM: 16 GB Single Channel
1 TB Harddrive 7200 RPM.

 

[mdd1963]

You are running only a single stick of RAM, vice a pair in dual channel? This will cut your memory bandwidth in half, and, certainly is not helping things for a 4c/4t CPU which is now considered marginal for the latest games...

'End of the road' (last stop for max performance) for your mainboard (obviously a 100/200 series board given your current 6500) is likely a 7700K....but most folks can get an r5-2600 and B450 for similar money.

 

[celeron1200]

16 GB Single Channel RAM sounds a little bit suspicious for me as well as 1 TB HDD.

But I think the real issue is 4 GB of VRAM. It's obviously not enough...

That's why you get a lot of stuttering and FPS drops after a while, because it reaches to the limit.

You can check your VRAM usage by using MSI Afterburner while you're gaming.

 

[BrettBuhler]

That's the other option I was thinking of. If I get another stick of ram and do dual channel at 32gb, do you think i'd see a significant improvement? Or is it pretty much just upgrading the cpu.

 

[BrettBuhler]

@Celeron1200 I'm not sure the 4GB VRAM is the issue. My GPU rarely ever hits even 50% usage while my cpu is closer to 100%. Even on lowest settings and dropping the resolution down I still get the same FPS hits which would indicate a CPU bottleneck correct?

 

[BrettBuhler]

@celeron1200, are you suggesting it might be the HDD? What would be a better suggestion other than an SSD? It is a hybrid drive so it's got a small amount of SSD that I installed the OS on.

 

[celeron1200]

@BrettBuhler it looks like so... But it's not always that simple. Just because your GPU doesn't hit anything above than 50%, it doesn't mean you won't suffer VRAM limitation. Games have big textures even on 1080p and normal settings. I think your CPU is a good pair with RX 480, but when you play multiplayer with bunch of other players it would become cringy.

 

[BrettBuhler]

Ok, next question then haha. I found a really good deal on a RX 580 8gb. So should I upgrade my gpu first or my cpu? I was going to upgrade my cpu first and then wait for my tax return then upgrade the gpu and any other parts. But maybe I should do the opposite?

 

[celeron1200]

@BrettBuhler I had suspected HDD until I realized you have 4 GB of VRAM.

I don't think SSHD would be an issue. You can keep using it.

 

[celeron1200]

I think, first of all you just have to be sure what the issue is then start to making some changes.

I strongly recommend you to use MSI Afterburner and find out which component holds you back.