Question Is my CPU bottlenecking my PC's performance?

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rgerhard

Jun 10, 2020
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I play Fortnite, and I really want a consistent 240 frames. I just upgraded my GPU to a model that people online said would deliver 240, however, I can't seem to get 160 consistently even with a ton of tweaks. Here are my specs:

Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk AM4 ATX

GPU: Radeon VII

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core

RAM: TEAM T-Force DARK 16GM (2x8GB) (it's DDR4)

Power: Corsair CX650M (a little low on wattage for this build but still sufficient)

HDD: Seagare Barracuda 2TB

Any thoughts? I have game settings on all low and when I play CPU usage is at about 60% and GPU is at about 50%, so there's no clear sign to me that anything's bottlenecking anything else. Also often I see disk spiked to 100% in the performance monitor when I play.

Thanks in advance.
 
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ceriumin

ceriumin

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rgerhard said:
I play Fortnite, and I really want a consistent 240 frames. I just upgraded my GPU to a model that people online said would deliver 240, however, I can't seem to get 160 consistently even with a ton of tweaks. Here are my specs:

Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk AM4 ATX

GPU: Radeon VII

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Six-Core

RAM: TEAM T-Force DARK 16GM (2x8GB) (it's DDR4)

Power: Corsair CX650M (a little low on wattage for this build but still sufficient)

HDD: Seagare Barracuda 2TB

Any thoughts? I have game settings on all low and when I play CPU usage is at about 60% and GPU is at about 50%, so there's no clear sign to me that anything's bottlenecking anything else. Also often I see disk spiked to 100% in the performance monitor when I play.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Welcome to Toms Hardware @rgerhard !

The Ryzen 5 2600 is a great processor, therefore it will not bottleneck, you will probably however bottleneck in very cpu heavy games if you were playing at 1440p or 144hz. However the difference is minimal. Since you are getting 50% gpu usage, that is not a bottleneck. Your RAM is probably around 3000mhz so I doubt its also a problem with ram. But other than that I wouldn't worry about it
 
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M

mdd1963

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Below are comparisons with an overclocked (4.7 GHz) 6700K and a Radeon VII at about 130-170 FPS in Fortnite... (frame rates vary massively depending on what all must be rendered, so, you can try lowering details/quality to increase FPS, which, if successful means the GPU is holding you back)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g6S0_QTCgs


I'd suspect both your CPU and GPU are perhaps not capable of quite dishing out the FPS you are seeking in that title...
 
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R

rgerhard

Jun 10, 2020
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ceriumin said:
Welcome to Toms Hardware @rgerhard !

The Ryzen 5 2600 is a great processor, therefore it will not bottleneck, you will probably however bottleneck in very cpu heavy games if you were playing at 1440p or 144hz. However the difference is minimal. Since you are getting 50% gpu usage, that is not a bottleneck. Your RAM is probably around 3000mhz so I doubt its also a problem with ram. But other than that I wouldn't worry about it
Click to expand...

Thanks! I play 1080p and only fortnite so that shouldn't be a problem.
 
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R

rgerhard

Jun 10, 2020
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jay32267 said:
Also...you can have one core at 100% usage....and still show 60% CPU usage depending on the software you are using to look at it.

You can use Afterburner to monitor each core individually.
Click to expand...

Is this something I'd need to download, can't seem to find it on my PC. Although if it's MSI I'd think it would come with the driver install...
 
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SkyNetRising

SkyNetRising

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Jan 4, 2016
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rgerhard said:
How do I access these things? I'm new to the PC-owning universe and don't know a ton :/
Click to expand...
1. Download and install cpu-z.
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

2. Make a screenshot.
www.digitaltrends.com

How to Take a Screenshot on a Windows PC or Laptop | Digital Trends

Taking screenshots on a PC is easier than you think and is an important computing task to know. Here's how to take a screenshot on a PC in a few quick steps.
www.digitaltrends.com www.digitaltrends.com

3. Upload your screenshot to www.imgur.com

4. Post link.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Fps is all about the cpu. It pre-renders all the frames according to the game code, it's IPC and clock speeds.

The gpu either lives upto that limit, or fails. It doesn't set any fps, just finishes rendering the fps sent to it by the cpu.

The people saying
rgerhard said:
I just upgraded my GPU to a model that people online said would deliver 240,
Click to expand...
are only partially correct, you might need the gpu upgrade to be able to deliver 240fps, but the gpu can only deliver what it is sent in the first place.

So if lowering detail levels doesn't drastically change fps, then you are cpu limited and the gpu is plenty strong enough to deliver. Some ppl incorrectly refer to that as a cpu bottleneck, it isn't at all, the cpu can only deliver so many frames in 1 second, and you have a gpu capable of more. For that particular game.

Change games and the pre-rendered amount of frames changes, in CSGO you'd have no issue with over 300fps, but the detail levels are so simple that even a gtx970 will be half asleep at 300fps. CoD or BF5 is a whole different story.

View: https://youtu.be/VIgz7wAuRQ4


Pay attention to the beginning, where he explains frame rate differences in areas, and framerate deviation. He's not gpu/ram limited, only cpu at this point, but framerates do change according to what and where you are.

Running through town, building, fighting etc, that 160fps you get on a 2600 is right on track normal.
 
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R

rgerhard

Jun 10, 2020
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SkyNetRising said:
Show SPD screen too.

So far I can see, your ram is running at 2400mhz in dual channel mode. 2400mhz mode reduces performance.
Optimal frequency for your cpu is 3000mhz or 3200mhz.

Also command rate is 2T. With 2 ram module configuration command rate should be 1T.
Click to expand...

SPD screen should be in the last image links I sent. How to I change the command rate and speed?
 
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SkyNetRising

SkyNetRising

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rgerhard said:
How do I do this?
Click to expand...
Boot your pc into BIOS and turn on XMP.

Upper left corner - A-XMP box. Set it from OFF to ON.

MSI%20B450%20Tomahawk%20BIOS%20%281%29.jpg
 
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