Is my CPU holding back my graphics card?

[Nison545]

I completed my first ever build in March, following a build guide on PC Part Picker. I'm mostly using this build for gaming, and I heard great things about the R9 390 and how it should blow away most games on ultra at 1080p 60fps.

For a few games, that's sometimes the case, but I find most games dipping quite frequently into low 30s until I majorly adjust the graphics settings.

My question is: is my CPU holding back my Radeon graphics card, either by bottlenecking or by just not being fast enough?

Specs:
i5-4460 3.2 GHz Quad Core
Gigabyte Radeon R9 390
Corsair 8GB
ASRockH97M Anniversary
Windows 7 64bit

 

[DSzymborski]

Hard to tell without knowing exactly what games we're talking about - there's a big difference between dipping into the 30s in Witcher 3 and dipping into the 30s in Bioshock Infinite.

 

[Nison545]

Hard to tell without knowing exactly what games we're talking about - there's a big difference between dipping into the 30s in Witcher 3 and dipping into the 30s in Bioshock Infinite.

Witcher 3 will dip down to 30 on High settings with fast movement or more than a few enemies. I'm also playing the new Doom, and with high settings, I'll get anywhere from 30-70 fps. Basically, the only games I've been able to max out with a stable 60fps are games from maybe 2012.

 

[geofelt]

depends on the game. games such as sims, mmo and strategy games run primarily on one fast core.

But, since you speed up when lowering your graphics settings, that may not be the case with you.
Here is my canned approach:
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To help clarify your CPU/GPU options, run these two tests:

a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one core. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
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[DSzymborski]

Hard to tell without knowing exactly what games we're talking about - there's a big difference between dipping into the 30s in Witcher 3 and dipping into the 30s in Bioshock Infinite.

Witcher 3 will dip down to 30 on High settings with fast movement or more than a few enemies. I'm also playing the new Doom, and with high settings, I'll get anywhere from 30-70 fps. Basically, the only games I've been able to max out with a stable 60fps are games from maybe 2012.

Your Witcher 3 FPS isn't a problem at all - dipping to 30 at 1080p high is quite normal for your GPU. It's an extremely demanding game. For Doom, you ought to be somewhere between 65-75 and dipping maybe into the 50s, so 30s is a bit low. Are your drivers up-to-date?

 

[Nison545]

Hard to tell without knowing exactly what games we're talking about - there's a big difference between dipping into the 30s in Witcher 3 and dipping into the 30s in Bioshock Infinite.

Witcher 3 will dip down to 30 on High settings with fast movement or more than a few enemies. I'm also playing the new Doom, and with high settings, I'll get anywhere from 30-70 fps. Basically, the only games I've been able to max out with a stable 60fps are games from maybe 2012.

Your Witcher 3 FPS isn't a problem at all - dipping to 30 at 1080p high is quite normal for your GPU. It's an extremely demanding game. For Doom, you ought to be somewhere between 65-75 and dipping maybe into the 50s, so 30s is a bit low. Are your drivers up-to-date?

Yes, everything is completely up-to-date. I'm just mainly wondering if this is acceptable performance out of this graphics card, and if their's anything I can do to improve it.