Is my CPU limiting my GPU?

[reconrey]

Well I just bought a new MSI Twin Frozr IV R9 290x, and I feel that I may be losing some performance due to my processor. I have an AMD Phenom II x6 1090t, running at stock clock speeds, and I think that it is just not quite powerful enough. I did some tests in Battlefield 4 of GPU/CPU usage, and here is what I got:

Is it normal for the GPU usage to look 'spotty' like that? Or is this due to the processor being too weak? Would I see much of a performance increase if I upgraded to an FX 8350?

Here are my specs:

• 
  AMD Phenom II x6 1090t BE
  MSI Twin Frozr IV R9 290x
  16GB DDR3 RAM @ 1333MHz
  128GB SSD + 2TB HDD
  Cooler Master v1000 1000 watt PSU
  Biostar TA990FXE motherboard

 

[clutchc]

Considering your test was only with BF4, it may be the game. There has been quite a few posts on its problems. A patch may fix it when it comes out.

 

[Yingda Wang]

Depends one the application
On Cpu heavy games like mmo, the cpu will bottleneck
On GPU heavy games, like tomraider, there wouldnt be one
Mantle removes cpu bottleneck, so if u play bf4 only, u are fine.
But Oc the phenom a bit and would help alot

 

[Lucas Radicchi]

I have the exact same question. I own the same processor. However I've bought a R9 280x and I really would like to know if I need to change my cpu. Games on ultra and 1080p always fluctuate the fps around 40 to 60 frames. Crysis 2, and bf4 are some tested examples. Tomb Raider I got mainly 55 to 60 ans sometimes it goes 40 something. Is it normal? I thought this video would be enough to run everything on max and 60. I always buy the second best cards ( had 6970 before) since the top 290 and 290x are too expensive.

Is it normal or a new CPU would improve my games?

 

[Benevolence]

No data bandwidth issue on the CPU/GPU lanes. Given the L2 and L3 cache on the CPU, I can't imagine it being the bottleneck on your system.
If you aren't already, try running your games on a different drive than your OS drive. A mild OC may offer some slight performance gains as well (CPU to 3.8, memory to 1600), but I doubt it will affect your FPS very much.

 

[reconrey]

I have the exact same question. I own the same processor. However I've bought a R9 280x and I really would like to know if I need to change my cpu. Games on ultra and 1080p always fluctuate the fps around 40 to 60 frames. Crysis 2, and bf4 are some tested examples. Tomb Raider I got mainly 55 to 60 ans sometimes it goes 40 something. Is it normal? I thought this video would be enough to run everything on max and 60. I always buy the second best cards ( had 6970 before) since the top 290 and 290x are too expensive.

Is it normal or a new CPU would improve my games?

I found this post with Tomb Raider benchmarks, and it looks like the R9 280x should be getting just over 60FPS at 1440p, so there is definitely something limiting you, though I don't know if it is your CPU or not.

No data bandwidth issue on the CPU/GPU lanes. Given the L2 and L3 cache on the CPU, I can't imagine it being the bottleneck on your system.
If you aren't already, try running your games on a different drive than your OS drive. A mild OC may offer some slight performance gains as well (CPU to 3.8, memory to 1600), but I doubt it will affect your FPS very much.

All my games are running off my HDD, and I have my SSD as my boot drive (though I have KSP on my SSD 😀). I will try to do some benchmarks with CPU overclocked and not.

Thanks!

 

[chrisso]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,review-32871-5.html

BF4 is apparently optimised for as many cores as possible, so I doubt its your cpu. You might want to do some maintenance tasks like re paste your cpu etc and see how you go.