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 and 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

 

[Swordkd]

The fx8350 won't be a significant improvement for gaming than what you are already running. However, I would suggest buying a decent after market cooler and overclock your 1090t. You'll notice some improvement, and save quite a bit of money instead of buying an fx8350. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo would work well at around the 30 dollar price point for cooling. After that, you'll have to spend probably at least 60 dollars to get anything significantly better for cooling.

 

[Rahbot]

it could be TEMP limited... bump your FAN speed to MAX... also you might want to OC that CPU to at least 3.6 Ghz if you can... other wise a CPU upgrade might do you some good but not much... I think its not the temp or your cpu then you might have gotten a bad GPU bin... but I doubt it... Also check your computer for spyware and viruses because thats alot of threads and handles...