It feels like my CPU (RAM, MB) is (are) too weak

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LeeRobinson

Commendable
Sep 28, 2016
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1,510
My current build includes:
- EVGA 980ti Classified
- Intel I5 4460 ( stock cooler )
- 8gb ( 2x4Mhz ) Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3
- EVGA Supernova 650
- MB Gigabyte H81M-S2H

As for now i am not really pleased with the overall perfomance of my pc. One part being the CPU.
I dont think that this CPU really fits the GPU i have. I dont really know how this "bottleneck" thing works. I'd really need some advice on a proper build, as i feel like i lack the knowledge of getting the most out of the gpu. Another problem that i am having is the RAM and more or less the MB harmony to both the CPU and the RAM. I can barely feel that i made some poor choices and I'd like to get some help.
I'd like to know a) if the CPU is good enough for the GPU, and if there are any suggestions they are welcome.
b) Maybe some help for the MB and the RAM as well. Since if i need to upgrade my CPU to a new socket, id imagine that i can spend some on a proper MB and RAMs too.
 
CPUs determine the max framerate you can get in a game. A combination of graphical settings / resolution and GPU power will dictate what your actual framerate is, but it will be no higher than what your CPU can deliver, which will vary from game to game. There are some games the 4460 won't allow a constant 60fps, but it's a respectable enough CPU, depending on what your expectations are. If lowering your graphical settings doesn't improve things, your butting up against CPU limitations.

A good drop-in upgrade for your CPU is the i7 4790K, which should work fine in your board. However, due to your only having 2 RAM slots, you would need to replace your RAM, or your motherboard to add more. 8GB is adequate for games today but only just.

If you're going to replace both CPU and RAM or motherboard, I figure you might as well change over to socket 1151, something like an i7 6700K, Z170 board and DDR4, as it'll be close to the same cost, a bit faster, and have more upgrade options down the road.
 
What monitor do you use ?
what type of storage (HDD/SSD) ?
the CPU you have is good enough for any 60Hz monitor. Beyond that, depends on the game. So basically your computer is really fine for 1080p@60Hz or 1440p (or any higher res) monitors
You might benefit from upgrading to 16GB of ram and may be SSD.
 


Fair point. I dont really like turning down the settings though as i want to enjoy the beauty of the games. For instance ive bought Forza Horizon 3 where i can feel that my RAM is waaaay too less. Concerning cpu, its hard to tell because i am a person that has a communication programm running and the browser too, so that while gaming i am able to tab out and continue research perhaps or compareable. Ive looked into the I7 6700k lately. Seems bit pricey but if i consider upgrading the gpu to possibly to a future 1080ti the cpu will keep up. As for the I7 4790k i dont know anything about.
 


I have a 1080p@144Hz BenQ.
I only have one 1TB HDD WD Ive thought about getting a 500gb SSD to be fair. To get the OS and the most important games on the ssd.
 


I switch through lots of games.
GTA V, Forza Horizon 3 lately, LoL, Rainbow6 Siege, Rocket League, Dead by Daylight and some ARMA 3 once in a while.
But i keep other programs running at the same time and that is something i dont like to give up.
 
Ram may be an issue if trying to run all those things simultaneously. I don't know if it would be worth a whole system overhaul, you might consider the xeon 1231v3 which is 3.4ghz up to 3.8ghz, ht and no igpu or the 4790k which is 4ghz/4.4ghz with ht.

Increasing ram to 16gb would more than likely be a benefit. Alt tabbing in and out can cause a bit of a slowdown if the game is using most of your ram. Once you select something else like the browser as active, if it's low on ram it will have to shuffle some data out of ram to the storage drive and make room or recall stored data back to ram. The lag will be more apparent on an hdd vs an ssd since ssd's are a bit faster. How much ram is in use and by what is something you'd have to determine on your pc to determine if 8gb is limiting you.

That 'hang' is usually an issue when the swap file is being used heavily because data has to be in ram before you can use it and the hdd is much slower than ram. In game slowdowns without alt tabbing are likely from running communications software in real time (I may be wrong but I'm thinking something like skype or teamspeak?) + gaming may be a bit much for a lower end i5 to handle. Faster cpu speeds and hyper threading would improve that. Otherwise you're sharing a lot of activity between the communications app and your game between 4 cores/threads.

You didn't mean switching between lots of games as in having gtaV and arma3 open at the same time as your browser and other things, so you can alt tab between open games did you?
 


Well ... in that case, the CPU upgrade to i7 (within same generation) might be usefull, but we are talking about few games that will run 140 instead of 120 FPS for example.
Get even 1TB. SanDisk X400 is about 250$. Got one recently since 240GB was too small. Excellent performance.
Windows boot takes about 5-6 seconds. Programs launch instantaneously. games launch very fast :)
 


I am not familiar with the Xeon series at all. What is the difference between them and the i5-i7 line?
And no i am not running 2 games at the same time
Browser, Skype/Discord/TS3, Game
 


1TB SSD is a thing? 😀
 


In some games it improves. But to make it improve i need to turn down a lot! Thats not what i really want.
 
There are 2TB SSDs.

The Xeon 1230v3 is basically identical to the i7 4770, it's just sold under a different name. Offhand, I want to say the 1220v3 is equivalent to a Haswell i5 (~4670?) and the 1230v5 is identical to the i7 6700, give or take 100mhz.
 


Then it sounds like you need a LOT more video card power. Graphical settings do not impact your CPU or RAM much at all.

Check your GPU utilization with something like GPU-Z while gaming. If it's close to 100% when you're having your slow downs, it's GPU-related, and you may want to move up to a GTX 1080, or even a pair of them.

Generally speaking, moving from "very high" to "ultra" in games, and up to max anti-aliasing has almost no visual difference, but requires significantly more GPU grunt. It's one of those things developers often throw in just to get people to buy new hardware, as far as I'm concerned.
 


Well, they are large enough to contain every program and game you use regularly, have greater performance/longer lifespan than smaller ones and priced attractively
 
I haven't looked up the exact numbers/specs for the newer xeons. With haswell (your current lga1150 motheboard) the xeons like the 1231v3 were drop in place. They worked with h97, h81, b85, z97. With the v5's skylake 1151 xeons they aren't drop in place with the typical h170, h110 or z170 sockets. They run on different specific sockets like the c232.

The 1231v3 shares the same clock speeds as the 4770 non k. It has 8mb of l2 cache like an i7 instead of 6mb like the i5. It has hyper threading like the i7. On that particular model it lacks the integrated gpu which isn't as big of a deal when running a discrete gpu like the 980ti. You're using something else for video anyway, i5's and i7's both have an igpu and some more expensive xeons do as well. Long story short the 1231v3 was somewhere between an i5 and i7. Not overclockable, no igpu, i5 speeds but i7 cache and hyper threading and it was priced between the two. Sort of a 'budget i7', at around ~$250 or so it was a bit more than an i5 but cheaper than the 4790.

The 4790k costs the most in the 1150 lineup, it offers the most. Highest clock speeds out of the box, faster than the 4790 non k, hyper threading, igpu and was unlocked (which won't matter on your board other than it's clocked faster out of the box).
 


Sure...
 
GTA V is a very CPU-hungry game, and with a GPU utilization of 60%, you could nearly double your framerates with a sufficiently fast CPU. The question then becomes, do you drop a 4790K into your existing motherboard, or do you replace CPU, motherboard and RAM with Skylake models?
 


Is it possible that you give me recommandations for both sides, so i have a feeling on the price difference?
 
1)
i7 4790K - $340
Optional - 2x 8GB DDR3 1600 - $60
You would replace / remove your old RAM, possibly sell it on eBay, since you only have 2 RAM slots

2) i7 6700K - $340 OR i7 6700 -$300
2x 8GB DDR4 2400 - $60
Gigabyte B150 motherboard (has 4 RAM slots), pair with i7 6700 - $60
OR
ASRock Z170 board, pair with i7 6700K to enable overclocking - $100

The 6700K + Z170 setup will also require a heatsink, so add $25 to that, bringing it up to a total of $105 more than the i7 6700 machine to allow overclocking.
 


Are ASRock MBs good? Ive caught up some things ages ago about their mbs being bad. Ive never really looked at them
 
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