Jumped the gun and bought PC components without doing research. ASRock FPS drops.

[Matthew Rideout]

Several months ago I built myself a new computer. I was a bit hasty however and did not do much research. I had a quick look at a few posts on these forums and bought the following.

AMD FX-8350 4GHz
MSI R9 280 GAMING 3GB
Corsair CX 750W Fully Wired 80+ Bronze Power Supply
ASRock 970 Extreme4 Socket AM3+ 7.1 CH HD Audio ATX Motherboard
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL10 DIMM HyperX Fury Red Series
Seagate Desktop SSHD 1000GB

Now don't get me wrong. It runs games fine. There are just a few things that are annoying me. I've noticed that I get quite a lot of fps drops. After researching this I have come to the conclusion that it is the motherboard not being able to handle the cpu? specifically the north bridge? (I have no idea what even the north bridge is, it sounds like something off game of thrones).

Ideally at some point I would like to get another GFX card and Crossfire so my questions to the forums are this. Should I just get a better motherboard(if so what one?), a SSD, better RAM and in a while another GFX card? Or Shall I just sell this system/parts and put it towards a gaming computer based around an i5/i7.

Sorry if anything does not make sense, this is my first time posting (long time lurker).

Thanks

 

[GhislainG]

What makes you think the Northbridge would cause the issue? ASRock have that note: "* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design." Does your cooler meet the requirements?

 

[Matthew Rideout]

What makes you think the Northbridge would cause the issue? ASRock have that note: "* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design." Does your cooler meet the requirements?

Hi, thanks for the reply. Well I've read a number of things on the forums here since I noticed the issue and most state that throttling is the reason for the FPS drops. Yes I have a top down blowing design.

 

[GhislainG]

I presume you use the stock cooler? Check if the CPU speed stays constant while gaming or if it drops to 1.4 GHz.

 

[mouse24]

^Just my 2c, MSi afterburner is the easiest way to do that. install it, go into the options turn on on screen OSD and the options for CPU speed + CPU temp, same with GPU speed + temp.

What games are you trying to play and what settings? Possibly overheating/throttling.

 

[Matthew Rideout]

I presume you use the stock cooler? Check if the CPU speed stays constant while gaming or if it drops to 1.4 GHz.

No I bought a CPU fan as the stock cooler was so noisy. It does drop to to around that yes.

 

[Matthew Rideout]

^Just my 2c, MSi afterburner is the easiest way to do that. install it, go into the options turn on on screen OSD and the options for CPU speed + CPU temp, same with GPU speed + temp.

What games are you trying to play and what settings? Possibly overheating/throttling.

It is quite noticable in DOTA 2(when there is a lot going on screen), BF4, WOW.

I should be able to run these games no problems right?

 

[GhislainG]

I presume you use the stock cooler? Check if the CPU speed stays constant while gaming or if it drops to 1.4 GHz.

No I bought a CPU fan as the stock cooler was so noisy. It does drop to to around that yes.

Other than the unbearable noise, did you have issues when using the stock cooler?

 

[Matthew Rideout]

I presume you use the stock cooler? Check if the CPU speed stays constant while gaming or if it drops to 1.4 GHz.

No I bought a CPU fan as the stock cooler was so noisy. It does drop to to around that yes.

Other than the unbearable noise, did you have issues when using the stock cooler?

Yeah I did.

 

[GhislainG]

Use the application suggested by mouse24 to check if the CPU or the GPU throttles. If it's the CPU (most likely), then I suggest you look into the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P or a better 990FX motherboard if it's within your budget.