New RAM & GPU - But No Noticeable Performance Increase

[damessiah13]

Just installed new 32gb GS kill Ripjaws X, and new GeForce GTX 1080 FTW to my pc...
Motherboard: Gigabyte ga-x79-up4
CPU: i7 3820 Sandy Bridge @ 3.6
OS: Windows 7 SP1
PSU: Corsair 850w

But I'm not seeing a noticeable performance increase.

Any way that I can test the new equipment?

I tried running "the Hunter : Call of the Wild, but did not notice any performance increase.

 

[Supahos]

What did you have before?

As long as you had 8gb memory you weren't going to see any gains there.

If the game was CPU bound before your GPU upgrade it'll still be CPU bound after.

 

[lakimens]

Run some synthetic benchmarks with the new and old GPU and see what happens. 3DMark Firestrike, Furmark, Heaven..
There is no way that you wouldn't notice a 1080's improvements over ANY other GPU if everything was okay.

 

[Supahos]

He wouldn't if the CPU was the bottlneck before....

 

[damessiah13]

Sorry, before I had 16gb GSkill Ripjaws, and a GeForce GTX 660.
I think it's the damn cpu.
Anything I can do, besides getting a new cpu?

 

[Supahos]

If it's the CPU the only things you can do are

1) oc the balls out of the CPU Sandy bridge liked a good oc once upon a time not sure on that chip specifically.

2) buy a new board and CPU and memory. There aren't any x79 processors that are enough of an upgrade to consider. From a gaming perspective a 7700l/6700k are as good as it gets.

If you like to stream while playing or do lots of video encoding/rendering a 1700/1700x with an oc to 4.0-4.2 will perform pretty well at both

 

[damessiah13]

Any guides for oc-ing this particular cpu that you know of?

 

[Supahos]

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/18fjx4/guide_so_youre_trying_to_overclock_the_i73820_i/

It's a bit of an outlier so I'll just link this instead of trying to explain it. it's technically not an unlocked chip so the procedure is a bit different than usual. Do you have a pretty good cooler on the CPU before you proceed?

 

[lakimens]

No, an i7-3820 isn't that much of a bottleneck, if any. It is clear that something is wrong. That bottleneck would require a Pentium D.
Here's proof: 3820/1080, 1080/7700k, 660, 7700k, 3820/660
Did you check if you somehow capped the FPS in the game?

 

[damessiah13]

Thanks for everything so far!
I have an Asetek water cooling.

 

[Supahos]

That game is much more CPU taxing than GPU taxing judging by the requirements/recommendations

A synthetic benchmark has nothing to do with a specific game. A league of legends benchmark would show a Pentium isn't bottlneck for a Titan. A bf1 benchmark shows a 7600k can bottlneck a 1070

The term bottleneck is horribly misunderstood and missused

 

[lakimens]

Synthetic benchmarks use a lot of CPU too. That's what I was saying.
And there is no way he wouldn't notice an increase in performance going 660 to 1080, it's just too much more power to not notice it.
Here's what to do to see if it's actually a bottleneck.
Download some GPU monitoring software like MSI Afterburner or whatever you like.
Run the game, if it's a bottleneck, your GPU should at most be at 30% usage, I think that's where the 660 is compared to a 1080.

 

[eno1986]

We don't know what GPU you had before as far as the RAM goes it won't improve anything 16gb of ram is the sweet spot any more then that is wasted money.

 

[lakimens]

He had a GTX 660.