No fps Change on ASUS 7950

[XxMongermaniacxX]

I have an ASUS 7950 paired with a q6600 overclocked to 3.4 Ghz. I have a problem where in some games, I turn down the settings, and the fps does not change. For example, I was playing BF3 multiplayer while getting 45 fps on the ultra preset. I lowered my settings to high, medium, and then low, and the fps stayed basically the same. This problem is only on BF3 right now. In some cases in campaign, when I turned up my settings, the fps actually went up. ( my gpu usage is around 65%) also, could this be a power supply problem?

NOTE: My power supply is a XFX pro series 550w.
SYSTEM:

Intel core 2 Quad Q6600 @3.4 Ghz
Asus P5N-D
4Gb DDR2 Ram
Cooler Master Seidon 120v cpu cooler
Asus 7950 directcuii

 

[bgunner]

This may or may not be the issue, Your CPU is surely bottle necking that GPU. What is the load on the CPU while playing BF3?

 

[XxMongermaniacxX]

This may or may not be the issue, Your CPU is surely bottle necking that GPU. What is the load on the CPU while playing BF3?

the cpu load is very high from what I rememember, about 95-99%

 

[Lag]

This may or may not be the issue, Your CPU is surely bottle necking that GPU. What is the load on the CPU while playing BF3?

the cpu load is very high from what I rememember, about 95-99%

Yes, this is clearly a bottlenecking issue. You need to either overclock further, or get a more powerful CPU.

 

[bgunner]

Agreed. Your CPU is the reason for the FPS not changing. When your CPU is maxed and your GPU usage is between 55-70% then your CPU is holding the GPU back.

The Q6600 is weak by today's standards and you have 2 year old top line GPU. This issue is to be expected with that setup.

 

[coozie7]

Agree with the others, it's a CPU restriction, I get the same issues with my own much abused bitsa (bits a this bits a that ) Q6600/HD7950 emergency/backup/old games on XP setup if I run anything very CPU intensive.
With a OC at 3.4 GHz I'm guessing you already have the later SLACR coded part and the motherboard won't support any meaningful upgrades so your only choices are to stick with what you have or go for at least a CPU/MB/RAM upgrade.

 

[XxMongermaniacxX]

Agreed. Your CPU is the reason for the FPS not changing. When your CPU is maxed and your GPU usage is between 55-70% then your CPU is holding the GPU back.

The Q6600 is weak by today's standards and you have 2 year old top line GPU. This issue is to be expected with that setup.

yes, I am going to try to pick up a 2500k with a mobo and 8gb of ram, or possibly a pentium g3258 with a z97, 8gb ram and try to overclock it to around 4.5 ghz

 

[bgunner]

out of the two, If the funds are there, go for the 2500k CPU. It will out perform the Pentium hands down.