Question about Intel i5 4460

[Wayfall]

My computer specs:
-i5 4460 3.20GHz
-MSI GTX 970 4GB
-Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600Mhz 2x4GB Dual Channel 8GB kit
-1920x1080 LG monitor
-500w Corsair CX Bronze
-1TB WCD Hard drive
-ASRock Z97 Anniversary Motherboard
-Windows 7 Ultimate


Hi Community

Just a quick question really.
For the past month 4 of the games I have been playing, Fallout 4, Far Cry 4, Mad Max and Assassins Creed Syndicate, all of these games are using 70-80% CPU with Fallout 4 being the worst with hitting 100%.

Is it my CPU or the games that is causing this? I see so many people recommending the i5 4460 over i7 saying i7's are overkill but if the i5 4460 is hitting very high usage doesn't that mean its time for people to start getting i7's...

Regards

 

[Luminary]

Hello Wayfall,

The i5/ i7 isn't the issue, as the benefit of hyperthreading still isn't a HUGE contributer to in-game performance.

The issue is the CPU model and freqency. An i5-4690k with a mild overclock will still easily run the titles you mentioned above. Even at stock it is more than capable of handling those titles.

 

[Wayfall]

So are you saying my CPU isn't powerful enough, I installed it 3 months ago to replace a FM2+ system.

From all the sites I have looked at online that compare CPU's the i5 4460 and i5 4690 (I don't overclock CPU's) are so close together performance and power wise.

 

[Luminary]

The locked versions are indeed quite close in performance.

For some AAA titles like you mentioned above you might need to turn down some of the more advanced settings to maintain a lower CPU use. Overall the 4460 is still a very good CPU for gaming and will be able to handle new titles for several more years, you might just not be able to have everything turned up to Ultra.

 

[Wayfall]

Well Fallout 4 and Assassins Creed Syndicate even with everything set to low I get 90-100% usage.

Mad Max and Far Cry 4 aren't that bad but I get slightly worried when components get close to 80% usage really.

 

[Luminary]

That's interesting...here's a video of a gent with the i5-4460 and GTX 970 averaging 90% CPU usage, but he's cranked everything up to ultra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4f8owfDajE

Another example of the exact same thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inOM-t9X4wU

And here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_w_BqkckqE

I wonder if there isn't something else affecting your PC's performance, as from the examples above the i5-4460 really shouldn't be capping on low settings. I suppose there is a slight chance that you just got an underperforming chip, but I can't say for sure. Might want to run some benchmarks on the CPU's and look to see how they comare to other 4460's.

 

[a39232]

it is the processor it is an older generation and it is having trouble keeping up the later i5s suck as the 4960 or 6600 will decrease the cpu percentage slightly because they have newer architecture and are faster. The video card is also causing the cpu to be na bit high because the cpu is trying to keep up with it and take care of the cpu portions in the game.

btw my fx-8350 at 4.5 Ghz with my gtx 980 gets about 75% maximum i believe on fallout 4.
and many of the newer assassins creed games are very cpu intensive.

 

[Wayfall]

Well Fallout 4 and syndicate are the only ones to shoot to 100% and that's probably just bugs an optimisation.

I can play Mad Max low and the CPU will be at 40-50% but at ultra its 70-80% and its even amongst the cores so the game is using my CPU efficiently and my GPU can go to 100% if I un-vysnc so my CPU isn't bottlenecking my card.

I can play Killing Floor 2 ultra with the CPU at about 60-70% and GPU use sitting back at about 40-60% and Skyrim can do ultra with CPU at 40% and card at about 40-50%, alien isolation is kinda the same as well.

 

[a39232]

well on my fx8350 overclocked even assassins creed unity maxes my cpu but I still get 60fps because my overclock has eliminated my bottleneck.

it is because when you turn up the settings your cpu has to try harder too keep up with the gpu. Different games require more or less physics from the cpu in assassins creed there are a lot of people walking about which requires more cpu to keep track of the NPCs.