[SOLVED] Upgrading to Ryzen 5 5600x, not so much difference

Djmasterman

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Hello everyone,
so i recently upgraded my Cpu from an i5 6600k at 4.5ghz to a Ryzen 5 5600x i figured i might as well do it now that way in the future when i upgrade my Gpu my Cpu will be up to standard. After benchmarking 7 games (overwatch, Halo infinite, Arma 3, SOTTR ,Forza horizon 5, Gta v and RDR2) the difference from my old cpu to the new one was an outstanding 10fps on average, i understand most of these game favour the Gpu side of things but is this normal to see a very little change?, I'm guessing this is probably normal i just would have hoped to see a little more, maybe there's something I'm missing?. cheers everyone :)

system specs
Msi Mag B550 Tomahawk
Ryzen 5 5600x
Hyperx Fury 16gb 3200mhz CL18
Msi Gtx 1070ti
Samsung 860 evo ssd
750watt Fractal design Psu
 
Solution
Did you do a clean install of Windows, meaning a CLEAN install, not a factory reset, or refresh, or restore, after you changed platforms?

Did you then install the latest AMD chipset drivers from the AMD website, only, not from anywhere else? And, did you enable the Ryzen balanced power plan after installing the latest AMD chipset drivers?

And did you THEN also download and install the latest Nvidia driver package?

Also advisable if you did not already would be to visit the product support page for your motherboard and download the latest network adapter drivers (Ethernet/LAN), audio drivers, PIDE/SATA storage controller drivers and before doing ANY of this, it would be a very good idea to make sure you have the MOST up to date BIOS...
Did you do a clean install of Windows, meaning a CLEAN install, not a factory reset, or refresh, or restore, after you changed platforms?

Did you then install the latest AMD chipset drivers from the AMD website, only, not from anywhere else? And, did you enable the Ryzen balanced power plan after installing the latest AMD chipset drivers?

And did you THEN also download and install the latest Nvidia driver package?

Also advisable if you did not already would be to visit the product support page for your motherboard and download the latest network adapter drivers (Ethernet/LAN), audio drivers, PIDE/SATA storage controller drivers and before doing ANY of this, it would be a very good idea to make sure you have the MOST up to date BIOS version for your motherboard installed.

Yes, any and/or all of these things can cause exactly the kinds of problems you are currently seeing. There is no way, ZERO, that your 5600x performs even remotely on par with your older 6600k. Not even in the realm of believability, so either you didn't do one or all of these things I've listed, OR your problem is something other than the CPU.
 
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Solution
Pretty normal. You're GPU bound.
That's possible, but I would absolutely not state it as if it were a certainty, because it's not. Not without testing to find out if it ACTUALLY is or not. One quick way to determine that is to begin moving sliders to the left or jump to a lower quality preset. If the graphics card is the problem you should pretty immediately see an increase in frame rates IF the CPU is capable enough, and yours should be. If it does not make a change at all, then it's definitely not the GPU at fault.

What resolution and settings are you gaming or testing at? How many displays are game involved? In some cases, network or internet connection speed and quality might be relevant as well.
 
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Djmasterman

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Ok ill admit i didn't do any of those things....yet, apart from installing new gpu drivers. Yes i have heard you should reinstall windows after my type of upgrade but i was lazy lol everything booted up fine and worked so i left it, but i will go ahead and reinstall/update everything and see how things perform after that. i'm at 1080p usually max settings in most of my games apart from halo and only one display, network speed is 100mbps on ethernet. thanks for the response mate i will report back tomorrow after everything.
 

TommyTwoTone66

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CPU upgrades don’t often do much. The 6600K is still fast enough for games, even now.

The focus on CPU for gaming right now is just because people can’t get hold of the GPU they want, so they settle for upgrading CPU instead and convince themselves that it makes a difference. Of course, as you’re finding out, it doesn’t really.

Unless you change GPU as well, you will always be disappointed by changing CPU in games.
 

Djmasterman

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CPU upgrades don’t often do much. The 6600K is still fast enough for games, even now.

The focus on CPU for gaming right now is just because people can’t get hold of the GPU they want, so they settle for upgrading CPU instead and convince themselves that it makes a difference. Of course, as you’re finding out, it doesn’t really.

Unless you change GPU as well, you will always be disappointed by changing CPU in games.

i wasn't necessarily disappointed, my cpu needed an upgrade sooner or later but just playing games like halo would result in minor stutters and a generally choppy feel, my i5 was pinned at 100% if i alt tabbed out it would usually freeze because it had no other resources to give to windows. the ryzen fixed that completely it didn't give a massive fps boost but the 1% lows were definitely improved. with that being said i was hoping for a little more fps improvement every bit is welcome. at least i shouldn't have to worry about my cpu for a while now.
 
The focus on CPU for gaming right now is just because people can’t get hold of the GPU they want

Actually, it really depends on WHY you are upgrading, what you play, how you play and what you expect to get as a result of your upgrade.

Primarily you upgrade the graphics card if you want or need to game at a higher resolution OR you want to be able to play the most (Or just more) demanding games without having to lower your quality settings while maintaining the same frame rates.

If you are happy with the graphics and quality settings and are just looking for more FPS, that is generally the responsibility of the CPU.

For example, if you are perfectly happy with medium settings on whatever game you are playing, but you are getting 65 or 70FPS .1/1% lows and are running a 144hz monitor so are looking to hit the target more squarely, or are wanting other benefits of higher frame rates, and are running an older four core i5 like the 6600k, it is very much probable that upgrading the CPU to a recent gen i5 or going up further with an i7 or i9, or same situation for Ryzen, is going to net you significantly more FPS depending on how significant the upgrade at CPU was. The CPU largely is the culprit when frame rates are low, almost always, UNLESS you are trying to run quality settings that the GPU is unable to process quickly enough, hampering CPU performance.

If you had a 2080 TI and were perfectly able to run your game of choice at 144FPS with Ultra settings, but for whatever reason wanted to see even higher frame rates, and were running an older Gen four core CPU, it's unlikely that upgrading to a 3080 or higher model (Or equivalent AMD cards) would do anything to improve that (Possibly for some extremely demanding games, but very unlikely for the majority of them and especially for very high frame rate E-sports type games) but upgrading to a more modern CPU with higher IPC and higher core count (To a degree, at some point though higher cores have a rapidly diminishing return on gaming performance because even these days beyond a certain number of cores most games are not optimized to scale well) you are likely to see a significant improvement in both the peak FPS and the low and average FPS.
 
If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.



First,

Make sure your system has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release. In cases where you DO already have the latest BIOS version, simply resetting the BIOS as follows has a fairly high percentage chance of effecting a positive change in some cases so it is ALWAYS worth TRYING, at the very least.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.

Trying a different monitor as well, if possible, is also a good idea if there is a lack of display. It happens.


Second,

Go to the product page for your motherboard or exact laptop model on the device manufacturer's website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates. When it comes to the chipset drivers, if your motherboard manufacturer lists a chipset driver that is newer than what the chipset developer (Intel or AMD, for our purposes) lists, then use that one. If Intel (Or AMD) shows a chipset driver version that is newer than what is available from the motherboard product page, then use that one. Always use the newest chipset driver that you can get and always use ONLY the chipset drivers available from either the motherboard manufacturer, AMD or Intel.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.


Third,

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.



Fourth (And often tied for most important along with an up-to-date motherboard BIOS),

A clean install of the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.



And lAnd last, but not least, if you have never done a CLEAN install of Windows, or have upgraded from an older version to Windows 10, or have been through several spring or fall major Windows updates (OR if you have installed ANY, EVEN REMOTELY QUESTIONABLE SOFTWARE, ESPECIALLY ANYTHING THAT'S BEEN PIRATED), it might be a very good idea to consider doing a clean install of Windows (AND THEN NOT PUT THAT QUESTIONABLE OR PIRATED SOFTWARE BACK ON) if none of these other solutions has helped. IF you are using a Windows installation from a previous system and you didn't do a clean install of Windows after building the new system, then it's 99.99% likely that you NEED to do a CLEAN install before trying any other solutions.


How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10, the RIGHT way
 
Going from Intel to AMD like that can result in sub optimal performance, the scale of such can range from tiny to large, I've seen both. In terms of the performance difference, the 5600X is a beast by comparison but I'm not surprised you haven't noticed any difference in GTA V for example. Surprised that RDR2 is no better, I've found 4C/4T choppy in a number of titles. If you intend to play Cyberpunk then that is pretty hopeless on the 6600K. The performance gains arn't always about raw FPS though, you get much more consistent frame delivery on new cpu's in more recent titles like RDR2. The motion should appear more fluid in more intense scenes like crowded town areas.
 

Djmasterman

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Im back!
After following DarkBreeze's advice i reinstalled windows on a completely new nvme drive that i bought today as well as other drivers, After getting everything set up i decided to start a few games and test my luck. lucky i was as i gained a further 10+ fps in most of the games so 20+fps in total. I have also noticed the cpu usage is around 30-40% were as before it was about 10% previously. 1% and .1% lows are improved again and games are much smoother and nicer to play especially on a 144hz monitor. I do appreciate all the replies and help with this, i am glad i asked instead of just leaving it. Thanks again guys :)
 

DSzymborski

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Im back!
After following DarkBreeze's advice i reinstalled windows on a completely new nvme drive that i bought today as well as other drivers, After getting everything set up i decided to start a few games and test my luck. lucky i was as i gained a further 10+ fps in most of the games so 20+fps in total. I have also noticed the cpu usage is around 30-40% were as before it was about 10% previously. 1% and .1% lows are improved again and games are much smoother and nicer to play especially on a 144hz monitor. I do appreciate all the replies and help with this, i am glad i asked instead of just leaving it. Thanks again guys :)

Great news! Lessons in solving problems are always best when they only involve a little work rather than actually being expensive! That's why we preach and practice full Windows reinstalls with motherboard changes; it just makes life easier to completely eliminate an install as a source of possible problems from the start.
 
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i understand most of these game favour the Gpu side of things but is this normal to see a very little change?
...
If the GPU is limiting your gaming then it only stands to reason improving CPU performance will provide only small improvements. One thing to look at are the '1% lows', the lowest FPS sections of the game. Those are often cause by CPU limitations and frequently the brief episodes when you experience stuttering.

You can improve a Ryzen 5000 CPU's performance by two things: first is simply getting much better cooling. The other is to use PBO Curve Optimizer to undervolt. It can be dramatic how much it improves CPU performance although the benefit to gaming will be less apparent, if at all, since the GPU is still the limiter.

Curve Optimizer basically make the CPU use lower voltage to achieve the same boost frequency. The boost algorithm still uses temperature to limit boosting in any particular load situation, so a lower voltage means a lower temp so a slightly higher boost. It works best when coupled with better cooling because it gets to boost even higher before hitting the limit temperature.
 

TommyTwoTone66

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Great news! Lessons in solving problems are always best when they only involve a little work rather than actually being expensive! That's why we preach and practice full Windows reinstalls with motherboard changes; it just makes life easier to completely eliminate an install as a source of possible problems from the start.

It seems crazy to me to change to an entirely different motherboard and not reinstall.

I’d reinstall even if I was replacing the motherboard with the exact same one!