What is limiting my rig?

[caroman]

Here is my rig :

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (2-Way SLI)
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

I cant seem to get high fps on Heaven benchmark 4.0, only around 20~30. Is it because I need 16gb ram? or just a better ram? Or is it the processor?

 

[davidarad02]

on what settings are you running heaven?

 

[patrick47018]

Your specs look really good, I do not see why you would have poor performance, but running Heaven max everything high res , that is reasonable performance

 

[amd4lif3]

heaven benchmark dont run amazing on any machine your system is amazing nothing is limiting , but check the tempretures if you didnt apply thermal paste propally then the cpu could be limiting you can either use a software called speccy or check in the bios

but to me those specs seem fine

 

[davidarad02]

try running some other benchmarks like 3dmark, or just use the fraps benchmark on games.

 

[Darthjonathan12]

The benchmarks are supposed to be much lower than any game you will play because its job is to make the area tested do its maximum workload, 20-30 on the highest HD settings would provide you with that level of performance.

Even then Benchmarks only tell so much, I have a very cheap build with a 750ti and an AMD X4 CPU. I average 60 fps on Bioshock Infinite at 1080p. Benchmarks are built for worst case scenario tests.

If you wanted to then I would get 16GB of ram, you probably don't need it but I have an H440 case too and it would look nice to fill up all the ram slots. Or buy another SSD to use the other SSD mount that you can see through the window.

 

[TheAshigaru]

I don't think you'll see any miracle performance gains, but you should really overclock your CPU. You bought a liquid cooler; put it to use!

 

[babernet_1]

RAM will help very little. I've seen reviews with an increase from 8G to 16G add, if anything, 1 to 2% in speed. Not worth it. One possibility is if the Crucial SSD has special software that allows RAM to be used as a cache. Samsung SSDs have this and it doubles their speed to 1GBs.

 

[IamTimTech]

you

jk

 

[Adroid]

I would check temperatures as someone else mentioned, if you are overheating and throttling that could be an issue.

You should run some benchmarks on games and compare them to benchmarks on Tom's. If you are close, there is probably nothing wrong at all.

You should definitely overclock the CPU if you haven't already done so - that should give definite performance increase considering you are running two 970's. Make sure your temperatures are right and you don't have any hardware issues before you do so though!

Also make sure all your drivers are up to date if you haven't already done so (motherboard, GPU, etc).

 

[caroman]

The benchmarks are supposed to be much lower than any game you will play because its job is to make the area tested do its maximum workload, 20-30 on the highest HD settings would provide you with that level of performance.

Even then Benchmarks only tell so much, I have a very cheap build with a 750ti and an AMD X4 CPU. I average 60 fps on Bioshock Infinite at 1080p. Benchmarks are built for worst case scenario tests.

If you wanted to then I would get 16GB of ram, you probably don't need it but I have an H440 case too and it would look nice to fill up all the ram slots. Or buy another SSD to use the other SSD mount that you can see through the window.

I am actually running all the settings max at 2560x1440p resolution. Thanks for your info. =D

 

[caroman]

I would check temperatures as someone else mentioned, if you are overheating and throttling that could be an issue.

You should run some benchmarks on games and compare them to benchmarks on Tom's. If you are close, there is probably nothing wrong at all.

You should definitely overclock the CPU if you haven't already done so - that should give definite performance increase considering you are running two 970's. Make sure your temperatures are right and you don't have any hardware issues before you do so though!

Also make sure all your drivers are up to date if you haven't already done so (motherboard, GPU, etc).

I have not overclock my cpu yet. And I have another question to ask, why is one memory higher than the other? (http://imgur.com/gUie9lq)[This is on a diff res, thus higher fps]. I know the temps are different because of different airflow etc, but is the memory supposed to be diff?

 

[babernet_1]

I would check temperatures as someone else mentioned, if you are overheating and throttling that could be an issue.

You should run some benchmarks on games and compare them to benchmarks on Tom's. If you are close, there is probably nothing wrong at all.

You should definitely overclock the CPU if you haven't already done so - that should give definite performance increase considering you are running two 970's. Make sure your temperatures are right and you don't have any hardware issues before you do so though!

Also make sure all your drivers are up to date if you haven't already done so (motherboard, GPU, etc).

I have not overclock my cpu yet. And I have another question to ask, why is one memory higher than the other? (http://imgur.com/gUie9lq)[This is on a diff res, thus higher fps]. I know the temps are different because of different airflow etc, but is the memory supposed to be diff?

looks like one card is not switched on.

 

[caroman]

I would check temperatures as someone else mentioned, if you are overheating and throttling that could be an issue.

You should run some benchmarks on games and compare them to benchmarks on Tom's. If you are close, there is probably nothing wrong at all.

You should definitely overclock the CPU if you haven't already done so - that should give definite performance increase considering you are running two 970's. Make sure your temperatures are right and you don't have any hardware issues before you do so though!

Also make sure all your drivers are up to date if you haven't already done so (motherboard, GPU, etc).

I have not overclock my cpu yet. And I have another question to ask, why is one memory higher than the other? (http://imgur.com/gUie9lq)[This is on a diff res, thus higher fps]. I know the temps are different because of different airflow etc, but is the memory supposed to be diff?

looks like one card is not switched on.

Oh, that was stupid. How do I switch it on?

 

[Adroid]

You need to "sync" the cards it appears. I hope you have both the same type and brand of card? You need to install the MSI afterburner tools and possibly read directions of how to sync the cards.

 

[caroman]

You need to "sync" the cards it appears. I hope you have both the same type and brand of card? You need to install the MSI afterburner tools and possibly read directions of how to sync the cards.

Turns out I did not enable it in the NVIDIA control panel. Thanks everyone for your help!