What's holding my PC from performing?

[Paul1996]

So basically these are my specs:

GPU: R9 390X
CPU: AMD FX-8150 BLACK EDITION
RAM: 8GB
MOTHERBOARD: SABERTOOTH 990FX 2.0

So I can run most games, but for some reason I'm not getting the FPS I was expecting after going form an HD 7850 2GB to a R9 390X. I pretty much get the same performance for everything just minor increase in FPS. My main guess is that the CPU is holding the PC back, but can it really be that much bottlenecking? Or any drivers maybe?

 

[Victorion]

FX-8150 won´t bottleneck your card alot, overclocking it should resolve any minor bottlenecks.

Update graphics drivers, be sure you removed old drivers and check your temperatures.
Also make sure your PSU is powerful enough.

 

[Paul1996]

FX-8150 won´t bottleneck your card alot, overclocking it should resolve any minor bottlenecks.

Update graphics drivers, be sure you removed old drivers and check your temperatures.
Also make sure your PSU is powerful enough.

I'm pretty sure I'm using the latest drivers from AMD. Temperatures are very fine and I have the fan of the GPU set to auto and for some reason it never gets loud which probably means the GPU isn't clocking up high? Do I have to manually overclock it to get better performance? Shouldn't it do that by itself?

 

[exroofer]

At what resolution? The difference from a 7850 to a 390x is pretty huge, but at say 1080p, that difference is less percentage wise than at QHD or 4k or whatever.
So for example, your 7850 would choke and die on a 4k monitor, and not give any playable framerates at QHD, but your 390x would give solid high fps at QHD and playable fps at 4k. ( People's opinions on what is "playable" on 4k vary, so let's call it 30 fps plus at high settings for the purpose of this thread.)

It is also probable (likely) that you slid all the graphic option sliders to the right for your 390x, I certainly did when going from a 7870 to my 290x. So my overall fps in my games is not higher by a significant amount, but they look MUCH better, and run more smoothly.

 

[dark_lord69]

1. Make sure you don't have any viruses or malware.
2. Make sure nothing is happening in the background (like a virus scan) Also, dump any unnecessary programs running in the background.
3. Try CHKDSK /R on you main drive if it's a HDD (not SSD)
4. Make sure you have current graphics drivers.
5. Make sure the graphics driver settings use application controlled settings
6. Turn off V-Sync (Nothing against having it on but it locks the frame rate to 60FPS Max depending on you monitor)

On a side-note: Some games rely more on the CPU than the GPU. If that is the case for the games you've been playing then it would make sense that your frame rate has not increased.

 

[hang-the-9]

So basically these are my specs:

GPU: R9 390X
CPU: AMD FX-8150 BLACK EDITION
RAM: 8GB
MOTHERBOARD: SABERTOOTH 990FX 2.0

So I can run most games, but for some reason I'm not getting the FPS I was expecting after going form an HD 7850 2GB to a R9 390X. I pretty much get the same performance for everything just minor increase in FPS. My main guess is that the CPU is holding the PC back, but can it really be that much bottlenecking? Or any drivers maybe?

Which games and exactly what is the FPS difference? Did you run 3DMark and compare the scores between the cards?

 

[Paul1996]

At what resolution? The difference from a 7850 to a 390x is pretty huge, but at say 1080p, that difference is less percentage wise than at QHD or 4k or whatever.
So for example, your 7850 would choke and die on a 4k monitor, and not give any playable framerates at QHD, but your 390x would give solid high fps at QHD and playable fps at 4k. ( People's opinions on what is "playable" on 4k vary, so let's call it 30 fps plus at high settings for the purpose of this thread.)

It is also probable (likely) that you slid all the graphic option sliders to the right for your 390x, I certainly did when going from a 7870 to my 290x. So my overall fps in my games is not higher by a significant amount, but they look MUCH better, and run more smoothly.

1920x1080 with both cards

 

[Paul1996]

So basically these are my specs:

GPU: R9 390X
CPU: AMD FX-8150 BLACK EDITION
RAM: 8GB
MOTHERBOARD: SABERTOOTH 990FX 2.0

So I can run most games, but for some reason I'm not getting the FPS I was expecting after going form an HD 7850 2GB to a R9 390X. I pretty much get the same performance for everything just minor increase in FPS. My main guess is that the CPU is holding the PC back, but can it really be that much bottlenecking? Or any drivers maybe?

Which games and exactly what is the FPS difference? Did you run 3DMark and compare the scores between the cards?

World of Warcraft for example. I asumed i'd be able to play it with maxed out graphics in populated areas, but I'm getting around 20-30fps Ultra Graphics when there's a lot of players around (Stormshield for instance). Not much of a fps increase from the new card. VSync is always disabled.

 

[Paul1996]

1. Make sure you don't have any viruses or malware.
2. Make sure nothing is happening in the background (like a virus scan) Also, dump any unnecessary programs running in the background.
3. Try CHKDSK /R on you main drive if it's a HDD (not SSD)
4. Make sure you have current graphics drivers.
5. Make sure the graphics driver settings use application controlled settings
6. Turn off V-Sync (Nothing against having it on but it locks the frame rate to 60FPS Max depending on you monitor)

On a side-note: Some games rely more on the CPU than the GPU. If that is the case for the games you've been playing then it would make sense that your frame rate has not increased.

1) Pretty sure I have no viruses/malware
2) Nothing happening in the background
3) I'm running games from SSD
4) I have the beta graphic drivers (http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/latest-catalyst-windows-beta.aspx)
5) How do I do that?
6) I always disable VSync

 

[hang-the-9]

So basically these are my specs:

GPU: R9 390X
CPU: AMD FX-8150 BLACK EDITION
RAM: 8GB
MOTHERBOARD: SABERTOOTH 990FX 2.0

So I can run most games, but for some reason I'm not getting the FPS I was expecting after going form an HD 7850 2GB to a R9 390X. I pretty much get the same performance for everything just minor increase in FPS. My main guess is that the CPU is holding the PC back, but can it really be that much bottlenecking? Or any drivers maybe?

Which games and exactly what is the FPS difference? Did you run 3DMark and compare the scores between the cards?

World of Warcraft for example. I asumed i'd be able to play it with maxed out graphics in populated areas, but I'm getting around 20-30fps Ultra Graphics when there's a lot of players around (Stormshield for instance). Not much of a fps increase from the new card. VSync is always disabled.

Those types of games are a bit CPU bound and also due to the multi-player and sever/client nature are not just dependent on your computer speed for FPS. I have a core i7 which is a faster CPU than yours, but with a slower video card and I can't run WOW on Ultra and get a solid 30 FPS in all areas. There is a great article about AA settings you may want to read over though about WOW and see if tweaking some things will help. http://eyesofthebeast.com/2015/01/wows-patch-6-1-anti-aliasing-options/ After poking around some settings and lowering shadows, light particles and the AA level I got a good balance of solid frames and good looks. I think I picked MSAA 2x or 4x for my AA settings.

If you want to compare the raw numbers between old and new card, run 3DMark on the old card and on the new card and compare.