Is something bottlenecking?

Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
edited December 2011 in Hardware
So I upgraded my graphics card from a Radeon HD 4850 to a GTX 550 ti. I use to be able to run all my games fine but I since I put the new card in I have been having weird lag issues with most of my games. In counter strike source my frame rate was around 80-150 which I think is pretty low but the game was still having a weird stutter issue. It not really noticeable but just all my games dont feel right. Some of the other games like Warhammer Retribution and Star wars the old Republic have horrible frame rates when things start to pick up.
Processor
2.80 gigahertz AMD Athlon II X2 240
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Motherboard
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. M3N78-VM Rev X.0x
Serial Number: MF7094G04902895
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 1310 09/14/2009


Also 6 gigs of DDR2 ram. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Your CPU is the obvious bottleneck, but it depends on what resolution you're playing at. What is your resolution?
  • Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
    edited November 2011
    1920 x 1080.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Like Thrax said, your CPU is a definite bottleneck.

    Official CPU Support list (you'll need a BIOS update)

    If you want to stay with that mobo, you'll probably want to get a proc off ebay or heatware. You may want to look at getting an AM3 board and proc through cyber monday deals today or a Sandy Bridge board/proc.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    Of that list, I'd suggest one of the x4 or x6 phenom II cpus.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited November 2011
    shwaip wrote:
    Of that list, I'd suggest one of the x4 or x6 phenom II cpus.

    Absolutely.
  • Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
    edited November 2011
    Thanks guize!!
  • HatopHatop Alabama
    edited December 2011
    Color me confused but why would a cpu bottleneck appear suddenly? If the system was able to handle an application before, changing out the GPU shouldn't lower performance unless the GPU itself is slower. After looking at a comparison between a 550ti and a 4870(slightly faster 4850), the performance is about the same. Seeing a stuttering effect would suggest that you have some other issue(incorrectly uninstalled drivers for the amd card, or bad drivers for the nvidia card). I can't see how trading up slightly would remove performance, other than through software issues.

    I'd try removing the AMD driver software, removing the nvidia driver software, reinstalling directx, and then reinstalling the nvidia driver software again. Your performance should be withing 15% of your previous hardware, and should be on the positive range of improvement.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    I guess my thought process was that it would have been a bottleneck previously anyways, but I suppose you are right to wonder. I agree with removing the driver software (not DX though) and running DriverSweeper for both display portions then reinstalling fresh and current driver package.
  • Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
    edited December 2011
    Hatop wrote:
    Color me confused but why would a cpu bottleneck appear suddenly? If the system was able to handle an application before, changing out the GPU shouldn't lower performance unless the GPU itself is slower. After looking at a comparison between a 550ti and a 4870(slightly faster 4850), the performance is about the same. Seeing a stuttering effect would suggest that you have some other issue(incorrectly uninstalled drivers for the amd card, or bad drivers for the nvidia card). I can't see how trading up slightly would remove performance, other than through software issues.

    I'd try removing the AMD driver software, removing the nvidia driver software, reinstalling directx, and then reinstalling the nvidia driver software again. Your performance should be withing 15% of your previous hardware, and should be on the positive range of improvement.

    I did all that about a billion times before. Had to go in manually and delete some AMD shit. I sent tickets to Nvidea and after the 3rd driver they told me to download I just said fuck it.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Magnus The Red wrote:
    I did all that about a billion times before. Had to go in manually and delete some AMD shit. I sent tickets to Nvidea and after the 3rd driver they told me to download I just said fuck it.

    Well, does the machine you have possess two video devices??? For instance my new laptop is an Intel chip with inbuilt graphics and there is an Nvidia minicard in the computer also. What is running is the built-in device - for now. For AMD systems, AFAIK the built-on device if any is on the motherboard-- and if you do not disable it in BIOS then it defaults to on. AND will then override the card possibly.

    John.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    You need to make sure you installed the latest drivers successfully - that could be why upgrading your card resulted in lower performance.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    That board will support AM3 CPU's via a BIOS flash. You could update the BIOS and for $90 you could get a suitable Quad Core as an upgrade. I did this on a customers system recently, he was running an older AM2+ platform and wanted to bring it current while maintaining a budget, we put in a Phenom II 925 and a Radeon 6850 and it plays everything fairly well.
  • Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
    edited December 2011
    shwaip wrote:
    You need to make sure you installed the latest drivers successfully - that could be why upgrading your card resulted in lower performance.

    The only thing that happened when I installed the drivers was some sore of update thing. Every time I installed the drivers it would fail to install the nvidia update but the graphics driver did install.

    I also dont think it is my onboard video cause I can still play games it just I turn everything down and I get little chokes. If it was onboard i dont think I would be able to play the games at all.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    You should monitor CPU usage while you are playing as it might be differences between nvidia card using more CPU than AMD, but there might be other issues. Only the great pasta in the sky knows now.
  • Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
    edited December 2011
    When I was playing counter strike my CPU usage was at 100%
  • Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
    edited December 2011
    I was pretty sure my cpu was bottlenecking I just wanted to see if anyone else knew of some trick by chance that would help out and to also get CPU suggestions.
  • Evelon277Evelon277 Canada
    edited December 2011
    How many watts is your power supply? Is it adequate for your new card? I had the same problem (Just with different cards) and what I did to fix it was upgrade my power supply.
  • Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
    edited December 2011
    I just bought a new power supply and its 420 watts and the card says it needs a minimum of 400
  • Evelon277Evelon277 Canada
    edited December 2011
    Hmm... you should try and get a 600 Watt, 420 might not be adequate for the rest of your system.
  • Magnus-The-RedMagnus-The-Red
    edited December 2011
    It can be so many different things I might as well just order a new pc it seems like.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited December 2011
    Magnus The Red wrote:
    It can be so many different things I might as well just order a new pc it seems like.

    Well, sometimes it is multiple things and sometimes narrowing it down to what is bottlenecking most involves trying different things until it is fixed so that the whole computer runs faster. After all the work you put into this one, it would be a shame to have to buy a whole new one.

    Speeding up one thing leaves others slower compared to the one thing sped up. So, yes, the bottleneck appears to move from one thing to another. This is true of all systems, none are perfect unless you spend huge amounts of money, and even then eventually you will find the slow point or points.

    That is why computer part manufacturers make new things - they have had customers become unsatisfied with their old things because compared to the new stuff others are now making (older stuff is SLOWER). So, they make new things to compete with new, faster stuff by putting out faster stuff of their own.

    John.
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