Possible bottleneck?

[JerseyDriverSS]

Here is my system as of now.

MB-asus p8h77v-le
processor- i5-3470
ram- 8gb kingston hyper x black or something like that. its 1600mhz
gpu- nvidia 970 gtx
psu- capstone rosewill 650w 80+ gold certified
ssd- 120gb pny
hdd- multiple

My question is could my processor be holding me back (i knew nothing about pcs when i built it). I was doing the iracing 24 and with around 50ish cars on track my frames would sometime dip under 60. Not to far under, but it was under. I wanna upgrade to an i7 4790, but only if its gonna really be benificial. Any help would be appreciated as i'm ready to pull the trigger, but don't wanna buy it if its not gonna improve my pc significantly.

 

[Techy]

Well that CPU still is good for gaming. Try testing other CPU intensive games or 3Dmark and see if there's too much CPU overhead. If there is, try overclocking it if the mobo supports it and you have adequate cooling.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Not worth upgrading at the moment. Can you change the CPU ratio in BIOS to 40? (AI Tweaker - CPU Power Management - CPU Ratio). Think it only works on Z77 motherboards so a shame if you can't.

 

[JerseyDriverSS]

does that drop seem right though in iracing with that many cars on the track? I was naturally running everything at the highest settings. It was alot of cars at once, but i figured the 970 would handle that easily. I do know iracing is very cpu intensive if i remember correctly.

I'm still cotemplating getting an i7 and a new mobo thats sli capable. It would be nice to have for the future. I wish i knew more when i built the pc to begin with. Ah well i know for next time i guess, but if i do go the new mobo and i7 route i think i should be good for a long while.

 

[DQuaN]

It's the only possible explanation really.

The GPU should be able to handle it with ease.

Some things to check first...

Do you have the latest GPU drivers?

What OS are you using?

Is it 64 bit?

Are any other applications running in the background?

 

[JerseyDriverSS]

It's the only possible explanation really.

The GPU should be able to handle it with ease.

Some things to check first...

Do you have the latest GPU drivers?

What OS are you using?

Is it 64 bit?

Are any other applications running in the background?

Yes

windows 7

yes

just evga precision x and dashmeter pro.

 

[starknight97]

Test it in the games you play. Turn vertical sync off/frame rate limiter off and use something like msi afterburner to check if your getting 100% GPU usage.

 

[JerseyDriverSS]

well i went ahead and ordered some new parts.

ASUS Z97-A mobo and a i7-4790k.

 

[Techy]

That i7 might be a little overkill but that CPU will not bottleneck anything unless you're gonna run more than 2 GPUs in SLI.

 

[JerseyDriverSS]

That i7 might be a little overkill but that CPU will not bottleneck anything unless you're gonna run more than 2 GPUs in SLI.

Yeah i figured it would be overkill, but it opens me up to another 970 in the future. Rather have overkill then not enough. lol.

 

[JerseyDriverSS]

Got the new processor and board installed after first board was doa. Wow what a difference.