# CPU Bottleneck? AMD Phenom II X4 955



## Heldelance (Aug 8, 2013)

Hi everyone,

I was looking to upgrade my GPU to one of the GTX700 series (770 probably), but I've been told that there's no point because my CPU would cause a bottleneck.

My current specs are all stock;

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 955
GPU - GTX570 OC (factory overclocked. I underclocked it a bit since I was having a few issues)
RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws F3 12GB (3 sticks of 4 GB)
MB - Gigabyte GA-870-UD3P
PSU - Corsair HX620

I was also told that the 570 may already be bottlenecked as well. Would this be true?


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## suraswami (Aug 8, 2013)

What games are you playing?


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## Heldelance (Aug 8, 2013)

At the moment, a heavily modded version of Fallout New Vegas. I'm also playing Metro: Last Light (almost finished), Dragon Commander. Waiting on FF XIV, Watch Dogs and RTW II.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 8, 2013)

Is there a specific reason for running 3x4gb of memory? Also what kind of problems where you having with the current GPU?


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## Sempron Guy (Aug 8, 2013)

Is your processor overclocked?


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## Jstn7477 (Aug 8, 2013)

If you play some multiplayer games, you very well could be bottlenecked. Team Fortress 2 and PlanetSide 2 are some pretty good examples.


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## suraswami (Aug 8, 2013)

Multiplayer BF3 saw good difference going from PII 555 (unlocked to X4 @ 3.6) to PII X6 1045T @ 3.2 to FX 8320 @ 4.2.

TF2 don't see much difference.


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## Jstn7477 (Aug 8, 2013)

suraswami said:


> Multiplayer BF3 saw good difference going from PII 555 (unlocked to X4 @ 3.6) to PII X6 1045T @ 3.2 to FX 8320 @ 4.2.
> 
> TF2 don't see much difference.



Depends on what your FPS target is. My Athlon II X4 640 averaged 55 FPS in a benchmark demo, but my 4770K @ 4.4GHz got 134 average FPS in the same benchmark demo with lowest graphical settings. My system specs rig drops down to 80 FPS easily during the largest fights due to the mysterious "system overhead" with that and other similar DX9 games that can't properly utilize multi-core CPUs, so I get FPS dips even though none of my CPU threads are close to being maxed out, and my GPU is never utilized more than 35%.


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## Heldelance (Aug 8, 2013)

Processor's stock. 

I'm running 3x4 because I bought a 4x4 but the current heatsink on my CPU (big arse OCZ one) prevents me from putting anything in the first slot. Rather annoying...

The issue I've had with my GPU which makes me want to upgrade is a little weird. I've not encountered the problem recently so it may be fixed.

What was happening was that I would get fatal driver crashes every couple of hours. Didn't even matter what game I was playing, it would also happen outside of gaming. This was a little worse when I was playing games. In Borderlands 2, Dead Island, Battlefield 3, the screen would freeze (the PC was still running though). If I CTRL+ALT+DEL after about 10 seconds, I can bring up task manager and go back into the game. I guessing that my GPU's on the fritz.


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## Sempron Guy (Aug 8, 2013)

^have you tried switching drivers? As for the processor, you can try overclocking it to around 3.8 and increase the nb as well. It could breath in some new life to your processor. Bottleneck depends on the game and multiplayer games like BF3 is a processor hog. But for the majority of offline games out there, processor performance is getting less significant. Games are more multi threaded these days, if you got four cores you're most likely be fine.


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## Heldelance (Aug 8, 2013)

Yeah, I've played around with older and newer drivers. The latest drivers MAY have fixed it though. I've not had the problem for a while but then again, I haven't played the problem games since updating the drivers.

I'm gonna overclock the CPU once I install the watercooling system.


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## ViperXTR (Aug 8, 2013)

there are just a few of the games that truly taxes multi cores, Crysis 3's grassland areas can hog all threads for the grass physics for example.


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## Heldelance (Aug 8, 2013)

So with the current GPU, should I even bother upgrading it? I'm guessing that by the time a new Nvidia line comes out, I might as well upgrade the CPU.


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## Sempron Guy (Aug 8, 2013)

Metro LL, COH 2 and  Far Cry 3 are also good examples. The Core i3 Ivy which has been know to go head to head with  FX 6300 lags behind in these games.


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## Jstn7477 (Aug 8, 2013)

Yeah, Far Cry 3 eats 65% of my 4.4GHz 4770K. Skyrim and Civilization 5 also run crappy on AMD processors as well.


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## Jeffredo (Aug 8, 2013)

Jstn7477 said:


> Skyrim ...run crappy on AMD processors as well.



I run Ultra preset plus FXAA with my X4 980 and a GTX 670 @ 1920x1200.  Smooth as silk.  The O.P. should try to get his PII up to around 3.8 Ghz (very doable and easy if its a C3 stepping).  It would help regardless what GPU he has.


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## Sempron Guy (Aug 8, 2013)

+1, had my Phenom II X4 965 at 4ghz before with a 2.8ghz NB, runs like a beast. The 955 pretty much has the same oc headroom.


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## ViperXTR (Aug 8, 2013)

Well, Skyrim still runs well on AMD, playably well, its mostly just overshadowed by some of Intel's offerings on some models.


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## Jeffredo (Aug 8, 2013)

Yeah, he doesn't need to wait for water cooling.  OC'ing a PII is as easy as falling off a log.


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## Heldelance (Aug 8, 2013)

I'll try overclocking it this weekend. I've got a Black Edition, does that make it easier/harder?


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## Melvis (Aug 8, 2013)

Heldelance said:


> Processor's stock.
> 
> I'm running 3x4 because I bought a 4x4 but the current heatsink on my CPU (big arse OCZ one) prevents me from putting anything in the first slot. Rather annoying...
> 
> ...



The CPU will most likely bottle neck the newer GPU a little, but by the looks of things that isnt the problem with your crashing. It is either drivers or the video card is dieing. Get the new GPU first and this will give you a boost in games but most likely get rid of all your crashing problems also.


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## Dent1 (Aug 8, 2013)

Heldelance said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I was looking to upgrade my GPU to one of the GTX700 series (770 probably), but I've been told that there's no point because my CPU would cause a bottleneck.
> 
> ...




Bottlenecking doesn't always make upgrading worthless. 

Yes you won't get the best performance out of the GPU with your CPU. But yes you'll still see some improvements in performance. Enough to justify the upgrade? I don't know.



Heldelance said:


> I'll try overclocking it this weekend. I've got a Black Edition, does that make it easier/harder?



Black Edition makes it easier, unlocked multi for easier overclocking on less quality motherboards.


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## Vario (Aug 8, 2013)

Try to get to 3.8ghz if you can, 4.0 might be the top end maybe youll get there.


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## GreiverBlade (Aug 8, 2013)

im running a X4 955 BE@ 4.0 (4.2 cometime) with a Zotac GTX 480 AMP! 1.5gb on a Crosshair IV Formula (890FX) with 8gb (2x4) 1600 (underclocked 1866) Corsair vengeance LP and a sh*ty X2 511 @3.4 with 8gb (2x4) value select 1333 alongside with a MSI N460GTX Hawk 1gb on a ASRock 970 Extreme 3(system spec 1 and 2)

i use a Macho Rev A on the 1st as it doesnt hinder the ram slot (even more with LP ram) and a overkill IFX-14 on the second. 

my psu are 80+gold 700w for the 1st and 80+bronze 650w for the second 

i do play new vegas (modded high res and some other tweak) and skyrim (all to max + some mods and tweaks)

i do not notice any bottleneck current average FPS range from 80 (fallout) to 65 (skyrim) 

all i can think is : PHII are meant to be more effective with dual channel memory, 3 slot ram means single channel mode force. It might be the bottleneck but i cant speak at 100% since both of my systems are on Dual channel setup. 

have you tried with 8gb instead of 12gb?

i also used the 1st rig with a XFX R7950DD 3gb without seeing any downside, thus i prefer running old fashion GPU as the 480 and 460 since they still are in the competition when it come to games atm (i play also Crysis 3 and FC3 FC3BD and other "heavy" games, Metro last light is the heaviest as for now iirc)

sidenote i do BSOD sometime at 4.2ghz when i was using a 600w singlerail CM GX lite i get less now with the 700w InWin i brought. but a HX620w should be enough to achieve stable 4.0ghz i was stable at 4.0 with the 650w chieftec i use on the 2nd rig


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## Vario (Aug 8, 2013)

My ph2 isnt significantly slower than my i5 or xeon, its a good chip, cant really tell a difference in games with a 7850, i should try the 7970 and see...


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## TheHunter (Aug 8, 2013)

Heldelance said:


> Processor's stock.
> 
> I'm running 3x4 because I bought a 4x4 but the current heatsink on my CPU (big arse OCZ one) prevents me from putting anything in the first slot. Rather annoying...
> 
> ...



that's a typical TDR symptom - driver reset. 

Usually it happens by bad OC or low voltage,.



A 770gtx will help but like others said that cpu will limit you in few cpu bound games, ie same min fps like by your old gpu.


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## Dent1 (Aug 9, 2013)

amp281 said:


> My ph2 isnt significantly slower than my i5 or xeon, its a good chip, cant really tell a difference in games with a 7850, i should try the 7970 and see...



You can't tell the difference with your eyes because your frame rate is probably 40+ without dips. But you run fraps alongside and you'll see the frame rate on the i5 is probably between 1/3 and 1/2 higher.


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## Vario (Aug 9, 2013)

I'm sure it is, benchmarks are much higher with my Intel setups


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## balzarch (Oct 2, 2013)

*Doubt*

Hi fellows!

I have almost the same doubt. I have AMD Phenom II X4 3.2 / 4mb cache and I was thinking to chance my GPU to the 760 GTX. The CPU could suffer bottleneck in this case?

Thank you!


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## Vario (Oct 2, 2013)

balzarch said:


> Hi fellows!
> 
> I have almost the same doubt. I have AMD Phenom II X4 3.2 / 4mb cache and I was thinking to chance my GPU to the 760 GTX. The CPU could suffer bottleneck in this case?
> 
> Thank you!




Doubt it.  It didn't bottleneck my 7850 overclocked to 1250.  Might have reduced my 3dmark score by 1-2% I guess, idk.  Didn't really change a whole lot between a stock 3570k and a phenom II @4.0 besides 10 to at most 20fps in games, and thats all cpu, 3dmark gpu score was pretty similar.


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## Dent1 (Oct 2, 2013)

balzarch said:


> Hi fellows!
> 
> I have almost the same doubt. I have AMD Phenom II X4 3.2 / 4mb cache and I was thinking to chance my GPU to the 760 GTX. The CPU could suffer bottleneck in this case?
> 
> Thank you!



You'll always get bottleneck, but will it effect your gaming experience? Probably not.


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