AMD FX 8320's performance in games. Is it that bad?

[USER8000]

Anyone sane would realise that at 1366X768 the system in the OP is way overspecced in the first place.

 

[JimKiler]

Anyone sane would realise that at 1366X768 the system in the OP is way overspecced in the first place.

I concur and alexruiz pointed this out in post #48.

It has to be a defective part. Time to find a friend with an AM3 platform and try swapping out one part at a time until you get decent frame rates.

 

[Phynaz]

I'm betting his CPU is throttling due to temperature. Have him check, re-do his heatsink mount. It that's not it I'd point to a defective board, as that a really low end board.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

[snip]

Back on topic -- he should probably disable turbo and manually set the multiplier (start at 3.5 Ghz and gradually move up to 4). If he gets consistent frames at 3.5, it may be power delivery.

I'm just guessing -- but maybe his power supply may not be sending enough power to the FX or video card under full load at 4 Ghz / 4.2 Ghz.

 

[Erenhardt]

Just get the SSD already and forget about "spikes".
If anything, it may be your display. You should upgrade it first. LOL

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Just get the SSD already and forget about "spikes".
If anything, it may be your display. You should upgrade it first. LOL

He's got a good point. I forgot about the fact that many AM3 motherboards still have EIDE. If he's running the game off an IDE 5400 RPM hard drive -- that could really cause major lag on a modern game.

 

[blackened23]

edit: nvm

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

The problem is that AMD's CPUs don't offer a bargain proposition especially for gaming....

Back on Topic: The OP should also check to make sure that they're running the latest video card drivers. Old drivers could be causing erratic performance especially in the newer games.

 

[Enigmoid]

On topic again the 8350 will run all games well (OP is talking about games). It will not be able to keep 60 fps. In some games it will perform very well, in others poorly. It is a strong budget gaming CPU though it is not as good as an i5. It should not be holding back any single GPU.

OP's friend may want to try to underclock and measure fps or deactivate cores (move down to 4C) to try to see if its the CPU or something else in the system.

Run a heavy stress test and see if the computer functions normally.

 

[ViRGE]

The first time was a warning. The next time this thread gets derailed by pointless AMD vs. Intel arguing, it will be an infraction.
-ViRGE

 

[Kratos47]

Thanks for taking care of the thread ViRGE, much appreciated. And my apologies gentlemen for not posting earlier, we are from different timezones so that's why i couldn't update your guys with his latest situation.

Alright so i finally have something to share with you guys.

First thing one member asked me was his PSU. Well it's Cooler Master 700W B Series. So i think this is well covered.

As for whether it's throttling or not, here is his graph:

Minor spike in CPU frequency where it drops from 3.5 GHz to 3.0 GHz (a little bit below that).

And while, just for comparison, my i7 920 doesn't fluctuate like that at all.

So could this be the cause of it? I think for throttling the dip should be like 2400 MHz etc, a minor drop like that can't be the cause of that can it?

 

[Kratos47]

Btw i agree with the guys saying that AMD FX series are on a disadvantage with Intel when playing RTS games in particular. I have been studying about FX for the past few days now but other than this i think they're solid CPUs and i'm more confident about it after seeing some testimonials here from AMD FX owners.

The skyrim thing you posted up there is out of date

The game used X87 instructions , AMD chips don't like that

They (Bethesda) fixed it

I played through it , ran 60fps on my FX8350 and 7970

Did not drop one single frame

If you could provide me with a source for that then i would highly appreciate it, mate.

 

[Enigmoid]

The voltage looks quite high for 3.5 ghz.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I have to think the voltages reported for 3.3v, 5v, and 12v are wrong?

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Thanks for taking care of the thread ViRGE, much appreciated. And my apologies gentlemen for not posting earlier, we are from different timezones so that's why i couldn't update your guys with his latest situation.

Alright so i finally have something to share with you guys.

First thing one member asked me was his PSU. Well it's Cooler Master 700W B Series. So i think this is well covered.

As for whether it's throttling or not, here is his graph:

Minor spike in CPU frequency where it drops from 3.5 GHz to 3.0 GHz (a little bit below that).

And while, just for comparison, my i7 920 doesn't fluctuate like that at all.

So could this be the cause of it? I think for throttling the dip should be like 2400 MHz etc, a minor drop like that can't be the cause of that can it?

I would think that a dip like that would be Cool N Quiet trying to protect the CPU. You might try disabling CNQ -- but those type of dips on an FX are usually thermal or power in my experience. Since you've got a strong power supply -- I think it is thermal. I would check to make sure the heatsink is firmly attached to the CPU as well.

 

[Kratos47]

So this is indeed throttling then but i guess not to an extent i was expecting like going from 3.5-2.5 GHz etc.

Yes if we see, the temperature graph is almost consistent which means CNQ is doing its job. I told him earlier to turn it off and see but he didn't want it to. So i will now suggest him to do and see if the spikes in frequency happen again.

Any further questions or feedback i should give him?

 

[alexruiz]

What version of the catalyst drivers are you running?

I noticed also you are running a Sapphire video card.
Those things are extremely fragile, so the video card might be defective.
Try looping 3DMark and see if it crashes, if it is able to loop or if it hangs on the "running systeminfo" screen.

On regards to the PSU, I am still not convinced that PSU is OK. Coolemaster has either great PSUs (silent pro series) or very crappy (extreme) series, and this "B series" is a dual 12V rail with active PFC, but no 80+ certification...

Edit: I made a mistake, the 700w version is a single 12V rail, the dual rail is the 500W version. The 700W ODM seems to be Enhance, so the PSU should be fine.

 

[Kratos47]

I doubt it's the graphics card since he can run metro last light at 60+fps with Physx turned off (NVIDIA feature).

Anyways i will tell him to run 3D mark as well.

 

[Schmide]

As for whether it's throttling or not, here is his graph:

My 8320 does the same thing. Linpack seems to just do that. My TMPIN1 doesn't even get that hot with Linpack.

The throttling won't happen until TMPIN1 gets to 65c. Try the OCCT CPU tab and run for a little longer.

 

[bononos]

So this is indeed throttling then but i guess not to an extent i was expecting like going from 3.5-2.5 GHz etc.

Yes if we see, the temperature graph is almost consistent which means CNQ is doing its job. I told him earlier to turn it off and see but he didn't want it to. So i will now suggest him to do and see if the spikes in frequency happen again.

Any further questions or feedback i should give him?

It doesn't sound like a CnQ problem because CnQ shouldn't kick in when the pc is under heavy load like gaming on recent titles.

It looks like the motherboard is throttling because either the VRMs are too hot and/or the VRMs cannot take the power load. It could be a bad cpu which exceeds the tdp limit even at stock speeds and the motherboard will throttle it via APM.

 

[JimKiler]

On topic again the 8350 will run all games well (OP is talking about games). It will not be able to keep 60 fps. In some games it will perform very well, in others poorly. It is a strong budget gaming CPU though it is not as good as an i5. It should not be holding back any single GPU.

OP's friend may want to try to underclock and measure fps or deactivate cores (move down to 4C) to try to see if its the CPU or something else in the system.

Run a heavy stress test and see if the computer functions normally.

Would you like to read the resolution the OP is running at and change your answer. The CPU can keep up unless it is defective.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Would you like to read the resolution the OP is running at and change your answer. The CPU can keep up unless it is defective.

I can drop into the 36-37FPS range with a higher clock than an FX8350 in Torchlight 2 in some cases. An 8320/8350 isn't going to peg everything at 60FPS. So I don't disagree with what he is saying there (though I do disagree with the part where he said that some games will run 'poorly'. But what I find to be an acceptable frame rate may be poor performance to him).

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Would you like to read the resolution the OP is running at and change your answer. The CPU can keep up unless it is defective.

Yeah, no doubt -- An Ancient Pentium D could probably manage playable frame rates on most games down at 1366X768 resolution with that GeForce. That is pretty low res by today's standards.

 

[Kratos47]

After i saw that graph i told him to turn off CNQ etc and we get this now:

HPC - ON
Turbo - OFF
CNQ - OFF

Didn't touch other stuff.

This time there was less steps but they were WAY BIGGER

Throttled to 1.4 GHz, wtf? LOL what's going on there? And what i don't get is how HPC is truend on and still the processor managed to throttle down. Isn't HPC suppose to lock the frequency?

@Schmide: See the max TMPIN1, it was 66ºC and i think that's what triggered this massive throttle.

 

[JimKiler]

After i saw that graph i told him to turn off CNQ etc and we get this now:
Throttled to 1.4 GHz, wtf? LOL what's going on there? And what i don't get is how HPC is truend on and still the processor managed to throttle down. Isn't HPC suppose to lock the frequency?

@Schmide: See the max TMPIN1, it was 66ºC and i think that's what triggered this massive throttle.

Is there desktop software overiding the mobo settings? Maybe uninstall any CPU/GPU and mobo software that can interfere with settings.