Best way to analyse pc (gaming) performance/bottlenecks?

[RageValley]

I'm wondering what is the best way to analyse PC performance and bottle necks when gaming?

I've built a decent system but still see lagging from time to time. I'd like to do some testing to see if anything is slowing my system down, i suspect it's the CPU.

Some games i've noticed lagging.. FIFA14, COD:Ghosts, GTA:IV, FarCry3, GRID2.

I like to play on high/ultra but usually disable the anti-aliasing.

Spec:

XFX Radeon HD 7970 DD Edition 3GB
Intel Core i5 "Haswell" 4440 @ 3.1 Ghz
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3
Crucial M500 240GB SSD + WD RED 3TB
Akasa Cobra Power 650W Modular Power Supply

It's also well cooled with 3x Noctua fans and Noctua hsf on the cpu.

I play at 1080p on a 42" TV.

 

[Xantac]

I use MSI afterburners monitoring software and check gpu and cpu usage for each thread, and when I find that my framerates drop low to check whats at max usage. Atleast give you a baseline of your system usage,

 

[frozentundra123456]

I use FRAPS to monitor the framerate, MSI afterburner to monitor gpu usage, and task manager to monitor cpu usage. You can also see if you are gpu bound by lowering the resolution/image quality and seeing if the framerate improves.

I am somewhat surprised you are having lag with that system, it is a pretty good one, and those are not the most demanding games, although GTA is horribly optimized. Are your games installed on the SSD or HDD? Since that is the lowest clocked haswell i5, I suppose you could be running into cpu limitations. See if you gpu usage is pegged when you are having problems. If so you are gpu limited, if not you are being limited by the cpu or something else like loading the textures from disk.

 

[Xantac]

Let us know the results or if you need help setting up the monitoring software.

 

[mistersprinkles]

The games you listed are known for having less than stellar optimization causing framerate dips and stutters. It's not your hardware. Look at Watchdogs. It's so poorly optimized right now even people with 2 R9 290's are complaining.

 

[Xantac]

Yea, I swapped out my 780ti for 2 R9 290x and watchdogs and it went from rough to unplayable.