Helping a friend who is unhappy with his performance....

[Crow550]

His current setup:

AMD FX-6300 @ 4.3 Ghz on stock cooler. Has a Cooler Master TX4 but it won't fit in the case.

Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard.

8GB of Ram unknown on the speed.

40gb Intel SSD.

Couple 1TB WD Black drives.

He went from a Nvidia GTX 760 to an Asus RX480 4GB card and his fps seems to still be dipping. He plays at 1080P.

He hasn't reinstalled Windows 10 as he doesn't know if it will fix the issue. I believe he used DDU to uninstall the Nvidia Driver and install the AMD one. He also wants to expand the Ram to 16gb for video editing and such....

He's hoping it's not the CPU due to limited upgrade funds also he says some of the fps issues are in games that ran fine even on an older cpu.... Could it just be a simple bug in Windows?

Game examples are like GTAV, Dark Souls 3 and 7 Days To Die.... Also he tried to use AMD Re-Live but it crashed. He also uses Fraps but I think the overlay was disabled first....

He did run a Ram Test too. It checked out okay.

Thanks for helping to those who reply. I will share this thread with him.

 

[Elixer]

Performance issues? Well, they got this little blue pill....

Just what are the frame rates they are getting?

 

[Crow550]

Performance issues? Well, they got this little blue pill....

Just what are the frame rates they are getting?

*ZING!*

45-30fps dips.... About the same as with the 2gb gtx 760....

 

[Elixer]

For GTA V, that sounds normal for that CPU.

 

[whm1974]

*ZING!*

45-30fps dips.... About the same as with the 2gb gtx 760....

I'm afraid your friend will need to save his money for a new build.

 

[Crow550]

I'm afraid your friend will need to save his money for a new build.

I'll let him know. I figured the CPU was too weak.... He'll argue with me since Doom 2016 runs silky smooth.... Maybe he needs a refresher course on CPUs.... I keep telling him even though it's 6 cores they are very weak. I had mentoned this before he purchased the RX480 as I was concerned the CPU would bottleneck it. He even argued that posting here would be a waste....

I hope he saves his cash on not adding more Ram and instead invests it into a better CPU and Mobo....

 

[UsandThem]

I hope he saves his cash on not adding more Ram and instead invests it into a better CPU and Mobo....

There's that old saying "You can lead a horse to water.......".

He'll eventually figure it out when the majority of new games going forward perform horribly with that CPU.

 

[whm1974]

I'll let him know. I figured the CPU was too weak.... He'll argue with me since Doom 2016 runs silky smooth.... Maybe he needs a refresher course on CPUs.... I keep telling him even though it's 6 cores they are very weak. I had mentoned this before he purchased the RX480 as I was concerned the CPU would bottleneck it. He even argued that posting here would be a waste....

I hope he saves his cash on not adding more Ram and instead invests it into a better CPU and Mobo....

I would wait until RyZen is released and decide on which platform to go with and start saving money. If he chooses a mid-range CPU(at least) and decent other parts, then a build should last him a long time.

 

[UsandThem]

Here's a video you can share with him that shows what he can expect with the FX-6300 in gaming:

 

[Crow550]

Thank you very much for all your help. I will pass the video on. Maybe he will consider joining and post some replies.... As I sure as heck do not want to be the middleman in all this.

Anyways.... Thanks again.... I hope he listens....

 

[whm1974]

Thank you very much for all your help. I will pass the video on. Maybe he will consider joining and post some replies.... As I sure as heck do not want to be the middleman in all this.

Anyways.... Thanks again.... I hope he listens....

Good luck. I had to deal with stubborn folks when asked for advice before.

 

[VirtualLarry]

A friend of mine who has been using an Athon II X4 for the last few years, finally agreed to upgrade his PC. He's buying my recently souped-up Z170 rig with 16GB, SSD, and G4560, on an installment plan, for $500.

Anyways, my point in mentioning that, is that when I told him that the G4560 was 3X the speed of his Athlon II in ST, and nearly double in MT, and yet it was only a 3.5Ghz dual-core (with HyperThreading), compared to his true quad-core ... well, he had a lot of trouble wrapping his head around that fact.

 

[Crow550]

Yeah he looked over the thread before the video was added.... He believes he shouldn't have to upgrade his CPU as before the AMD FX-6300 he had a Phenom II that ran games fine from 2016 and doesn't believe the newer FX-6300 would run them worse.... I guess he thinks it's Ram still or wants to put in newer faster sticks. I don't know.... I tried.... At this point I just said it would be best if we avoided talking about PC hardware all together....

It wasn't so much asking for advice as it was not listening when I said the CPU would bottleneck the GPU upgrade before he purchased it. Which then after he complained to me on multiple occasions that the RX480 wasn't performing much better than the GTX 760.... Like maxing out GTAV at constant 60fps and such.... Yet I am being told that I am wrong.... So whatever.

As for AMD Relive crashing when being turned on.... My guess is either because Fraps has an Overlay that's turned on and conflicting.... Or maybe Windows 10 also needs a clean install from going from Nvidia to AMD. Not sure exactly.... Relive works perfectly on my end. I also don't use Fraps so unsure on what's up....

Again thanks for trying.

 

[Murloc]

Yeah he looked over the thread before the video was added.... He believes he shouldn't have to upgrade his CPU as before the AMD FX-6300 he had a Phenom II that ran games fine from 2016 and doesn't believe the newer FX-6300 would run them worse.... I guess he thinks it's Ram still or wants to put in newer faster sticks. I don't know.... I tried.... At this point I just said it would be best if we avoided talking about PC hardware all together....

It wasn't so much asking for advice as it was not listening when I said the CPU would bottleneck the GPU upgrade before he purchased it. Which then after he complained to me on multiple occasions that the RX480 wasn't performing much better than the GTX 760.... Like maxing out GTAV at constant 60fps and such.... Yet I am being told that I am wrong.... So whatever.

As for AMD Relive crashing when being turned on.... My guess is either because Fraps has an Overlay that's turned on and conflicting.... Or maybe Windows 10 also needs a clean install from going from Nvidia to AMD. Not sure exactly.... Relive works perfectly on my end. I also don't use Fraps so unsure on what's up....

Again thanks for trying.

faster RAM sticks has the least effects of all possible upgrades.

This behaviour is a defect of some AMD fans sadly, I've seen it before, when Ryzen comes out you can send him a comparison benchmark, maybe suddenly he'll be wanting to upgrade.

Or better yet, don't bother. Hardware is fun to talk about only with people who are more or less at your level of understanding.

 

[Crow550]

Yeah.... *Sigh*

He believes because he's had a good 4 years with the Phenom II with the games he played that the current CPU which is newer is not an issue and that people (this forum, charts, etc) like to push the newer hardware to justify there expensive purchases....

So yeah.... Whatever.... I'm at a loss for words. Least what I heard before I sent the video but he may find reasons to fault that too.

He finds the help in message boards to be biased on what he knows first hand so I doubt he'll be chiming in here....

Nothing more to really say or add.... Sorry for wasting everyone's time. Tried to help....

 

[UsandThem]

that people (this forum, charts) like push the newer hardware to justify there expensive purchases....

He sounds like a real peach of a guy, and the kind of person you shouldn't help at all in the future if he asks.

Like any one of us gives two cacas about what hardware he has, or how his games run. The only person's PCs I truly care about working properly are mine. I just like helping others figure out issues with some of my free time (as long as they don't act like your friend does). Those kind of people go on my ignore list so they don't waste my time.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The thing is, at the time of the Phenom II, AMD was semi-competitive, with Intel's last-gen platform (Core2Quad).

At this time, AMD does NOT have ANY competitive CPUs (for gaming) currently on the market. None.

Yeah, we all heard that DX12's heavier threading, would put AMD's FX architecture over the top. Well, it hasn't happened, and Intel's new G4560 dual-core CPU is generally faster in most games, than AMD's even 8-"core" FX CPUs.

RyZen looks really good, so far. And it looks (relatively) affordable. Only a little more time to wait.

But in the meantime, tell your friend to pick up a G4560 CPU, 8GB DDR4, and a cheap $70 B250 motherboard, and get gaming.

I'm not really a fanboy of either company, although I do like to root for the underdog a little, and am no fan of Intel's abusive business tactics. But objectively, I have to say, Intel has faster CPUs.

I mostly buy dual-cores, and the fact that the G4560 has HyperThreading now, is a noticeable bonus.

But the Piledriver core / FX CPUs / APUs based on PD really SUCK. I built a few rigs, on the A4-6300, and the A6-5400K, and they were noticeably "laggy" in Windows programs. Even with an up-to-date SSD.

Edit: I actually prefer the FM1 platform for web browsing, over the A4-6300. Even with a 2.8Ghz dual-core, versus the A4-6300's 3.7Ghz single-module.

That's right, the FX-6300's "six cores" are really "three modules", so it has one LESS FPU unit, than your friend's Phenom II X4 did.

Edit: I could be partially wrong. Apparently, Watch Dog 2, with GTX 1080 SLI, does make the FX 8-core CPUs close to competitive.
https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...vidia-or-28nm-amd-dgpu.2492257/#post-38610777

But the FX-6300 is neck and neck with an i3-6100 SKL dual-core w/HT, which the G4560 closely approximates.

 

[whm1974]

He sounds like a real peach of a guy, and the kind of person you shouldn't help at all in the future if he asks.

Like any one of us gives two cacas about what hardware he has, or how his games run. The only person's PCs I truly care about working properly are mine. I just like helping others figure out issues with some of my free time (as long as they don't act like your friend does). Those kind of people go on my ignore list so they don't waste my time.

I help folks too, and while I'll admit having biases, I do listen to others as well.

 

[EliteRetard]

Why do people feel the need to upgrade to the latest and greatest? Party like it's 1999!

I'm still running an overclocked X6-1100T w/ 8GB DDR3 1600 CAS 9 and interestingly just upgraded to an RX470 4GB.
I would've still been using a 2GB 6950, but I gave it away to help my dad since his 4870 just blew up.
Anyway, I'm getting very good performance in a bunch of awesome new games and utilizing my CPU heavily.
It's cool to see all 6 cores hovering at 80-90%, I knew games would get more multi-threaded over time.

That said, I'm just now getting a chance to play Far Cry, Crysis, Metro, GTA 4, the old new Tomb Raider, old new X-Com, etc.
I highly doubt I'm enjoying them any less than you guys did when you first played them 5 years ago.

 

[Rifter]

Zen will be exactly what he is looking for. Its his CPU holding him back.

To bad he didnt go intel with his last system or he'd probably be ok now with a first or second gen i7.

 

[Crow550]

Been awhile. Sorry for not getting back sooner then again nothing to really reply with.

He apologized for his actions as he had some stressful stuff going on.

Another issue is he picked up a bigger SSD for a boot drive and moved one of his Mechanical drives to another sata port which caused it to run really slow for some reason? Like really slow.... So he replaced his SATA cables in hopes it was a bad cable. I can't recall if it was just when recording with Fraps or trying to access files off it as well....

Why do people feel the need to upgrade to the latest and greatest? Party like it's 1999!

I'm still running an overclocked X6-1100T w/ 8GB DDR3 1600 CAS 9 and interestingly just upgraded to an RX470 4GB.
I would've still been using a 2GB 6950, but I gave it away to help my dad since his 4870 just blew up.
Anyway, I'm getting very good performance in a bunch of awesome new games and utilizing my CPU heavily.
It's cool to see all 6 cores hovering at 80-90%, I knew games would get more multi-threaded over time.

That said, I'm just now getting a chance to play Far Cry, Crysis, Metro, GTA 4, the old new Tomb Raider, old new X-Com, etc.
I highly doubt I'm enjoying them any less than you guys did when you first played them 5 years ago.

If he wasn't complaining this would be a non-issue then.

 

[EliteRetard]

Is he running all drives off the integrated SATA controllers or did he get one hooked up to an extra third party controller? Did he screw up IDE/AHCI modes? How about PIO vs DMA modes?

 

[Crow550]

Guess he had Windows Driver Updates turned off and had to goto the Mobo site to get the proper driver.

D'oh!

Thanks again....

 

[Ken g6]

It occurs to me that a CPU cooler would be a cheap upgrade to allow more overclocking of his current system and would be reusable. But you say a TX3 doesn't fit his case? How much space does his case have?

 

[RLGL]

Helping a friend who is unhappy with his performance....

Has he tried Viagra??