how to test my CPU?

[topeira]

hi guys.

i just got a new GPU yet some games performances hasnt changed.

i want to test what is bottlenecking me. i got MSI afterburner to check my GPU but i need something to check my CPU.

so:
1) what program should i use to test my CPU? also how hot should the CPU get in order to stay "safe" if i OC it?

2) how can i tell what's bottle necking me? test a game and see what hardware peaked at high 90~ percent?

10X

 

[Inspire]

If I was Carnac i might know what the heck you have.

If I was Spock I would say, "Insufficient Data".

 

[sm625]

Basically there are four primary speed dials on your pc that you can vary:

CPU clock
GPU clock
Main memory clock (and/or clock divider, etc)
GPU memory clock

A good rule of thumb is to vary each by 10%, one at a time, and see what that does to your frame rate. The one that makes the biggest difference is the one that is your bottleneck. If you cannot increase one dial at all, then try decreasing. If you decrease something, then you have to look for worse performance of course.

 

[topeira]

my specs are not needed to answer any othese quesions but if ppl like knowing it i dont mind sharin:

cpu: Q6600
GPU: HD6870
mem: 4gb ram
OS: win 7

 

[sm625]

Well if you have a q6600 / 6870 then you should definitely have access to all four dials I mentioned. It is just a matter of having the patience and conviction to vary each by 10% and measure the outcome. IMO your cpu and gpu are very well balanced so the only way you're going to know is to run these tests yourself.

btw I let my q6600 run up to 72C at full load. This is measured by core temp version 0.99.8 (google it if you dont already have it). Summer is coming so I had to drop my OC down a bit to stay under that temp. That number is just an arbitrary limit set by me. It can run hotter. Core Temp also tells you the max core temp (tjunction). It can be much higher than what the main thermal sensor reads.

 

[Inspire]

my specs are not needed to answer any othese quesions but if ppl like knowing it i dont mind sharin:

cpu: Q6600
GPU: HD6870
mem: 4gb ram
OS: win 7

Each game will have different results. If you have access to another rig (or have a friend who has one) try the video card in a different system and compare.

At least with the games I play, cpu does matter under "raid" conditions but under normal gameplay I don't see any difference.

 

[topeira]

i gotta admit i am having strange effects on my rig.

i used to run GTAIV on my older rig just fine with about 25-30 fps.
it was my Q6600, 2gb ram, winXP and my old HD4870.

once i moved to windows 7 and 4gb ram, a new mobo and a single stick of 4gb and even now with the new 6870 - i am getting 15 fps. 15!! it DROPPED. significantly!

a game like Fable 3 crawls on my rig at towns with busy view in front of me. this feels like a GPU issue since if it's about what does into the screen than assume it's about calculating polygons and not cpu stuff, but seeing how GTAIV is performing i am beginning to think that i may have some other issues here....

so i'd like to know what u guys think. could this be a CPU issue? could this be a memory issue? if one of these pieces of hardware is performing badly is there a way to diagnose it? to get a proof? i dont want to switch a component without being sure i need to.

is there a software that can give me results on how my cpu is performing? like the futuremark and othe benchmarks for GPU but for cpu instead?

 

[Wizlem]

Are you saying your computer only has a single stick of ram? This could cause problems if you're hitting a memory bandwitdth bottleneck.

 

[topeira]

Are you saying your computer only has a single stick of ram? This could cause problems if you're hitting a memory bandwitdth bottleneck.

what? how?
are u saying that this could be a reason why before GTAIV ran fine with 2 sticks of 1gb each , unlike how it runs now with 1 stick of 4gb???

i also tried this tool called "geekbench".
according to this graph:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/pc-benchmarks/
i should be getting 3900 with this tool.

here's the results of my tests:
i ran it once i DLed it and got 3889. very close.
then i tried OCing the cpu a bit. instead of host frequency of 266 i upped to 290
cpu clock ratio hasnt changed from X9

and lowered the system memory multiplyer to 2.4 (i have no clue what was it before. it was set to AUTO).
reboot and ran geekbench again. i got 3200. LOWER.
rebooted again and upped the sys memory freq to 2.66. got around 3150. even lower.
rebooted again with the bios settings on "default optimized" and ran geekbench 3rd time. now i got 3200 again. ran it again and again and im constantly getting result around 3200. not the 3889 i got the first time (where it was supposed to be, again, default optimized) and not what the website of geekbench is saying i should be getting (i think the graphs on the website are users input average).

anyways, im getting low results and i dont know why. dont wanna waste money on upgrades that wont help me but if there IS something to be done, by all means, spill it.

EDIT: apparently if i let me computer run for, say 30 minutes, and test it again i am SOMETIMES getting results of about 3700. but in other times its, again, 3200. either way - too low.

another important point to state -
yesterday i had a HD4870 and cheking FPS in some games gave me about 25. i borrowed the current 6870 from a friend (which i might buy in the end) and im getting only about 5 to 10 fps more. games like Fable 3 and Brink and the witcher 2 which made me realise i might need a new rig, still dont run well. i dont know if it's the driver's fault, the game's fault or, again, my CPU's not working well....

 

[betasub]

OP already has related thread in General Hardware. He may want to try some of the tests already suggested in that thread.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2166033

 

[Zap]

are u saying that this could be a reason why before GTAIV ran fine with 2 sticks of 1gb each , unlike how it runs now with 1 stick of 4gb???

1) Games at this time mostly do not use more than 2GB RAM. Giving it more will not make it faster. If it wasn't enough then more = faster.

2) You cut the bandwidth in HALF. Bandwidth = speed. Your motherboard does dual channel memory. You need a matched pair for optimal performance.

yesterday i had a HD4870 and cheking FPS in some games gave me about 25. i borrowed the current 6870 from a friend (which i might buy in the end) and im getting only about 5 to 10 fps more.

25FPS to 35FPS... you are getting a whopping 40% performance increase, and that isn't good enough? If not, then you need to aim higher, such as a 6950.

 

[topeira]

thanks zap.

2) do i need another 4gb stick with the same speed? if im getting a new stick but with LESS space (2GB instead of 4GB) than that will not do any good?

also, how can i check what kind of memory i need? in the bios it says something like memory frequency 1333 \ 1066.
i am not sure what that means but i assume it means i need another 1333 stick.

my stick is from a company called Patriot. havent heard about them till now when i opened my case :\ (i didnt install that stick. someone else did).

about the fps gain. the 40% is awesome, but that GPU can do much better i think. i've heard others are running the same games with lesser cards better. it's not about the percentage but about the final results. that's how I see it. and i can do great with 40FPS in a game, but some games are STILL below 20fps. that's really low. i cant find the reason.