Is my CPU bottlenecking GTA V?

Dave3000

Golden Member
Jan 10, 2011
1,343
91
91
System specs:
i7-4930k (stock settings)
32 GB DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-24-2T)
GTX 1080 Founder's Edition
512GB SSD
6TB HDD
Windows 10 Pro

I recently upgraded to a GTX 1080 from a GTX 780 Ti. GTA V is running much smoother with higher graphics settings than before the upgrade but I'm still seeing some hitching when driving in GTA V. Other than the hitching, it appears to be running at 60 fps with vsync enabled. GTA V is installed on my 6 TB HDD because my SSD is nearly full. Do these stutters indicate a CPU bottleneck?
 

daveybrat

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jan 31, 2000
5,725
943
126
It's definitely not your cpu. There's no way a 6-Core Intel cpu is holding you back. My guess is that the game is installed on a 6TB 5400RPM hard drive? It really should be on an SSD. That 'hitching' is most likely caused by loading from a spindle drive.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
Well your CPU shouldnt be your bottleneck unless you've got some crazy high background CPU use going on.

Since you're running it at stock speeds your single core performance is going to be on the low end, but GTA 5 isn't terribly CPU bound usually and having 6 cores you shouldn't be having much issue.
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,208
4,940
136
It's the hard drive. Hitching while driving is a sign that it's struggling to stream world data fast enough.
 

Face2Face

Diamond Member
Jun 6, 2001
4,100
215
106
Not sure if this helps, but I play the game on a WD 1TB green drive and I get no stuttering or hitching at all. Are you running VSYNC? If not enable it, or use a frame limiter like the one built-into MSI AB + RTSS.
 

Dave3000

Golden Member
Jan 10, 2011
1,343
91
91
I transferred the game to my SSD today and the hitching is much less pronounced but still there and it's worse during the police chase. Also it dropped below 60 fps just outside the city on the coastal highway while I was panning. However, I am playing with much higher settings than when I had the GTX 780 Ti installed. Those slowdowns are caused by my CPU's single threaded performance?
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
Make sure your using the latest drivers. If you are, reinstall them anyway.
You say it seems to be running at 60fps....are you sure?

Turn your games graphic settings down to low, and re-test it.
If all is well, turn one graphical setting up at a time till you see the stuttering again. Isolate the problem.

Is this a GTA V problem or do other games do this?
 

Dave3000

Golden Member
Jan 10, 2011
1,343
91
91
I don't notice a difference between my GTX 1080 and GTX 780 Ti in Doom (2016). Doom (2016) ran well on my 780 Ti anyways with only a few drops below 60 fps and so I was expecting the 1080 to eliminate those drops but they are still there and it seems they happen just as often. CPU bottleneck?
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
14,387
480
126
I don't notice a difference between my GTX 1080 and GTX 780 Ti in Doom (2016). Doom (2016) ran well on my 780 Ti anyways with only a few drops below 60 fps and so I was expecting the 1080 to eliminate those drops but they are still there and it seems they happen just as often. CPU bottleneck?

yes, that what it sounds like or a driver problem.
 

escrow4

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2013
3,339
122
106
I don't notice a difference between my GTX 1080 and GTX 780 Ti in Doom (2016). Doom (2016) ran well on my 780 Ti anyways with only a few drops below 60 fps and so I was expecting the 1080 to eliminate those drops but they are still there and it seems they happen just as often. CPU bottleneck?

Its your slow old HDD. Doom is a 50GB bastard that streams a lot of data, same with GTA V. You need an SSD to lessen those dips.
 

Dave3000

Golden Member
Jan 10, 2011
1,343
91
91
The only difference weith playing Doom (2016) on an SSD instead of a HDD is much shorter load times on the SSD, it does nothing for frame rates. Are the levels be loaded up all in RAM once the level is finished loading anyways? Also I have vsync enabled and the refresh rate is set to 60 Hz. Maybe the minimum frame rates in this game are more CPU dependent than GPU dependent?
 

escrow4

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2013
3,339
122
106
Doubt its the CPU then, a 4930K all cores loaded would hit around 3.5GHz. Have you tried enabling MCE so all cores loaded will hit 3.9GHz?
 

MajinCry

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2015
2,495
571
136
You got an antivirus running? I swear, those things murder game performance. I gave a few a looksie; Avira and Avast are the two I remember specifically.

Avira reduced my framerate in Skyrim by around five fps, even when realtime protection was disabled.

Avast made the game literally freeze for a couple seconds whenever areas were (un)loaded.

Only solution was to do a system restore, to before the antivirus was installed. Firewalls don't hamper performance, thankfully. I just resort to MalwareBytes every once in a while.

So yah. You got an antivirus OP?