Phenom II X4 940 being "slow"

[Vesku]

Something is off with your system. I've run LoL and HoN on a Phenom II x2 560BE at stock (3.3GHz) and a GTS 450 and never dipped below 60 @ 1080P. Have you taken a look at running processes and real-time clocks (GPU and CPU)? There were a couple of times I've had dips into the 40s on those games and it was because other programs happened to be using up 50+% of CPU time.

 

[Betatest]

There is nothing else running in the background while I am playing and also my cpu is not overheating, so I will try to disable CnQ.

 

[Betatest]

Sorry guys for disturbing again, but could anyone tell me where exactly the Cool n Quiet is in BIOS? I can't seem to find it.

 

[zlejedi]

For asus mobos look here:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asus_m4a89gtd_pro_usb3/images/b05.htm

 

[Betatest]

I got a Ma770-UD3 GB.

Edit: Okay, I found AMD K8 CnQ control and it is set on Auto, should I just disable it or am I looking for somethnig else?

Thanks

 

[Despoiler]

I got a Ma770-UD3 GB.

Edit: Okay, I found AMD K8 CnQ control and it is set on Auto, should I just disable it or am I looking for somethnig else?

Thanks

Disable it.

 

[Betatest]

Even after I have disabled CnQ my fps in HoN goes to 40ish while like 2 or 3 spells are going on, I have tested it by watching a replay, so dunno what is going on...
In a big team fight, the FPS dropped to something like 20-23.... I even tried to turn all of the eye candy off (shadows and all of the options are unchecked, no AA too)

 

[omek]

Get MSI Afterburner going. Set up the OSD server so that you can see your GPU usage (&#37. Play the game and when it drops to 40FPS, take a look at the usage. If the usage is at more than 98% (98 - 100 generally represents full load) your 460 will most likely be the bottleneck. If it's less than 98%, the processor is probably the bottleneck.

CPU at fault.
I haven't played the game so if the processor turns out to be the bottleneck, make sure it's clocking up to 3.4GHz. If it is clocking up, take a look at some comparable benchmarks correlating resolutions and the res that you play at. After that, if it's not to par, I can't think of anything.

GPU at fault.
Make sure the GPU is clocking up to 700ish MHz on the core (can't remember what the 460 should be at but that's close). You can see this through MSI Afterburner also. If it's not, uninstall the drivers and try a newer or different version. May have something to do with the GPU bios or heat if that fails.

After that.
Any patches for the game? Is there a multi-threaded option within the game that isn't checked? Using the task manager you can find the CPU use percentage. Most games use two threads today so if it's stuck at 25% and the game should be using more than 1 thread, it may need a patch or an option clicked. The only engine I have seen to allow you to choose is Source though.

There have been some oddities with the AMD Dual Core Optimizer, so if the game uses that you may want to look into that also.

Most likely from the sound of your explanation, it is a CPU bottleneck. If the CPU is clocking up while you are in game and your GPU isn't the bottleneck, it's the game engine or developer at fault. It's most likely un-optimized or uses one thread. I've seen a lot of CPU bottlenecking with my PII 955 on games whilst the processor usage sitting at 25 or 50%. I can't see games like these using more than 2 threads. You could get an i5/i7 to get better performance per core but who wants to do that when your CPU isn't even being used fully?
Hope I helped a bit.

 

[Betatest]

Think I can safely say that my GTX 460 is not the problem since I was having the same exact issues with my old GTS 250.

 

[sm625]

ok try this: run prime95 on one core while you are gaming. Small FFT mode. It shouldnt effect the game at all since it is just one core. Let us know if it makes your fps better or worse. In a perfect world it should have no effect.

 

[happy medium]

Think I can safely say that my GTX 460 is not the problem since I was having the same exact issues with my old GTS 250.

Sounds like your cpu is the problem,overclock the gtx460 and see if you get better fps, if you dont the cpu is the problem.

 

[soccerballtux]

lot of time minimum fps drops can be alleviated by overclocking the L3 cache on the Phenom 2 chips. This made a nice difference, at the same clock speed, on mine. Try this see if it helps you any. Try to get the CPU-NB (L3 cache) setting in the BIOS up to 2.4ghz. 2.6 would be ideal. If you could hit 2.6ghz, I bet your min drops would be more like 47fps.

 

[Betatest]

So should I just change the freq on NB from auto to 12(13)x?

 

[Betatest]

So when I increased the voltage on NB to 1.2v and raised NB to 12x, OCCT test gave me an error on Core 0. What am I doing wrong?