Upgrade, or wait?

[Ozbro89]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Gaming. Currently mainly Battlefield 1.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

~500 dollar

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

Netherlands

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

afuture.nl

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

I prefer an Intel CPU

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 8GB

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Prefer to run at default speeds.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?

1440p

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.

A.s.a.p.

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?

No

Story behind this question:
Hi guys,
I bought a EVGA 1070 ftw 2 months ago for the release of Battlefield 1. I overclocked my i5 2500k to 4.4 Ghz and I thought this would be enough. However, looking at benchmarks my FPS is far behind. Some benchmarks I ran:
Medium-High (120% resolution scale);
Min 35
Max 112
Avg 66

Ultra preset (120% resolution scale)
Min 37
Max 103
Avg 60

Benchmark ultra preset
0.1% low: 70
Avg: 92

Do you guys know what might be a bottleneck in my system?. The CPU is constantly running at 100% load.
The rest of my build:
ASRock z68 Extreme3 Gen3
i5 2500k @ 4.4 GHz
G Skill 8GB DDR3 (2x 4GB) @ 1.600Mhz


I hope you guys can help me and can tell me whether to upgrade or wait. Thanks in advance.

 

[whm1974]

Trying adding another 8 GB of memory. Do you have an SSD?

 

[Ozbro89]

Thank you for your reply!

Yes I have it installed on my SSD. I was also thinking about 8gb ram. However, when looking at usage while playing BF1 is see this:
GPU usage; 80%
CPU usage: 100%
RAM; 6506 MB

Would this also mean that upgrading RAM would help improve my FPS?

 

[corkyg]

FPS improvement is more of a video card (GPU) function than RAM.

 

[UsandThem]

FPS improvement is more of a video card (GPU) function than RAM.

True. But that game lists 8 GB of RAM as minimum, with 16 GB recommended:

http://www.pcgamer.com/battlefield-1-system-requirements/

I haven't played it, so I have no idea what it's real world RAM usage is, but some games are starting to go over 8 GB of actual usage.

 

[Ozbro89]

FPS improvement is more of a video card (GPU) function than RAM.

So what are you saying? Buy a better GPU (1080) even though the benchmark outperforms me with 30 FPS, same GPU (1070)?

 

[whm1974]

I doubt you will see enough improvement to be worth buying a 1080 card. Just add some more memory.

 

[UsandThem]

Something is going on with your minimum frame-rates. Here is a thread during the beta testing, and although it shows the FPS with a GTX 1080, you shouldn't be dipping that low unless something majorly changed from the beta to the full release of the game. This beta shows what a stock 2500k achieves, and with your 2500k overclocked to 4.4 Ghz, it should be able to handle the game with no issues. I'd add the extra RAM and make sure something else is not eating up some of your CPU performance. Are you temps from overclocking it good (throttling)?

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/battlefield-1-beta-cpu-scaling-performance.2485172/

 

[spat55]

Get more RAM, I go over 8GB easily in BF1 but don't have that much bottlenecking with my 1070.

 

[pcslookout]

Wait.

 

[pcslookout]

Something is going on with your minimum frame-rates. Here is a thread during the beta testing, and although it shows the FPS with a GTX 1080, you shouldn't be dipping that low unless something majorly changed from the beta to the full release of the game. This beta shows what a stock 2500k achieves, and with your 2500k overclocked to 4.4 Ghz, it should be able to handle the game with no issues. I'd add the extra RAM and make sure something else is not eating up some of your CPU performance. Are you temps from overclocking it good (throttling)?

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/battlefield-1-beta-cpu-scaling-performance.2485172/

That benchmark is single player not multiplayer a totally different beast.

 

[Ozbro89]

Thanks for helping! BF1 has problems indeed.

I was just wondering one thing regarding the RAM.

I have mine in the two last slots of my ASrock z68 because my CPU cooler is huge, and it won't fit otherwise. Does this in any way bother the Dual Channeling? Or Does the slot in which the RAM is placed not matter?

 

[UsandThem]

Does this in any way bother the Dual Channeling? Or Does the slot in which the RAM is placed not matter?

It definitely matters. If you look in your motherboard manual, it shows which slots to use to run RAM in dual channel mode.

Most motherboards have two separate channels.

 

[Ozbro89]

It definitely matters. If you look in your motherboard manual, it shows which slots to use to run RAM in dual channel mode.

Most motherboards have two separate channels.

Thanks! It helped. I am able to play the game now. Also used a maxvariable fps console command to lock my FPS to 61. This releases some pressure from the CPU.
Strangely, using DX12 option also improves the stability. Did not expect that for a Nvidia card.

I am just going to wait for an update from DICE/EA now to further stabilize the game. Think I will wait for cannonlake to upgrade my CPU.

Thanks all for the help!