What is my bottleneck ?

[dmbardal]

Hi!

So recently I've been testing out my hardware pretty hard when it comes to games.
And I'm not getting what I want.

What I want is to play at high settings with a high steady FPS (doesnt anyone?)

Games I've been testing are:
Battlefield 4
Wildstar Online
The Elder Scrolls Online

So I'm thinking of upgrading my computer,
but I'm wondering what I should upgrade first, or if its even needed?
I thought of upgrading my RAM to 32GB, or buying a new (or another one like the one I have?) GFX-card?

Specs:
Mainboard: ASUS P9X79 Deluxe
CPU: Intel Core i7-3930k 6-core 3.2GHz (Overclocked to 4.4GHz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i
HDD\SSD: Western Digital Green 2TB SATA3 6Gb/s + Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB
RAM: Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1866MHz 16GB Kit (4x4GB)
GFX: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 680 2GB PhysX CUDA
PSU: Corsair TX 850W PSU

Screens: 2x 24" Asus LED VG248QE
Headset: ASTRO Gaming A50 7.1
Mouse: Mionix Naos 8200
Keyboard: Corsair Vengeance K70

Any help is appriciated!

regards,
Dag

 

[fralexandr]

are you gaming on both screens?
what FPS are you trying to hit? Battlefield 4 is likely the most intensive game on the list, the other 2 sound like MMOs

too bad anandtech bench 2014 doesn't have the 680
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/772?vs=827
if gaming on 2 screens: 2x 1920x1080 > 2560x1440
expect 88.9% the performance of 2560x1440.
you'll probably want to go SLI if doing this
also you might become VRAM limited, would recommend 3-4GB cards.

if gaming on 1 screen: you won't hit a stable 144 fps at max settings on a 680 (min frame rates < average frame rates which are usually < 144fps to begin with).

 

[nwo]

If you want a steady 144 fps at high/ultra settings, you're gonna have to add at least another card into the mix.

Upgrading the RAM from 16 to 32GB will not do anything for gaming.

I would recommend selling your card and getting 2xGTX 780 or 2x Radoen 290s rather than getting another GTX 680.

 

[Drummerdude]

Agreed with above. Upgrading ram won't do you a lick of good. In fact, in most testing, having 32gb ram actually hurts performance. Your games won't get about several gb use, max anyway. Have you verified your ram is running at it's proper speed? Have you verified your hdd is running at Sata3 speeds? I'm guessing your SSD is your os drive, and the wd green is your game installation drive, or are you running the games off your ssd?

 

[Drummerdude]

What os are you using?

 

[lehtv]

I would also recommend upgrading the graphics card. Just slap in another used GTX 680 or upgrade to dual 780's or 290's.

I doubt you'll be able to run BF4 at 100+ fps consistently unless you go Mantle though

 

[Termie]

Welcome to the forum, dmbardal!

As others have noted, it all comes down to the resolution you're actually using in games, and whether you want to get the most out of those high refresh rate monitors. At 1080p, a second GTX 680 would be fine, at a higher resolution, you need both more power and more VRAM.

And I should mention that if you're running 1080p/60Hz, then a single GTX680 would be fine, so something else might be the matter at that setting.

 

[lehtv]

As others have noted, it all comes down to the resolution you're actually using in games, and whether you want to get the most out of those high refresh rate monitors. At 1080p, a second GTX 680 would be fine, at a higher resolution, you need both more power and more VRAM.

And I should mention that if you're running 1080p/60Hz, then a single GTX680 would be fine, so something else might be the matter at that setting.

In the specs he listed, he's got the Asus VG248QE which is a 1080p/144hz or 1080p/120hz (if you're using zero motion blur). Dual 680's would be fine for that res, as would dual 780's IMO.

 

[Termie]

In the specs he listed, he's got the Asus VG248QE which is a 1080p/144hz or 1080p/120hz (if you're using zero motion blur). Dual 680's would be fine for that res, as would dual 780's IMO.

You said above that holding 100+ fps on dual 680s would be difficult. Isn't that what he'd want for 120Hz? Playing at 1080p High (not Ultra) he'll get very close to 120fps with 680SLI, but it wasn't clear if he actually wanted max settings. No way he'll get close to that at Ultra.

 

[lehtv]

You said above that holding 100+ fps on dual 680s would be difficult. Isn't that what he'd want for 120Hz? Playing at 1080p High (not Ultra) he'll get very close to 120fps with 680SLI, but it wasn't clear if he actually wanted max settings. No way he'll get close to that at Ultra.

I meant in BF4, because of CPU intensive multiplayer. While dual 680's have plenty of power for 100+ fps, they will be limited from time to time even by the fastest CPUs. Dual 780's would be similarly limited in BF4, obviously (due to lack of Mantle support).

 

[Termie]

I meant in BF4, because of CPU intensive multiplayer. While dual 680's have plenty of power for 100+ fps, they will be limited from time to time even by the fastest CPUs. Dual 780's would be similarly limited in BF4, obviously (due to lack of Mantle support).

Then he should probably go with AMD cards. No reason to invest a ton in Nvidia cards if he's mostly CPU-limited at his resolution/Hz.

 

[lehtv]

Then he should probably go with AMD cards. No reason to invest a ton in Nvidia cards if he's mostly CPU-limited at his resolution/Hz.

It really depends on how important BF4 is to him versus non-Mantle games, and whether he values NVIDIA's Shadowplay (which the 680 supports) and CUDA.