What is the best way to check for a CPU bottleneck ?

Discussion in 'Videocards - NVIDIA GeForce' started by bernek, Jun 17, 2018.

  1. bernek

    bernek Ancient Guru

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    Hello !

    I would like to find out how badly is a 1060GTX 3GB bottlenecked by an AMD FX8300 running at 4.1 GHz.

    Which is the best way to test ?

    Thanks.

    P.S. I have a spare Ryzen 3 1200 (it can run 3.8-3.9 GHz) will this be a better choice ?
     
  2. CalculuS

    CalculuS Ancient Guru

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    Test whatever game you want tested, have Msi Afterburner running or gpu-z and check the gpu usage while playing.

    In a cpu-bottlenecked situation the gpu will have relatively low load and the cpu will be stuffed.
     
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  3. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    And like calculus said, if you get lots of low gpu usage drops its just that.. and I think you will have it, more so with that fx3820.
     
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  4. RealNC

    RealNC Ancient Guru

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    MSI Afterburner. Enable the GPU and CPU (per core) load OSD. If your GPU hits 95% or higher, it's the bottleneck.

    If the GPU doesn't reach 95%+ but at least one of the CPU cores does, the CPU is the bottleneck.

    If neither the GPU nor the CPU reach 95%, then the bottleneck is probably the game itself* or the RAM. Or you made the mistake of having vsync enabled, in which case you can't tell. Always test with vsync off.

    Keep in mind that there's almost always a bottlneck. It's quite rare for a game to fully utilize both the GPU and the CPU. In general, it's better to have a slight CPU bottleneck rather than a GPU one, as GPU bottlenecking will usually increase input lag.

    If one of the components is a huge bottleneck rather than just a slight one and you get a low frame rate, then that's an indication that if you upgrade that component you will get a big FPS boost.

    * yes, the game can be a bottleneck too. Poor multi-threading code for example can result in idle times where the game does nothing.
     

  5. bernek

    bernek Ancient Guru

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    I would like to thank you all for the valuable information. I've myself tested before posting with GTA5 and Conan Exiles (Unreal 4) and GPU utilization is between 90-100% all the time. (I lowered the graphics settings enough for it to render "free" and the CPU was able to maintain a decent stream of information towards it.

    I honestly would expect a bottleneck at 1080p with an 1060GTX using the FX 8300 but it wasn't quite big I think the system looses maybe a few fps because of the weak CPU but is able to maintain decent framerate.

    The 8300 was running at 4.0-4.2 GHz (manual OC and had all throttling disabled including APM and so on).

    Now the bigger question is if a Ryzen 3 1200 will be better or worse than this FX 8300 @ 4 GHz ... I would say the Ryzen will beat it hands down in single core perf and get kicked in multi core performance. Will have to buy a B350 motherboard and some DDR4 to test that out. (I'm too laizy to disable my PC again to test this).

    I've never thought abut what RealNC said ... regarding the CPU bottleneck that is better to have that than a GPU bottleneck ! interesting point !

    Thanks again for such elaborate answers ! I missed you guys and this community ;)
     
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  6. CalculuS

    CalculuS Ancient Guru

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    On recent games the fx processors show a lot more value because of multi-thread support, hence it will not bottleneck as much.

    If you like to play 2007-2015 era games, you're in for a very bad experience with an FX.
     
  7. bernek

    bernek Ancient Guru

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    What do you think about the Ryzen 3 1200 @ 3.9 GHz vs FX 8300 @ 4GHz ?
     
  8. elaganza

    elaganza Master Guru

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    the easest way is u take for example 1050 and cpu for example phenom ii x4 965 and ryzen 7 1800x and u will see nothing change in your fps. and u take ryzen 7 1800x and phenom ii x4 965 and nvidia 1080 and u will see huge perfomance on ryzen 1800x and much less but increasing fps on x4 965.the true is as easy as always- u got to have both cpu and gpu. nothihg else does not matter if u wanna have massive perfomance boost or dream about bottleneck and so on and spend your money for cpu upgrade and get 2-3 fps increase on middle-end gpu.that's it.
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2018
  9. CalculuS

    CalculuS Ancient Guru

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    Well what application? All variables considered? Objectively?

    Lots of factors to count in.
     
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  10. Serotonin

    Serotonin Ancient Guru

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    Gears of War 4 has a built-in demo that I found did a great job of accurately summarizing how much cpu/gpu limitation there is.

    Also, none of this matters if you game at super high resolutions where the GPU takes the brunt of the work., @ 1080p, regardless of game, with that CPU, I would think there is limitations. I upgraded from a GTX 970 to a GTX 1070 and saw no improvement on my old FX-8350. Had to bite the bullet and upgrade the mobo/ram/cpu to intel, now on 6700K I see a boost of at least 20 frames in everything, minimum. You need better multi-thread support. Get a newer cpu.
     

  11. bernek

    bernek Ancient Guru

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    The system is secondary it's not my main gaming PC so I just test and play with it. I don't really see a point in buying a mobo+cpu+ram just to get 10-15% speed increase. I've tested with Firestrike and I got around 9700-9800 points on that system. On the same video card people are getting 10000-11000 with no crazy overclocks... It actually depends a lot on what you trow at it I'm sure but in the latest games (that use multicore) it's just fine maybe 10-15% bellow average but working and delivering good framerates.
     
  12. bernek

    bernek Ancient Guru

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    Well for starters it's only used for medium to light gaming. Some Conan Exiles recently and it performs ok in it ! It is a tad slower than my 1060GTX 6GB with Ryzen 5 2600 but not by much.

    I had the Ryzen 3 1200 lying around doing nothing and I said maybe a cheap motherboard for it and 8GB won't break the bank so I can get them.

    I've tested the Ryzen 3 1200 @ 3.9 GHz in my computer with 16GB ram and 1060 GTX 3GB in GTA 5 and I noticed that the framerate is good but textures pop and sometimes you drive in midair. I wasn't experiencing this with the AMD FX8300 @ 4 GHz.... Maybe Ryzen 3 1200 4C/4T is a bit problematic ...?!
     
  13. Serotonin

    Serotonin Ancient Guru

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    Understood. Didn't know it was a secondary rig.
     
  14. DAW40

    DAW40 Guest

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    What is the Intel equivalent to your FX CPU. Tell me that and I will give you the answer your looking for hmmmm.
     
  15. sverek

    sverek Guest

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    Drop game video settings, see if your frames change.
     

  16. Witcher29

    Witcher29 Ancient Guru

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    U cant always tell if its actually a bottleneck, for example gpu load in the witcher 3 on 1080p with a gtx 1080 ti its between 40 and 50% load while on 4k its 80 to 95% load all the time with a 5930k.
     
  17. Yxskaft

    Yxskaft Maha Guru

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    Just try the lowest possible resolution. If going from say 1080p to 720p, resolution is strictly GPU limited, and the performance gain is small, that's a typical sign of CPU bottlenecking.
     
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  18. RealNC

    RealNC Ancient Guru

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    Why would you force a CPU bottleneck by using a resolution you don't actually play at, in order to check what the bottleneck is in the resolutions you actually play at? :p
     
  19. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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    What Yxskaft says. Basically to identify the issue, if your CPU is holding you back then at low 1280x720 to say 1920x1080 resolution you'd see roughly the same FPS. It's simple, the CPU cannot present its data to the GPU any faster and is holding back the any extra potential the GPU has left.


    Untitled-1.png

    If you look at the above example, this is the classic textbook example of what we refer to as a CPU bottleneck, visualized in a chart. The Core i7 5960X and 4790X both run into the fact that they are CPU limited, up-to even 2560x1440 (a Titan Xp is used here though!)

    You need to realize though, a CPU bottleneck can change per game, but also image quality settings (lower means faster FPS means you'll run into CPU limitations quicker). Of course super high-end GPU ware far more susceptible to a CPU bottleneck than your GTX 1060. Also, a CPU bottleneck does not have to be a bad thing. Any CPU present a bottleneck at a certain point. If you play a high refresh rate game and you are pushing 120 fps, as shown above, is being CPU limited really a bad thing? At one point in FPS, of a GPU can keep up a CPU will always the CPU bound. So the questions here is, what's enough to get you what you need?

    As to your other question, any Ryzen will be faster than FX8300. Games depend more on per core performance as opposed to more core performance (albeit the dynamic is slowly changing). Ryzen is per core nearly double as fast as the FX8300 per core. Tweak that Ryzen proc a bit and there's your winner, by a good margin as well.

    In the end, a CPU bottleneck matters only once you feel the CPU is actually holding you back in framerates and you visually notice it.
     
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