Are my CrossfireX cards bottlenecked by my CPU?

Hardware Hub CPU
1

Hey guys,

Recently I upgraded my gaming rig to include 2x XFX HD 7770s in CrossfireX mode.  However, I've found that after multiple driver updates, performance is still not what I was expecting.  I'm getting really bad FPS dips in games like Bioshock Infinite, Skyrim, and Crysis 2.  The performance for Skyrim may have even been better on one card.  I'm wondering if my GPUs are being bottlenecked by my Athlon X4 CPU.  When I play games and have OpenHardwareMonitor and MSI Afterburner running, my CPU never quite reaches 100% load, but it does get into the 80s and 90s.  Note that the FPS dip only occurs when my GPU utilization also dips down from the 80s-90s into anywhere from the 70s to 20s.  I get crazy lag spikes and it is really annoying.  However it shouldn't pertain to drivers or software issues, so now I'm asking if it is time to upgrade to a different CPU.  What kind of AMD CPU should I go with that will work well with my AM3+ socket and dual HD 7770s? Thanks so much for any help,

 

Jake.  

 

System Specs: 

AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core Processor

2 XFX HD 7770 GPUs

CM SilentStorm 850W 80 plus bronze PSU

8gb Kingston HyperX ram @ 1333 mHz

MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ Motherboard

HP 128GB SSD

additional data HDDs

2

It might in some games but probably not that much

3

you would do alot better to buy a new one i can tell you that much : /

4

haha thanks for the replies guys.  It is looking like I may buy the 6300, as it has the new architecture, and is a good compromise between the 4300 and 8350. Not as much cache though...

5

I'm gonna assume you are using the latest beta driver (13.10) that fixes many crossfire issues before blaming your cpu?

6

Yes, I am using the latest driver on a clean install.  The problem is that my gpu usages aren't up to where they should be (presumably because of my cpu not being able to hack it) and I only have fps drops when my gpu usage drops as well.