Hey,
So I've been recently noticing that while I play Battlefield 4 maxed out, my 290x is only running at about 50-60% GPU on average. But it jumps up and down constantly, providing my FPS to stay much lower than it should for my card. This in combination with the fact that I noticed my CPU (8350) is running at 96% usage constantly while in games, makes me wonder if these are the signs of a CPU bottleneck?
Many thanks!
Big Big Ron
If your GPU usage is rising and falling there is a possibility that its overheating. What are your temps when you are gaming and a short spec list would be nice (mobo, ram, gpu, and power supply)
Also constant 96% on CPU is fine so you shouldn't need to worry about that.
Simple answer. Yes.
do you have vsync on? one thing i notice is that if i use vsync my gpu usage doesnt max out (GTX 970). but if i leave gsync off, then it does sit 98-100%
Check to see that your temperatures and clockrates are, indeed, optimum.
What FPS are you getting?
I think that my R9 280X was getting ~60 FPS, so your R9 290X should be getting a bit above that.
So long as there isn't another issue, it sounds like the cpu is a bottleneck. Keep in mind that a cpu bottleneck would be more noticeable in multiplayer in BF4 than in the singleplayer. Watch ram usage, watch cpu and gpu and ram and vram frequencies. Find out if there is another issue, if there is nothing else that is causing a bottleneck, then it sounds like the cpu is the problem here.
if its multiplayer, then its most likely a cpu bottleneck yes.
you could of course try to install the latest AMD gpu driver, and look if that helps some.
BF4 also supports mantle right? allready tried mantle?
Absolutely not, a 290x will not bottleneck a 8350, or the other way around. I've said my piece, although you will probably have people telling you you have a bottleneck, I can speak from experience I had an 8350 paired with 2x 290x's and never experienced any bottlenecks.
The FX-8350 starts to bottleneck cards above the R9 285/280X level. This does not mean the use won't see FPS gains, it just means that they will not see as many gains as someone else with a stronger processor. It's still a perfectly acceptable pairing, though.
The problem is poor optimization. You simply won't get a steady 100fps in games. it will bounce up and down then come out at an average. This is normal for this type of game. You have the option to buy newer hardware also but then you will discover intel has issues with this game too. good luck to you.
Well I have a FX-8350 and two 970s and the only games that bottleneck for me so far are guild wars 2 and arma. Maybe try overclocking your cpu? Im running 4.7. Also maybe check your temps might be some thermal throttling going on. As far as me with battlefield 4 my cpu usage is about 70-80% in multiplier while both my gpu are 95+%
For fun, I downclocked my 4790k to 1ghz and enabled only 1 core with no hyperthreading.
Despite being paired with a slow as butt CPU, my GPU still fluctuated between 0% to 54% in Unigine Valley. It ran like poop the entire time but it finished the benchmark.
By your logic, that means I didn't experience any CPU bottleneck just like the OP because of my GPU utilization spikes...
FX8350 definitely bottlenecks a 290X, especialy in cpu demending games at 1080p.
But it depends from game to game if it is realy noticable or not.
In BF4 he could use mantle, which take some overhead away from the cpu, which makes the game run better.
please, to help you best you should provide some more information:
1- in wich games yo see a 95% usage of the cpu (a part from bf4) (I haven't seen that unless cryengine, or extremely well coded unreal engine game) on my 8320 in almost any game
2- wich motherboard you have, some asus motherboard (m5a97 r.20 (EVO and not evo) M5a99fx pro) have an option on the aisuite or ezmode in the BIOS, wich is power saving mode, if you enable it, the cpu will just go at 1.6-1.8 ghz... that's something to take into account, maybe other mobos have the same features, and thus the same issue when activated
3- is the gpu reference cooled? the R9 series have a temperature target of 95Cº so so then the card star throttling
4- do your psu have enough power (this would be the rarest issue, as if it didn't have enough power you might just get a black screen)
5-as they already asked you.. have you enabled V-sync?
All in all it's very strange to see a 95% usage on games on that cpu... so my guess it's that you have some power saving feature... we need to know MOAR!!!
and finally, technically yes, the fx-8350 will "bottleneck" that gpu, but depending on the game the bottleneck wil be unnoticeable....
on other thoughs also look at you ram speed, in some multiplayer games ram speed is quite important (there's a video on that on planeside2)
Wow, thanks for all the help guys!:) My GPU temp is about 68-71 degrees, so it can't be throttling because of that. My PSU is big enough, and I never play with v-sync. After some more testing I noticed this was happening in Crysis 3 and also Skyrim, but only since I got a bunch more mods. But it seems to me that all the evidence is pointing towards a CPU bottleneck, which I wasn't expecting. Primarily because when I got the FX 8350, I was told that it would pretty much never end up bottlenecking my GPU. Seems I must have been fed some misinformation? Either way, I'll get my hands on a sexy new 4790k and motherboard. But I don't think I'll ever buy AMD again. Thanks so much for the help, it's appreciated!
I'm interested in your comment because your build is what I'll be slowly upgrading to. And I play GW2... And I recently recommended a 8350 paired with 2 970s... Anyway:
Does your 8350 bottleneck the 970s at stock speeds in GW2? What about games that aren't as CPU intensive as GW2? And are the 970s OCed?
What FPS do you get with that setup?
Please read my thread here if you have the time. It's about some problems I've had OCing a 6300
https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/amd-cpu-overclocking-problems/79627
EDIT: I realized after posting this that I should have just PMed the poster. My bad guys.
I've been beating a dead horse here and explaining why I do, but don't take the attitude of "I don't think I'll ever buy AMD again." Should you be experiencing a bottleneck with a 8350 and 970? No. It's common to pare an 8350 with 970s, like @kevindavid3, who I'm asking more information from.
Keep in mind that many, many things go into bottlenecks. Are you playing with a ton of other people around you and explosions and things flying around? Yeah, you'll probably get a bottleneck with some things that meet that description.
Most games are GPU bound and the CPU doesn't matter as much. Bottlenecks are uncommon in these games. Some games will eat your CPU alive, like Guild Wars 2. I'm not sure if BF4 is the same way, but from what I hear... yes. Most rigs will bottleneck in some situation, depending on the weakest link and whether or not the application is CPU or GPU intensive, very important. If you are having CPU bottlenecks in many other games too, that'd tell us something. more than likely, it'd tell us that your CPU is a dud and you should call for a replacement (that depends on how much evidence you can back that claim up with, but you get my point). Can you please explain more about the CPU percentages? When you say "96% usage constantly" this is strange, because processors never act like that. My 6300 fluctuates a lot in GW2, for example. Anyway, take these things into consideration, maybe test in some other games, and let us know. You shouldn't be bottlenecked with a 8350, and if you are, there's probably something wrong.
Nope it does not.
Absolutely not, a 290x will not bottleneck a 8350, or the other way
around. I've said my piece, although you will probably have people
telling you you have a bottleneck, I can speak from experience I had an
8350 paired with 2x 290x's and never experienced any bottlenecks.
Nope not a cpu bottleneck.