I don't think my PC is performing as well as it should it be.

[mysticfish59]

Hello everyone. First of all I feel the need of mentioning that I am relatively new to the medium-high PC builds. I have recently bought a prebuilt PC which, with the intent of progressively upgrading different parts of it, and after looking at various PC builds with pretty much the same components, as well as checking out benchmark scores, I feel isn't perfoming as well as it should be.

PC specs are as follow: Gigabyte P6500B, 80+ Bronze, 650w source, PowerColor RX 6700 XT Fighter 12GB GPU, Asus Prime H610M-D motherboard, i5-13400F CPU, and 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Corsair Vengeance.

Looking at various videos with similar builds, I should be getting roughly ~80fps in cyberpunk 2077(everything on ultra, 1080p), ~130fps in Witcher 3(same settings), and so on and so on. However, while I do get roughly around 100fps on Witcher 3, I barely reach 45ish fps on cyberpunk.

I have checked and it seems that I have every driver installed correctly, I have set through the AMD Adrenalin Software every game on high performance, the XMP mode is enabled, CPU turbo mood activated,but I feel like I am not doing something right.

If anyone could help me with an advice as to what I might have missed/done wrong, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all.

 

[bug]

Easiest way to tell would be to run a benchmark like 3DMark and compare with what other similar setups score.

If you're behind, start monitoring frequencies and voltages for CPU and GPU.

 

[KedsDead]

While running those games, you should run a monitoring program and see what your temps are. Prebuilts are notorious for heat issues and under performing.

That 16gb of ram, is it one stick or 2?

Things you should run,

CPU-Z
GPU-Z
Hardware Info 64

And take a few screens of those, or set them up to create log files.

 

[mysticfish59]

Easiest way to tell would be to run a benchmark like 3DMark and compare with what other similar setups score.

If you're behind, start monitoring frequencies and voltages for CPU and GPU.

I haven't used 3DMark yet, I mainly used PassMark (https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html) for all the info I gathered. I will give 3DMark a chance when I get home and I'm on the PC. As for the voltage part, I haven't really kept track of that, since honestly I didn't even know how that would impact the performance(again, kind of new to all of this, getting adjusted). I do know you can undervolt your GPU and such, but haven't tried anything of the sorts yet.

While running those games, you should run a monitoring program and see what your temps are. Prebuilts are notorious for heat issues and under performing.

That 16gb of ram, is it one stick or 2?

Things you should run,

CPU-Z
GPU-Z
Hardware Info 64

And take a few screens of those, or set them up to create log files.

It's on 2 sticks, 2x8. I haven't gotten CPU-Z nor GPU-Z, but I do have HWI to keep track of the temperatures, and everything seems to be okay. Even after several hours of playing Cyberpunk 2077 temperatures of both the cpu and the gpu were optimal, nothing out of the ordinary; I'd go as far as say that the cooling system does a pretty efficient job, since the heat from the computer is barely noticeable.

 

[Onasi]

I see only two things at a glance that raise red flags:
1. That MoBo might be a bit questionable on VRM. Check those temps to see if it isn’t overheating and throttling the CPU. Unlikely with a 13400F though.
2. That PSU is, to quote The Rock, “the biggest piece of dogs**t”. I don’t THINK it is causing issues since you are not crashing or artifacting and the 6700XT isn’t the most power hungry card, but checking the power usage during gaming to see if there are any oddities might be prudent.
3. And, as Ked mentioned above, just overall monitoring the temps and power usage might reveal something. You haven’t mentioned what cooling the system has at all, so…

 

[mysticfish59]

I see only two things at a glance that raise red flags:
1. That MoBo might be a bit questionable on VRM. Check those temps to see if it isn’t overheating and throttling the CPU. Unlikely with a 13400F though.
2. That PSU is, to quote The Rock, “the biggest piece of dogs**t”. I don’t THINK it is causing issues since you are not crashing or artifacting and the 6700XT isn’t the most power hungry card, but checking the power usage during gaming to see if there are any oddities might be prudent.
3. And, as Ked mentioned above, just overall monitoring the temps and power usage might reveal something. You haven’t mentioned what cooling the system has at all, so…

Hmm, I didn't know that the source has a rather bad reputation. I added up the rough amount of watts the entire set-up would consume and 650w seemed to be enough, altough I did see several people in the comments where I bought the PC that a Corsair RM750e 750w would be a better choice; but then again, what do I know, I am simply getting guided by other people's experiences. As for the cooling system, it's air cooling system, I don't have all the info regarding the PC carcass or the cooler on the CPU, I would have to get home for that.

​

 

[KedsDead]

Just go to Youtube, search for Gamers Nexus and then search their videos for Gigabyte.

 

[bug]

I haven't used 3DMark yet, I mainly used PassMark (https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html) for all the info I gathered. I will give 3DMark a chance when I get home and I'm on the PC. As for the voltage part, I haven't really kept track of that, since honestly I didn't even know how that would impact the performance(again, kind of new to all of this, getting adjusted). I do know you can undervolt your GPU and such, but haven't tried anything of the sorts yet.

The benchmark itself is irrelevant, but you want something reproducible (TPU reviews use custom scenes, so not a good reference). For monitoring, should you need it, @KedsDead gave you some pointers.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Using DDR4 will cost Raptor Lake some performance and you are running only 16 GB, which is really, really not helping your CPU. It's to be expected that a system like yours will perform much worse compared to another i5-13400 system on 32 GB of DDR5 (which is what most gaming PCs should have right now).

 

[bug]

Using DDR4 will cost Raptor Lake some performance and you are running only 16 GB, which is really, really not helping your CPU. It's to be expected that a system like yours will perform much worse compared to another i5-13400 system on 32 GB of DDR5 (which is what most gaming PCs should have right now).

The type of RAM is largely irrelevant: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-12900k-alder-lake-ddr4-vs-ddr5/4.html

 

[c2DDragon]

Cyberpunk and The Witcher 3 : With Ray Tracing ON ?
If you use Ray Tracing with a 6700 XT it's normal to have low FPS, the card isn't built for Ray Tracing.
You better try those games with Ray Tracing OFF.
I prefer it OFF on Cyberpunk when I play it on my laptop (3070Ti inside) but it's a question of taste x)

You could bench your PC with 3Dmark Basic Edition and compare the results with their database.
Are you using Windows 11 ? Family ? Pro ? Do you use an SSD ?

I advise you to perform a clean install of your drivers if you updated them with their control panel. When they do massive changes in the drivers you could encounter bugs and/or having some features missing.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601

Then you install the last drivers.

https://www.amd.com/en/support

AND to finish you can go grab this and make it scan your computer for missing drivers :

Intel® Driver & Support Assistant

The Intel® Driver & Support Assistant helps keeps your system up-to-date by detecting when updates are available.

www.intel.com

 

[Onasi]

The type of RAM is largely irrelevant: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-12900k-alder-lake-ddr4-vs-ddr5/4.html

Seems to be actually somewhat meaningful in some games judging by this. But no DDR4 vs DDR5 difference will account for getting 45 FPS when 80 is expected, that is true.

 

[mysticfish59]

Cyberpunk and The Witcher 3 : With Ray Tracing ON ?
If you use Ray Tracing with a 6700 XT it's normal to have low FPS, the card isn't built for Ray Tracing.
You better try those games with Ray Tracing OFF.
I prefer it OFF on Cyberpunk when I play it on my laptop (3070Ti inside) but it's a question of taste x)

You could bench your PC with 3Dmark Basic Edition and compare the results with their database.
Are you using Windows 11 ? Family ? Pro ? Do you use an SSD ?

I advise you to perform a clean install of your drivers if you updated them with their control panel. When they do massive changes in the drivers you could encounter bugs and/or having some features missing.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601

Then you install the last drivers.

https://www.amd.com/en/support

AND to finish you can go grab this and make it scan your computer for missing drivers :

Intel® Driver & Support Assistant

The Intel® Driver & Support Assistant helps keeps your system up-to-date by detecting when updates are available.

www.intel.com

Ray tracing is always off, I know AMD GPU's are not viable for that feature. I pretty much took this video as reference as well:

This is why I got a little bit disappointed when I booted up the game. As for the links you have posted, I will look through and each one of them, see if I missed something.
Thank you all for the support and help. At the end of the day, the PC only cost me 800$, as I've said I intend on upgrading it as times goes by; so to that extent, I'm not really that picky, I know 800$ doesn't exactly qualify for an "end-game" PC. To some extent, I might have had unrealistic expectations.
Thank you all.

 

[mysticfish59]

Ray tracing is always off, I know AMD GPU's are not viable for that feature. I pretty much took this video as reference as well:

This is why I got a little bit disappointed when I booted up the game. As for the links you have posted, I will look through and each one of them, see if I missed something.
Thank you all for the support and help. At the end of the day, the PC only cost me 800$, as I've said I intend on upgrading it as times goes by; so to that extent, I'm not really that picky, I know 800$ doesn't exactly qualify for an "end-game" PC. To some extent, I might have had unrealistic expectations.
Thank you all.

One other thing, related to the video I had just posted. In my case, Cyberpunk doesn't seem to utilize most of my gpu (it's at around 60%), but instead uses most of my cpu (fluctuating between at around 80% as shown by MSIAfterburner and 100% in task manager.
I've been looking at the video trying to figure out if there's any differences between my rig and the uploader, and while there really isn't, the GPU/CPU utilization during that specific gameplay caught my eye.

 

[Chrispy_]

Another way to test whether your system is making full use of your hardware is to install MSI afterburner and use it to display CPU and GPU usage and clocks.

Most games should get high 90%+ usage on the GPU, and whilst the CPU isn't typically loaded to 100%, it should at least be running the i5-13400F at 4.4GHz clocks or higher.

edit - I see you've just posted that you're using MSI Afterburner. Enable CPU clocks in the overlay if you haven't already and make sure your CPU is boosting appropriately to 4.4GHz+

 

[KedsDead]

You have to also remember, that when comparing FPS to games like this, the location matter. My CPU util is all over the place in Cyberpunk, There are times when it just sits at 100% and others where its at 60%..

So you have to match his location, and hope the NPC count is the same.. to see if you get around the same performance.

 

[Dr. Dro]

The type of RAM is largely irrelevant: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i9-12900k-alder-lake-ddr4-vs-ddr5/4.html

That's for Alder, though. Raptor is known for favoring DDR5 already. And 16 GB remains a limitation.

 

[c2DDragon]

One other thing, related to the video I had just posted. In my case, Cyberpunk doesn't seem to utilize most of my gpu (it's at around 60%), but instead uses most of my cpu (fluctuating between at around 80% as shown by MSIAfterburner and 100% in task manager.
I've been looking at the video trying to figure out if there's any differences between my rig and the uploader, and while there really isn't, the GPU/CPU utilization during that specific gameplay caught my eye.

I see.
It sounds normal to me than the CPU works a lot while playing at 1080p but your GPU should be used more than 60% for sure.

I recommend you to clean the drivers using the AMD tool I linked ealier, install the new drivers again and check with the intel tool if you don't have any update of your intel management engine drivers.

For Cyberpunk 2077 you can prioritize P-Cores in the options too, to test if it's better for you, now this feature is bugfixed, but you really should try to clean install your AMD drivers too.

 

[KedsDead]

Only in specific games is 16GB not enough.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Do you have rebar enabled?

 

[oxrufiioxo]

That's for Alder, though. Raptor is known for favoring DDR5 already. And 16 GB remains a limitation.

Also lower tiered products with less cache benefit more from faster lower latency ram. i9 already has more than adequate cache as well as i7. Also most of ADL mem testing was done with high latency 6000 so it really isn't even applicable anymore anyways although a 6700XT is a pretty weak gpu so I am not overly sure even crap DDR4 would make much of a difference.

With a 3700X all the way up to a 7600X I didn't really notice any difference with that level of gpu horsepower even at 1080p.

 

[mysticfish59]

Do you have rebar enabled?

The ReBar? Well according to the AMD Adrenaline software, it is enabled, yes.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Only in specific games is 16GB not enough.

No way, Jose. 16 GB is strictly low-end territory nowadays, I wouldn't be comfortable calling that adequate even for a middling gaming PC. There's a huge gulf between 16 and 32 GB right now, just like there used to be one between 8 and 16 GB about 10 years ago. Thankfully, RAM is cheap.

I strain my laptop's 16 GB constantly, right now I have about 2,3 GB compressed and there's obvious swapping going on, I have Steam, Discord, Firefox with one tab (this page), Winamp and Genshin Impact open. Some of these applications are intentionally running on the AMD integrated graphics and placing further strain on system memory in order to help conserve its RTX 3050's 4 GB VRAM budget. Commit charge at 18,1 GB. I'm planning on upgrading this machine to 64 GB RAM eventually. I use it for work 99% of the time, and I frequently have lots of tabs and legal documents open. Just waiting for the right moment to snag some cheap, matching DDR4-3200 sticks for it.

Also lower tiered products with less cache benefit more from faster lower latency ram. i9 already has more than adequate ram as well as i7. Also most of ADL mem testing was done with high latency 6000 so it really isn't even applicable anymore anyways although a 6700XT is a pretty weak gpu so I am not overly sure even crap DDR4 would make much of a difference.

With a 3700X all the way up to a 7600X I didn't really notice any difference with that level of gpu horsepower even at 1080p.

Agreed. Although as far as I know, high-end DDR4 still works well with Alder, it just looks bad on Raptor.

 

[KedsDead]

Your laptop is also sharing that 16gb with the graphics processer.. Alot of the games I have been playing lately dont use more than 10 or 12G of system ram. Sure, big AAA Ported titles need more system memory, but those are specific games, as I mentioned before.

 

[c2DDragon]

Your laptop is also sharing that 16gb with the graphics card.. Alot of the games I have been playing lately dont use more than 10 or 12G of system ram. Sure, big AAA Ported titles need more system memory, but those are specific games, as I mentioned before.

It just depends on the resolution I guess.
For sure 16GB for 1080p with demanding games can be a bottleneck.
Tom's Hardware tested RAM on Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020 when the game was still in early alpha garbage trash.

Source using a 10900K and a 3090.

The 6700XT should be used more in games by the way, drivers issue here I guess.
It's not a 4090 for sure but it should show more than ~45FPS in Cyberbug 2077 (RT OFF).

Source from 2021 using a 5800X and 16GB of DDR4