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Not sure if I'm "botlenecked"..performance issues

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estehanio

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Hi guys, I'm an active reader but not an active poster I guess. I would really appreciate your help on this one.

I have an AMD a4 7300, with a Gigabyte g1.sniper a88x motherboard, 8gigs of ram, and recently I got a R9 290. I have terrible performance in most of games even though with such graphic card with 4gb of ddr5. I'm suspecting my A4 is weak for that so I'm thinking to get the a10 7850K or 7700 both can be overclocked.
Games are playable Battlefield 4, Dota 2,graphics are great, but sometimes i just get like 1 second stutters and it doesn't feel that fluid at all.

What do you guys think is this a processor issue? A4 is kindah weak isn't it?

Thank you for your time, I appreciate it :)
 
I would say first hand after @erocker had problems with his main system he had to fall back to his APU A10 and that thing was HORRIBLE with a 7970. He was getting close to 80 FPS in arma 3 on his main system (3770K) but with the APU he got around 20-30FPS with the same card.

APU's are not ment to be paired with a high end GPU for gaming.
 
Thank you for your answer...so basically what you're saying is that even an a10 won't help me at all? I'm just looking for a processor for the next year or two, but don't feel like buying a new motherboard also :(
 
Yeah thanks I'll check it out :) not sure yet if I'm gonna go for motherboard exchange also, as this motherboard is new...
 
I agree with @brandonwh64 and @thebluebumblebee that your issues have to do with your current CPU. The A4 7300 cpu is about equal in performance with the 6 year old Intel C2D E7400, and the original Phenom quads (the first ones that really sucked compared to Intel's C2Q). The Athlons thebluebumblebee suggested are about the least expensive upgrade you could do that will actually help you with your issues.
 
Would an a10 7850K be of any help? Because I don't feel like upgrading the motherboard.
And let's say if I would upgrade to AM3+ and a new motherboard which processor should I really take?
 
estehanio said:
Would an a10 7850K be of any help? Because I don't feel like upgrading the motherboard.
And let's say if I would upgrade to AM3+ and a new motherboard which processor should I really take?
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If you upgrade you should just go to an Intel board and an i3 or i5. Going to AM3+ isn't going to solve several of the issues you have already.
 
estehanio said:
Would an a10 7850K be of any help?
Click to expand...
Yes, but, since you have a dedicated GPU, there's no reason to spend the extra money on an A10 when it is the 750K with the graphic's part.
estehanio said:
Because I don't feel like upgrading the motherboard.
Click to expand...
The 750K/760K/860K that I pointed to work on your motherboard.
 
@thebluebumblebee
I'm really now considering to take the 860K that would be Athlon but aren't those processors AM3?

@Aquinus
Well...now that's really something I would like to avoid, generally because next year I'm moving to another country and really I don't feel like buying again motherboard and processor, but definitely that would be the best choice.
 
i hate to say it, but the issue is not the cpu cores, it is the motherboard feeding them.

those stutters you are seeing are when the games asks for data, the cpu then gets it from the drive and the chipset sucks.

if amd had a pch/chipset that was on par with one from intles past couple of gen most of their issues with gaming would go.


sidenote

arma engine is also very sensitive to single thread performance and how fast your gpu can get the data from the drive. ssd perf has a big impact on its fps too.
 
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BTW, OP, you might have to update your BIOS to support the 860K.
 
OP, you have a choice of several ways to go. APU, FM2 cpu, Intel. I don't think anyone thinks of the FM2(+) platform as being a high end gaming platform. I think most of us would expect no more than a 270X or GTX 760 on that platform. Even upgrading to the 750K will only put your system in the i3 performance area. http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/cpu/AMD Athlon X4 750K/review Other posts are correct, that you are going to be CPU limited on this FM2 platform, especially with that high end GPU. To properly support that GPU, you really should have an i5. And ignore the bit about the SSD unless you can afford one large enough to hold all of your games. Booting from a SSD is nice, but unless you can run on one, it's not worth it, IMHO.
 
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Hehe guys now you really got me thinking about what to do next. I appreciate your effort to help me out though! I'll have to think about it well what to do as a next step.
 
defiantly go with a 860K and OC it

Having used a 7850K and 290X it does perform well espeically after being OC'd

It's not an i5 or 8320 but it gets the job done just fine
 
As you guys suggested I finally made my decision and ordered the following
MSI 970 GAMING AM3+ motherboard and AMD FX 8320 I can upgrade later to a better cpu if i want.

I spent so much money lately on the pc and totally unplanned. Now I got to sell the A4 and the g1.sniper a88x motherboard virtually week old... feels like I'm crazy. I have PlayStation 4 and most of these games I could play there too but that doesn't feel like it :D hell I'm gonna sell that too. I'll build this up in a day or two and post the impressions here!
 
estehanio said:
As you guys suggested I finally made my decision and ordered the following
MSI 970 GAMING AM3+ motherboard and AMD FX 8320 I can upgrade later to a better cpu if i want.

I spent so much money lately on the pc and totally unplanned. Now I got to sell the A4 and the g1.sniper a88x motherboard virtually week old... feels like I'm crazy. I have PlayStation 4 and most of these games I could play there too but that doesn't feel like it :D hell I'm gonna sell that too. I'll build this up in a day or two and post the impressions here!
Click to expand...
You should have gone with an i3 and a skt1150 CPU but that's me. What is done is done, hopefully you won't be disappointed but Intel's IPC is where the real winner is.

Also no one said you should go with AM3+... You kind of pulled the trigger on your own. I personally think you're going to be disappointed compared to what an Intel setup would do but we'll see.
 
 
Well where I live Intel's prices vs AMD prices are about 30-40% higher. I don't need 200fps or stuff like that really :) just a stable platform that won't stutter too much. I'll let you guys know the results.
 
AMD isn't too bad. Even an FX-6300 pulls it's weight, though I've never used an AMD 8-core; I'm sure it'll run fine. Make sure you have a decent cooler.
 
Lightbulbie said:
AMD isn't too bad. Even an FX-6300 pulls it's weight, though I've never used an AMD 8-core; I'm sure it'll run fine. Make sure you have a decent cooler.
Click to expand...
I never said it wouldn't. I just think it will give similar performance and will suck down more power but a 6300 is a good CPU if you're upgrading but this is more of a side-grade I think (with respect to gaming). An i3 or an i5 will give better performance and will be lighter on the power consumption. Personally, my next build will probably be an i3 or an i5 and my skt2011 i7 will eventually replace my Phenom II 960T all-in-one server/gateway/nas/vm host but that probably won't happen for another 6 months to a year.
 
The A series APUs will only work together using Trinity with their lower level GPUs, and they don't work well with high end discrete GPUs in general either. Over at Tom's a LOT of people are finding this out. In fact it's one of the most common problems people are having on AMD lately. I keep trying to tell them that, but some are in denial about it.
 
estehanio said:
As you guys suggested I finally made my decision and ordered the following
MSI 970 GAMING AM3+ motherboard and AMD FX 8320 I can upgrade later to a better cpu if i want.

I spent so much money lately on the pc and totally unplanned. Now I got to sell the A4 and the g1.sniper a88x motherboard virtually week old... feels like I'm crazy. I have PlayStation 4 and most of these games I could play there too but that doesn't feel like it :D hell I'm gonna sell that too. I'll build this up in a day or two and post the impressions here!
Click to expand...

The 8320 should be fine, especially if you're adventurous enough to overclock, the 8320 will handle clocks of 4.5 GHZ easily with decent aftermarket cooling, that's basically the same as a 9370
 
After some thinking I canceled my AMD order and got an i5 4660 1150 for the start and a gigabyte motherboard, and guess what the motherboard is DOA...so I'm waiting again to get an exchange :(, sigh
 
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