Question Do I need to build a new PC?

[v3nustas]

Hey all, first time posting in here and hopefully this the right place to ask since most in here know a lot more than I do...

Hoping for some advice on if I need to work on my current build or just start over with an upgraded system. I basically only play COD Warzone lately, but have been having a lot of freezing/crashing issues. Typically once per night, while transitioning between load screens, the game will completely lock up and won't recover. When I check, it's sucking up 14-14.5g of my 16g of ram. During about half of my games, textures and new picked up weapons will take about 30 seconds to load (literally running around with nothing in my hands). Occasionally, during those times, I hear no sounds and then about 30 seconds of missed sounds/comms all drops at once. It's pretty frustrating.

Here is my setup, built about 3 years ago:

Intel i7 4770 3.40Ghz // MSI H97M-E35 mobo // 16gb DDR3 ram (not compat w/ DDR4) // GeForce GTX 1080 Titan GPU (hand me down from a buddy) // Game is running on a 512gb SSD (same drive OS is on) //

I average about 45-55 fps with maxed out settings in 1440p. Not sure if a new GPU would solve my issues...or if my CPU and DDR3 will still give me problems down the road?

I know the CPU/MOBO are pretty old and I can't really upgrade one part without replacing it all (aside from GPU) at this point. I'm OK with starting a new build (fun but expensive ), but wanted to ask around before I waste money.

UserBenchmarks: Game 62%, Desk 85%, Work 52%

	Model	Bench
CPU	Intel Core i7-4770	80.5%
GPU	Nvidia GTX Titan X	74.9%
SSD	Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB	72.5%
SSD	ssd 512GB	78.3%
HDD	Samsung HD502HI 500GB	61.2%
RAM	Crucial CT102464BA160B.C16 2x8GB	58.7%
MBD	MSI H97M-E35 (MS-7846)

 

[Oussebon]

hen I check, it's sucking up 14-14.5g of my 16g of ram.

Task Manager may show that much RAM being earmarked for it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's 'using' it all, as far as my limited understanding of RAM usage goes.

1) Ignore Userbenchmark. It's misleading and is never the best way to see whether there's a performance issue. There could be some hardware underperforming, but if so it's not UB that's going to help you find it

2) What GPU do you have, exactly? You say in the post it's a "GeForce GTX 1080 Titan GPU" - do you mean it's a GTX 1080, a GTX 1080 ti, or a Titan X?

If it's a Titan X, is it the Maxwell or the Pascal Titan X? Userbenchmark says it's the Maxwell one (though it could always be wrong...)

Perhaps download and run GPU-Z and post a screenshot - you can upload to Imgbb and either insert the screenshot or link to the upload. Best to be 100% clear on this.

3) How much free space is there on that SSD with Window and the game?

4) What case and what CPU cooler do you have?

5) When is the last time you cleaned the insides of the PC including the GPU and CPU fans and heatsinks with compressed air, as well as case fans and dust filters? Is dust visible inside the case currently?

6) Have you checked CPU and GPU temperatures under load?

7) Does this happen in any other games, or do you get performance issues in any other games?

What games have you tried?

8) Can you download 3DMark and run the Timespy benchmark? You can do this for free under the "Demo" version. One you've done that it will let you "compare result online". Click that and post the link it generates (e.g. here's one of mine from a while ago)

I scored 7 241 in Time Spy

Intel Core i7-3770K Processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 x 1, 16384 MB, 64-bit Windows 10}

www.3dmark.com

 

[v3nustas]

Task Manager may show that much RAM being earmarked for it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's 'using' it all, as far as my limited understanding of RAM usage goes.

1) Ignore Userbenchmark. It's misleading and is never the best way to see whether there's a performance issue. There could be some hardware underperforming, but if so it's not UB that's going to help you find it

2) What GPU do you have, exactly? You say in the post it's a "GeForce GTX 1080 Titan GPU" - do you mean it's a GTX 1080, a GTX 1080 ti, or a Titan X?

If it's a Titan X, is it the Maxwell or the Pascal Titan X? Userbenchmark says it's the Maxwell one (though it could always be wrong...)

Perhaps download and run GPU-Z and post a screenshot - you can upload to Imgbb and either insert the screenshot or link to the upload. Best to be 100% clear on this.

3) How much free space is there on that SSD with Window and the game?

4) What case and what CPU cooler do you have?

5) When is the last time you cleaned the insides of the PC including the GPU and CPU fans and heatsinks with compressed air, as well as case fans and dust filters? Is dust visible inside the case currently?

6) Have you checked CPU and GPU temperatures under load?

7) Does this happen in any other games, or do you get performance issues in any other games?

What games have you tried?

8) Can you download 3DMark and run the Timespy benchmark? You can do this for free under the "Demo" version. One you've done that it will let you "compare result online". Click that and post the link it generates (e.g. here's one of mine from a while ago)

I scored 7 241 in Time Spy

Intel Core i7-3770K Processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 x 1, 16384 MB, 64-bit Windows 10}

www.3dmark.com

1) Gotcha
2) Titan X - Maxwell
3) My bad on this...local disk for OS has 60g free. Game is running on secondary SSD with 267g gree space.
4) Cooler Master Master Box Lite 5 RGB...Cooler Master cpu cooler (I don't recall the model, but nothing great).
5) Recently went through the case, cleaned out. Checked all connections and removed most of the MOBO to replace my CMOS battery about 2 weeks ago (it was dying and PC kept randomly power cycling).
6) Avg FPS was about 50-56, CPU 58 degrees (68%), GPU 83 degrees (99%), 76% RAM usage.
7) Haven't played any other games since Battlefield V came out. No issues back then.
8) 3DMark score was 4711 (lower than a "gaming laptop 2020").

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/50390748?

 

[DXCHASE]

I would try to play other games and see if its game specific i would also look at temps of your gpu/cpu under load as well. Your system is getting roughly what you should be in COD with that GPU, its what 7 years old now? lol so maybe if you want to get more fps you could upgrade that but i dont think ur system is dead yet.

 

[Oussebon]

Good info, thanks

83 degrees is the point at which a Titan X Maxwell would start to throttle clocks to maintain that temp afaik. The stock cooler would let it hit 83 degrees even in a well-ventilated system, so there'd often be a little thermal throttling (which was common with that kind of reference design cooler). And that case has no airflow to speak of which presumably exacerbates that

The score marked by the CPU in Timespy is right on what 3Dmark list you'd expect, while the GPU is somewhat below. (1) (2)
(NB: while 2 is an article on the Pascal Titan it also includes the Maxwell one)

Your Timespy result does list the "Average clock frequency 1,053 MHz" - which may be lower than you'd expect to see:

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X Review

www.anandtech.com

That said, the performance you get in Warzone is not wildly far off where you might expect to be. i.e. a bit below a 1070:

Call of Duty: Warzone PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide - OC3D

Introduction With Black Ops 4, Call of Duty entered the world of Battle Royale, and with Modern Warfare, Infinity Wars reworked the Call of Duty Engine to deliver heightened hardware efficiency, stable performance and the addition of new graphical features. Now, Infinity Ward has taken a bold...

www.overclock3d.net

YMMV as it depends what in the game is being benchmarked, game updates, and so on, but the framerates you're reporting don't immediately sound like the system's about to keel over.

When you cleaned, did you blow compressed air into the GPU's squirrel cage fan? You'd often see dust exhausted out the back.

1) I'd check GPU frequencies during e.g. 30m-1h gaming session. You could use GPU-Z to log or MSI AFterburner (with the included Rivatuner Statistics Server) to have an on-screen display.

[Guide] How to setup MSI Afterburner On Screen Display using RTSS

A fair few people have asked me how to setup MSI Afterburner On Screen Display (OSD). I checked this subforum and to my surprise there was no guide on how to do it. So I figured I'd make a guide for everybody out there struggling. 1. Downloading and Installing You will need to download a few thin...

linustechtips.com

I'd then try it again with the case side panel off, and the case front panel off (if that's possible) to see how it does.

In addition to that, you could try setting a more aggressive fan profile with MSI Afterburner i.e. higher fan speeds kicking in sooner to help cool the card,

How to customize GPU cooling using MSI Afterburner

Here's how to squeeze the most performance out of a stock GPU.

www.pcgamer.com

See if that does anything to framerate, GPu frequency, and Timespy score.

2) I'd try some other games just to see whether you get any strange texture / model loading isues like you do in Warzone with them.

It's very possible you won't as a lot of people have reported that kind of issue with Warzone specifically. I wouldn't expect thermal issues on the GPU to be causing the specific Warzone problems you listed.

3) Just to double check, you're running at native 1440p resolution? The monitor 3Dmark lists in your result (AOC AG322FWG4) looks like a 1080p one in google though it's not clear.

 

[v3nustas]

Good info, thanks

83 degrees is the point at which a Titan X Maxwell would start to throttle clocks to maintain that temp afaik. The stock cooler would let it hit 83 degrees even in a well-ventilated system, so there'd often be a little thermal throttling (which was common with that kind of reference design cooler). And that case has no airflow to speak of which presumably exacerbates that

The score marked by the CPU in Timespy is right on what 3Dmark list you'd expect, while the GPU is somewhat below. (1) (2)
(NB: while 2 is an article on the Pascal Titan it also includes the Maxwell one)

Your Timespy result does list the "Average clock frequency 1,053 MHz" - which may be lower than you'd expect to see:

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X Review

www.anandtech.com

That said, the performance you get in Warzone is not wildly far off where you might expect to be. i.e. a bit below a 1070:

Call of Duty: Warzone PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide - OC3D

Introduction With Black Ops 4, Call of Duty entered the world of Battle Royale, and with Modern Warfare, Infinity Wars reworked the Call of Duty Engine to deliver heightened hardware efficiency, stable performance and the addition of new graphical features. Now, Infinity Ward has taken a bold...

www.overclock3d.net

YMMV as it depends what in the game is being benchmarked, game updates, and so on, but the framerates you're reporting don't immediately sound like the system's about to keel over.

When you cleaned, did you blow compressed air into the GPU's squirrel cage fan? You'd often see dust exhausted out the back.

1) I'd check GPU frequencies during e.g. 30m-1h gaming session. You could use GPU-Z to log or MSI AFterburner (with the included Rivatuner Statistics Server) to have an on-screen display.

[Guide] How to setup MSI Afterburner On Screen Display using RTSS

A fair few people have asked me how to setup MSI Afterburner On Screen Display (OSD). I checked this subforum and to my surprise there was no guide on how to do it. So I figured I'd make a guide for everybody out there struggling. 1. Downloading and Installing You will need to download a few thin...

linustechtips.com

I'd then try it again with the case side panel off, and the case front panel off (if that's possible) to see how it does.

In addition to that, you could try setting a more aggressive fan profile with MSI Afterburner i.e. higher fan speeds kicking in sooner to help cool the card,

How to customize GPU cooling using MSI Afterburner

Here's how to squeeze the most performance out of a stock GPU.

www.pcgamer.com

See if that does anything to framerate, GPu frequency, and Timespy score.

2) I'd try some other games just to see whether you get any strange texture / model loading isues like you do in Warzone with them.

It's very possible you won't as a lot of people have reported that kind of issue with Warzone specifically. I wouldn't expect thermal issues on the GPU to be causing the specific Warzone problems you listed.

3) Just to double check, you're running at native 1440p resolution? The monitor 3Dmark lists in your result (AOC AG322FWG4) looks like a 1080p one in google though it's not clear.

When I cleaned everything out, I blew out the fan on the GPU as well, which was somewhat dusty (PC is in a garage unfortunately). The temps and fps I posted last night were after about 2 hours of game play (using NZXT CAM overlay). I'll try a few other games this week and compare to confirm if it's my problem or COD's server/game problem.

Yes, I'm running at 1440p, not 1080p.

 

[v3nustas]

I would try to play other games and see if its game specific i would also look at temps of your gpu/cpu under load as well. Your system is getting roughly what you should be in COD with that GPU, its what 7 years old now? lol so maybe if you want to get more fps you could upgrade that but i dont think ur system is dead yet.

Ya, I compared newer mid-range cards to my old high-end card...and it's crazy how much they've jumped up. I may just try upgrading GPU first and see how it performs with the old setup.