35 replies to this topic

[Magi_Hero]

I currently use this card:
http://www.newegg.co...Item=14-127-872

I still have my EVGA GTX 770 sitting in a box in case I need it.

My processors also never get hot which is a plus. Also got extra thermal paste just in case.

Anthus, any more luck on your heat issues?

[Nicholas Steel]

From the looks of it, your CPU is not that great in the single threaded performance department, which a lot of games are still dependent on. You could also be running in to CPU heat issues and if that is the case you might even be running in to heat issues for the video card (Probably not though)

[MaeioParty]

AMD CPU's in the Bulldozer/Piledriver line throttle at around 60 or so degrees. The 8150 also has poor single core performance anyway. You probably want an aftermarket cooler so you can cool it better and overclock it.

The games you posted are all pretty terrible ports and are not likely to be using the 8 cores of your cpu and thus the cpu will be the bottleneck due to poor optimisation. Use 3D Mark and post your results to see if there is a bottleneck.

Edited by CasualTR, 22 April 2016 - 03:29 AM.

[Anthus]

Speedfan doesn't catch all the fans because every mobo is programmed its own way. Speedfan especially doesn't catch many laptop fans, for future reference. It never caught some of my desktop fans.

My card runs at a steady 60C no matter what settings I put it on. I'd rather a card be consistent. My NVidia would run in the 70s. Never had a card die yet. Mind you, my PC auto-sleeps when I'm away, so less general passive use. Clean your fans, especially the PSU. The PSU will die of you don't. That caked on shit can stop the fan completely.

My NVidia ran hotter than my AMD. Rumors? O.ó

A basic gaming system will get by with a 500W PSU. I have more since I have a few hard drives to plug in, solid state and mechanical. I think a modular 750 or 850 watt. I also have a boner for Corsair.

Corsair is a pretty legit brand. I have no complaints there. I do want to get a newer, modular PSU and I've wanted one since I built this thing. Anything that reduces case clutter is good, in my book. All those unneeded, and unused wires take up space, and block air flow.

If you have 4, then 2 are not functioning. I would test them by unplugging them from the power supply one at a time and seeing which ones that Speedfan doesn't detect. If you remove one and the speed reads the same, it's probable that one doesn't work. CPU fans are pretty cheap, and that might help with your temperature issue.

However, the CPU idles really hot and I would think about reapplying thermal paste to it. The stock paste that comes with the unit only lasts about 5 years or so.

One other detail worth noting, is that my room where my computer is, is in an attic, and the air temp in here can approach 80 f in the summer, or hotter. I have fans in my room, and keep the air circulating, but the ambient heat could contribute to the CPU, and other internal temps, no?

I guess a more effective way to check if they're working is to just open the case and look if the fans are rotating while the computer is on. Don't ask why I didn't think of this before my previous suggestion. >.>

The thing is, all of the fans do seem to be working, and turning. The only one I can't clearly see is the PSU fan, which is arguably the most important one behind the CPU fan.

Anthus, any more luck on your heat issues?

It's still toasty, but I am thinking that is is just the fact that my CPU isn't that great by today's standards. I got sucked into the whole "more cores = more power" gimmick, as I stated in KA's thread, and I think the single thread performance is shit, and is causing this thing to heat up. I still haven't gotten around to getting a new fan, cause I'm not sure if it will matter that much if it is the actual CPU bottlenecking, and making it get so hot.

I have some thermal paste, but I'm hesitant about taking it apart, cause I've only done it once, and I'm afraid of bricking it. Any tips for re applying the paste safely?

Basically, I want to isolate the problem before throwing money at it, lol. When my dad gets home, I'm gonna see if I can't use his air compressor to blast out some of the dust. That thing is hella powerful, and probably more efficient that duster air. Edit: except it's storming now, and I'm not caring my computer to the garage in this, heh.

[Anthus]

Bit of a bump, I went ahead and bought a Cooler Master Hyper T2, and a new fan for the top of my case, along with some air spray, and new thermal paste. We'll see if this helps with the CPU sound, and temps. Next is to use 3DMark to see if my video card is even being used fully/ correctly. I plan on getting a Corsair CX700M 80+ Bronze soon too. Cable management is not my current strong suit. My Radeon HD6970 only needs a 550 watt, and I currently have a 600 watt, so I don't think it is the issue directly, but modular is just cleaner, and nicer. It's more of an aesthetic choice, really.

 

We'll see how this goes, let's hope I don't brick it! 

 

 

Too bad I can't change to an intel CPU unless I get a new mobo too. That's $300 I don't wanna spend quite yet. Unless there are some sweet price cuts, since those seem to happen around this time of year.

[Ben]

Anthus: You're also a central Ohioan, correct? Wait for Black Friday this year and head over to the MicroCenter store on Bethel Rd near Worthington. Some of the deals they do in-store are insane. I got $1250 worth of hardware for just under $285 a couple years ago. That'll be the best time to build a new machine.

 

Your single-threaded performance is going to be your worst bottleneck, although I've played Sonic Generations just fine on a system much less capable at higher settings, so I can't offer an explanation for slideshow performance there other than heat.

 

No unusual BIOS toggles are turned on that would cause PCI-e performance to suffer? Everything is seated 100% correctly?

[Anthus]

That's actually where I just went, and that micro center is awesome, I almost worked there but the pay sucked.

Anyway, I just took apart the case, and removed all the fans and thoroughly cleaned them and wow that was scary. Way dirtier than I thought.

I'm going to put the new fan on the side of the case, instead of replacing the top one cause it is definitely the CPU fan that is the loudest. I'm going to remove and clean the video card too and make sure it's seated correctly.

I currently have all fans configured as exhaust, with no intake. Is this okay, or should there be at least one intake? My room is warm so I don't want to be sucking warm dusty air in.

Will update with more details. Gonna do the CPU fan next.

[Nicholas Steel]

Case fans on the front should be intakes, everything else should be outtakes. You want airflow, not air starvation

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 22 June 2016 - 12:13 AM.

[Magi_Hero]

Case fans on the front should be intakes, everything else should be outtakes. You want airflow, not air starvation

Vehicles do this with a front fan.

Think of your rig as a car.

Edited by tim, 22 June 2016 - 07:22 AM.

[Anthus]

The new fans seem to be working, and I switched the front fan to an intake, after doing some more reading about how airflow should work in a case. I'll need to get some after market machine screws though, for the side fan, cause the ones that came with it are thread cutting screws and my screw driver stripped the heads of thew screw, and why the fan doesn't have threads made into it already is beyond me (I'm not a robot, and it takes a lot of torque to twist a screw by hand into plastic that you are also steadying with your other hand ), but it does seem to work when plugged in.

 

My CPU temp under load now is about 45c, and idle it's as low as 32c. Before it was like, 64c idling (well, I had the browser, and speccy open, with a few tabs).

 

The heat issue is a lot better, and the games do seem to be running a little smoother. I still think the actual CPU itself is kind of the problem here too.

 

Bus Speed 201.4 MHz

Rated Bus Speed 2617.8 MHz

Stock Core Speed 3600 MHz

Stock Bus Speed 200 MHz

Average Temperature 44 °C

 

That is what Speccy says about it in the CPU overview tab. Honestly, I'm not really sure if this is good or bad, but I feel like it is pretty average. This thing is five years old, and frankly, if I want mah frames, I really just need to upgrade the CPU so it can work with the video card, instead of hindering it.

[Nicholas Steel]

I'm unsure, I'm not at all familiar with AMD/ATI CPU's and video cards. I've always used Intel and Nvidia hardware. It feels like we're finally starting to see some actual increase in CPU requirements in games for once, as it is a lot of games say to use a Intel i5 or i7 2xxx, 3xxx or 4xxx series CPU yet my i7 920 from 2008 works perfectly fine even though it is bottom of the range of the very first Intel i7 series of CPU's.

 

Upgrading my video card seems to improve performance a lot in games. I just upgraded from my trusty Nvidia 560ti 2GB video card to a Nvidia 760 4GB video card and a bunch of games saw performance improvements which indicates the CPU isn't the limiting factor in regards to performance in a lot of games still.

 

I've always heard AMD CPU's are inferior to Intel, except for a short while before the first Intel Core CPU was released. If AMD CPU's perform like an Intel Celeron or VIA Cyrix CPU than yeah, they suck ass and I'm not surprised it will limit your performance.

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 23 June 2016 - 04:09 AM.

[Anthus]

The only reason I got an FX 8150 was cause it was 20$ cheaper than the comparable i5 at the time

[Ben]

I've got an 8320 which is not THAT much of a step up from the 8150. Octal-core, but still able to keep up admirably when paired with a GTX 970. But it was significantly less expensive than an Intel CPU. It's not been bad, really.

 

However my next build will still be an Intel build.

[Anthus]

That extra ~400MHz can make a difference though, especially per thread. Mine's also an eight-core.

 

I have not considered overclocking mine yet, and it seems to be running at only 2600 MZh instead of the posted 3600 MHz. I may try it, considering my cooling is actually half way competent now.

 

 

However my next build will still be an Intel build.

 

And, same. I feel like most game devs make stuff with Intel/ Nvidia in mind.

[Nicholas Steel]

You'll find in the

 

Windows Control Panel > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > Minimum Processor State

 

an option to set the minimum CPU speed. you'll want it set to 100% to ensure it always runs at 3.6GHZ. Alternatively switch to the High Performance Power Plan (listed under Additional Plans).

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 24 June 2016 - 07:10 AM.