Under Performing PC? Upgrade Options?

[JSand]

Hey Everyone, Just have a few questions for you techies.

First of all here are my PC Specs:

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0
Processor: AMD FX 6300
Ram: 16GB (4x4) PC3-10700 1333mhz
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB GDDR5
HDD: Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM
SSD: Crucial M4 128GB

First question, here's my issue: I lag, all the time. Whether it's watching a youtube video or playing older PC games (Sims 2 or 3, call of duty, need for speed) I'm not sure the cause of it but i assume something is being bottlenecked but i have no idea what it could be, any suggestions?

Second question: Anything you'd guys immediately update to increase performance? Only thing i can think of is my GPU....


Thanks for any help!

 

[Tyler]

I dont think youtube should be a problem with those specs, now if you were doing something really graphically intensive yes, but what you listed? naw.


I got a couple ideas.

http://www.speedtest.net/

First do this and post your result here.

https://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

Next download and run CCcleaner, this will get rid of all of the inactive items on your desktop that you have no use for.

If the issue is space, also declutter programs on your PC, below is an example of how to do it with windows 7

Open Programs and Features by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Programs, and then clicking Programs and Features.

Select a program, and then click Uninstall. Some programs include the option to change or repair the program in addition to uninstalling it, but many simply offer the option to uninstall. To change a program, click Change or Repair. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.


Next, update all of your drivers. Mainly the ones for your GPU.

Edit: just saw that you also use an SSD. make sure thats where you have all of your important stuff kept, your os systems, whatever game you frequent ect.

 

[JSand]

Just got intense lag just trying to view a stream on twitch....

I just recently updated all my drivers including my GPU. Is there any program that you know of that will check if you have the proper drivers installed?

Will try CCleaner, forgot to run that. Thanks!

 

[Tyler]

Just got intense lag just trying to view a stream on twitch....

I just recently updated all my drivers including my GPU. Is there any program that you know of that will check if you have the proper drivers installed?

Will try CCleaner, forgot to run that. Thanks!

You have good internet speed, and a good CPU @ 3.5Ghz. Your gpu (in my opinion) Would bottleneck your build but it shouldnt be not allowing you to play youtube videos, simple games or watch twitch.


I dont actually know of any program like that. Although from what I can tell I dont think I can diagnose this issue your having. the only other option that I could think of is just to run free antivirus software.

Try malwarebytes.

https://www.malwarebytes.org/

Also I dont think it would improve performance that much (if at all) but open up your case and make sure your pc is cleaned out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K02P5I8BsE


If none of these work, try contacting N4N0 or Darkest Dream, I dont think there's much that I missed though.

 

[JSand]

Thanks for the tips!

 

[3ugene]

Make sure you have the most up to date flash player installed. Reinstall it just to be safe.


Also, when watching the twitch stream open resource monitor.
Hit Windows + R
Type "Perfmon /res" (without quotes -.-)
From there you'll be able to see what is bottlenecking.


The third thing I would check would be your temperatures. For that just download HWMonitor, post a screenshot of that here if you're not sure what temps are good.

 

[JSand]

Make sure you have the most up to date flash player installed. Reinstall it just to be safe.


Also, when watching the twitch stream open resource monitor.
Hit Windows + R
Type "Perfmon /res" (without quotes -.-)
From there you'll be able to see what is bottlenecking.


The third thing I would check would be your temperatures. For that just download HWMonitor, post a screenshot of that here if you're not sure what temps are good.

Temps are fine,

heres resource monitor while watching twitch:

cant really tell what im looking at honestly...

reinstalling flash as i type, but with google chrome flash is already built in.

 

[3ugene]

Temps are fine,

heres resource monitor while watching twitch:

cant really tell what im looking at honestly...

reinstalling flash as i type, but with google chrome flash is already built in.

That's crazy. If you're bottlenecking, it has to be your GPU, but for twitch to lag just from that, wtf. It's possible there's something wrong with your GPU completely. Just to be sure, have you tried using another browser? You're right, chrome does have its own flash player, but it can do some funky shit at times.

Also are you 100% sure your temps are fine? If your GPU is overheating it could cause some fuckups.

 

[JSand]

 

[3ugene]

Honestly, my best guess would be that there was something dramatically wrong with your GPU. If your motherboard had onboard video I would just tell you to take it out and test then, but unfortunately it doesn't. Do you happen to have a spare GPU?


Just to be sure your GPU should also be plugged into the BLUE PCI-E slot

 

[SASRT8]

unfortunately to say, you have a fairly decent machine there. It's not high-end, to say the least, but the hardware should run very well. If you're experiencing tremendous amounts of lag in doing minor operations, I would look into your storage solutions, as well as your background programs. Sometimes it can be something like multiple antivirus programs working against each other, or something hogging several individual threads on its own. I generally reformat my computers once a year, I have had rigs that are years old that run exactly as they did new. Nowadays with windows, you have the option to "refresh" your computer without losing any important files.
Also, since you're on a desktop, make sure in your power profiles that your CPU minimum state is around 50%. The AMD's tend to delay a bit more when the processor lowers the clock rates at idle, so when you need more processing power it's not as immediately available as it should be. Even the Intel rigs benefit from this.
Your GPU can also be causing an issue, especially if your drivers are out of date. The clock speeds on most GPU's will ramp up and down as needed, and each revision to the drivers will adjust this profile to keep itself optimized for many different things. It's possible that your computer is staying at idle clocks when it needs the extra juice(such as the 7770's 300core/150mem MHz idle speed instead of the desired 1100core/1150mem speeds required under graphical load) and if this is the case, you will CERTAINLY have issues with lag on your PC.

 

[JSand]

unfortunately to say, you have a fairly decent machine there. It's not high-end, to say the least, but the hardware should run very well. If you're experiencing tremendous amounts of lag in doing minor operations, I would look into your storage solutions, as well as your background programs. Sometimes it can be something like multiple antivirus programs working against each other, or something hogging several individual threads on its own. I generally reformat my computers once a year, I have had rigs that are years old that run exactly as they did new. Nowadays with windows, you have the option to "refresh" your computer without losing any important files.
Also, since you're on a desktop, make sure in your power profiles that your CPU minimum state is around 50%. The AMD's tend to delay a bit more when the processor lowers the clock rates at idle, so when you need more processing power it's not as immediately available as it should be. Even the Intel rigs benefit from this.
Your GPU can also be causing an issue, especially if your drivers are out of date. The clock speeds on most GPU's will ramp up and down as needed, and each revision to the drivers will adjust this profile to keep itself optimized for many different things. It's possible that your computer is staying at idle clocks when it needs the extra juice(such as the 7770's 300core/150mem MHz idle speed instead of the desired 1100core/1150mem speeds required under graphical load) and if this is the case, you will CERTAINLY have issues with lag on your PC.

Thanks for the tips, went to check my CPU Min power, it's actually set at 100% which i found weird so i lowered it to 70% just to be safe.

The last GPU Driver update for my MSI card is from January 2014 and thats the driver i have.

is there a way to do the same thing on my GPU as i did with CPU? (Have a % minimum power?)

If not, what do you suggest?

edit: Thinking about upgrading to FX-8350 and not sure about the GPU, good buy?

 

[Crescent]

Seems to be a very perculia situation you're in.

Have you tried checking all drivers? Even motherboard drivers, GPU drivers? I'd doubt its a bottleneck, as well as faulty hardware all together.

Never even seen this sort of problem.

 

[JSand]

Seems to be a very perculia situation you're in.

Have you tried checking all drivers? Even motherboard drivers, GPU drivers? I'd doubt its a bottleneck, as well as faulty hardware all together.

Never even seen this sort of problem.

Drivers has been always my biggest issue with figuring out if i have the correct ones or not.....

Last month i went and downloaded all the latest drivers to the best of my ability and if my memory serves right, they should all be fully updated...


Last night while watching Twitch my computer totally froze for about 30 seconds....

 

[SASRT8]

The upgrade would, of course, be a good buy if you need the added power. The 8350 is a pretty good CPU.

Install AMD's "gaming evolved" program. It will automatically detect and guide you to installing the correct, latest drivers for your card. It will also optimize certain things on your system to run with your particular card, primarily games.

If you still have the same issues, then we can discuss how to force "p-states" on your card in order to remove throttling altogether, or perhaps raise the P-0 Idle state clocks to something higher. It's technical stuff, and you'll have to do it every time you restart your computer unless we go ahead and code an auxiliary file that uses CMD to do everything for you.

 

[JSand]

The upgrade would, of course, be a good buy if you need the added power. The 8350 is a pretty good CPU.

Install AMD's "gaming evolved" program. It will automatically detect and guide you to installing the correct, latest drivers for your card. It will also optimize certain things on your system to run with your particular card, primarily games.

If you still have the same issues, then we can discuss how to force "p-states" on your card in order to remove throttling altogether, or perhaps raise the P-0 Idle state clocks to something higher. It's technical stuff, and you'll have to do it every time you restart your computer unless we go ahead and code an auxiliary file that uses CMD to do everything for you.

Sounds Good, Will definitely look into gaming evolved when i'm home, thanks for your help.