• Spot my bottleneck, pretty please?
    9 replies, posted
Hey. Lately I've been tired of my pc not performing as it should, despite the (what i thought was) more than good enough hardware. Motherboard: ASUS M2N-Sli (am2 slot) CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition (AM2+ slot, quad core. My computer says it is "AMD Processor model unknown". I do know the name anyway.) RAM: 2x2gb and 2x1gb = 6gb GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 HDD: WD Caviar Blue 1TB PSU: Approx 750w, will look after the brand if its somehow necessary OS: Windows 7 I personally think it is the CPU/motherboard that is the bottleneck, since the board is AM2slot, and the CPU is an AM2+, which in turn makes it unable for my computer to read the model-number/name. I'm technically competent, and enjoy building my own pc. Could someone be so kind and help me over this? Thank you for your time.
It's the motherboard. Same thing happened to my girlfriend's computer when we installed the AM3 CPU into it before updating the BIOS. All you should need to do is update the bios if it has a new one with support for AM2+. [editline]14th April 2011[/editline] Okay, the problem is actually the CPU is 125WTDP and your motherboard supports only 95WTDP CPUs. [editline]14th April 2011[/editline] no wait I'm wrong again... it's not in the supported CPU list but you could try updating the BIOS anyways the newest one.
I forgot to mention: My pc IS functional, because i updated the BIOS before i got the new cpu and i can use it for everyday-things without any problems. At several games, however, i notice that something doesn't act like it should be. In benchmarks it uses all of the cpu-power (measured by G15 keyboard), but on several games, with or without quadcore-support, it seems to just take it easy. On games like Team fortress 2 and CSS it isn't a problem, but when it comes to heavy endgame Starcraft 2 and Supreme commander-matches, my pc starts to have problems. I could however, look for another update.
If the CPU isn't being fully used and the game's still lagging, it's probably your GPU, I thought a 460 could run starcraft maxed, though. What res?
A GTX 460 can definitely max SC2.
I usually use 1920x1080, unless on ridiculously craving games like Crysis and the like. Before i bought the 460 i was pretty sure it would max SC2, so i am pretty sure that is no option. Worth noting that it is heavy endgame when there are a lot of units on the ground, not the first 10-15 minutes. I'm thinking of replace the motherboard and cpu some day with an AM3-slot if that is necessary.
Just great. After a "successful" attempt of flashing the bios, the computer wont start. Just a black screen, with nothing more. It didn't warn of any kind of errors, and finished with an "success"-window. I'm so happy right now.
Gigabyte dual BIOS :3 so happy to own Gigabyte because of that feature.
[QUOTE=GozMit;29222644]Just great. After a "successful" attempt of flashing the bios, the computer wont start. Just a black screen, with nothing more. It didn't warn of any kind of errors, and finished with an "success"-window. I'm so happy right now.[/QUOTE] try resetting CMOS - remove the battery and unplug your PC or find the reset jumper and jump it (removing battery is generally easier) if neither work, see if you can get a new BIOS chip for the motherboard, or just get a new motherboard, there's AM2/3 ones for $40-50 on Newegg.
TheTiger: I absolutely see a good reason for having something like that now. Shadaes: I was on my way to do that in the last hours, but i did have difficulties to take off the battery in, maybe half an hour. (It is midnight here now, so i'll complain on that). After a while i gave up and just tried to move the jumper cap back and forth. Fired the pc up. It worked as usual, AT LAST. The BIOS-revision worked as i originally planned. And the CPU finally is recognized! Fun fact: Where my processor before used to say "700mhz" it now says "3013 mhz", which can be a reason why it could be my bottleneck. Time for some testing! Holy shit i'm happy i did this shit. Thanks! :D
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