Determining Bottleneck Causes

C

Codarico

Geek Trainee
Hi guys,

I'm here because I play games ocasionally. A couple weeks ago I invested some money in a HD5850. I know, not the best out there, but still more than I need. Even for Skyrim, you know.

Now the thing is, I can max Skyrim out without much trouble, say 20-25 solid FPS, but every 15-20 secs I get this screen freeze, that has me waiting for like 10 seconds for resume. It isn't either completely related/unrelated to demanding situations, since it often happens when I'm about to fight something, but after the initial freeze I'm able to go on without FPS drop.

I know it's not the GPU, mainly because I'm playing on a Q6600 with 3Gb DDR2 800MHZ, and as you probably know the later two are comparatively worse. What I need to now is which one is causing the bottleneck. 'Cause if it's the CPU, you now, sucks for me, but I would upgrade RAM.

Thx ppl!

Also I'm monitoring my components as I play. I get +65ºC every time. What do you think?
 
The temperatures are OK. Even quite good, I'd say. I would vote that the RAM is the bottleneck for these reasons:
  • 3Gb most probably means that you don't get full Dual-Channel performance. You need to get two 2Gb sticks.
  • While you get new RAM sticks, try to get ones that have low latency
  • It would be even better if you could get RAM that has 1066Mhz not 800Mhz
  • ? install a 64-bit OS. (Win 7 Pro 64-bit) to take full advantage of the 4 gigs
 
Might want to see what's running in the background. A lot of programs tend to add themselves to the list of startup programs...and typically, they're not needed. You can use Task Manager, but I also find msconfig a very helpful tool (just enter it in the Run box from the Start menu).

DDR2 is older, but it's not the end of the world. My wife's netbook has DDR3, but it's only 1GB and it's paired with an Atom CPU. DDR3 is better than DDR2 in the ability to scale higher frequencies, but that doesn't mean it has no value. If you're not looking to upgrade the motherboard and CPU anytime soon but want a boost, adding more RAM isn't a bad way to go. However, if you've been socking away for a new build, just stick it out with what you have.
 
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