Dragon Age: Inquisition GPU & CPU Performance Review

[DanUK]

Does your system crash if you run a program like Prime95 with the H80i set to silent? If not then heat isn’t the issue.

Unless your fan on the H80i is spinning abnormally slow the system shouldn’t be crashing due to heat with a stock Core i7-4790K. Either the water-block isn’t seated correctly or not enough thermal paste has been applied.

Anyway I would diagnose this with a program such as Prime95 in windows and monitor the temperature as you do.

Yeah, ive just been looking into this a bit more yesterday and today, and I see that there is a common problem with some core i7 4790k's and temperature. Even though ive had this rig a few months it took a cpu intensive game like DA to really show it.
Tomorrow I'll check the cooler is seated properly, and if it is then ill have to RMA the chip. When I run IntelBurn the chip pretty much immediately hits 95~100 on all cores (similar to what a load of people are experiencing in this thread https://communities.intel.com/thread/54032?start=30&tstart=0 )

On the one hand I hope that I'm not being a pc building n00b and that it's a problem with the chip.. but on the other it's more convenient if I've just been a noob haha.

 

[Steve]

If it is hitting those temps immediately then the cooler is not seated correctly based on my experience.

 

[DanUK]

If it is hitting those temps immediately then the cooler is not seated correctly based on my experience.

Yeah I've checked and its definitely on there properly. Just ran the Prime95 test for a few minutes and as with the IntelBurn, it caused my cpu cores to sit at around 100 degrees. Gonna try using just the stock cooler instead of the H80i as a final check but honestly, I think it's a dud chip like what a lot of other people have reported

 

[Gutfux]

From these benchmarks my FX 4350 should do fine with this game, however with a R9 295x2 & 8GB of ram running at 1920x1080 on ultra I only get 20-40 FPS, tried everything I could think of but nothing has helped, dodgey CPU me thinks? My physics score on 3d mark is very low for a FX 4350 which is why I think there is something wrong with it

 

[Steve]

From these benchmarks my FX 4350 should do fine with this game, however with a R9 295x2 & 8GB of ram running at 1920x1080 on ultra I only get 20-40 FPS, tried everything I could think of but nothing has helped, dodgey CPU me thinks? My physics score on 3d mark is very low for a FX 4350 which is why I think there is something wrong with it

Wow you have to be the only person on the planet running a Radeon R9 295X2 with an FX-4350

Crossfire requires more CPU power which is why you are dipping so low. The FX-4350 is one of the worst modern processors for gaming and one of the worst to be paired with an extreme high-end graphics card such as the R9 295X2.

 

[Gutfux]

Wow you have to be the only person on the planet running a Radeon R9 295X2 with an FX-4350

Crossfire requires more CPU power which is why you are dipping so low. The FX-4350 is one of the worst modern processors for gaming and one of the worst to be paired with an extreme high-end graphics card such as the R9 295X2.

I had no idea? 3d mark shows that the CPU benchmark for an FX 4350 is only slightly less than most Intel processors and this benchmark shows that's it's only a few frames less than the best Intel - what do I need minimum AMD wise to remove the bottleneck?

 

[Steve]

I had no idea? 3d mark shows that the CPU benchmark for an FX 4350 is only slightly less than most Intel processors and this benchmark shows that's it's only a few frames less than the best Intel - what do I need minimum AMD wise to remove the bottleneck?

No the FX-4000 series struggles to compete with Intel's Pentium (Haswell) CPUs.

Read this first...
https://www.techspot.com/review/943-best-value-desktop-cpu/

You can see how the FX-8350 does against the Core i3, Core i5 here (no gaming though)...
https://www.techspot.com/review/992-asrock-x99e-itx-ac/

You will need at least the FX-8350, the FX-9590 would be ideal. I don't think either of these processors are capable of removing the bottleneck completely but they will enabled playable performance.

 

[Gutfux]

No the FX-4000 series struggles to compete with Intel's Pentium (Haswell) CPUs.

Read this first...
https://www.techspot.com/review/943-best-value-desktop-cpu/

You can see how the FX-8350 does against the Core i3, Core i5 here (no gaming though)...
https://www.techspot.com/review/992-asrock-x99e-itx-ac/

You will need at least the FX-8350, the FX-9590 would be ideal. I don't think either of these processors are capable of removing the bottleneck completely but they will enabled playable performance.

Ok thanks for the advice, ideally I would like to remove the bottleneck completely as I just spent a lot of money in the new graphics card, what is the minimum Intel processor that would do that you think? I am thinking the I5 4xxx series?

 

[Steve]

Ok thanks for the advice, ideally I would like to remove the bottleneck completely as I just spent a lot of money in the new graphics card, what is the minimum Intel processor that would do that you think? I am thinking the I5 4xxx series?

Any Core i5 processor will work, if you are hell bent on removing the CPU as a limiting factor on performance get the Core i5-4690K ($240) and overclock the bejeebers out of it

The FX-9590 seems like your cheapest option though at just $235 and it's a decent processor.

 

[Gutfux]

Well I can get a new mobo and an i5 4460 for £200 or an FX 9590 for £170 - what would be more worth it?

 

[cliffordcooley]

Don't forget about possibly having to buy a new Windows license (OEM), if you change motherboards. Not a concern though, if you have a Retail license.

 

[Gutfux]

Got retail so no probs, we thinking switch to Intel over getting the FX 9590 then?

 

[Steve]

Well I can get a new mobo and an i5 4460 for £200 or an FX 9590 for £170 - what would be more worth it?

If the Intel Core i5 CPU and motherboard are only slightly more I would go that way for sure.

 

[LNCPapa]

I'd also see if I could get one of the K chips instead of that 4460. The K chips are 1000 times easier to overclock.

 

[Gutfux]

I'd also see if I could get one of the K chips instead of that 4460. The K chips are 1000 times easier to overclock.

Thanks all, my other option is to return my graphics card (sad I know) and buy a single GTX 970 (I bought my R9 295x2 for the same price as a GTX 980 so there isn't any point in getting 20 fps less for the same money) so according to these benchmarks with my processer and a GTX 980/970 I wouldn't have a bottleneck, anyone agree?

 

[Steve]

Thanks all, my other option is to return my graphics card (sad I know) and buy a single GTX 970 (I bought my R9 295x2 for the same price as a GTX 980 so there isn't any point in getting 20 fps less for the same money) so according to these benchmarks with my processer and a GTX 980/970 I wouldn't have a bottleneck, anyone agree?

It doesn’t matter what GPU you have really, if the GPU is capable of more than 20 – 40fps then it is going to be faster than your CPU.

You are far better off upgrading your CPU rather than downgrading your GPU as that won't solve anything.

 

[Cryio]

Wow you have to be the only person on the planet running a Radeon R9 295X2 with an FX-4350

Crossfire requires more CPU power which is why you are dipping so low. The FX-4350 is one of the worst modern processors for gaming and one of the worst to be paired with an extreme high-end graphics card such as the R9 295X2.

Just saying, since that CPU is so slow (you probably didn't even try to overclock it), your dual GPU setup is probably performing worse than with one GPU disabled.

Getting an FX 8300 and overclocking it would be your cheapest option for best performance. If you want to max out your GPU setup though, yeah, you'd need an i5.