I find it hard to believe that power draw is the culprit here. His R9 270 is pulling roughly 120-130W under full load, whereas if I recall correctly, his old Radeon HD 4870 used to pull closer to 150W.
I was actually considering underclocking the CPU to address the thermal throttling issue.
He mentioned he used this CPU paired with a weaker GPU before, and apparently, he was getting higher fps in older titles. That’s definitely odd. As for BF4, he'll likely get better results by running it with Mantle instead of DirectX 9.
Like I touched on earlier—it’s entirely possible his CPU is hitting a critical temperature threshold, causing it to throttle. Once it starts underclocking to protect itself, performance just tanks. Given how old this CPU is, if he hasn't swapped out the thermal paste in years, it might be time for a fresh application or even a new cooler altogether.
Have you tried installing DirectX 9 yet? Look, if your CPU is hitting 70°C even with an aftermarket cooler, something is definitely off. It’s like trying to run a marathon in heavy boots—it just doesn't work. Either it’s high time for a fresh application of thermal paste, or that cooler you're using is underperforming, basically acting like a basic stock cooler
Does your clock speed drop when you're under load (if it's not overclocked at 3400MHz, does it dip lower)? Generally speaking, a CPU like yours requires an aftermarket cooler. It might not be the direct cause of your specific issue, but using a stock cooler on a 125W chip is asking for trouble—you really need at least this . Keep in mind that temperatures are also influenced by your case airflow and the ambient temperature of the room. Your GPU looks fine considering it's running a stress test; in actual gaming, you probably won't even see it hit 70C.
So, just to be clear: you wiped the old drivers, installed the latest ones, and now your FPS is actually dropping in older titles?
As a long shot, try installing a fresh dx 9 package
You should also keep an eye on your temperatures—specifically the CPU and GPU. It’s possible something is overheating and causing thermal throttling. I’d recommend downloading OCCT; it has built-in stress tests for both the CPU and GPU, plus solid monitoring for temps and clock speeds (at least for the CPU). Ideally, your CPU shouldn't be climbing past 62°C, and for the GPU, hitting around 80°C during a stress test isn't too bad.
If you happen to have a bit more room in your budget, I can certainly suggest some higher-end options. Those initial picks were really just the bare minimums worth considering for value. For instance, if you want a beefier, quieter cooler, you might look at something like a Standard PC Component
For that kind of cash, you could grab a 2GB model instead Honestly, it's overpriced and just isn't worth it. Back before the dollar spiked, you could find a GTX 1050 with 1GB for even less than $267, while prices for an R9 270—which is a much more powerful GPU—stayed pretty much flat . If you have 3.5 grand to work with, take one of those two bundles and just add a decent, budget-friendly power supply. You'll need at least this or something better . http://www.nabava.net/search.php?tp=0&q=lc6460gp3
Plus, staying within that 3.5 grand limit leaves you enough breathing room to upgrade the graphics card. If you want to look at some value options, check out:
Even if you go with the high-end versions of everything mentioned above, you’ll still stay under that 3.5 grand mark .
1. When you’re dealing with a processor like this, you really need to invest in an aftermarket cooler. The stock cooler is far too inadequate for a 125W chip; it runs hot and gets incredibly loud. You should be looking at at least this . 2. That power supply is bottom-of-the-barrel quality. The only thing actually hitting 550W is the label on the sticker. You absolutely have to swap that out immediately before it fries your entire system. Grab at least this.
3. You could have saved about $60 by opting for the FX 8300 and put that extra cash toward a better motherboard and cooler, but there's no use crying over spilled milk. Just fix that power supply first.
Basically, if you have more RAM, you should put it to use. 🤷
Web browsers are notorious resource hogs—the more tabs you leave open, the more memory they eat up. That’s just how it works. For instance, when I'm running Pale Moon on Windows 7 with a bunch of tabs open (like several PDFs and Word docs), I'm seeing upwards of 1.7GB of usage.
You might also want to dig into your Task Manager to clear out any junk processes. Plus, you can type "msconfig" into the Windows search bar, head over to the Startup tab, and check if there's anything running there that shouldn't be, aside from your antivirus and basic drivers like your graphics card or mouse software.
I saw a listing on a local online marketplace where some guy is selling an MSI twin frozr HD7850 2gb with a warranty. He claims it’s barely been used—maybe only 5 or 6 hours of actual gaming time, mostly just sitting idle—and he's asking around 600-$233 .
You’re definitely in the clear at that price point. If you decide to pull the trigger, just give me a heads-up a day or two before you buy.
More benchmarks are starting to trickle in:
Note: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 is the only card we tested on "normal" settings (dropping everything to "normal"). At these settings, it sustained an average FPS of 70 -- fairly high. The game doesn't look great, but it is playable.
On high settings (1080p), it averages about 31 fps.link
If people were looking to pick up an R9 270 for $267, it should be much more affordable, though right now it's priced almost as high as a brand-new card (which used to run about 800-$283). Here are some new options: http://www.nabava.net/search.php?tp=0&q=R7+260X
For that kind of cash, you could definitely squeeze out much better performance if you went with 4GB of RAM paired with a decent dedicated graphics card.
Anything cheaper than this isn't worth your money—you won't save much, and your performance will absolutely tank.
or
plus there's a potential 3% discount click
It might be smarter to wait a few days until more benchmarks drop, but for the price, those two options above are the way to go.
Here is how it runs on an older junker; in both cases mentioned above, you're getting a significantly stronger CPU and GPU.
EDIT
Regarding the power supply, from $17 to $33 you have plenty of options like EVGA, Corsair, or even Be Quiet!.
Hey everyone, does anyone know which cities in the Midwest have private CT scan facilities available? Also, what's the typical wait time like, and can I get a ballpark idea of the cost?
Adam Moore3 said:Yeah, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw how hot my buddy's Athlon was running. Look, check CPU-Z, not the package reading that Timothy Kim60 showed in his picture; we're looking at incorrect readings here. I have no clue which specific sensor he's pulling that package data from... And by the way, opening the side panel doesn't automatically mean temperatures will drop. It could actually make things worse depending on the existing airflow in the case and the ambient room temperature. I tried that with my old rig—opening the side panel. In the end, I just stayed upstairs whenever I needed to run temperature checks.
Another thing that drives me crazy about HWMonitor is how inconsistent the interface is for everyone. Take that screenshot in the second link, for instance—for him, it explicitly labels the CPU (no need for CPU-Z to hunt for it).
He could just download AIDA64, go to Computer -> Sensor, and check the CPU temperature (not the "core" temp used by AMD). That CPU temp should match exactly what you see in CPU-Z via HWMonitor.
