Graphic settings dont increase frame rate

[Guth]

So i got my first real graphics card today (always had onboard) so I could play games,

I got the EVGA GTX650 Ti SuperSuperClocked

When I am playing Cod BO2 at max settings, my average FPS is 32, but it drops as low at 16 sometimes.Obviously when it does that the game "judders" for a second or two.

According to this review: http://www.bit-tech....650-ti-review/5

This card should have a minimum of 32 and average of 37 at ultra (for BF3 but roughly the same type of games?) My resolution is even lower than their benchmark (1680 x 1050)

My CPU load is at 100% when im playing, If I put the graphic settings down to low, turn AA off, the FPS doesnt increase at all, infact it seems to be even jumpier and worse with the settings down than full up.

Do I have some sort of issue or is my CPU not good enough for these games? CPU is the only difference I see from my system to the review system.

Its a Core 2 Duo e6400 OC'd to 2.4Ghz. which I know isnt special, but surely it could handle COD black ops 2?

Temp is 40C steady at full load.

Win8 64Bit with 4GB ram.

Latest nvidia driver installed

edit: also id like to add im not a FPS addict or anything, if I have to turn textures/settings down to get a smooth gameplay then I dont care. Im not one of those guys who wants everything to ULTRA lol. It just seems to play better that way for now and I thought this card would handle it.

edit2: thought I should add that the card has 2xDVI slot and one MiniHDMI, my monitor supports HDMI but I dont have a mini adapter yet, so im using DVI>VGA adapter. Maybe the analog signal is playing a part?

[ArialBlue]

Well isn't this just a classic case of a CPU bottleneck? :/

[Guth]

Well isn't this just a classic case of a CPU bottleneck? :/

I dont know, thats what Im asking :laugh:

As I said, total noob at PC gaming.

Black Ops 2 Requirements:

Minimum CPU is:

Celeron E1200 Dual Core @ 1.66Ghz

Recommended CPU is:

Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.15Ghz

[ArialBlue]

I dont know, thats what Im asking :laugh:

As I said, total noob at PC gaming.

Black Ops 2 Requirements:

Minimum CPU is:

Celeron E1200 Dual Core @ 1.66Ghz

Recommended CPU is:

Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.15Ghz

Generally do not trust minimum system requirements.

They are sometimes complete nonsense.

I haven't played the game so I cannot comment on its engine. :/

Do you have the latest patches and everything?

Nothing bad running in the background? (antivirus can slow things down)

If yes to both,

Maybe Google performance tweaks?

[Guth]

Generally do not trust minimum system requirements.

They are sometimes complete nonsense.

I haven't played the game so I cannot comment on its engine. :/

Do you have the latest patches and everything?

Nothing bad running in the background? (antivirus can slow things down)

If yes to both,

Maybe Google performance tweaks?

Thanks for helping, Im a total noob and although I know my CPU isn't anything special, I did think It would handle this OK. however the game is new and the CPU is 4 years old.

I installed from Disc and through steam, it auto updated before it let me play so I'm guessing that means its up to date. Don't see any option for manual update.

I tried closing down as much as I could, however I was playing with Avast running in the BG as it normally is when im online. I just noticed it has a gaming/silent mode, perhaps that might help.

By performance tweaks, do you mean tweaks to the game or tweaks to my system?

thanks again :)

[Detection]

I don't know... with your system and GPU I would expect a bit more from COD BO2, and the fact that lowering settings makes no difference is suspect

COD series are not very heavy on hardware

Gonna have a think about this and will post back, I don't think your CPU is 100% the problem, and lowering GPU settings should help, you say 100% CPU - Is the CPU normal on idle?

[ArialBlue]

I had to Google what COD BO2 means...

Anyway, it just might be a bad game engine,

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/354070-28-3720qm-throttling-black

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/123897-13-black

http://community.callofduty.com/message/413629126

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/124064-13-black-stutter-bottleneck

[farmeunit]

Tweakguides used to be a good site. They have driver and game settings.

[noobogoblin]

its the cpu

[Guth]

Thanks for the replies guys

@Detection

Yes CPU is normal on idle, well normal to me lol

its at 15% justnow with 77 proccesses running, rainmeter is using 5% and chrome 8%. Its just sitting happily at 15% which seems normal to me.

@ArialBlue

Reading those links now thanks

@farmeunit

Thanks, will check that site out

[Detection]

Thanks for the replies guys

@Detection

Yes CPU is normal on idle, well normal to me lol

its at 15% justnow with 77 proccesses running, rainmeter is using 5% and chrome 8%. Its just sitting happily at 15% which seems normal to me.

Idle is generally always 0% for me, but if they are the only processes using the CPU then it doesn't look like malware, although it wouldn't harm to give a scan with malwarebytes

[Guth]

Idle is generally always 0% for me, but if they are the only processes using the CPU then it doesn't look like malware, although it wouldn't harm to give a scan with malwarebytes

funny you say that as my old system was always at 0. This one never seems to go below 10%

this install is 7 days old so surely its not malware, i will scan anyway though.

Going to disable avast and close AS MUCH processes as I can and try again see if its any better.

Its not just COD BO2, I just downloaded assasins creed II (older game) and its doing the same thing, 100% cpu and stuttering even with a steady FPS.

Although the world is huge in AC so it may be down to that.

I was so excited for my new gfx card to game on PC but im sorta missing my console, at least it just worked lol.

EDIT: added screenshot

[redvamp128]

I don't know if this may help you but in the past when my cpu was a bottle neck ... I would always reboot then use the taskmanager and end anything that I didn't need before going into my game.

Hope that may help you out.

It worked then but may or may not work now.

[Guth]

I don't know if this may help you but in the past when my cpu was a bottle neck ... I would always reboot then use the taskmanager and end anything that I didn't need before going into my game.

Hope that may help you out.

It worked then but may or may not work now.

thanks gonna try that now

I just booted into BO2 zombies, same game but different mode, alot less going on and with everything maxed out im getting 60FPS steady, no jumping/juddering

however CPU is still at 100%

I also maxxed out my CPU and GPU overclocks and disabled avast and everything I could so dont know which has made the difference.

Going to reboot and try again with full game in Single Player as this is where the problem was happening.

[Eins.MY]

CPU bottleneck, Core 2 Duo in 2012 is a little bit...ancient

You could achieve better performance and FPS if you are using Core i5 or i7

[Guth]

CPU bottleneck, Core 2 Duo in 2012 is a little bit...ancient

You could achieve better performance and FPS if you are using Core i5 or i7

yeah I do wonder if this is the case, however its not a really crappy CPU?

would love to upgrade but that would mean new Mobo, Ram and CPU which would be like ?300-400

I just dont have that kind of money at the moment:( as soon as I do, PC is the first thing to get upgraded lol

[Guth]

update:

Something has worked and now I am getting a steady 60FPS dropping to 40ish at really intense parts (like loads of people/shooting/smoke and fire etc)

I did windows updates and rebooted. Stopped as much services as I could from task manager and disabled Avast antivirus

I reset game settings to default, they were all screwed up after me playing around. Default went to maxxed out at from AA which is at 4X and shadows are off.

Also upped CPU clock to 2.4ghz from 2.37 (max I can go while stable) and upped GPU from already high stock clock another 5%.

Cpu is now at 90-95% so I guess im right on the limits of this 4yr old CPU.

:D This is awesome now! so SMOOOOTH!

thanks for all the help guys

[nekkidtruth]

update:

Something has worked and now I am getting a steady 60FPS dropping to 40ish at really intense parts (like loads of people/shooting/smoke and fire etc)

I did windows updates and rebooted. Stopped as much services as I could from task manager and disabled Avast antivirus

I reset game settings to default, they were all screwed up after me playing around. Default went to maxxed out at from AA which is at 4X and shadows are off.

Also upped CPU clock to 2.4ghz from 2.37 (max I can go while stable) and upped GPU from already high stock clock another 5%.

Cpu is now at 90-95% so I guess im right on the limits of this 4yr old CPU.

:D This is awesome now! so SMOOOOTH!

thanks for all the help guys

Just a heads up, you don't necessarily have to entirely disable your anti-virus software. In your anti-virus software there is an option to set exceptions. You can add the folder where COD was installed to the exception list which would force your anti-virus scanning to ignore that folder which should improve performance.

[Slammers]

That frame rate is not right for your card.

You cannot compare BF3 and COD2. It your card has an average of 37fps on BF3 at ultra then it's average framerate for Blackops 2 will be well over 60fps.

Your CPU is definitely a huge bottleneck for the card I would look into a new one. It will handle BO2 fine though. The game will really run on anything its a mostly ancient engine.

edit: just read your post saying it's working better. Nice. I have no idea why people were saying that CPU would give you problems in such a basic game.

[Guth]

That frame rate is not right for your card.

You cannot compare BF3 and COD2. It your card has an average of 37fps on BF3 at ultra then it's average framerate for Blackops 2 will be well over 60fps.

Your CPU is definitely a huge bottleneck for the card I would look into a new one. It will handle BO2 fine though. The game will really run on anything its a mostly ancient engine.

edit: just read your post saying it's working better. Nice. I have no idea why people were saying that CPU would give you problems in such a basic game.

thanks for the reply, thats what I thought too and why I said BF3, it was the only benchmark i could find and I knew that if it was decent in BF3 it should be good in black ops 2.

Its now at 60 and down to 38 at the lowest when there is alot going on. I think the card could probably do better but is bottlenecked by the cpu like you said :)

As soon as I can afford it I will be getting a new CPU/Mobo/Ram :)

[nekkidtruth]

thanks for the reply, thats what I thought too and why I said BF3, it was the only benchmark i could find and I knew that if it was decent in BF3 it should be good in black ops 2.

Its now at 60 and down to 38 at the lowest when there is alot going on. I think the card could probably do better but is bottlenecked by the cpu like you said :)

As soon as I can afford it I will be getting a new CPU/Mobo/Ram :)

Just keep an eye out for deals. On a whim a month and a half ago I walked into TigerDirect and bought parts to make an HTPC. Case (w/PSU), CPU, Motherboard, 4GB RAM, 1TB Hard drive and DVD burner...$330 total with taxes in.

It's an HTPC so it's nothing spectacular and I went with an AMD CPU with built in graphics (HD6530) and only a tri-core, but the point is...you can find fantastic CPU/Motherboard combo deals and RAM costs next to nothing these days. I picked up that 4GB DD3 stick for $19.99 ;)

[Pupik]

According to this review: http://www.bit-tech....650-ti-review/5

This card should have a minimum of 32 and average of 37 at ultra (for BF3 but roughly the same type of games?) My resolution is even lower than their benchmark (1680 x 1050)

Why are you comparing the result of that review to yours? Have you checked their testing setup?

You should: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2012/10/09/nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti-review/4

It's better than yours, so you shouldn't really expect the same performance.

[Vvo]

you could simply upgrade to a core 2 quad which you don't need to replace your mobo at all

[Guth]

Why are you comparing the result of that review to yours? Have you checked their testing setup?

You should: http://www.bit-tech....650-ti-review/4

It's better than yours, so you shouldn't really expect the same performance.

I know their set up, i read the review twice before I bought the card

I compared it because like I said in the OP, i am a total total noob at gaming and I thought the GPU was all that mattered since my CPU has been good enough for anything else ive done up until now.