Windows 7: GTX 680 4gb: Not impressed with performance. Why?

**UPDATE** Its has been suggested that my CPU may be bottlenecking my GPU. If this is true, please make a CPU recommendation. From my research, evidently AMD sucks and I should get a new MOBO and CPU to get the most performance from my new GPU.




I recently upgraded to a 680 4gb from a GTX 560 Ti 1gb. I'm not really impressed by the difference in these two cards. I thought a GTX 680 would be a huge upgrade; however, games like Sniper Elite V2, Sleeping Dogs, Max Payne 3 only benchmark at an average 30 fps on the highest (Ultra or Extreme) settings. Sure on the next to highest settings (High) the game will run at 80-115 fps, but whats the point with 60hz monitors? My 560 Ti ran those games on high at 60fps anyway. Doesn't really do much for me.


Is something wrong with my other system specs or a windows setting that may be holding my new GTX 680 back from it's true potential? Why am I only getting 30 FPS on Sniper Elite V2, Max Payne 3, and Sleeping Dogs on the highest settings? For nearly $600 I would expect 60FPS on the highest settings for all new games.

You cant get much better than a GTX 680 right? It was to my understanding that a GTX 690, although better than a 680, was not better by much and practically overkill.




SYSTEM SPECS:
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
MOBO: ASUS Crosshair V Formula
CPU: AMD X4 820 2.81 GHz
RAM: GSkill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 4x4GB = 16GB
GPU: EVGA GTX 680 FTW 4gb
HD: Western Digital 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache 6Gb/s
PSU: 850W
CASE: Cooler Master HAF 932 ADV BLUE ED
MONITOR: ASUS 27'' and Gateway 19'' (old flat screen hand-me-down)




MORE INFO
NEWEGG LINKS:

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131735
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103824
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231314
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130798
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817171048
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817171048
CASE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119213
MONITOR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824236101




Thanks!

Are you firm on an AMD based system?

I guess not. I want the best performance out of my new expensive graphics card. Period.

I used intel chipsets years ago and was disappointed. If there's a good reason to go back to Intel then I will. I'm curious if there is anything on the AMD horizon that will beat an i5.

What are your temps while gaming? With EVGA Precision X you can set a custom fan profile to keep temps down. You shouldn't have any problems with temps, but some do. The GTX 600's will begin to throttle at 70C. Did you ever run any benchmarks with your 560 TI? If so run them with the 680. The 680 should more than double anything you can get with a 560 TI. You should also be running driver 306.23 which can be downloaded from the Nvidia web site. I really don't know if your CPU is holding you back or not. But, if you do decide to change, I would consider a Z77 board and an Ivy Bridge CPU. That will give you PCIe 3.0 rather than PCIE 2.0. Whether that is an advantage or not is debatable, but it was for me.

Try running Ungine Heaven 3.0 (free basic edition) with all settings maxed out. As soon as it finishes loading press F9 to run the benchmark. You can compare your scores with the ones in this thread. Show us your Unigine Heaven benchmark scores!

It should give you some idea.

have been looking at the new Nvidia cards myself, new cards 600 series are PCIe 3.0 your board runs Only PCI 2.0 not sure what affect this would have but theres a good chance this could be your problem

Max Payne 3 Graphics and CPU Performance Tested, DirectX 11 Showcased - TechSpot Reviews

You can compare your system with the hardware they used. There were tests done using a PII x4 645 and the GTX 680. You can probably find tests for the other games that interest you also.

This is from the developer's website;


+ Max Payne 3 Review (9/10)

Minimum System Requirements

* OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2 or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Dual Core 2.4 GHZ or AMD Dual Core 2.6 GHZ
* RAM: 2 GB
* HDD: 35 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9

Recommended System Requirements

* OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista SP2 or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel i7 3930K 6 Core x 3.06 GHZ or MD FX8150 8 Core x 3.6 GHZ
* RAM: 4 – 8 GB
* HDD: 35 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 1 GB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9

Supported Graphics Cards:
Minimum – NVIDIA 8600 GT or Radeon HD 3400
Recommended – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB or Radeon HD 7970 3GB

The TechSpot Review website implies a "lowly" x4 AMD chip, with a 680, does almost as well as the six core Intel 39.. CPU and a 680 while the developer's website implies you need the latest and greatest CPU and GPU to get the most out of the game. Your call....Good Luck.....

For everyday tasks, there's very few AMD CPU's that will top some i3's. The new Intel CPU's are just that good. If you need a slew of CPU cores and want to do it on a budget, by all means, get a multi-core AMD processor. If you use a computer for web browsing, gaming, video/picture editing and things of that nature, get a good i3 or an i5. I know you have a high-end graphics card, but if you do any video encoding, transcoding, etc, you may want a CPU with the Intel HD4000 graphics with Quicksync.........it makes SHORT work of those types of projects.

This is probably the best value i3 CPU..... Newegg.com - Intel Core i3-3225 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I33225

If you don't care about the HD 4000 graphics and want 4 physical cores, then just about any i5 will do the trick.

Pair that up with a Z77 motherboard and 8GB of RAM and you'll be set!

Just to clairify, my numbers were based off the benchmark in the game options of all three games.
These are not in game fps numbers with fraps or anything.:I'm not sure how CPU intensive that is (ie: if Ai or bullet trajectories are being calculated.

I am currently using driver 306.23.

I'm considering getting a new mobo and CPU now Although after spending 600 for a graphics card it may be a while.

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Try the Ungine Heaven I linked to. It's a good benchmarking tool. Max everything out in the options and run the benchmark. To compare, here is my 670's score.

The following image is my benchmark.

This link is someone with a 680 also but different CPU.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...vilx200/as.png