Maximum PC

Hello all, i recently built a new gaming PC. I want to step out of the stone age and into the modern age for once. My system is:

AMD3 870 extreme3 asrock board
Phenom X2 x555 the 3.2GHZ one
Radeon 6970
8GBs DDR3 1600 Corsair ram
SSD for C
WD Black 64mb cache for Data/games

Those are the important pieces. I went with the AMD3 and Phenom combo right now because i am waiting on SandyBridge or Bulldozer to be released. Then i am going to upgrade to that. I was just curious if the CPU could limit the total Frames Per Second you get in games. For example i loaded up Age Of Conan turned on DX 10 and Set it to HIGH settings for video and running @ 1920 x 1080. I get fluctuations between 20 -40 FPS. Usually around 33+

Basically i was wondering if that was normal or low or depends on the game as some are better optimized etc...

I dont really benchmark the system as far as graphics. So i was basically wondering in your opinion what i should expect with modern games as far as fps and what settings i should choose?

Also the CPU could it really drag FPS down that much or not generally? Would you say a good cpu is good for 10more fps or you cant really quantify it that way?


Thanks for any input. I just want to make sure the system is running as intended. (Until i get my grubby mitts on a bulldozer or SandyBridge that is )

Sandy Bridge hit the market in early January .. just an FYI.

Your CPU should not limit your FPS .. it is fast enough for modern games. You should be getting better than that, though, with a 6970. Have you updated your drivers?

I know the CPUs are still for sale but no one is selling the motherboards currently with the recall.

I am running the newest drivers from AMDs site. This was a new build so i downloaded everything from their websites.

What should i be getting? Should i run some other benchmark app? And roughly what is normal for this gpu or setup?

This should help.

Thanks, my marks are actually in line with other benchmarks. Also i was able to get a better play experience by unlocking the processor's 2 extra cores and over clocking it a bit to 3.6ghz. The games are pretty smooth now.

Thanks again.

Excellent .. glad you got it sorted out .

If you pop down your resolution, even a tiny bit (1600 x whatever) you will see a better fps by a good amount. Personally I've always thought 1900x whatever what overdoing it but w/e.