Is the GPU or the CPU the bottleneck here?

[mitunchidamparam]

Hi,
I have a toshiba laptop with a Intel CPU , AMD GPU, OCZ SSD.
It is year old laptop.
The specs are :
GPU- AMD radeon HD 3650
CPU-Intel- Core2 duo-P8600 - 2.4 Ghz
SSD- OCZ petrol- 128GB
While I am playing Star caraft, I have 1 or 2 FPS when I play big battles in 2v2 or more, in 1v1 i have no prob.
Here I took a screen shot of my CPU and GPU usage during one such game.
Can you guys tell me which is the bottle neck here, and I found that the GPU can be OC, is it also possible to OC the CPU, Will OC anything help me to get better FPS.
https/picasaweb.google.com/117865179184096338440/Bottleneck?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCC_MyVlt6dygE#5737947191838579618

 

[stingstang]

That CPU is the bottleneck. Starcraft uses a huge amount of processing power during big battles. There's really not much you can do...

 

[mitunchidamparam]

That CPU is the bottleneck. Starcraft uses a huge amount of processing power during big battles. There's really not much you can do...

Is it possible to change some settings in windows 7 or OC the CPU to get better performance?

 

[Chainzsaw]

Hi,
I have a toshiba laptop with a Intel CPU , AMD GPU, OCZ SSD.
It is year old laptop.
The specs are :
GPU- AMD radeon HD 3650
CPU-Intel- Core2 duo-P8600 - 2.4 Ghz
SSD- OCZ petrol- 128GB
While I am playing Star caraft, I have 1 or 2 FPS when I play big battles in 2v2 or more, in 1v1 i have no prob.
Here I took a screen shot of my CPU and GPU usage during one such game.
Can you guys tell me which is the bottle neck here, and I found that the GPU can be OC, is it also possible to OC the CPU, Will OC anything help me to get better FPS.
https/picasaweb.google.com/117865179184096338440/Bottleneck?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCC_MyVlt6dygE#5737947191838579618

Hello,

It's actually both. Your whole laptop is somewhat "weak". What resolution do you play at? Also how much RAM do you have?

You could try lowering the resolution in SC2...or select some weaker graphics options in SC2.

Even with my computer (in my spec), in certain large custom games with lots of units, my FPS can go all the way down to around 10FPS, or even less. I game at 1080P @ ultra in SC2.

 

[ismaeljrp]

I would first, blame the GPU. It's horridly weak really.
The CPU is decent, it does hinder performance, but it shouldn't be causing such a dramatic loss in performance. The CPU outmatches that gpu really. It's not a bottleneck problem, it's a weak components problem. Even if you had a better cpu, it won't make much a difference.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Is it possible to change some settings in windows 7 or OC the CPU to get better performance?

With it being a proprietary laptop no you cannot. Even if you could - you would make your laptop go out of thermal spec and it would over heat way too quickly (and shut down by itself once it gets too hot).

 

[mitunchidamparam]

Hello,

It's actually both. Your whole laptop is somewhat "weak". What resolution do you play at? Also how much RAM do you have?

You could try lowering the resolution in SC2...or select some weaker graphics options in SC2.

Even with my computer (in my spec), in certain large custom games with lots of units, my FPS can go all the way down to around 10FPS, or even less. I game at 1080P @ ultra in SC2.

I have 4gb of RAM, and I game everything at the lowest possible resolution and settings,
From the screen shot i see that the CPU is at 100% but the GPU is at like 50 % , why is that?
https/picasaweb.google.com/117865179184096338440/Bottleneck?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCC_MyVlt6dygE#5737947191838579618

 

[Chainzsaw]

I have 4gb of RAM, and I game everything at the lowest possible resolution and settings,
From the screen shot i see that the CPU is at 100% but the GPU is at like 50 % , why is that?
https/picasaweb.google.com/117865179184096338440/Bottleneck?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCC_MyVlt6dygE#5737947191838579618

As the others stated, your CPU cannot keep up with all the action going on screen in SC2. It's called a bottleneck effect.

You could try buying a new CPU for your laptop....but the cost of upgrading it won't be worth the return you would get in terms of performance. Even if you did upgrade your CPU...then your GPU would be the weak link.

If you really plan on playing SC2 a lot and don't want it "choppy" you will need a whole new system/laptop.

 

[mitunchidamparam]

As the others stated, your CPU cannot keep up with all the action going on screen in SC2. It's called a bottleneck effect.

You could try buying a new CPU for your laptop....but the cost of upgrading it won't be worth the return you would get in terms of performance. Even if you did upgrade your CPU...then your GPU would be the weak link.

If you really plan on playing SC2 a lot and don't want it "choppy" you will need a whole new system/laptop.

I was thinking of getting a new lap this summer, would the Trinity APU be good enough for gaming, my lap gives just 1 hr of battery so i want to get a lap without a dedicated GPU, or would a Ivy bridge be good enough?

 

[Chainzsaw]

I was thinking of getting a new lap this summer, would the Trinity APU be good enough for gaming, my lap gives just 1 hr of battery so i want to get a lap without a dedicated GPU, or would a Ivy bridge be good enough?

AMD's trinity should be pretty good for gaming. However you might have to just wait and see though. There should be some pretty awesome gaming laptops coming out this summer/fall.

BTW most gaming laptops - well you would be hard pressed to last more than 1 or maybe 2 hours on a single charge, as gaming draws a lot of power to the GPU and CPU.

 

[mitunchidamparam]

Best answer selected by mitunchidamparam.

 

[nbelote]

AMD's trinity should be pretty good for gaming. However you might have to just wait and see though. There should be some pretty awesome gaming laptops coming out this summer/fall.

BTW most gaming laptops - well you would be hard pressed to last more than 1 or maybe 2 hours on a single charge, as gaming draws a lot of power to the GPU and CPU.

As an example, I have a battery I can get roughly 7.5 hours on a single charge while browsing the web with 1 step up from minimal brightness. Gaming with the same brightness level? 2 hours, maybe 2.5.

 

[ram1009]

Is the GPU or the CPU the bottleneck here?


The answer to your question is "YES". And if you replace the slower part with a faster one the "bottleneck" will likely switch to the other part. Sounds like tail chasing to me. Even my dog is smarter than that.