FPS is way to low

[Monoliith]

My rigs basic specs
8350 w/212 Evo
R9 390 MSI Gaming
240gb SSD + 3 tb Mechanical (wow is on the SSD)
16gb 1600 Hyperx Fury

my FPS in warspear (low pop realm) is ~80 (on full LOW/OFF settings, minus textures, particles on high, view disc on good). In raid it dips as low as ~25-30 fps. My hardware WAY outclasses WoWs specs. Whats the problem? My temps are never even close to thermal throttling.

[Arbiter]

AMD CPUs have very low IPC leading to much lower frame rates than Intel CPUs in CPU intensive single threaded based games (such as WoW). I'd imagine the low frame rates is from the CPU itself. I haven't played for a while to know exactly how AMD CPUs should be handling in raid environments, but if 30fps is currently lower than the typical 8350 then it's possible that the VRMs might be overheating causing it to throttle. I'm going to assume it's just the CPU causing the low fps though, but maybe someone can correct me. I would definitely monitor the VRM temps to see though. Assuming it's the CPU itself, overclocking it or replacing it would be the only 2 ways to improve.

[Monoliith]

I know my VRMs have been getting hot. Apparently ASROCK extreme3 R2.0 mobos have HORRIBLE northbridges. Just got an Asus M5a99x. Not swapping it out until I get my new case as well early next week (bought an Enthoo Pro). :/ Hope thats the issue. I can play the witcher 3 on ultra (sans AA and hairworks) and never drop under 60 while stream, but WoW in raid cant. Makes my face hurt.

[Arbiter]

I know my VRMs have been getting hot. Apparently ASROCK extreme3 R2.0 mobos have HORRIBLE northbridges. Just got an Asus M5a99x. Not swapping it out until I get my new case as well early next week (bought an Enthoo Pro). :/ Hope thats the issue. I can play the witcher 3 on ultra (sans AA and hairworks) and never drop under 60 while stream, but WoW in raid cant. Makes my face hurt.

Well the difference being is Witcher 3 can take full advantage of multiple cores (at least 4 but maybe 8?) yet WoW can not which makes it a horrible comparison. Since you already bought the motherboard it wouldn't hurt to test out the new one to see if cooler VRMs help, but I would definitely overclock the CPU afterwards and if you're still not happy with the performance in WoW then you're only option would be to switch to Intel.

[Kagthul]

Its likely the CPU. AMD CPUs are ~40% weaker than Intel at identical clock speeds because of their terrible IPC. It is hard for even 5.0+ghz Intel CPUs to maintain a stable 60fps in crowded areas and raids because of WoWs single-threaded nature; FX-series chips frequently have trouble maintaining 40-ish fps, particularly at stock clocks.

[Vash The Stampede]

I have a 8350 with a Radeon HD 7850 and everything is Ultra except for AA which I set to lowest FXAA. My FPS in raids never drops bellow 30 fps. But my 8350 runs at 4.4Ghz and my 7850 is also overclocked. I water cool the VRMs on the motherboard, and put a much better air cooler for the northbridge chip, which is a 970. I have a Gigabyte that I forget the name, but I know it's a 8+2 VRM, and it still got too hot.

The ASROCK extreme3 R2.0 is a 4+1 VRM setup with a 970. It's going to get hot, and slow down the CPU. Unless you have a infrared thermometer, you won't really know how hot they get under load. Too many motherboards weren't ready for the 8 core AMD CPUs. From the looks of the AsRock you own, it can't reliably operate the 8350 without throttling.

The Gigabyte I bought came with defective VRMs. Don't know which one, but I figured it out by running Prime95 and watching all 8 cores. One core would almost never finish, but wouldn't cause an error. It was being throttled to nothing. Then one day WoW ran at like 15fps and couldn't figure it out, until I swapped in an old Asrock Cafe 770i that didn't throttle it while playing WoW. One of the VRMs failed and killed my CPU. Got a replacement from Amazon and been fine since. It's really hard to tell if a VRM fails, cause there's no warning. While WoW ran like crap, other games weren't effected.

[Monoliith]

So, apparently, my FPS doesn't change, AT ALL, if I put EVERYTHING on ultra. Its the exact same in every situation. Except my motherboard temps go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up. To the point where putting my hand over my exhaust fans is actually uncomfortable. HW monitor said it was 62c. God.

[Kagthul]

So, apparently, my FPS doesn't change, AT ALL, if I put EVERYTHING on ultra. Its the exact same in every situation. Except my motherboard temps go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up. To the point where putting my hand over my exhaust fans is actually uncomfortable. HW monitor said it was 62c. God.

Because you're entirely CPU limited. This is not a shock.

the GPU is not holding you back. An R9 390 can run the game on Ultra no problems.

[Vash The Stampede]

So, apparently, my FPS doesn't change, AT ALL, if I put EVERYTHING on ultra. Its the exact same in every situation. Except my motherboard temps go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up. To the point where putting my hand over my exhaust fans is actually uncomfortable. HW monitor said it was 62c. God.

If the CPU is 62C under load, that isn't bad at all. It's the VRM you should be concerned with. Also that NorthBridge will get burning hot as well.

See the black heat sinks around the CPU? Touch them while the system is under load for a while, and see if they don't burn your finger. Cause on mine, they certainly did. Especially the NB.



I have the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P. Notice the much larger VRM heatsink. The NB heatsink is garbage.

[Monoliith]

The cpu isnt even passing 42c under load, its the CPUTIN (northbridge i think) thats getting absurdly hot. BOught an Asus M5A99X Evo r2.0 to replace my mobo, since it has way better reviewed VRMs. I'll let yall know how it goes.

[Artorius]

You bought a AM3 board? I mean, now?

They're changing their socket Q4 this year, I really don't think it's worth replacing the mobo at this point.

[Vash The Stampede]

The cpu isnt even passing 42c under load, its the CPUTIN (northbridge i think) thats getting absurdly hot. BOught an Asus M5A99X Evo r2.0 to replace my mobo, since it has way better reviewed VRMs. I'll let yall know how it goes.

The 99X does have a 6+2 phase setup, which is a lot better than the 4+1 on your old motherboard. But that's a $110 solution. I would have just bought better heatsinks off Ebay. This is what I put on my Gigabyte boards NB. I used a nut and a bolt to hold it to the board, as the clips didn't fit.

[Gaidax]

Well allow me to join the 8350 is shit club, I have absolutely identical configuration with a small difference, Intel CPU and it flies, raids all the way up to 90 FPS.

[Master Guns]

The cpu isnt even passing 42c under load, its the CPUTIN (northbridge i think) thats getting absurdly hot. BOught an Asus M5A99X Evo r2.0 to replace my mobo, since it has way better reviewed VRMs. I'll let yall know how it goes.

That wasn't really a good choice IMO. Your CPU is bottlenecking you.

[Monoliith]

That wasn't really a good choice IMO. Your CPU is bottlenecking you.

Replyin to this guy - No it isn't. It's poorly optimized for WOW, yes, but I only play that 9 hours a week. It's never once hit 100% load since I bought a 390.


ALSO! To give an update on the computer - I swapped my TOP exhaust into a TOP intake (yeah i know, save it) and guess what? temps are down 5-10c across the board. Booyah.

[Master Guns]

Yes, it is.