How can I speed up my computer? (Gaming)

General Discussions
#1

I have a 3.6 ghz processor, a mid-range graphics card (Radeon 7750), and 4gb of ram, but I feel like my computer lacks the performance power compared to other systems of similar specs or worse. Like when I watch this video, The description says that he gets an average of 31 fps playing the Witcher 2 on Ultra with the same graphics card, a slightly worse cpu (@ 3.4 ghz) and 8 gb of RAM but whenever I run the Witcher 2 on all Low settings, I can only get about 10 - 25 fps. I’m sure there other factors for this performance decrease but the fps difference is so drastic. So my question is, how much of a difference does some more ram make, and how can I speed up my system (preferably without overclocks).

PS: I clean out my processor and graphics card fans every month so I don’t think heat is the issue.

#2

Just a guess, i know this from my notebook:

To save energy, nVidia Optimus or AMD Enduro use the GPU of the processor, if they think it is fast enough.
Sometimes this system fials and the wrong GPU is used. In this case you need to start the programm with the right GPU manually.
On my notebook (with a nVidia GPU and a Intel processor) i can do this by right-clicking the programm an click “execute with graphicsproecessor->nVidia processor”. I am not sure how it is with AMD, but there should be something similar.

#3

Saying that you have a 3.6GHz processor honestly doesn’t mean sh*t.
It’s like saying that you have an 8 megapixel camera. You just simply can’t compare two processors based only on the frequency (or on the number of cores, for that matter).
For example an AMD FX-4300 has 4 cores and a 3.8GHz default frequency, where’s my Intel Core i5 3570K has 4 cores too but only 3.4GHz default clock speed.
So does that mean that the FX-4300 is better? No. In fact, the 3570K is about 2x faster.

4GBs of RAM for gaming is not really sufficient. Of course this depends on the game and the OS too, but AAA monsters like Battlefield or Witcher have a tendency of eating up RAM like crazy. If your OS runs out of RAM it has to use the swap partition on your HDD which is obviously going to be very slow, so for gaming 8GBs of RAM I would say is the golden standard.

For most gaming systems the actual bottleneck however is the graphics card. If you want to game on fullHD it is recommended to have at least something like a GTX750 Ti/AMD R7 260X or better with 2GBs of VRAM. For fullHD 2GBs of VRAM is plenty, but if you have something like a WQHD display or you play games that require a lot of VRAM (like Skyrim with all those fancy 2K and 4K texture packs) you’re better of getting something with 3 or 4GBs of VRAM.

A good gaming PC is expensive (mine is around $1100 but there are still parts that I’m not quite satisfied with), but you can get away with something like a $750 build that can play most of the games on fullHD mid/high at 60fps. However, if you want to play those beasts (Witcher, Crysis, Battlefield, Far Cry, etc.) on fullHD ultra you will have to spend around $1000 at least.

However, I’m not suggesting you to instantly go out buy new parts and spend a lot of money. If you could tell us about your PC’s specs in a bit more detail we could help more easily.

#4

As detailed as I can get:
Graphics Card: Radeon HD 7750 2Gb DDR3
Memory: 4gb RAM
Motherboard: Gigabyte Brand (not sure what model)
CPU: AMD FX-4100 Quad-Core Processor 3.6ghz
Hard Drive: 500gb max only about 90gb left
OS: Windows 8.1 x64 (dual-booted Xubuntu: 23GB partition*)
*gaming stats in OP taken before dual boot (if it matters)

#5

Your PC’s specs are fairly average I would say.
Possibly the most obvious solution would be to start monitoring your CPU, GPU and RAM usage during gaming. You’ll clearly see what’s the bottleneck that way.

#6

Yeah if your CPU is at 100% while playing Witcher 2 then that’s the difference between 3570K and your 4100.
If not, then make sure it’s the 7750 running and not some integrated graphics or something.

#7

Here are a few things I do every 6 months to a year to improve gaming and general performance:

-Clean out my fans and heatsinks - because dust leads to higher temps which causes the processors to underclock sometimes
-Clean my OS: scan using malwarebytes, CCleaner, manually disable services/background processes uneeded
-Reformat/reinstall completely - this usually has the greatest general performance increase for me

Sometimes I use Gamebooster and overclock my GPU.

#8

by reformat and reinstall you mean you reinstall your entire os or just the game?

#9

by reformat and reinstall you mean you reinstall your entire os or just the game?
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The entire OS, because it removes all viruses, bloatware, unneeded processes/services etc

#10

Registry cleaners should be used with care, personally never had a problem with CCleaner but read a lot of complaints online how it erased important data.