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Question

Bad gaming performance caused by bent CPU pins?

Apr 10, 2017 5:35PM PDT

Hey guys, I should probably start with my rig first, so here it goes:

-Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen3
-I5 3570k
-XFX Rx 480 8GB
-2x4 GB DDR3 Ram Corsair Venegance
-500W BeQuiet Powersupply

So I recently bought a new graphics card and a new motherboard for my old I5 3570k because my old one wasn't working anymore. Since the socket 1155 is now older, I had trouble finding one that wasn't ridiculously overpriced so I came across a cheap Asrock Extreme 3 Gen3 but with many bent pins and one VCC pin is even missing, but it still works.

However I discovered that half of the ram slots, B1 and B2 to be precise, are not working so I had to put my 2 4GB cards in A1 and A2 which now only run in single channel memory mode. I think it's highly likely caused by the CPU pins. When I installed everything, I found out that my gaming performance was quite bad, almost the exact same performance I had with my HD 7870, only around 30 fps in Total War Warhammer in medium sized battles with high settings for example.
Furthermore Msi Afterburner tells me, that my GPU and CPU usage are only around 70% in game, GPU usage goes to 99% for one second some of the time but then goes back to 70ish. Ram usage is constantly at 2750 mb.

So my question is: Do you think my bad gaming performance is caused by the single channel memory mode? And if so should I try to bend to pins to the right position? I'm rather scared of that since I've heard that it's highly likely that your board isn't working anymore if you break one single pin.

I can't really aford to buy a new setup since I'm quite broke atm. Or is the bad performance caused by some other thing, the bent pins itself for example? Any help is appreciated!

Post was last edited on April 10, 2017 7:32 PM PDT

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I'm going with no. NOT poor performance.
Apr 10, 2017 5:48PM PDT
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I'm not sure about that.
Apr 10, 2017 6:07PM PDT

Tried a few other games as well and I hardly recognize a better performance compared with my old 7870. I expected a much bigger boosted considering that I paid 270 bucks for the card, almost the twice the amount as for my old one. Just run the Furmark benchmark for test purpose and only got a score of 2761 points and 46 fps average with 1920x1080. When I compare scores with other 480 cards on the furmark website I see scores above 4000. Are you sure this is normal?

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Answer
I ****** up the title.
Apr 10, 2017 5:49PM PDT

Is there no way to edit or delete posts on this forum?

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What do you want it to say?
Apr 10, 2017 6:00PM PDT

Moderators do have some ways to fix that. Just tell me what it should say.

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Well...
Apr 10, 2017 6:09PM PDT

Should have either been "Bad gaming performance because of bent CPU pins?" or "Bad gaming performance caused by bent CPU pins?". Silly
Minor thing but I still find it a bit annoying.

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Edited to
Apr 10, 2017 7:32PM PDT

Bad gaming performance caused by bent CPU pins?

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Answer
Ram
Apr 10, 2017 7:20PM PDT

Single channel will be a minor hit to fps if you have a discrete graphics card.

Do you have the latest bios and drivers for the mobo and gpu?

Bent pins, since the machine works I'd just leave it alone.
Like you said if you break one of those you might end up with scrap.

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Check out the link I supplied.
Apr 10, 2017 7:33PM PDT

That game could get CPU limited. It's really only in massively complex scenes and the discussion covers settings to change.

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Furmark
Apr 10, 2017 7:47PM PDT

I would think that if furmark (which I've never run) is reporting a big difference between what the op has and other machines that it's more than just settings in some game.

Not to say that adjusting settings won't work for some game.

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Here's the thing about those furmarks.
Apr 10, 2017 7:50PM PDT

Folk fudge those tests with overclocking, and what else. Yes, the machine's motherboard is suspect, they may not have dual channel (which can matter in this game) but the complaint is not new.

Nod to toning down the settings.