Your system is being slowed down by a constraint or limitation.
Your system is being slowed down by a constraint or limitation.
I own a system around 1½ years old, built back then for gaming purposes—primarily CS:GO. I usually see between 110-180 fps depending on the map and settings. That’s far below my target of 200 fps or more, especially since I want to avoid dropping below that. As a semi-pro player, I notice noticeable drops around 170 fps when using a 144 Hz monitor. My current setup includes an AMD FX-8350 processor, a Sapphire Radeon R9 270x GPU with 2GB and 450 MHz clock speed, 1400 MHz RAM, a 16 GB HDD, and a 1 TB SSD spinning at 7200 RPM. The power supply is a MSI gaming unit with a 750W PSU and some Golden Certified Corsair components at 750W. I’m only able to upgrade one component at a time—either the CPU, motherboard, or GPU—and would like advice on which change would help most.
I’m not really familiar with the CS requirements, but that setup isn’t very strong. A GPU upgrade seems like the best option. If you’re committed to gaming, getting a new Intel CPU would make sense too. I’m not sure why you’d need 144Hz when your monitor only supports 144Hz. Unless you’re into that kind of high refresh rate display.
I ahve, but he saying 'he feels the fps drop into the 170s' which is impossible, as his monitor can only display a maximum of 144FPS There is no display output difference regardless of 1000000000FPS or 145FPS with his monitor, as it can only display a maximum of 144FPS
In reality, higher FPS can be problematic if it exceeds the monitor's capabilities (like 144Hz), causing noticeable tearing and poor visual quality. However, some users prioritize extremely low latency for smoother performance, even at lower frame rates. This preference often stems from misunderstanding concepts like G-Sync and Freesync. Before that, many simply assume more frames are always better without realizing the importance of synchronization technology.
Discussing the issue: your PC seems to be struggling because it’s using both the graphics card and CPU heavily.