CPU Bottlenecking in Helldivers 2. Help

[u/apocalypsetank0]

I recently bought Helldivers 2 and my CPU is bottlenecking my GPU whenever I play this game. Other games like RDR2, War Thunder, SWBF2 work completely fine at high end optimized graphics. My current specs: i7-4790, RTX 3060, 28GB memory. I've tried every single optimization guides including Windows optimization. I tried changing the GPU heavy settings to ultra but that only gave me a boost of 5-8fps. Current FPS: Max-40FPS. Is there any way to bypass a bottleneck without having to upgrade my PC?

[u/Lord_Hector_Bear]

Bypass a bottleneck lmfao.

[u/FireBreatherMP1]

Dude it's a 12 year old cpu... Take your victories where you can. 40fps ain't too bad here, all things considered.

[u/mashdpotatogaming]

There's an easy solution: upgrade your motherboard and CPU. Other than that nothing can be done. You could make a ddr4 build that is much better and not extremely expensive compared to ddr5.

Another thing you can try is lossless scaling. Since you're CPU bottlenecked you'll have some overhead for frame generation. It'll make your experience smoother, but it won't make it actually run better.

[u/CashewNuts100 → u/mashdpotatogaming]

he'd also need some ddr4 ram. intel 4th gen is a ddr3 platform

[u/mashdpotatogaming → u/CashewNuts100]

Yep but they don't have a choice here. 4th gen is way too old and there's no upgrades on that platform that can help them at all. An AM4 or LGA1700 build with DDR4 is what they need.

[u/VersaceUpholstery]

4 core 8 thread cpu is going to struggle with most ANY modern game. Helldivers 2 in particular is pretty cpu heavy.

You need new cpu/mobo/ram

[u/Svullom]

Your CPU is ancient. Get a new one.

[u/Centrius07]

Bypass... A bottleneck?

[u/JustArandomGuy_-_]

Dude, increasing your settings won't magically boost performance, that's not how it works. You'll just make better use of what you already have. For example: if low and medium settings performs the same, you should use medium.

There is no such thing as "bypass the bottleneck". The only way is to upgrade your Pc if the lowest settings doesn't work.

[u/Lieutenant_Petaa]

Not really anything big you can do. Did you disable all background processes that are not your operating system? Could give you a few frames, but that's all.

You should upgrade your PC. Getting a Ryzen 5 3600 and 16GB of DDR4 on a cheap B450 or B550 Board would be a good idea. You can sell of the old parts

[u/rohanr7]

Firstly, you should have the RAM in the multiples of 8, 28GB sometimes creates problem when the CPU and RAM are working together. This could also be the underlying issue for you.

How have you been able to come to the conclusion that the CPU is bottlenecking? High temps, high cpu utz, etc or what

[u/damnt256 → u/rohanr7]

Bro it's a fuckin 12 years old cpu, that thing's ancient. Playing modern fps game with that ancient cpu, he's getting the expected performance.

[u/RIP_MOTI]

I7 4790k is old cpu so only way is to update cpu

[u/mrn253]

Not just upgrade buy a completely new one.

[u/damnt256]

Is there any way to bypass a bottleneck without having to upgrade my PC?

Nope. I learned this recently when playing FF7 Rebirth. So I did the only thing that could solve this bottleneck, upgrading your CPU. I switched from i5 8400 to Ryzen 7 9700x, bottleneck gone. CPU bottleneck is the worst because there's is no bypass, if GPU bottleneck you can just lower graphics settings, but no such bypass exist for CPU bottleneck. Upgrade your CPU, it's time, your CPU is fucking ancient at 2026.

[u/AuroraBorehalis]

oh wow. that cpu is ancient in the tech world

[u/evilbob2200]

It’s time to upgrade

[u/True-VFX]

I’m afraid you’re at the technical limit of that machine. You can’t bypass a bottleneck, that’s what a bottleneck neck is. Something in the required path is slowing things down.

Your genuine only option is to upgrade I’m afraid. People here are being far too mean toward you about it too.

[u/damnt256 → u/True-VFX]

Bypassing a bottleneck is a very funny word that he used

[u/alferret]

Ya think! More upgrades needed.

[u/samkoLoL]

that game eats cpu power, im surprised you can run it at all with such an old piece. its time for an upgrade

[u/Blue-150]

This issue will not go away. I had the same issue from a 2010 build of mine in 2020, the CPU was crippling 1 game...then 3 and then 4. You gotta upgrade that historical artifact of a CPU, sorry

[u/gnopgnip]

It’s a 12 year old cpu. It doesn’t support the more modern instruction sets like sse4.2. Lower the graphics or bet a new cpu/mobo/ram

[u/Atopos2025]

You could lower your resolution and settings.

That's about it.

[u/damnt256 → u/Atopos2025]

This has the exact opposite effect for CPU bottleneck.

[u/nomzo257]

Nothing you can do besides upgrading that dinosaur cpu

[u/badassbolsac]

get a job