Will Phenom II X4 970 bottleneck GTX 780?

Valeras · Apr 10, 2014

Current pc specs:

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6950
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 970
PSU: 600W

I want to get a GTX 780 but I'm worried that my current cpu will severely bottleneck it. I don't currently have enough money to buy a new cpu and mobo (I want to move to intel), but will upgrade in the future. Will getting the GTX 780 increase my gaming performance or is it not even worth it with my current cpu and I should just wait until I have the money to upgrade my GPU, CPU, and MOBO at the same time?

dextermat · Apr 10, 2014

Hi,

The GPU should working fine but on some modern games you won't be able to go much more than low medium setting because of your cpu.

But it's a case per case

coolcole01 · Apr 10, 2014

I think it will perform very decent with the older chip but as the new technology really starts rolling out like dx12. Its about to become a cores/threads game. If you can get a 8320 from microcenter for 99$ when the go on sale you will be in a good position you can get a very basic mobo for that at about 50 bucks.

logainofhades · Apr 10, 2014

Yes it will. Anything over a an HD 7870/GTX 660, R9 270/270x will bottleneck for sure. What is your budget?

Gam3r01 · Apr 10, 2014

^Not entirely.

At stock speeds it will bottleneck over those cards, but with a mild-moderate OC it can handle up to a 760. Past that you will need a new CPU. Running that and a 760 will run modern games on high-ultra.

logainofhades · Apr 10, 2014

I agree that a 760 could be a possibility with an overclock. A 780, you will be getting a bottleneck.

paitjsu sadff · Apr 10, 2014

it will still allow for high anti-aliasing, ultra textur settings and supersampling, basicaly it will allow for much more eye candy until you can gat a new cpu, some games dont demmand that much from the cpu either...you will see great results in those games....mmo and strategy or rpg games that are cpu dependnt will not get great performance...

Valeras · Apr 11, 2014

logainofhades :

I have $750 I can spend. I'm actually now thinking about getting the gtx 780 ti superclock. I should have enough money to get an i5 4670k with an appropriate mobo some time after the summer. I know that my cpu will definitely bottleneck the gtx 780 ti superclock but what I'm wondering is to what extent. Will it be so severe that I might as well not get a new gpu now? Will I only lose a few fps? How much of a performance increase would I see, over my current XFX Radeon HD 6950? I'm trying to upgrade my rig as much as possible in time for the Watch Dogs release.

Valeras · Apr 11, 2014

coolcole01 :

Like I said, I'm switching over to intel. Preferably an i5 4670k or an i7 4770k. I was looking into the 8230 earlier and a lot of people were saying that although it has 8 cores, they're pretty weak cores compared to intel i5's.

coolcole01 · Apr 11, 2014

yes core for core the intel will always be stronger and is a great choice for games but as we see the ps4 and xboxone both use 8 core systems games are already being optimized for it but even then the i5 will still perform well and the 8320 which does a great job will start to shine from its use of similar srchitecture to the current era of game consoles. For most of the past very few games have taken advantage of more cores which is why intel was always better. dx12 will change this alot it is literally made to take advantage of the higher core count but its not like it will be in use in the next year. i would say that prtice is always the determing factor if you can get a 8320 for 99-130 and it will give you 90% of the performance of a i5 now why not use the extra money on a better card which has way more to do with how good your games are. But if you can get a great deal on say a 4670 for like 180 for sure jump on that.

coolcole01 · Apr 11, 2014

compared to a hd 6950 your performance with a good cpu will increase about 8 times with the 780 ti

Valeras · Apr 11, 2014

coolcole01 :

Yes but what if I don't have a good cpu (like my current Phenom II X4 970) and only change my gpu to a GTX 780 TI Superclock. I'm just worried that the performance increase won't be much and that it wouldn't justify me spending a ton of money for only the gpu now.

Also I've heard that the next gen consoles actually only use 6 cores for gaming and that the 2 remaining cores are for background processes, so the i5 will still generally be better than the FX 8350 for future games. Sorry if I'm just blatantly wrong, I'm a total tech newb haha.

WhiteSnake91 · Apr 11, 2014

What resolution are you going to play at? I think 780ti for 1080p is total overkill. You could get a GTX 780, a Xeon (same price as i5) 1150 socket cpu (an i7 without built in graphics, 4 cores and 8 threads just like an i7) and a cheapish motherboard for the same price a 780ti would cost most likely

or even get a GTX 770, still great for 1080p.

Hell, I have an HD7950 which the GTX 770 beats and I can play any game I've ever played in my huge steam library on ultra, even BF4 (when that buggy POS doesn't crash...) . I'm quite content with "only" an HD7950

coolcole01 · Apr 11, 2014

hmmm ok lets put it this way i have an 8350 @4.5 running two hd 7950's which in crossfire are the equivalent of the 780ti i never get less then 60fps and get great performance in everything now if the cpu is so bad why is my performance so good. Its because the gpu is so much more important when you are rocking a cpu with as much power as an i5 or 8350 the card is way more important

Valeras · Apr 11, 2014

WhiteSnake91 :

I'll be playing at 1080p. It is overkill but I just wanted to future proof as much as possible because I don't plan on upgrading my gpu any time soon. I'm a college student so money is always tight. So the Xeon actually performs better than an i5 4670k because it has more threads? If so, that is pretty amazing.

Grippinq · Apr 11, 2014

It doesn't matter about the clock speeds of an AMD cpu... The Phenom will bottleneck any single GPU past the GTX750, and the R9 270x. Don't listen to the AMD fan boys trying to validate their purchases. Just attempt to upgrade your CPU to an Intel one, preferably an i5 2500K if you're on a budget. Made that mistake of going AMD.. never again.

coolcole01 · Apr 11, 2014

i am a fanboy but im a money fanboy and when you can get a 8320 for 99 bucks on sale for gaming because that extra 110 bucks not spent on the cpu can get you a much better gpu. the i5 can be better all day but the differencfe of 100 bucks is to good for a 10% increase in cpu when that can buy you a 20-30 % increase in gpu.

Grippinq · Apr 11, 2014

Only GPU intensive games will see that % increase in performance.. and that is becoming more and more rare in todays generation. Games are being more CPU reliant, hence the large switch from AMD users to Intel.

logainofhades · Apr 11, 2014

This combo would be a good choice.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.48 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock B85 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card ($439.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $749.46
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-11 17:12 EDT-0400)

coolcole01 · Apr 11, 2014

you have no idea what you are talking about it is the complete opposite games are becoming way more gpu dependent especially at high resolutions the new generations of consoles came out with weaker cpus and stronger gpus and thats the way things are heading

logainofhades · Apr 11, 2014

coolcole01 :

Tell that to Crysis 3, BF4, Thief, and upcoming Watch Dogs. Watch Dogs is recommending an i7...

Valeras · Apr 11, 2014

You guys have been extremely helpful, thank you. One last question.

With my current cpu (Phenom II X4 970), would you get a gtx 780 ti or would you wait? What would the difference in fps be, between:

Phenom II X4 970 + GTX 780 ti
VS
FX 8350/I5 4670K + GTX 780 ti

Obviously I don't expect numbers, but could you give a rough feel of it? Would it be a huge difference that would not justify me buying a gtx 780 ti if I couldn't upgrade my cpu too.

coolcole01 · Apr 11, 2014

I am playing bf4 on ultra max setting in multiplayer @ about 90fps average by that logic i shouldnt be close to that. They are recommending more cores threads not stronger cores otherwise they would recommend an i5

logainofhades · Apr 11, 2014

Even with the bottleneck, it will be way better than your 6950. Since you plan on upgrading the CPU in the not too distant future, go ahead and you can get it now. Just make sure your PSU is up to the task. If you are going to game at 1080p, like said above, the 780ti is overkill. There is nothing my build above couldn't handle and even that GPU is probably more than necessary for 1080p.

WhiteSnake91 · Apr 11, 2014

logainofhades :

trust me, TC, go with this instead of just getting a 780ti with your current cpu. It's not going to help you in CPU intensive stuff. I play stuff on ultra at 1080p with a lesser gpu, and, there's really not future proofing so much. Even a dual core haswell/ivy bridge can hold up ok today because they're so stout. You need a good cpu, a R9 290 is no slouch at ALL. mine would equal an r9 280, r9 280x would be the old hd7970 ghz, and the r9 290 is even better than that. Trust me you don't need as good of a gpu as you think you do for only 1080p.

Will Phenom II X4 970 bottleneck GTX 780?

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