Question about bottlenecking

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ls1

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I have a Q6600 OC'd @ 3.0ghz and I'm looking to upgrade my video card. I'm stuck between a GTX 750 ti and a GTX 660. I've been told my CPU will "bottleneck" these cards, but that either should still be an improvement over my current GTX 285. I can get both at the same price, so I'm trying to squeeze out the best possible performance out of my machine (this is the last upgrade I'll do before I rebuild a new PC in the future).

My question is, do bottleneck actually negatively affect my performance i.e. make it worse than it is? Or does it just LIMIT my performance to a certain point. Will the 750 ti and the 660 both performance exactly the same on my system, or will the 660 actually make my computer perform WORSE because there is "more of a bottleneck" as its a more powerful card?
 
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MeteorsRaining
Firstly, GTX 750 Ti would be my choice, and no, it won't be a major (or noticible) bottleneck. Maybe a 5-10 FPS, not much more. 3Ghz is quite fine for most titles. And it won't negatively affect performance, even if only 90% of 750 Ti gets utilized, and 100% of 285 has been utilized, that 90% of 750 Ti is still better than 100% of 285. And GTX 660 is older tech, why to bother about it?
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negativkarma

negativkarma

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Bottlenecking simply means one or more of your components cannot keep pace with the rest of your system. This does not make performance worse, but simply LIMITS the maximum performance you will see.

the 660 nor the 750 ti will not make your computer perform worse, the gpu just will not perform at its maximum capacity as it waits for more data from your cpu. Go for the 750ti.
 
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Joseph DeGarmo

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What bottlenecking means is that the video card's performance will be held back by the CPU. In other words, the CPU will be running at full load and with the video card not running at its max, the CPU is not being able to catch up with the video card. In addition, the GTX 660 is generally a bit faster than the GTX 285, so by swapping to that, the only thing you gain is DirectX 11. I would suggest keeping your current video card until you can upgrade your CPU. Then get a GTX 900 series video card.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-660-vs-GeForce-GTX-285
 
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MeteorsRaining

MeteorsRaining

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Firstly, GTX 750 Ti would be my choice, and no, it won't be a major (or noticible) bottleneck. Maybe a 5-10 FPS, not much more. 3Ghz is quite fine for most titles. And it won't negatively affect performance, even if only 90% of 750 Ti gets utilized, and 100% of 285 has been utilized, that 90% of 750 Ti is still better than 100% of 285. And GTX 660 is older tech, why to bother about it?
 
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ls1

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Ok, great, thanks for the answers everyone! My 285 is really starting to show it's age, I'm glad I can still squeeze a bit of life out of this old machine by doing a GPU upgrade. I'll go with the 750 ti, thanks!
 
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Joseph DeGarmo

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The 750 Ti is actually a downgrade from a 285. If you want to boost your PC's performance, then you will need to replace most of your components. You can step up to an i5 CPU and get a GTX 960 when that is released. However, if going above that, a GTX 970 is an extremely powerful single video card and recommends an i7 CPU.
 
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MeteorsRaining

MeteorsRaining

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How is that a downgrade? Please elaborate.
 
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ls1

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I don't see how the 750 ti is a downgrade from the 285?? I got that card back in 2010 and that thing is a pig by today's standards. Here's a comparison I found of the stats: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-750-Ti-vs-GeForce-GTX-285.

The 750 ti I'm looking at (FTW) has double the clock speed, double the memory, triple the memory clock speed and double the shading units. I'm confused :(
 
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Gracodana

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FashionablyLate

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What you could experience is low(er) frames per second and/or high frame time (ghosting) if either your CPU or GPU is the cause of the problem. Either way, you're going to get a LIMIT, rather than a performance loss.

Bottlenecking is not really the best term for what you're wanting to know, but people use it anyway. I would use the term "choke point" before 'bottleneck'. A 'choke point' happens when either the CPU or GPU has to wait for the other to finish its work before continuing. Think of sitting in your car at a toll booth that only has 2 lanes and 20 cars are waiting. The tellers can only handle 1 car at a time and only 2 cars total. Either lane you're in, you still have to wait until 9 cars are through before you get to the booth. Now think of a toll booth with 10 lanes and 20 cars. Now you only have to wait for 1 other car, so the process is faster.

When a game sends information about a frame to the CPU, the CPU processes it and sends it to the GPU to render it. If your CPU is 'faster' than the GPU, it will still process the next frame, but has to wait for the GPU to finish and accept more information before it can continue onto the next one. On the flip side, if your GPU can render and output the frame faster than the CPU can process it, it has to sit and wait for the CPU to finish and hand it off to be rendered.

Keep in mind that certain types of games use different resources. An MMO, for example is going to naturally be more CPU 'heavy' because there is more going on, on screen. Whereas a single player, non-online game, is going to be more GPU 'heavy'. So it really depends on what you're going to do more.

I know I'm late to answer, but hope this helps.

*Other hardware and software can cause this as well, not just CPU's and GPU's, since there is always (however minor) a choke point to consider. System RAM, GPU memory bandwidth and amount, and PCI bandwidth are all things to consider.
 
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ls1

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Ordering it right now Meteors :)

Gracodona: I definitely plan on rebuilding, but it won't be for about a year. Even then, I'm going to give this current PC to my girlfriend and I want it to at least be able to handle modern gaming.

With the 285 I can't get DayZ SA above 15 FPS on lowest settings and my computer won't even boot Alien Isolation because the card isn't DX11 capable. I've seen some videos of OC'd q6600 and 750 ti rigs running both those games on ULTRA with smooth frames, so I'm hoping it improves my gaming experience significantly.
 
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ls1

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Thanks man, but I ended up ordering the EVGA 750 Ti FTW version. Size shouldn't be an issue either way, I have a full-tower NZXT. Card should be here in a few days, pretty excited to run some of my games above very low settings for once and finally actually play Alien: Isolation :D.

Thanks again for the help everyone!
 
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