Will these specs bottleneck my build?

silverrocket · Nov 19, 2014

I am planning to build a custom pc, specifically for gaming at 1080p for next gen titles such as Battlefield 4, AC: UNITY, and WatchDogs. These games' graphics preferably set at high settings.

My specs are :

Core i5 4460 ( or = Core i3 4150)
AMD RADEON Sapphire R7 260X
Kingston HyperX Fury 8gb DDDR3 1600 (Single Channel)
Asus H97M-E Motherboard
Corsair VS 550W Power Supply Unit
Windows 7 SP1

Will these specs bottleneck some of the listed hardware?

Your assistance is appreciated.

Beezy · Nov 19, 2014

you want that i5 at least, but the R9 260X is on the mid range side. really ist lowish-mid range, and I doubt it will hold constant playable frames at high settings. Watch dogs for example is just a buggy poorly designed game, my friends i5 and GTX 770 had massive lag. So I imagine a 260x will struggle real hard. At medium settings and no AA I think youll be fine. forget the i3.

Guest · Nov 19, 2014

No. Why would there be a bottleneck? Looks pretty balanced to me. You seem to at least have done your homework considering you picked 1 dimm of ddr3 to run dual channel at a later date...which I think is a good call myself...what are you worried about????

Guest · Nov 19, 2014

And I would suggest not waste your time with watchdogs too. Its poorly made and runs like a dog on even super pcs. Plus its a boring, sub par, mediocre game. Save your money for gta 5 and do yourself a good favor.

Note that the 260x is going to be outdated soon enough. Its not a bad card by any means and does great for its price bracket but just dont expect console beating graphics or performance

silverrocket · Nov 19, 2014

Beezy :

Thanks for the assist. I've been having a hard time picking either the i3 4150, or the i5 4460. Sure the i3 is much more cheaper, but why settle for less? Considering the i5 4460 is a Quad core, Multi-threaded (4), this card may be useful in a long rung. Games these days still struggle to take advantage of any Quad core CPU, but i guess it'll still be helpful for my video editing and rendering process.

silverrocket · Nov 19, 2014

Well... Consider that I've made a very bad decision last time when it comes to upgrading my pc. The thing is, 4 years ago I bought a Pre-Setup Dell pc, with onboard graphics and a Core 2 Duo Processor. I have no intention for gaming, at that time.

As time passes, I thought having a gaming pc would be great, so i bought a Sapphire Raden HD 5670 1 GB for an upgrade to the system. And guess what, somehow, the CPU and the PSU bottleneck the **** out of my GPU. The fps is horrible. Even though i set games' graphics at the lowest settings, the FPS is still not improving. Considering that the HD 5670 was a good mid range card (as of 2012), I cant shake the feeling that something is very wrong with my PC.

And now, when it comes to upgrading, instead of building from what i already have, I'd rather start from scratch. The core 2 duo wont fit with modern Hasswell socket anyways. So might as well build a new one. Better MOBO, better RAM, better CPU, better GPU.

Hence, the fear of bottlenecking. God bless Tom's Hardware for having this forum and a good community.

Beezy · Nov 19, 2014

Spend more money now and you won't have to upgrade the CPU for many years. With an i3 you'll be itching for an upgrade in a year or two. Quad cores with Intel current IPC should be good for a long while as gaming chips.

What kind of rendering do you do btw? For basic video rendering the i5 will be good but if you do heavy render or 3D renders I would consider the FX 8320 cpu. If gaming matters more than rendering go intel. If rendering matters more than gaming go with an Fx 8320

Guest · Nov 19, 2014

Okay I get what youre saying.

But I can tell you its been getting easier and easier the past few years to build a computer without worrying about nickpicky compatibility issues. You can not buy a power supply that will bottleneck your cpu/gpu. Computers dont work that way. If your power supply isnt correct worst case it wont be feeding enough power to your components and the computer wont turn on or will crash and blue screen or give you all sorts of strange problems. Sometimes it can be hard to diagnose. Thats why you always get a larger PSU than what is required and make sure its a solid unit. But in no way will it bottleneck your pc if you pick a good one.

As with yor hd 5670, there was probably something else wrong other than a "bottleneck" that all these people obsess over. Could have been driver related or motherboard related. Or it was just a POS.

And as for the cpu. many many games most definitely take advantage of more than 2 cores these days. In fact most do. Going from a dual vore pentium to a quad core i5 is like night and day with a capable gpu in games. Holy moly im tellin ya. Definitely get the i5 if you can affford it. Its soooo badly worth the extra money for games. Were talking 35fps in a game like far cry 3 up to 60fps with a core i5 and decent gpu. Which in my opinion is from borderline playable framerates with a pentium/i3 to perfect gameplay with an i5

silverrocket · Nov 19, 2014

Beezy :

On that we can agree mate. I'd rather spend more, rather than, as you said, itching for an upgrade later on. With the i5 I believe it would be very valuable in term of cost and longetivity.

I mostly do video rendering (720p and 1080p, not working in 4K yet) out of Sony Vegas and After Effects. I did'nt work with 3D though, so I guess an i5 would be just nice.

Well I guess I'll be getting the i5. Thanks for the assist friend!

and btw.. My apologies but I'm still new with these forum thingy, perhaps there is some way I could +1 to you? or thumbs up or something?

silverrocket · Nov 20, 2014

Damn.. I've been suffering with games at average FPS of 15, and 20 if I'm lucky with the settings. How I envy those who plays at 60 FPS!

Well so far the i5 is seems like a very good investment for the money, works well for both gaming and video editing, definitely gonna go for that one

I'd recall that you've mention earlier about the R7 260X, that the GPU might get outdated soon. From what I see of real world performance and multiple benchmarking, the GPU seems to work just nice at moderate game settings. I could settle with average FPS of 30, what I cant stand is constant stuttering and bugs that derived from bad optimisations. (Yeah, Bugisoft). That being said, I still agree with you though, the longevity of future gaming support is questionable. Eventhough it is a Mantle, Direct X 11.2, and Direct X 12 ready, I still have my doubts.

The R7 260X would settle for me in this year and next, and I believe this build is usable and stable enough that I hope would support my upgrade from R7 260X, to, say, R9 290 in the future.

Perhaps you have suggestions for an alternative for my R7 260X? Preferably within its price range. Nividia or AMD, doesnt matter, as I believe they're both made awesome GPU'S.

Beezy · Nov 20, 2014

if you found an answer helpful you can always click the green "pick as the solution" button under a posters name

Guest · Nov 20, 2014

Yeah the 260x is a great deal no doubt. For the price of ~$100 you really cant beat it. You wont be sorry you bought it as it will do the job. Just dont expect a miracle I guess. But you will be gaming happily on it no doubt. I try not to be a snob about pc performance as we all cant afford dual gtx 980s and we all have our own opinion on what "playable" is. Youll definitely be getting a better gaming experience than on consoles for the most part. You shouldnt deal with many bugs or stutters at all. But it happens from time yo time even on the best gpus (read: far cry 4 performance issues)

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