Will my Cpu bottle-neck a Gtx 980?

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Andeh123

Andeh123

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Aug 9, 2015
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I'm thinking about buying a Gtx 980. Though I'm not sure if my CPU can handle it. The CPU is pretty old. 3 years maybe? It's a i7-2600S Quad Core @ 2.8 GHz base. I haven't touched the processor but I've read that it could go up to 3.8 GHz as well. Would I need to overclock my processor, or will the 2.8 GHz be enough to run a Gtx 980 (without it bottle-necking)?
 
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skit75
I haven't played those games. I'm playing ARK:SE right now and I know my i7-920 is choked at default of 2.67GHz by my GTX 770, in this game. That being said, I can play League of Legends, Battlefield 4 and other ~newish games just fine. My CPU does a lot better in ARK:SE the closer it gets to 3.0GHz and when im at 3.2GHz or above, it seems like my GPU(GTX 770) becomes the bottleneck =)

My best guess is that you could choke your i7 @ 2.8GHz with a GTX 980 under the right circumstances but it probably won't happen too often.
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Andeh123

Andeh123

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I'm new to computers and stuff, but from this can I take that bottle-necking only occurs when you push the card to a certain limit? It doesn't just automatically happen?

 
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skit75

skit75

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Some games are more CPU bound than others. In those games, your CPU could choke your GPU. I bet there is a list of known games that are CPU bound and in that case, overclocking could help you. It might also be that you just don't happen to play any of those games, so it wouldn't matter.
 
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Andeh123

Andeh123

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So would you consider 2.8 GHZ weak for modern gaming? Or would it suffice.
(Games like Fallout 4, MGSV, and likewise)

 
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skit75

skit75

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I haven't played those games. I'm playing ARK:SE right now and I know my i7-920 is choked at default of 2.67GHz by my GTX 770, in this game. That being said, I can play League of Legends, Battlefield 4 and other ~newish games just fine. My CPU does a lot better in ARK:SE the closer it gets to 3.0GHz and when im at 3.2GHz or above, it seems like my GPU(GTX 770) becomes the bottleneck =)

My best guess is that you could choke your i7 @ 2.8GHz with a GTX 980 under the right circumstances but it probably won't happen too often.
 
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rar_54

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Your CPU is still a very good performing processor. I doubt you will see any processor bottlenecking issues as long as you have at least 8G of RAM and an SSD, which are the two items I'd be sure to have long before considering upgrading the proc.
 
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Andeh123

Andeh123

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It sounds like getting a GTX 980 would be alright, I'll do a little bit more research before buying one though.
 
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skit75

skit75

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Those would surely help. It also quite possible I am experiencing more CPU usage due to my 6GB of RAM while playing ARK:SE, which loves system RAM. I'm using an i7 older than his and am familiar with nearly every clock frequency on it between 2.67GHz and 3.8GHz. They definitely are not crap and hold their value and years well. My PC will be 7 years old this March(not counting GPU) and it only started feeling long in the tooth this summer. The 3.0GHz threshold is a good spot to be above going forward with buying newer high-end GPU's.
 
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