What CPU to get with 8800 GTX?

What CPU (athlon perferred) would i need to get that will not bottleneck my 8800 GTX?

Hi there,
You haven't stated your budget for the CPU. At the moment the Intel Core 2 Duo are the best overclockers. If you have the cash then go for a decent dual core such as the E6600 and a decent cooler then you'll get VERY nice framerates so long as you get some fairly decent RAM that won't restrict your overclock.

If you're going to go for a lower price CPU then the 6300s are also proven to overclock amazingly, just get some decent RAM and even a modest upgrade in cooler.

The 8800GTX is a massively powerful card and no CPU can currently push out enough data to make the GTX be the weakest link in your system - this means that if you get the CPU of your choice now dependant upon your budget and then upgrade later, perhaps when they finally finish with socket 775 and the top-end chips become el-cheapo then you'll have a CPU that can make full use of that beast of a GPU.

Just a little food for thought there.

Every single CPU out there, is a bottleneck. No matter how you look at it.

I would suggest a Core 2, and overclocking it.

50FPS in what? Oblivion? Half-Life2? You have to be more specific about the types of games you plan on playing.

If you already have an Am2 board, then go with an X2 5600+. If you are going to buy a motherboard, then get an E6420 Core 2 Duo when price cuts occur (rumored on the 22nd).

Uhhh .. get an $240 X2-6000+ if you must have AMD, but there are better options in CPUs today than a year ago.

Download cpu-z from www.cpuid.com and then run it. You can look at the CPU tab it starts on and tell us what the package (socket) type is or what the core codename is, or you can go to the mainboard tab and check there. You are upgrading an existing system, right?

The Hi-end market is dominated by Intel mainly at present, But the low - Mid market AMD still has some relevance. AMD still offers great value for money specially for people on tighter budgets. In the Toms hardware CPU chart benchmarks the 4800 X2 is not exactly a huge distance behind a stock E6400 Core 2 Duo, but comes in at a nice price tag and the 5600+ usually comes in reasonable. Overclock a E6300 then yes it will leave AMD trailing and Intels top line processors will leave AMD trailing also, but it all depends on someone's budget and if they are willing to over clock. If I was in the market for a PC now I would most likely go Core 2 Duo , but the point I was making was AMD isn't knocked out yet.

Get the best you can afford. Intel is on top in all ranges pretty much IF you are ok with overclocking, once you overclock they blow AMD away even on the low end.

If you must stick with AMD then get the best you can afford in dual core assuming your board will handle that.

As for those who say cpu is always a bottleneck for the 8800GTX and such, that all depends on what resolution and graphic options you game at. At high resolutions or with all the pretty effects enabled in games you can absolutely throw the burden off on even the mighty 8800GTX.

Give more info as to what resolution you play at, which games etc and someone could address that question a bit more properly rather than giving a false blanket answer thats so dependant on other variables.