will my cpu bottleneck my new gpu

carbuncle55

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May 25, 2007
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Hello, Im just a gamer thats not to keen on hardware. I just ordered a geforce 8800gts 640mb. And I was told ps3forums that my cpu would bottleneck me, no one really explained why or how bad it would be. So I come here asking for advice to see if there is a bottleneck or if there is but the bottleneck isnt that bad. Also I was reading that even a Harddrive can cause bottlenecks. So I list all my specs. I bought this card to mainly play crysis at 1680x1050. :arrow:

my specs
cpu: Intel pentium D 930 3ghz, overclocked to 4ghz
gpu: Geforce 8800gts 640mb superlocked
memory: 1Gx2|G.SKILL F2-5400PHU2-2GBLA
motherboard: Asus P5LD2
Harddirve: 250G|WD 7200 SATA2 16MB WD2500KS
Case and powersupply: NZXT | LEXA BK/SIL 500W RT
 

m25

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May 23, 2006
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For being a gamer not too keen on hardware, setting up a 4.0GHz PentiumD is not bad :wink:
Well, as for the question, most of the time it won't happen, however, a 8800GTS is a monster I would only associate to a Core2 or at least, a high-end X2 like a X2 5600+ or 6000+. If I were in your place, I'd just get some Core2 like a E4400, E6400 etc and OC it to 3.0GHz; that's more or less like youd PentiumD was running @ more than 5.0GHz.
 

ethel

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May 20, 2006
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At that resolution you won't get much of a bottleneck. That's not to say that there won't be some bottleneck - there will always be some difference, but not one that's worth buying a new CPU for. Besides you've got a P4 4GHz - it's hardly slow.
 

Valdis

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Apr 30, 2007
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it would be a serious bottleneck if you played games @ 640x480 16 bit with all effects set to low. will you use this card this way? if yes then you need a new cpu, otherwise its got plenty of muscle
 

carbuncle55

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it would be a serious bottleneck if you played games @ 640x480 16 bit with all effects set to low. will you use this card this way? if yes then you need a new cpu, otherwise its got plenty of muscle

I dont really understand what you mean.
 

Silaz

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CPUs only bottleneck graphics cards at low resolutions because the cpu must do more of the work. At higher resolutions with AA and all the eye candy enabled, the GPU does almost all the work. So in reality your cpu isn't a bottleneck per say, but it will just hold you back some. Instead of getting 120 fps you may get 100fps. :p Hope that makes more sense to ya.
 

carbuncle55

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May 25, 2007
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CPUs only bottleneck graphics cards at low resolutions because the cpu must do more of the work. At higher resolutions with AA and all the eye candy enabled, the GPU does almost all the work. So in reality your cpu isn't a bottleneck per say, but it will just hold you back some. Instead of getting 120 fps you may get 100fps. :p Hope that makes more sense to ya.

Thats a good deal because I like high res and high settings. I also heard that in vista dx10 that it would put more workload on the gpu instead of cpu, is that true? I know that dx10 games arent out yet except for lost planet demo, i think lol.