Am I getting the bottle neck?

[tekzor]

Athlon X2 3600+ Brisbane
Running at 1.9GHZ pared up with a 8800GTS 320MB

I can OC the CPU to 2.6GHZ if that helps.

 

[blade85]

then....just oc it and see what you get

 

[Gary_Busey]

The easiest way to tell if, in general, you're bottlenecking is to compare your cards benchmarks with other benchmarks from reviews. I know this isn't a concrete way of doing it, but it should give you somewhat of an idea.

 

[HYST3R]

with an X2 i dont think you would be bottlenecking that card but have you benched it with any programs yet? 3DMark? and compared that to other people with that video card.

thats what i would do. 8)

 

[prozac26]

are you getting playable FPS. if yes, then no you are not getting bottlenecked, if the answer is no then yes you are being bottlenecked.

Yea, and you can max out all details and resolution.

 

[Farhang]

Zac & SS are right. :trophy: (as always of course! )
But if you can have a Cool-Stable 2.6GHz CPU, then go for it. 8)
But if you are going to play at high resolution (such as 1280x1024) with AA, then you won't see bottleneck with your 1.9GHz X2 CPU.
One more think is, do not pay attention to 3DMark's score as it's just a stupid program! :roll:

 

[4745454b]

First, everyones machine has a bottleneck. Everyone has something in their computer that holds everything back. It might be your CPU, or your RAM, or your motherboard, but there is a slowest part in everyones machine.

If you think your CPU is holding your GPU back, test it. At stock, run 3DMark and a game with FRAPS. Record these results, then overclock your CPU. Run the tests again. If 3DMark picked up 200 points, and the frame rate was <5% faster, then there is something else holding the machine back. (could be RAM, harddrive, even the program being benched.) If the jump in scores was a lot, then you have moved the bottleneck from the CPU to something else. Congrats.

 

[Gary_Busey]

One more think is, do not pay attention to 3DMark's score as it's just a stupid program! :roll:

That's a little careless. It's not an indicator of real-world gaming performance, but it is a great tool to benchmark your card and system and see at what level they're performing.

 

[Farhang]

Come on Gary, you know that adding a Quad-Core X6600 to a Dual-Core X6800 system will just increase the 3DMark's score by a huge margin!
Also i had an 7800GT & i just OverClocked it from 400MHz core to 450MHz & my 3DMark05 score jumped from 6800 to 7700! but in game...maybe 1 or 2 More FPS.
It's not a good program to compare a system to another!
As HD2900XT gets the same score (or even better) than a 8800GTX.
It just make you happy when you OverClock your CPU or GPU cause it's score will jump good!
Just my opinion BTW, so no offense to anyone. 8)
I have a huge respect for Gary!

 

[Gary_Busey]

I don't think you understood me. For comparing similar systems, it is an excellent tool to use to determine if your system is running like it should. Of course you're not going to compare a system with a quad-core processor to a system with a dual-core processor, or use it to see if a 2900XT is as good as a GTX. As I said, it's not a good indicator of real world performance, but it's definitely a good tool to benchmark your system and determine if it's running like it should.

 

[Farhang]

Oh Oh, Damn! now i get it! Sorry! :tongue:
F*ck, my brain didn't suck like this before! Am i getting old?

 

[prozac26]

One more think is, do not pay attention to 3DMark's score as it's just a stupid program! :roll:

I remember testing my stock E6300 vs. a 2.8 GHz E6300, the 3DMark 06 score went up by like 550-650 points, but games didn't even see a 0.5 framerate difference, at 1024x768.

 

[tekzor]

Thanks for the responces.
I was a little worried because its the low end X2.
I mainly play 1280,1024
max setting and AA AF 4/8
games like CC3/WOW

I know the card could handle it but wasnt sure on the CPU. I'm building this rig on monday Cheers!

 

[Farhang]

Don't worry you can easily play those games at those settings but as C&C3 is an RTS game, OCing your CPU to something like 2.4~2.6GHz would increase your FPS by 5~10%.
Happy new monster system! :twisted:

 

[tekzor]

Don't worry you can easily play those games at those settings but as C&C3 is an RTS game, OCing your CPU to something like 2.4~2.6GHz would increase your FPS by 5~10%.
Happy new monster system! :twisted:

hahah yeah!

Its been so long since I had a top of the line GPU!