Will an A64 3500+ bottleneck an 8800gts??

[lspyderl]

I currently have :

Asus a8n32
amd 3500+
antec 400 watt psu
xfx 6800gs
1gb ram

i know i am i need of a system overhaul but that will have to wait until Xmas. Asuming that my psu has the proper voltage on the 12v rail will my 3500+ bottle neck an 8800gts?

 

[lspyderl]

Thanks guys.... sorry for being so blunt on the question, i just dont see the point in typing some happy dappy story, i figured that my 3500+ couldnt handle an 8800, but i wanted to run it by y'all as well, i'm just like a lot of others trying to squeeze out the last of life out of my system before i buy a new one.

 

[Maziar]

why dont u buy a X2 ? they are cheap (but rare) (939 ones)

 

[lspyderl]

x2 s939 in my mind is a waist of money, since i dont oc at least not yet anyway. performance charts arent that much more impressive than my 3500, yah sure i could multitask a little easier or shave 20 secs here 30 secs there off different programs and some benchies they are just about the same...not worth $80 to me.

 

[cleeve]

With your machine, an upgrade to an 8800 would deliver a HELL of a lot better gaming performance than an upgrade to a better CPU.

You'll also see huge gains on your system over, say, an X1950 PRO.

There might be a slight bottleneck with your 3500+, but it's small, and the higher the resolution you play at the smaller the bottleneck becomes. This is becuase at higher resolutions the video card is the major bottleneck, not the CPU.

Go for it!

 

[cleeve]

For the record, we tested a 3800+ with an 8800 GTX and it beat an e6600 with an 8800 GTS at 1600x1200 resolutions and above, showing that the Athlon64 architecture is still a fine CPU to pair with a high-end video card:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/11/system_builder_marathon/page11.html

And remember, most games get almost no boost from dual core. Games like clockspeeds more than multicore, and will for a while until all the game engines are optimized...

 

[San Pedro]

Get that card, it will be much much better than your 6800gs!

 

[jrnyfan]

I have my X2 4200+ @ 2.4GHz paired with a 8800gts 640MB and i know for a fact that the proc bottlenecks it...but here is the secret...i dont play above 1440x990 so i can't tell! if i were to upgrade to a faster proc (like the E6750 i have been eyeing) i would be getting uber 1337 frames at 1440x900 vs. just the uber frames i get now but my un-1337 eyes can't tell the difference between 150 frames and 175 frames...so in answer to your question, depends on the frames you play at and what game you play. if you play oblivion for example, you will see and increase that is noticable but if you play BF2 (like me) then you wont notice the increase.

hope that helps..if not...meh, sorry...im just getting my post count up

 

[lspyderl]

thanks everyone, i just want to be able to play games smoothly....i have an 19" lcd @12x10 res. so the super high resolutions are not in my play book. The goal is to be able to run SupCom smoothly and now that Starcraft 2 is coming, be able to play it as well. I can come up with the 300 to get an 8800gts faster than say about 1200 to get everything new at one shot, so i figured i would get the 8800gts now and then just transplant it to my new system in a couple of months.

 

[enewmen]

I won't say it WILL bottleneck.
But surely it CAN.
If you play in high-res, there will be less of a bottleneck effect (but slower).
Get a dual core anyway. Even for single thread apps, there will be much less lag switching from app to app. With a C2D, I can play Oblivion and burn a CD at the same time. No lag.
Basically, dual core will make games more smooth, not faster (because there is always something else running in the background). Lots of RAM also makes apps a little faster and a lot smoother. Get the K10 when you upgrade, if you like AMD.
Personally I will wait until the K10/Yorkfield and 9800 GTS comes out before upgrading. Get a cheaper X1950XT to keep you happy until then. (the X1950XT will still blow the doors off the 6800GS)

 

[elbert]

For the record, we tested a 3800+ with an 8800 GTX and it beat an e6600 with an 8800 GTS at 1600x1200 resolutions and above, showing that the Athlon64 architecture is still a fine CPU to pair with a high-end video card:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/11/system_builder_marathon/page11.html

And remember, most games get almost no boost from dual core. Games like clockspeeds more than multicore, and will for a while until all the game engines are optimized...

I agree that a GPU make a great difference but the test in question is an X2 3800+ with an 8800GTX v/s an E6600 with an 8800GTS. Just wanting to point out it is not a single core A64 3800+ as you make no distinction. If you note the 12 page in that article it is more like X2 3800+ with the 8800GTX comes even at 1280X960 as budget build beats the mid price build pretty good in fear. http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/05/11/system_builder_marathon/page12.html

@Ispyderl as you can see it make a difference even around 1280X1024 so I suggest the 8800GTS 320mb if for no other reason that to have a good GPU for a future system build.