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8800GTS 640MB & CPU Bottleneck?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - 8800GTS 640MB & CPU Bottleneck?

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Hello,

I just recently purchased http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php [...] at2_no=136 and was wondering if with my current setup how bad of a CPU bottleneck I would be getting in games like Bioshock, BF2142, etc.

Current setup:
Vista Home Premium x64
955X Chipset
Intel Pentium D 830 (3.0GHz)
4GB (1GBx4) DDR2-667MHz
8800GTS 640MB
WD Raptor 75GB 10K RPM
SB X-Fi XGamer Fatality

Nothing is OCed and I plan to keep it that way.

Please no flames about my specs/setup, I've read that the 8800's tend to need top-of-the-line processor. Just wondering how much I will be able to get out of this new card. Upgrading from a 256MB GeForce 6800...

Message edited by xyhec on 09-04-2007 at 03:07:40 AM

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You CPU will probably bottleneck, but it should still offer you some decent FPS in games, as it is dual-core. If you feel like your CPU is bottlenecking you too much, you could always look into overclocking it. Pentium Ds might not be the most powerful, but they can overclock well on decent air cooling. If you don't want to overclock the CPU, then you would really have to buy a new motherboard and CPU since 955X won't support Core2Duos. You will still notice a HUGE improvement going from 6800 to 8800 anyway, and I think you should be fine unless you try to turn everything up to max at higher resolutions, when the CPU would start to lag behind a bit.

Reply to Gravemind123

Yes it will bottle neck. You ram isn't paticularly fast either, I would have gone for 2gb ddr2 800 cas4

Reply to HPCE_Larry

your rig should be fine, just overclock your cpu a little and your should able to enjoy most of the upcoming games. your ram is fine.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to accu

he did say he didn't plan to overclock
have you actually noticed bad performance?

Message edited by spuddyt on 09-04-2007 at 10:04:47 AM

Reply to spuddyt

even without oc, his rig should be fine. most people are still using p4 or single cpu. but i dont see why he doesnt want to oc...

Reply to accu

Even if you have 4gigs of memory windows xp only see 3gigs of that and that takes away dual channel which is faster because of data transfer. Take it from me I just bought two more gigs and added 4gigs to my system and compared to my dual channel setup while playing Bioshock
with my 8800 GTS the four gig single channel setup was slower, than that of my 2gig dual channel [][/]set up,and I have a x2 4400+ 2gig corsair 8800GTS 320 superclocked to a normal 8800GTS 640. Just something to think about.

Reply to dmantech

dmantech wrote :

he said he has vista

Message edited by blade85 on 09-04-2007 at 02:18:12 PM

------------------------------ I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum.....and I'm all out of gum!
Reply to blade85

accu wrote :

your rig should be fine, just overclock your cpu a little and your should able to enjoy most of the upcoming games. your ram is fine.

Difference between ddr667 and ddr800 is minimal at best.

To OP. Yes your cpu is bottleneck. A Pentium D @ 3.0ghz is no faster than AMD64 @ 1.6ghz for games.

------------------------------ Asus P5B vanilla with E6300 B2 stepping @ 3.5
4 gigs Gskill
8800GTS 756/1836/1037
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ew-benches
Reply to marvelous211

As long as you're playing at high resolutions, the CPU bottleneck won't have a major impact.

PLay 1600x1200 and you'll get very similar results than you would with a higher-end CPU.

And if you don't want to play at 1600x1200... then you're getting a videocard that's too powerful for your needs, anyway...

Reply to Cleeve

I used to have 2GB of ram, added another 2GB when I moved to Vista x64. The computer is a Dell XPS Gen 5 (sigh) so overclocking in the BIOS is totally restricted. That's the only overclocking I've ever done, I never trusted any software suites for overclocking. Not to mention every software based overclocking program I've tried does not support Vista x64 and usually crashes even when in compatibility mode. Unless you guys know something I don't (most likely) then go ahead and give ideas. I plan to play at 1600x1200 with full settings on most games. The card should arrive via UPS in an hour or less...I hope.

Reply to xyhec

That's why I don't buy Dell. LOL

I don't know if clockgen works with Vista so I don't know. Pentium D overclocked wouldn't net you too much more power anyways unless we are talking about 4.0ghz. A mild overclocking isn't going to cut it.

Maybe your board supports Core 2 duo?

------------------------------ Asus P5B vanilla with E6300 B2 stepping @ 3.5
4 gigs Gskill
8800GTS 756/1836/1037
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ew-benches
Reply to marvelous211

I doubt it, anyways the card just came in an hour ago, played BF2142 on 1600x1200 max settings and FSAA same with Bioshock. All I have to say is...simply amazing.

Reply to xyhec

of coz you'll see improvement. going from 6800 to 8800 is like heaven and hell.

Reply to accu

At least your cpu is dual core. Bioshock plays crappy without it.

------------------------------ Asus P5B vanilla with E6300 B2 stepping @ 3.5
4 gigs Gskill
8800GTS 756/1836/1037
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] ew-benches
Reply to marvelous211

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