P5N32-E with GeForce GTX 260 - will it bottleneck performance

[ketrab]

Hi and thank you for reading

So I'm about to receive a ASUS P5N32-E mobo from my friend without a gpu and I was wondering if Geforce 260 will bottleneck the system. I know that the mobo is pciE 1.0 where the gpu is 2.0 so lately that was my biggest concern but after reading couple articles even one at tom's I found out that todays gpu's can't use 2.0 bandwidth and there was a slightly performance increase. So any way the mobo will run on :

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz ( probably i will overclock it to 3ghz some)

3gb x Corsair RAM CM2X1024-6400 XMS6405v6.2

mobo ASUS P5N32-E
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131073

and these are the specifications for 260

Model
Brand EVGA
Model 896-P3-1257-AR
Interface
Interface PCI Express 2.0 x16
Chipset
Chipset Manufacturer NVIDIA
GPU GeForce GTX 260
Core clock 626MHz
Stream Processors 216 processing cores
Memory
Memory Clock 2106MHz (effective)
Memory Size 896MB
Memory Interface 448-bit
Memory Type GDDR3
3D API
DirectX DirectX 10
OpenGL OpenGL 2.1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433

so again the question is will I be fine or somehow i will lose significant performance and it will bottheneck my pc and its not WORTH of buying 260 but to go with lower gpu for this MOBO???


The comments are very welcome and in advance thank you all


Regards

 

[jfurterer]

You may loose some at higher resolutions with high-max settings. However like you discovered 2.0 hasn't been pushed to the limit or near it yet. Also it's a free mobo! When you decide to upgrade you can take your GTX260 with you to a new 2.0 mobo. I think it's win win.

 

[ketrab]

should i go with 260 and try overclock close to 280 or spend little bit more for 280???

 

[jfurterer]

That depends on your budget and how comfortable you are with OCing your system. I think the GTX260 is a good price performer however I'd take a second look at the 4870HD. Depending on what games you intend to play one card or the other maybe the better choice. Also you can get a 4870HD with 1GB of GDDR as apposed to 896mb with the GTX260 for the same price. I have no idea why they didn't just give the 260 1GB. Having more GRam will also help to future proof you a bit.

 

[ketrab]

but since it is a sli mobo you think i would be able to run ati because remember it is P5N32-E??? and as for the games mostly shooters like cod4, counter strike source, etc..... so which one would perform better???

 

[jfurterer]

If you have an SLI mobo get the vN GPU for sure. You may not SLI in the future but having the option is always a good idea. So I'd defiantly get the nV card.

 

[ketrab]

Since I will mostly use this pc for shooting games i.e cod4,5,source,crisis, etc which should perform better ati or nvidia or it really depends on the actual game???


Thanks

 

[jfurterer]

Depends on the game but by and large cards in the same price bracket usually perform around the same level across the board. The GTX260 should give you great performance in everything but the most demanding games at the higher resolutions. You shouldn't have any trouble with most games at 1680X1050 with high settings. Also the nV card supports physX so in games like Mirror's Edge you'll get the added eye candy.