CPU bottle neck on new 4870

[kevllang]

Hey there, I have a older basic system as follows:

CPU: e6400@2.13
MB: Intel DG965RY
Graphics: 1950XT
Memory: 3gigs cosair pc5700
Power: Ultrax2 550 watt

I bought this a few years ago and to this day am still kicking myself that I opted for a cheaper cpu/MB bundle since this board can't over clock. My line of thinking at the time was that in a year or so I would be able to find some of the more expensive MB's at the time in the bargain bin by now..this isn't the case so.....

I was thinking about a few budget upgrade paths, as follows:

1)Get new GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3L board for $120 and a Sapphire 4870 512MB for $187, then overclock the hell out of the old 6400..should be able to hit the 3.0GHz range at least on stock air cooling...I hope. My main question is how much of a bottle neck will the CPU be, meaning that will I get a MAJOR performance hit on the video and if so roughly how much. If its not too bad I'd like to go this route and maybe throw in a new CPU in the near future. Another concern is the memory.

2) At the time memory was very expensive, paid $185 for 1 gig of PC5700 since the crappy board couldn't handle PC6400 at the time. Since memory is so cheap now days, would it be worth while upgrading that to.

If anyone has any other suggestions let me know. Keep in mind I've never overclocked before so a board with the most useer friendly feature would be ideal. Like to keep it cheap to so that if I blow it up I don't have to jump of a bridge or anything. Thanks.87

 

[major53]

kevllang you are right the parts you have are aging fast. you probably can get the e6400 up to 3.0GHz but I would get a third party cpu heatsink to get it to 3.0.I had a gigabyte p965 ds3l (E 6300)and was able to get it stable at 2.8 with third party cpu heatsink and fan,I wouldn't try to push it with the stock heatsink.
the gigabyte GA-EP45-UDSL is a good board and the 4870 from what I have read is a good video.the ram I would replace myself like you said ram is real cheap now.and the power supply I would look into that and see if the 4870 needed more than 24 to 30 amps on the 12 volt line.hope this helps you out.

 

[hsetir]

I guess HD4870 will perform it's 70-75% at 12x10 res and 80-85% at 16x10. But it really depends on the type of game you play and the resolution. Try hitting 2.8ghz mark. The percentage increment after it is not that much as below it.

 

[spoonboy]

hi kevllang might be able to help you.

(first off update your bios to the latest version, that will help stability and overclockability if you decide to oc, especially with more than 2gb ram in such an oild chipset)

I got a e6300 and a p5b deluxe from asus, same chipset as yours, so similar limitations. Ive got my fsb at 410mhz so with my cpu multiplier of 7 thats 2.87ghz max oc. Ive got 2x2gb ddr2800 sticks, which is alot for the 965 chipset to handle. Your e6400 has a multiplier of 8 so potentially you should top out around 3.2 ghz on that mobo, but with the new gigabyte one youve described 3.2 will be EASY and 3.4 do-able.

Ive got zalman 9500 cpu cooler by the way and its more than good enough for these old core 2 chips, load temps under 50 celcius. If you can afford it I would say go for a 1gb 4870 and 2x2gb sticks of decent ddr2 800 with 4-4-4-12 timings. That should make for a very effective OC combination with alot of grpahics performance. Ive got a 512mb 4870 and i have to say I wished i had waited and ghot the 1gb model

 

[meodowla]

I guess HD4870 will perform it's 70-75% at 12x10 res and 80-85% at 16x10. But it really depends on the type of game you play and the resolution. Try hitting 2.8ghz mark. The percentage increment after it is not that much as below it.

So... you mean, higher the resolution, the better the 4870 performs.

 

[Peaks]

look at some benchmarks:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,30.html

but the 4870 performs best at a native res of 16x10

 

[coozie7]

@ KEVLLANG: What resoloution are you using? Do you plan on a bigger monitor in the future?
Right now I`d say if you`re playing at 16x12 or less, just drop a HD4850 in and save your money for a stronger upgrade later.

 

[hsetir]

So... you mean, higher the resolution, the better the 4870 performs.

NOT that. But that the bottleneck decreases because with increasing resolution the cpu load remains same while the gpu workload increases.