Bottleneck Issue Check !

Hi,


I presently own a E2180 overclocked to 2.66 GHz (1066 FSB) and this motherboard http://www.mercury-pc.com/product- [...] ductid=766


Im planning on buying a GTX 260 but recently I've seen topics about some Bottleneck issues! Like CPU bottlenecks the GPU or the GPU gets bottlenecked by the CPU and i don't understand the concept. I just want to make sure that my CPU and the GTX 260 on a Viewsonic 17' LCD Display(1440 x 900 Max) wouldn't cause any issues. Help? Thanks.


Additional info ?

Northbridge NVIDIA GeForce 7050 rev. A2
Southbridge NVIDIA nForce 610i rev. A2

If that were the case of a bottleneck, no one would be able to play games as we would all be sitting there over or underclocking our components to try and get them "balanced".

OP, Forget about bottlenecking. Simple way of looking at things is how much will it benefit you and is it worth it.

To check this, all you need to do is lower all gfx settings in a game to low including resolution and check what fps you get, if it is higher than what you get with max gfx settings at your native res then you can benefit from an upgrade, depening on how muhch of an increase you see will tell you if it is worth it or not.

You are never, ever going to be able to match the fps a cpu generates and the amount of frames a gpu can process, the fact that this in itself varies means any other reasoning is lunacy.

What happens when a gpu can do 100fps but the cpu only 60 but then in 3-6 months time you buy a new game that your cpu can still generate 60 fps but your gfx card only 40fps?

If you buy a gfx card now that can match the 60fps of your cpu and in 3-6 months time you try and play the game and you get 10-20 fps you will have wasted your money and wished you had bought the better card.

Of course, it may be the case that in that time a new gfx card has come out even better than the last or that the better card has come down in price and you haven't spent any additional money in the long run but that is trying to see the future and in the tech world you usually buy now, not wait.

Either way it is your choice, my advice is not to try and balance your components as that is impossible, buy the best you can reasonable afford.

^+1

If you definitely plan on upgrading the CPU later, then go for the GTX 260 now (it's about $40 more than 4850 if you get the rebate) and they come with the adapter.
If you're not going to upgrade the CPU and want to build from scratch for your next computer, then get the 4850.

Get a card with a lifetime warranty. My last two cards were XFX for the lifetime warranty. That way when I upgrade, I can sell the card and the warranty carries over (good selling feature for a used card).