Long time reader, first time poster.
Just recently I picked up a very cheap GTX 280 from my friend who decided to move up to the 5870. I already have a GTX 280 and an SLI capable motherboard and was thinking of going SLI. I'm wondering though how much I will be bottlenecked by my CPU. I'm not too keen on OC'ing, but would do it if the resulting performance increase in SLI would be noticeable.
Intel Q9300 @2.6gHz w/ Arctic Freezer 9 Pro
SLI GTX 280 OC'd
850W Corsair PSU
OCZ DDR2 1066
EVGA 750i FTW Edition
My CPU temps are fine, only around 50 on graphics-intense games (Crysis) with ~40% fan speed. GFX cards run a bit hot (75-80C) but that's still within acceptable range I think?
I guess my main questions are:
1) How much of a bottleneck am I getting trying to run 2 GTX 280's on my Q9300 w/ stock clocks?
2) If I decide to OC, will I need higher spec'd DDR2 ram? Is there any DDR2 RAM you'd recommend?
I also game at 2048 x 1152. I'd like to avoid any swapping of CPU/Mobo/GFX cards if possible as I intend on rebuilding around the GTX280's (i7, X58, DDR3 etc) sometime later next year. Just looking for a quick fix (if needed) to hold me over for the next 10-12 months.
Just recently I picked up a very cheap GTX 280 from my friend who decided to move up to the 5870. I already have a GTX 280 and an SLI capable motherboard and was thinking of going SLI. I'm wondering though how much I will be bottlenecked by my CPU. I'm not too keen on OC'ing, but would do it if the resulting performance increase in SLI would be noticeable.
Intel Q9300 @2.6gHz w/ Arctic Freezer 9 Pro
SLI GTX 280 OC'd
850W Corsair PSU
OCZ DDR2 1066
EVGA 750i FTW Edition
My CPU temps are fine, only around 50 on graphics-intense games (Crysis) with ~40% fan speed. GFX cards run a bit hot (75-80C) but that's still within acceptable range I think?
I guess my main questions are:
1) How much of a bottleneck am I getting trying to run 2 GTX 280's on my Q9300 w/ stock clocks?
2) If I decide to OC, will I need higher spec'd DDR2 ram? Is there any DDR2 RAM you'd recommend?
I also game at 2048 x 1152. I'd like to avoid any swapping of CPU/Mobo/GFX cards if possible as I intend on rebuilding around the GTX280's (i7, X58, DDR3 etc) sometime later next year. Just looking for a quick fix (if needed) to hold me over for the next 10-12 months.
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