CF HD5850 + E8400 = bottleneck?

[sprawl]

Hi, I've recently bought a HD 5850, and was thinking of getting another HD 5850 and a new motherboard(currently on single PCI-E port board) and set up CF. My old GTX280 is fried, so I'll get money in return, so it's basicly a "free" upgrade. Will 2x HD 5850's get bottlenecked by my E8400@4.0ghz? Would it be better for me to buy a P55 motherboard and an i5?
Either way I'll need a new motherboard, and a P55 with 2x PCI-E ports will last me longer than a new x48.

 

[belial2k]

I'm not sure I would call it a bottleneck, but if you are running anything in the background or playing games that can utilize more cores, the i5 will show a pretty good improvement. If you are mainly JUST gaming, I might stick with the 8400 for a while. Two 5850s will not reach their full potential on a P55 MB due to the limited lanes for Pci-e. It is also probably overkill for most setups running 19x12 and lower.

 

[sabot00]

Yes the 8400 will bottleneck 2 5850's in CF, the i5 (750) will show a improvement in single/dual threaded games as the background tasks can utilize core 2 & 3, and of course in tri/quad/more threaded games.

 

[sprawl]

I5 will have a lot better performance then a E8400@4Ghz.

Would you say that an i5 will be a bigger performance increase than an additional HD 5850?

 

[coozie7]

I'd hold off on the mb/CPU/RAM upgrade. Right now the E8400 is a more than capable gaming CPU and should be running very sweetly with your HD5850.
Unless you have a big monitor (over 1920x1200) I doubt you'll see much improvement in useful framerates, even with the i5 and CF upgrades-Remember, most flat panels can only display 60 FPS so getting 200 out of a game is pointless.
I advise you to E-bay the HD5850 when it arrives and pocket the cash.

 

[sprawl]

I'd hold off on the mb/CPU/RAM upgrade. Right now the E8400 is a more than capable gaming CPU and should be running very sweetly with your HD5850.
Unless you have a big monitor (over 1920x1200) I doubt you'll see much improvement in useful framerates, even with the i5 and CF upgrades-Remember, most flat panels can only display 60 FPS so getting 200 out of a game is pointless.
I advise you to E-bay the HD5850 when it arrives and pocket the cash.

Sounds reasonable, I'll make sure I get money instead of an extra GFX. When I think it through I'm not gonna need the extra power for anything except showoff. Gonna stick with my current rig for a while, and do a DDR3/i7/x58/CF upgrade when it becomes cheaper, or newer hardware comes out.

 

[sabot00]

Guys, he's asking if 2 5850's in CrossFire will be bottlenecked, the answer is yes.

 

[mactronix]

Seems like you have reached the best conclusion

Mactronix