Will My 2.3Ghz CPU(s) Bottleneck a 5850?

[scax]

Hi, Just joined! Quick Question: I have a Dell precision T5400 running two Xeon E5410 quads at 2.33Ghz. Can the Radeon 5850 take advantage of my eight cores or will it be bottle-necked because they are just 2.33Ghz? Pretty hard to OC a Dell T5400, I'm told.

Much Thanks, Chas

p.s. My Dell has 6Gb of 667Mhz-ECC ram installed and I'm running Vista Business 64-bit. I'll be running two 24" Dell Monitors at 1920x1200 each with the 5850, if I get one. My favorite game is Rise of Flight - The First Great Air War (WWI)
which is a 3Gb beast of a program.

 

[obsidian86]

should be fine, hmm that is a dream fsx rig you got there

 

[scax]

It WAS someone's work PC until I bought it on ebay for a nice price with 19 months left on the next business day warranty. Well, I do also use it in my private home office for work, doing a bit of stock trading and buying and selling. But I recently decided to upgrade the audio and video cards for nicer audio and good gaming, as well. Installed an Audiophile 192 card last week which now sounds very good after break-in. Did a bunch of research and just ordered the xfx 5850 black ed from zipzoomfly for $305. shipped after the instant $15. credit from ebillme sign-up.

Anyway, I know the Xeons are no slouches to number crunching, but some stuff simply doesn't make much use of all cores. But Rise of Flight reloads in just 45 seconds, which is pretty nice considering some people complain that it reloads in 4 minutes or more for them.

 

[Rustyy117]

There shouldn't be a problem at 1920 x 1200 : )

 

[scax]

No problem even running two monitors from the same 5850 at 1920x1200?? I really don't see me buying a third monitor (hhmmm, well, not today anyway- lol!)

 

[Rustyy117]

well i was talking about the CPU's limiting the 5850, which they shouldnt at 1920 x 1200.

would imagine a 5850 would handle 2 monitors at 1920 x 1200, why not check out some eyefinity reviews to give yourself at better idea.

 

[scax]

Good suggestion -- I'm looking, but hard to find someone who's commented on eyefinity with the 5850 running dual monitors in 1920x1200 each, which amounts to a total required rendering resolution of 3840 x 1200 -- seems it might tax the 5850, but I just hope minimum fps stays above 30 on Rise of Flight -- it's the only game I play as it puts me above the trenches where my grandfather lost a lung to mustard gas in France in 1918. It's pretty real and I really like it-- like it enough to buy the 5850, joysticks, etc. pretty much just to play that one flight sim dogfighting game.

Much thanks to all your replies.

Might be nice to see if someone else has tried 3840 x 1200 eyefinity with a 5850 and a graphics-intensive game....

 

[Rustyy117]

I did a simliar thing. I brought a Xbox 360Elite, a 32in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound pretty much just to play halo 3 . Dnt care for the game now

Anyways heres a Video of a guy playing HawX demo. Using 3 monitors and it seems to be running smoothly, he also has a video of him playing Race driver GRID.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxWfazh3u20&feature=related

 

[scax]

I did a simliar thing. I brought a Xbox 360Elite, a 32in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound pretty much just to play halo 3 . Dnt care for the game now

Anyways heres a Video of a guy playing HawX demo. Using 3 monitors and it seems to be running smoothly, he also has a video of him playing Race driver GRID.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxWfazh3u20&feature=related

Hmmmm- those are some great videos showing eyefinity with the 5850 on three monitors -- I may just have to spring for another 24" Dell to make it an even (or is that odd?) three -- the total wrap around of the three monitors set at the correct angles could be pretty impressive. And most enjoyable to play.

We also have an X-box mostly for Halo-3 for my 4 boys -- never play it myself, but it looks and sounds good on a Toshiba 55" TheatreVision and my custom subwoofer -- when choppers come rolling in on war movies, you look around for them, expecting them to be coming through your roof! Rattles the windows if you don't keep it turned down - lol.

 

[Rustyy117]

Yeah i know what you mean , i LOVE 5.1, i want 7.1 hahaha

Trouble is the neighbours complain if i put it up to loud, whats the point in having 1000W if you can only use 250W

Hope you enjoy your HD5850, cant wait for my 2nd one in the post : ) I'm sure it will serve you well.