Will my stock cpu bottleneck my new gpu?

quothe

Honorable
Nov 24, 2012
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10,510
Hi everyone,

I have an i5-750, Gigabyte P55M-ud2 mobo, Xigmatek Dark Knight-S1283V cpu cooler, xtreme gear 700 watt power supply (this worries me and makes me cringe). I decided to upgrade my ram and gpu to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231445 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127699 With the new gpu on its way, I'm worried that my stock cpu might bottleneck my gaming. I was thinking of trying a conservative 3.6 overclock. However, I have a few concerns, mainly that I know almost nothing about OCing (though I have read several articles recently), and my PSU seems to be ***. I also want to minimize risk as much as possible. Sidenote, I'm actually really worried about my PSU. I hadn't realized it was considered to be so bad. I've had it for 4 years now, and have had no problems. I don't want to to take my new gpu with it if it goes. Also, I'm flat broke now, so can't afford a new PSU.

I'd love some input/advice. It'd be much appreciate. Thanks!
 

quothe

Honorable
Nov 24, 2012
11
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10,510
That's good to hear! All the OCing threads I've read seem to want to always push their CPU. Silly question, but in this case "won't bottleneck" it means that OCing the cpu won't really improve game performance?

Also, any advice on the PSU issue? I really appreciate the input as I rarely upgrade my hardware, and this is stressing me out. =)
 

quothe

Honorable
Nov 24, 2012
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10,510
Probably the sub 100 range would be good for a new PSU. In a month or two I'll probably try to get a new one. In theory, I'd like to have some extra watts for wiggle room/possible OC.

In your opinion, would the gaming performance increase be worth OCing the i5-750? Also, would you advise against installing the new GPU until I get a new PSU? I don't think my system uses much power, but I don't know.

Once again I really appreciate your advise.
 

quothe

Honorable
Nov 24, 2012
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10,510
Ahh thanks again. Is 450 a little too low, just in case I did OC things and add more ram and another HDD?

Sorry to ask again, but do you feel the performance increase in gaming would be worth OCing the i5-750? If it is, maybe I should invest in a better cpu fan, since it's also xtreme gear?
 

socialfox

Distinguished
Well lets walk through with this together:

i5 750 - 95 watts
Ram modules - About 10 watts per module (so 2 sticks = 20 watts)
Hard Drive - 15 watts per drive (For Hard drives, not sure about SSD's, do you have one? )
DVD Drive- 30 watts (at max, yours could use less)
GTX 660 - 140 watts (this is the non-ti right?)

Roughly adds up to 300 watts, but I would urge you to get 400-500 watts. Plenty of room to Overclock with that much watts.

In addition, no need to feel sorry to ask again, I forgot to answer that :lol:
Anyways depends on the overclock, if its a big one then you will visually see differences in games. Take for example, my Phenom II X4 955 BE. I seen a noticeable FPS gain from 3.2 ghz (stock) to 4 ghz. On the other hand I would see minimal FPS gain from 3.2 ghz to 3.4 ghz.

Also do you already know you can overclock on the i5-750 with your current motherboard? I am not too sure about the older i5's and their overclocking capabilities since I have never owned one.

Edit: Here are some more power supplies
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026
^Loving that for a mere 16.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171060
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182066
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151074
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194090
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207018
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703035
^Modular design, only add cables you need. No more clutter :)
 

quothe

Honorable
Nov 24, 2012
11
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10,510
I'm guessing people invest in 750+ PSU's do it for multiple video cards and whatnot? Yes my card is non TI. I'll be upgrading to 2 sticks of 4 gigs of ram each. I don't have an SSD, but in the future I could probably add one with a 450 watt psu?

The i5-750 is considered to be highly overclockable. It runs at 2.6 stock, but with proper cooling, it can OC to a stable 4.0. I was thinking of trying to do a conservative 3.6 OC. That's when I discovered my PSU is horrible, lol. Ok, well I'll definitely be getting a new PSU... Maybe a new CPU fan too? Since my current is an xtreme gear aftermarket cooler. I don't have the best case airflow, but my CPU runs pretty cool. From different articles I've read, you can OC the i5-750 to 3.6 with a stock fan.

Thanks for taking all this time to answer in detail. I have general knowledge about stuff, but upgrading hardware and OCing is pretty new for me. I'm guessing people invest in 750+ PSU's for multiple video cards and whatnot?
 

socialfox

Distinguished
Yep generally 700+ power supplies are for crossfiring/sli . I would say a single video card should need no more than 600 watts for an entire build with enough headroom. Anyways 1ghz of an overclock would be really good in terms of FPS difference in games. I would also urge you to get a new CPU cooler as well, not sure of the capability of Xtremegear coolers but I hear Xtremegears and cyberpower pc work together to build fugly pre-built gaming computers :lol:
They use terrible video cards and jack the price up pretty high.
 

DeepDystopia

Honorable
Nov 26, 2012
32
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10,540
the gaming improvements in fps from overclocking the cpu will vary from game to game. some games are cpu intensive, but many are more graphics card intensive. an overclock from 2.6 to 4.0 is 33%, and may be more than the motherboard can haldle, or could require you to up the voltage more than your cooler could compensate for. upping the voltage on overclocked componeits is usually necewarry to maintain stability. going from 2.6 to 3.6 is still about a 27% oc, and still may not be realistic with your motherboard. the average overclock is 15-20%, and it takes a lot of extra cooling and a processor made on just the right day to achieve the original 33% oc.

as far as bottlenecks go, your hard drive will ALWAYS be your bigest bottleneck, even ssd's run at like 200mbps.