Bottleneck?

[fool_of_a_took]

Hi, I hope this is the right place for this question!

I have an E6600 overclocked at 2.7ghz (very minor OC I know), a GTX285 and a new 25" LCD @ 1920 x 1080. I'm looking to increase my FPS and detail settings as games are quite choppy at the detail levels I want.

Is my CPU causing a performance bottleneck do you think? I'm trying to decide on an upgrade - to spend £120 on a 775 chip like the E8500, or buy a new mobo and OC an i3 or i5. I could OC further, but I worry about my case temps.

What do you reckon?

 

[mortonww]

Just off the top of my head, a gtx 285 with an e6600 seems balanced at 1080p. I could be wrong, though. I would suggest you try and overclock the e6600 to 3 GHz and see how much improvement you get.

Drop the CPU back to 2.7 and overclock the video card a little and see how much performance that gets you.

If you get a noticeable improvement with the CPU overclock but not with the GPU overclock, then you've found your bottleneck.

Which games in particular are you having trouble with?

 

[capt_taco]

The CPU is probably a little underpowered, but I don't think it should be crippling. For most games, anyway.

Regardless, I'd see how much more you can get out of an overclock with the cooler you have. That CPU is notorious for being a good overclocker, and for being able to get pretty far on air cooling alone. So as mentioned earlier, I'd try that first and see if it helps.

However, if you get to the point where you'd need a better CPU fan to overclock it higher, then I'd forget about it. No sense spending $50 to get slightly more life out of a dual-core when you could get an AMD quad-core and mobo for $150 or less.

 

[fool_of_a_took]

Just off the top of my head, a gtx 285 with an e6600 seems balanced at 1080p. I could be wrong, though. I would suggest you try and overclock the e6600 to 3 GHz and see how much improvement you get.

Drop the CPU back to 2.7 and overclock the video card a little and see how much performance that gets you.

If you get a noticeable improvement with the CPU overclock but not with the GPU overclock, then you've found your bottleneck.

Which games in particular are you having trouble with?

Battlefield Bad Company 2, Just Cause 2 and GTA 4.

I worry about OCing the video card - my case airflow isn't great, but it's about as good as it's going to get at the mo. OCing the CPU seems less risky, as temps run at about 45-50c at full load at the mo. So I'll try 3ghz and see how that goes! Thanks for the reply!

 

[fool_of_a_took]

However, if you get to the point where you'd need a better CPU fan to overclock it higher, then I'd forget about it. No sense spending $50 to get slightly more life out of a dual-core when you could get an AMD quad-core and mobo for $150 or less.

I have no experience with AMD CPUs, as a general rule I have stuck with intel (for good and bad). I am also in the UK, so I don't know how prices compare here, but generally they are the same in GBP as USD (which is a ah heck). What is a good AMD cpu that compares favourably to a 3ghz i5 at the mo? And do I really need 4 cores (I game, but I also using cs3 and occasionally do video editing and minor 3d animation) rather than 2?

I know that some people have got huge speeds out of the e6600, but longevity is an issue for me too. I need the CPU to last at least another 6months to a year ideally. With that in mind, should I stick to around the 3ghz mark?

 

[1000FPS]

I have no experience with AMD CPUs, as a general rule I have stuck with intel (for good and bad). I am also in the UK, so I don't know how prices compare here, but generally they are the same in GBP as USD (which is a ah heck). What is a good AMD cpu that compares favourably to a 3ghz i5 at the mo? And do I really need 4 cores (I game, but I also using cs3 and occasionally do video editing and minor 3d animation) rather than 2?

I know that some people have got huge speeds out of the e6600, but longevity is an issue for me too. I need the CPU to last at least another 6months to a year ideally. With that in mind, should I stick to around the 3ghz mark?

A good AMD quad core CPU would be a Phenom II x4 940, which is about £100, four cores will increase your performance, especially in some games like GTA 4.