Will my CPU bottleneck 2 GTX 460s in SLI?

[thamecca]

Basically i have ordered 2 EVGA GTX 460s and i am wondering whether my current CPU will be able to let these cards breathe and perform? Specs are as follows

System:
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64
CPU: Intel E7400 OCed @ 3.8Ghz
MB: XFX 750i SLI Extreme Edition
Ram: 8gb OCZ DDR2
HD: 500gb Seagate
PSU: Antec TP-750
GPU: MSI GTX 260 (Soon to be 2 GTX 460s in SLI)

Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[jsc]

A CPU OC'd to 3.8 GHz should have no problem keeping a pair og GTX460's running at full speed.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Yes there will be a bottleneck, but it depends on the game.

CPU-intensive games such as GTA4, Starcraft2, etc will experience a bottleneck that might be noticeable.

There will be a bottleneck in FarCry2, etc but mainly in fps recording rates.

There won't be a noticeable bottleneck in Crysis at higher resolutions.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/balanced-gaming-pc-overclock,2625-9.html



Two GTX460s are comparable to the 5970. Your 3.8GHz CPU will be weaker than the OCed E8400 @ 4.4GHz due to the 600MHz difference and 3mb less cache. So if there are bottlenecks for the OCed E8400 + 5970, there will be greater bottlenecks for your system.

ie:

 

[thamecca]

So my CPU will definetely be bottlenecking my cards. In this case would it be worth it to upgrade my processor? I am kind of limited in my upgrade path since i am using a socket 775 mb and upgrading it is out of the question.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Do you live next to a Microcenter? You can get a powerful Q9550 for $180, or a Q9300 for $140.

Or you can buy used CPUs online, Q6600s ~ $100, Q6700s ~ $130.

I wouldn't pay more than $200 for a 775 quad CPU. You can sell your E7400 for $70 or so.

Again, the bottlenecks all depend on the games you're playing. If you just want to play Crysis, then the OCed E7400 will be fine for you.

 

[thamecca]

Well the games i mostly play now are WOW, SC2, and BFBC2 so i dont know how my e7400 would perform in those games with the 2 gtx460s. I don't live near a microcenter, but i will look on ebay and amazon and see what i can find in terms of quad cpus.

Thanks