Will my CPU bottleneck my new GPU?

Galwynd

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Dec 12, 2010
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Hello,
This is my first post here. Im rebuilding my girlfriends Dell XPS 600, and wanted to know if the CPU will bottleneck the new graphics card I ordered.
Specs:
Intel Extreme Edition Dual Core Processor 840 3.20GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB cache
4GB DDR2-667MHz SDRAM
Dual 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX in SLi
NVIDIA nForce4 SLITM X16 MCP chipset
650w Extreme PSU
(Running Windows 7 premium 64-bit)

I ordered a GTX470 today and wanted to know if the old dual- core will bottleneck the 470 terribly? Ive heard that unless a game is really CPU hungry, a dual-core at 3ghz+ will be just fine. Any ideas? Thank You!
 

Galwynd

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I ordered the GTX470 this morning.

At 1440x900 what type of performance can I expect from a game like MW2?

We just want to play with settings on high (can do without any AA) w/ vsync on locked at 60fps

Will the CPU bottleneck effect that?

Liquid-smooth game-play is the most important aspect of this upgrade project :)
 

sportsfanboy

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Make sure you set the card to run physics and not the cpu, you can set that in your driver. Honestly with the gtx 470, you should play on the 1900. It's hard to say what performance your going to get, you may need to turn anything that over task the cpu in the game and in your driver, you'll just have to experiment.. A mild overclock on the cpu will help as well if you can.
 

Galwynd

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I have the Extreme edition........That MB doesn't support anything better than the cpu I have. I can up the RAM to 8GB.........I just wanted to make sure that the gfx card wouldn't bottleneck too badly............playing the game I mentioned above at high settings. I plan to get a new MB and cpu in the next couple of months......I just wanted to know if the new card will work well with the current setup.



 

Galwynd

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Thanks for the input guys :) That comp means alot to her (it was a gift from a family member a few years back) I will pretty much end up rebuilding everything but the case in the end XD I just wanted to make sure we will get great performance while were in the process :)
 

Galwynd

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One more thing.........what would be the best way to overclock the cpu? I've never overclocked anything other then a graphics card using nTune and Rivatuner........if you think going from 3.2 to something like 3.6 will give a decent performance gain. I VERY much appreciate all the help :)
 

Galwynd

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The users manual shows the cpu is OC-able..........and I guess the biggest question would be would it bottleneck the frame rate under 60 in games like MW2 (the whole reason were rebuilding this system) ?
 

Galwynd

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Ok......the following upgrades should be done this week:

upgrading from 4gb to 8gb of RAM DDR2 800 (but mobo will down-clock it to 667?)

upgrading from (2x) 7800GTX's SLi to a GTX470 superclocked


..........until I replace the mobo and cpu, would it be worth going from the Intel D 840 to the 960? (3.2 and 3.6 stock respectively)

I found a few 960's in the $100 range online...

Any ideas? everything look ok?
 

zoridon

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Yes your CPU will bottleneck your GPU but it should still provide plenty of power to get smooth and fluid gameplay even at your 22 inch high def resolutions. If you were to do it over I'd get the 1GB Nvidia 460, upgrade ram to 8 gigs and pocket the money saved for a quad core after intels new Sandy bridge drops all the prices on old quad cores. People act as if the CPU bottlenecks something that it destroys the computer gaming ability.... Not in this case I play MW2 at high deff with a AMD 4870 at home no problems. If you can squeeze a few hundred extra mgz through overclocking your cpu without overheating it that would be good too.
 

Galwynd

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Thank you soooo much for the imput.

I have heard so many mixed reviews on the horrors of bottlenecks and such.

I should be installing the 8gb of RAM and GTX470 sometime tomorrow or Wednesday, I'll be sure to post results!
(I got a great deal on the RAM and couldn't pass it up XD)

And a **correction** to the stats.....the cpu is a D 830 (3.0ghz) not a 840 (3.2ghz)

Is that going to make a huge difference?
 

Galwynd

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I was just paranoid about upgrading this comp.........it means a lot to her, I want to max it out so its as top-notch as it can be :)
I'm a total noob with this you have to be patient with me :p