Am i bottlenecking?

[ptwick]

id like to start off my saying that I am new to these forums
I recently bought an asus gtx 460 1g graphcis card and im worried that its making my q8200 bottleneck (a quad core running at 2.33ghz not overclocked). So is this card making my cpu bottleneck? Im worried that its impairing my graphics cards full potential. Am also scared about overclocking my cpu because its runing at like 50c while just using the internet browser with a stock fan. I dont wanna waste 300 dollars to get a new card that will fit a 775 socket, because id rather get like an i7... And on top of that i have no money to spend... Will over clockig my graphics card via smart doctor help?Any advice? Im a newbie.. Thanks in advance

 

[rolli59]

Overclocking the CPU is the only thing that will help if the CPU is bottlenecking the GPU. The question is, are you happy with the performance? There is nothing dangerous about a bottleneck but you would need an after market cooler for your CPU to overclock it.

 

[dalauder]

Compare benchmarks on your machine to those they get in GTX 460 1G reviews. A Q8200 is decent enough so you should not see too many bottlenecks with that setup. Could you tell us about your build a little bit more. If you are not running 4GB DDR2 800MHz, there is a chance your RAM bottlenecks a little--but it's still probably your CPU or graphics.

If you don't have a good CPU cooler, you must be very careful about overclocking. Go into your bios and check the fan and Health settings. Make sure your CPU fan is currently set high enough (qualitative--highest settings may be too noisy). Make sure you system has shut-down temperatures enabled. Also, make sure that you have an exhaust fan on your case. An intake fan is pretty important too. Depending on your motherboard and what fans you use, these may be adjustable like the CPU fan too.

The Core 2 Quad's I've overclocked on stock coolers (Q6600 & Q9400) have good thermal throttling so when my CPU reaches near 70'C, they slow themselves down a bunch and drop the temps into the 50's when I'm running CPU stress tests. You can keep an eye on temps and benchmark results from LinX to watch that happen. If you have good thermal throttling, you don't have to be too afraid--but ALWAYS watch your temps when you first overclock a machine.

I got the Q6600 (2.4 stock) to 3.0GHz and the Q9400 (2.66 stock) to 3.2GHz with no voltage increases--this is key because voltage really increases temps. You've got some good headroom on your processor. With an overclocked Q8200, you shouldn't see CPU bottlenecks--not that you should see them too much on stock settings either.

 

[ptwick]

I am not sure if i am bottlenecking.. how can i tell? I was thinking about spending maybe a max of like 50 dollars on a cpu fan so i can overclock my q8200. If i do what speed should i overclock it too, and if my computer is a hp pavilion will the overclocking feature be disabled or locked? OH and isnt like 48c too muc for a cpu in idle? im suing piriform speccy. Oh i have 6 gbs of ram. are there any programs i can use for benchmarking? like something that can play a video or something and show me my results?

 

[saaiello]

HP, Dell Gateway the likes of the those companies lock the bios out of overclocking features for a good reason.

 

[dalauder]

You probably can't do much, if any, overclocking with that HP. I was able to do a little with my Gateway Athlon x2 in the past. To check bottlenecking, benchmark your PC and compare it to GTX 460 scores in reviews--those systems rarely have anything other than graphics bottlenecks. Some games have benchmarks. Futuremark has benchmarks you can download (http://www.futuremark.com/download/). Pretty much all reviews have their scores--although they don't necessarily reflect gaming benchmarks, which you would have to own the game to do.

As far as 6GB RAM. That probably means 2x2GB and 2x1GB. Your RAM will likely run faster with 2x2GB because your computer can run it in symmetrical Dual Channel mode.

 

[ptwick]

so all hp boises are locked? and again how can i tell if i am bottlenecking

 

[saaiello]

Yes all hp bios are locked. I use a Q8200 in one of my rigs but it is OC to 3.1 Ghz and has been for over a year now with no problems. At stock speed I believe its low clock speed is just gonna bottleneck anything. The Q8200 is a great multimedia CPU but thats about it at stock speed.

What games do you play and at what resolution?

 

[ptwick]

i play at my monitors native 1600 by 1150
these are the games i have: World of Warcraft, call of duty 4, Garry's mod, Counter strike source, left 4 dead, Hl2 and those kinds of games.
Im thinking of getting crysis.
Q8200 stock speed 2.33ghz, so it is gonna be bottlenecking my Gpu? that sucks..
What kinda benchmarks can i run to see my preformance?
Will overclocking my Gpu help lol?
Is there anything i can do?
Oh and my 6 gbs of ram are in 4 slots. 2x2gb and 2x1gb

 

[Computerrock1]

To reiterate what others have said: In order to see if you are bottelnecking your system, run a benchmark and compare with those of a more modern system with a GTX 460. If you are at par with the score, you are fine, if you are a little low, then you have a slight one.

 

[ptwick]

where can i compare my scores compared to others? right now i am downloading 2 benchmarks
Oh, and im pretty sure 48c is very hot for a cpu in idle, is there anything i can do about that?

 

[Computerrock1]

You have a stock cooler and an intel processor, that kind of heat is to be expected. When you do your benchmark, you can post it online (most of them anyways) and then you compare.

 

[ptwick]

i cant oc my cpu but can i oc my ram? but only 2 of the 4 sticks have a heatspread? My motherborad is a Pentagon Corporation Benicia. Have you ever head of it?

 

[dalauder]

Typically, both your RAM and CPU get overclocked at the same time. How the computer accesses RAM (single, dual, triple channel) depends on the configuration of the RAM attached. You can install Memtest86+ to a flash stick and boot to the flash stick (usually listed as a hard drive) and check your RAM speeds with various RAM configurations.

Suppose you have slots 1, 2, 3, & 4. Your motherboard can typically run dual channel if you put two sticks in--one in each slots 1 & 2. But these two sticks must run at identical settings. Slot 3 runs on the same channel as 1 and 2 with 4, so if you want 4 sticks to run in dual channel, you'd need identical sticks in all four slots. If you do not use identical sticks (such as 6GB RAM configurations on non X58 systems), it will run single channel mode from all slots. Correct me if I'm wrong on this.

Disclaimer: There's a possibility that you could run RAM A in slots 1 & 2 and RAM B in 3 & 4 or maybe it's 1 & 3 and 2 & 4 and still do dual channel--but I don't think so.

 

[ptwick]

ok here are the results of one of the benchmarks tests tell me how i did plz but keep im mind i was donwload 2 more benchmarks and had several windows opened while this was going on , i dont know if that matters but plz respond!
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/551696;jsessionid=A810E66A776C3E89238DB5DB295527F2?show_ads=true&page=%2F3dm11%2F551696%3Fkey%3DLwKz2UyRADMF65ayxh5PYKrcjW4tXv

 

[dalauder]

Also, don't bother getting a fancy CPU cooler if you don't have fans venting in AND out of your case--otherwise it's like running your CPU in an oven--blowing more hot air past it will can't cool it down too much.

Heatspreaders are really only useful if you really overclock your RAM. I've been running some DDR2 800 with no heatspreaders at 960 for months and haven't had an issue--also I'm lucky that this is good RAM ($40 2x2GB on Fry's deal 2 years ago).

 

[ptwick]

I think i did my ram wrong!! oh no the person at the store screwed me over cheak the link for ram descriptions!!
plz looks at the test! 3 more tests are on thier way thanks!! If i get a lower quality graphics card that will not make my bottleneck will this increase my performance?
If yes what card should i get?

 

[dalauder]

Yes it matters. The only way people can compare computers is if they're all the same--which means a fresh restart with nothing running in the background. Antivirus disabled as well.

Btw, if you're running Antivirus, some really slow your computer down. Avast is great and AVG is solid. Norton & McAfee are resource hogs and slow your computer down like you have a virus or something.

 

[dalauder]

Also run your benchmark on default settings and try it with different RAM settups. Try two your two corsair sticks in the same colored slots.

 

[dalauder]

Oh, you should be running 3D Mark Vantage. Look at these reviews for some basic ideas of the significance of scores:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-gf104-fermi,2684-6.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-roundup-gf104,2714-12.html
You'll probably want to use their same settings for the benchmarks too. Remember to restart your computer after you're done with the installations.

 

[ptwick]

Also run your benchmark on default settings and try it with different RAM settups. Try two your two corsair sticks in the same colored slots.

yea right now i have them in the same coloured slots

 

[ptwick]

ok! after this install i will restart my computer how do i know what settting they are using?

 

[dalauder]

http://3dmark.com/search?resultTypeId=232&linkedDisplayAdapters=1&cpuModelId=862&chipsetId=619
Q8200's with GTX 460's on 3DMark 11.

 

[dalauder]

There are "Performance", "High", and "Extreme" Presets. Look at the reviews from Tom's Hardware links I sent you.

 

[ptwick]

Ah.. this is my score from the default settings http://3dmark.com/3dmv/2892119
I think the default setting are on preformance i dont know but thats what it says on the options tab. How did i do? now im going to try to 3d mark 11 test. Do you think i did well or? oh and thanks for your opinions! XD
How did i do?! ill get back to you with 3d mark 11 test!