Q9450 bottleneck!

dhicks19

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Apr 26, 2011
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I would say slightly, the clock speed is 2.66 so its possible it could be bottlenecking the gpu a little, but you could always overclock it to get more fps
 

Toxxyc

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Jan 6, 2011
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Yes, the CPU could use a boost, specially with the settings at 1680x1050. Try overclocking the CPU to 3.0GHz at least, or even 3.2GHz~3.4GHz, if the cooler permits. If you are running hot, consider the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ CPU cooler. It's cheap and works EXTREMELY well. My Core2Quad Q8400 is overclocked from 2.66GHz to 3.2GHz with my 212+, and my CPU temps stay below 50'C under full load. I'd really recommend it, to anyone, as it helped my system along greatly (it stopped me from upgrading everything after getting my GTX460 1GB, which I overclocked as well).
 
The Q9450 is a still a good CPU. Will it bottleneck those card? Maybe a little, but it depends on the game. For example, Crysis 2 is not very depend on the CPU as long as it is fast enough (like the Q9450); it is the video card that will determine your performance.

You can OC your Q9450. I have mine running at 3.0GHz with a Tuniq Tower. I'm sure it can go higher than that.