Find the bottleneck

[execut1ve]

Hello all,
I am trying to find the bottleneck in my system.

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon 6000+ 3.0GHz Dual Core cpu
2x EVGA Geforce 8800GT 512mb (SLI)
4Gb Kingston ram
160Gb Western Digital HD 7200 rpm

old school I know, I built it a couple years ago and it's done me fine ever since. I'd like to find what's holding my performance back now that I've upgraded my monitor and am gaming at 1920x1200. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
Getting a faster card will definitely help especially at your current resolution.I'd recommend HD 6950.It will give you a great boost in performance;furthermore, upgrading your CPU will help(but that requires a new motherboard/RAM as well)

 

[rockyjohn]

Find the botteneck? Sounds like a shill game.

If that is a dual core CPU I think you mean an Athlon 6000+ not 600+. Please confirm.

I recommend reading the two paragraphs about balanced systems in the middle of the page on gaming cards at this site:

http://www.upgradevideocards.com/gaming.html

And then using the links to go to the THG articles about balanced systems. Part 2 is the closest to your system. The same page at upgradevideocards.com, at the bottom, includes information about using the THG charts to compare performace of graphics cards. The 2009 Charts include the performance of 2 8800 GTs in SLI so you can directly compare its performance with some of the single cards listed in the balance systems article.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality/benchmarks,74.html

Whether the CPU or GPU are holding you back the most will also depend in part on what games you play, since some are more CPU intensive than others. What games do you play?

 

[Mousemonkey]

The OP's rig should be on par with my 8800GT rig, it would be interesting to know a bit more about the performance issues that this machine is suffering from.

 

[execut1ve]

sorry rockyjohn, that's a typo, I did mean the 6000+

 

[execut1ve]

as far as what games, I used to play quite a bit of wow in the day. when I increased my resolution I noticed some fps drops if I kept the effects maxed. I've been taking a forced hiatus from wow while I'm looking for a job, but it's on the horizon. I also play L4D and TF2, no problems with either of those, and just got into SC2. I can run everything maxed on SC2 with no issues except occasional bogging down in gameplay, but the cutscenes are another matter entirely

 

[Maziar]

Most RTS games benefit from a quad core CPU,so upgrading to a quad core will help.
However,other games such as L4D & TF2 which you mentioned are rather GPU limited(especially at your resolution)

 

[execut1ve]

I actually don't notice any performance issues in L4D or TF2 at 1920x1200 with all the effects maxed, which I guess indicates the system is CPU limited in more graphics intensive games and tf2 and l4d aren't demanding enough to fully load the cpu

 

[Maziar]

That's exactly what I said.
Those games are GPU limited,that's why you don't have FPS problems with them.

 

[execut1ve]

so what is the bottleneck on the other games? I'm guessing the cpu but I don't want to assume. I don't know if it would even be sensible to throw in a better cpu with as old as the rest of the system is, especially seeing as the mb is AM2 socket. aren't AM2+ and AM3 backwards compatible with AM2 boards with appropriate BIOS?

 

[execut1ve]

looks like a lull in the constructive responses... going with the assumption that my cpu is the bottleneck, can anyone recommend a cpu/mb combo to pair with the dual 8800gt's?

 

[Maziar]

Your CPU is holding you back especially in RTS games,so upgrading it will definitely help.
Your board suppors most Phenom II X4 CPUs (with a beta BIOS)
http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpu_support_right_master.aspx?type=1&name=M2N-SLI%20Deluxe&SLanguage=en-us
Upgrading to X4 955 will give you a nice boost in performance.

 

[execut1ve]

that is certainly a cheaper alternative to completely new mb/cpu/ram

 

[execut1ve]

Best answer selected by Execut1ve.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey