Will my system be a bottleneck for these GPUs?

[vwj]

Hi,

I'm looking to get a new video card, but I'm not sure if my system will be a bottleneck. The cards that I'm looking at are:

GTX 460 768MB
GTX 460 1 GB
HD 6850

They're all relatively within the same price range, with the GTX 460 768MB being the cheapest.

My screen resolution is 1680x1050. My other system specs are:

CPU: E6750 @ 3.2 (stock 2.66), but I can probably easily OC it more.
RAM: 2 GB DDR2 800 (I've been wanting to upgrade to at least 4 GBs, but DDR2s are just so expensive!)
Video Card (current): EVGA 8800GT

Thanks.

 

[rockyjohn]

Yes your system will bottleneck those cards, the amount depends on the game and how CPU intensive it is and the settings you use. That said, the system still could drive a substantial performance improvement with the newer cards.

However the bigger question is what PSU do you have and is it powerful enough to drive the faster card?

 

[Embra]

I would recommend saving money for a rebuild. What PSU do you have?

You might can find a cheap 4870 or 4980, or even a 5770 ...... you need more ram and what ever else you may be lacking. It would not be worth you sinking more money into what you presently have in my opinion.

 

[purple stain]

If you can O.C. a couple more mhz out of your CPU then i don't think it would be to bad of a bottleneck.But it all really depends on which games your trying to play...

What types of games do you play?
What type of power supply do you have?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

i disagree with the above posts. your system will be fine running any of those cards, you will see a good performance increase. Anything less would not be a big enough upgrade from your 8800gt. As it stands, your cpu is good for pretty much any game out there. If you are running win7 or vista, you will see benefit from another 2gb ram. ddr2 doesnt cost that much more than ddr3. Depending on what games you play i would lean toward the 6850, slightly better performance on average and uses less power.

 

[purple stain]

3.2ghz for a very old dual core is slow.I don't think he can get the most out of those cards with it so slow.

I do however agree the 6850 is defnitly the winner out of the 3.And since it's better at tesselation(DX11)that will make it futureproof for upcoming games.

 

[vwj]

My PSU is the Antec EarthWatts 650. After taking a minute to do some more price comparison, out of the three cards, I'd rather prefer the GTX 460 768MB, simply because of its price right now. Right now at newegg, I can get one for $140, with a $30 MIR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130564. So basically, I can get a superclocked GTX 460 768 for just over $100. That's about $40 cheaper than the 1GB version and the 6850.

I'll be honest, I hadn't plan on doing any major upgrades. Unless I somehow found an extra grand in my pocket, my plan was to ride my system for as long as I can until I'm virtually forced to do a whole upgrade. Right now, I'm content with not being able to run everything on high or max. But, if I could extend the life of my PC for another 2-3 yrs for <$150, should I do it? Assuming, of course, that I can get the most of the these GPUs with my current system.

As far as what types of games I play, I play pretty much everything. From Mount&Blade to SC II to RPGs to FPS....so basically all types of genres. I'm also really looking forward to TW: Shogun 2, Witcher 2, GW2, Diablo 3, Crysis 2 and many others .

I just recently switched from XP 32 to Win7 64, and I know that my 2 GB is just enough to run Win 7. I'm sure that my current system meets the minimum requirements to run all these games.

 

[purple stain]

If you give it a new GPU and a little bit higher O.C. it should last you about a year.No chance it lasting for 3 years.As more and more games come out they will be more customed to 4 cores or more.Your dual core just won't be able to cut it.

I think the 768mb GTX460 should make a perfect fit with your 3.2ghz dual core and your 1680x1050 resoultion.

So get a GTX460 768mb version and some more RAM and you should be good to go.I wouldn't be suprised that after you add more RAM you will see a huge improvement in FPS.Keep in mind that Blizzard games favor Nvidia cards so if your planning on playing Diablo 3 and SC2 it would be a wise choice to with an Nvidia card.

 

[vwj]

What psu do you have?

I have the Antec EarthWatts 650.

If you give it a new GPU and a little bit higher O.C. it should last you about a year.No chance it lasting for 3 years.As more and more games come out they will be more customed to 4 cores or more.Your dual core just won't be able to cut it.

Good point. Now that I that give it more thought, I do realize that a lot of newer games that are coming out are requiring at least a dual core just to run them. I guess when decision time comes, I'll likely pick up the GTX 460 768 and some extra RAM too while I'm at it.

 

[nforce4max]

For a single card you are pushing it but I have done my gtx 460 with a similar system. You need to push the cpu clocks a little higher and sadly 2gb isn't much these days. I got 8gb ddr2 in my main rig and yes it wasn't cheap.

 

[vwj]

If I do decide to get the graphic card, I think the only other thing I'll be upgrading is the RAM. It looks like newegg still carries my exact same RAM--the same RAM I bought 3 years ago--and if anything, I'll likely buy them again, which will bring my total memory to 4 gb (4x1).

 

[nforce4max]

4gb is fine for most users.