Would this system Bottleneck a GTX560ti or 570

[jones89]

Hi,

Will the PC that I currently have, would it bottleneck a GTX560ti or GTX570? I'm thinking the answer is a capital YES, but just want to make sure! Thanks!

Core 2 Quad Q9950 2.83GHz
(2x2GB) 4GB G.Skill DDR2 RAM, DRAM Fequency of 400MHz (as reported by CPU-Z)
GTX260 (version with 216 Shaders)
Gigabyte EP45-DS3
Samsung Spinpoint 7200rpm 16MB Buffer

 

[FunSurfer]

The Q9550 @2.83GHz will bottleneck the GTX570 but not very much. If you can OC the Q9550 to 3.5GHz you won't have a bottleneck.

 

[jones89]

Thanks for your answer. I won't be overclocking anything, the CPU runs hot enough as it is.

 

[Dark Comet]

What are you getting under full load temp wise?

 

[jones89]

I have the stock cooler and am not interested in cleaning the CPU and getting a customer cooler and the hassle involved.

It has erratic temperatures. Hits about 80c-85c - sometimes when only multi-tasking on the Internet, not even when gaming. And when gaming, it won't get hotter than that anyway. Seriously erratic! Otherwise, when just on the Internet it runs around 60c-65c.

IMPORTANT: I have a 2 year old Corsair 550W PSU. Not sure if that's good enough for a GTX560ti or GTX570. 2 years old means it isn't outputting 550W these days, due to capacitor aging.

 

[Dark Comet]

I'm quite sure the CPU is not meant to operate in them temperatures. You should email Intel and RMA it.

 

[jones89]

I'm quite sure the CPU is not meant to operate in them temperatures. You should email Intel and RMA it.

Thanks for the answers.

I take it I would have to send them the CPU back? I can't afford any downtime, as my gaming PC is also the PC from which my advertising design agency is run. I'm considering building a new system anyway.

 

[Dark Comet]

I know with my CPU (Q9450) it ran hot and I emailed intel and they said as long as it does not go above 71.4 its fine. Maybe your CPU cooler is not installed right?

 

[jones89]

It's been running fine for about 18months, so it shouldn't start acting erratically all of a sudden. Max temp is 95c for this CPU. Intel would probably say there's nothing wrong as long it doesn't reach 95c.

 

[FunSurfer]

I have the stock cooler and am not interested in cleaning the CPU and getting a customer cooler and the hassle involved.

It has erratic temperatures. Hits about 80c-85c - sometimes when only multi-tasking on the Internet, not even when gaming. And when gaming, it won't get hotter than that anyway. Seriously erratic! Otherwise, when just on the Internet it runs around 60c-65c.

IMPORTANT: I have a 2 year old Corsair 550W PSU. Not sure if that's good enough for a GTX560ti or GTX570. 2 years old means it isn't outputting 550W these days, due to capacitor aging.

If the your CPU is hot and not stable don't get a card that will stress it to the limit. Better invest in a new system.

 

[Petrofsky]

As usual, it's Tom to the rescue. There was an article last year in Tom's Hardware testing for CPU/GPU bottlenecking in various games. In the conclusion, it says "If you have a dual-core CPU at around 3 GHz, then invest your money into a graphics card, as most games are GPU-limited. This is not something that will change with new DirectX 11 games." The upshot is that you should go right ahead and max out your graphics card, and leave your CPU alone. There do seem to be games that improve with better CPUs, but even those will benefit more from a better graphics card. That's where almost all the processing goes on when it comes to graphics.

If you're having temp problems, you should look at your cooling. It will be less hassle than earning the $150 it will cost to replace the CPU.

550W is enough, but just enough. More is better without limit when it comes to PSUs.

 

[jones89]

Best answer selected by jones89.

 

[jones89]

Thanks for the help everyone.

I think I will be getting a new motherboard, and a Core i5 2500K anyway, as with current games, and Photoshop, Illustrator etc. and loads of Web windows open, my CPU gets hot and noisy. And I play Shogun 2 Total War, which is such a beast of a game that I need all the help I can get, in terms of CPU and GPU! And I'm preparing for Battlefield 3. Also I have crappy DDR2 RAM, and only 4GBs which fills up often (with the Adobe programs and alot of websites open, all day every day, I multi-task alot, so my CPU and RAM take a beating.)

I'm currently taking advice on my planned new build, here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/320779-13-please-check-build