My setup and CPU Bottleneck?

[hydrogenman]

I mainly play Call of Duty 4 (I'm on a CAL-M team and a CEVO team as well) and recently have decided my current setup just isn't cutting it anymore.

My current setup is

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ @ 2.41 ghz
Windows XP
2 gig DDR2 ram
7950GT (256mb ram version)


I have a good power supply (had to buy one recently and got a really nice corsair that will support a much better video card) so that won't be a limitation.


I have a 22" Monitor @ 1680x1050 resolution.




I am looking to upgrade my crappy 7950gt 256mb to a

8800gt

or

HD 4850


Someone posted that my CPU is going to severely bottleneck me

I don't run AA or anything fancy like that, as frames are important in competitive gaming (although I love playing Company of Hero's for fun)


Will I see a massive frame rate increase with an 8800gt?

Will my CPU bottleneck me at the resolution I game at? (remember, I don't use AA or w/e)


I know a 4850 is a lot better and only about 30 bucks more, but if an 8800gt would be bottlenecked so would a 4850.


Any advice from someone who's upgraded like this before?

 

[aznguy0028]

i haven't upgraded from this before, but i can tell you, your CPU will definitely the bottleneck in your system.

if you can, invest in a new system if you want gaming performance at competitive level...i was on Cal-M myself years ago in CS, so i know how important performance is at that level.

having a good CPU along with the 4850 (which anyone would recommend over a 8800GT), will be most beneficial to you.

the E8400 is a great CPU because it has really high clock speeds for gaming. definitely look into that if you can.

 

[kassler]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/cpu-scaling-in-games-with-quad-core-processors/

 

[hydrogenman]

I don't have the money at this time to do the upgrades I want to do.


I know my crappy 7950gt isn't being bottlenecked at my resolutions by my CPU.

I'm trying to figure out how much of a frames increase I'll get by putting in the 8800gt...trying to figure out just how much it would be bottlenecked.

Cod4 never uses 100% CPU for what it's worth, not even really that close.

 

[hydrogenman]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/cpu-scaling-in-games-with-quad-core-processors/

Awesome site....so according to this I wouldn't see much difference at all upgrading to a core2duo and my cpu wouldn't be limiting me much at all (a few frames)


but that's with

* 4x Anti Aliasing
* 16x anisotropic filtering
* All settings maxed out

Wonder if no AA or aniso would make a difference?




Next question is....should I shell out 20 or so bucks more for the 4850 instead of the 8800?

 

[kassler]

Awesome site....so according to this I wouldn't see much difference at all upgrading to a core2duo and my cpu wouldn't be limiting me much at all (a few frames)


but that's with

* 4x Anti Aliasing
* 16x anisotropic filtering
* All settings maxed out

Wonder if no AA or aniso would make a difference?


thanks for the great reply

You have to run games at very low resolutions to notice any differences today. The trend is shifting though and it may games soon that will use more power from the processor. The problem has been that there hasn’t been a market for games needing powerful processors. If there aren’t any/few customers than it’s no point spending a lot of money creating the game.
AA and AF is mainly a GPU thing

 

[Vertigon]

If your mainboard is x-fire compatible get 2x4850's. If your not getting full load at the cpu, there's not much point getting a new one.

 

[Mathos]

Get a 4850, or 2 if you can afford it and your board can handle it. Or if you can afford 2 4850s, get one and upgrade the processor to a 6000+ or 6400+ if you're worried about the CPU. If you don't want to use one of the 125w variants there is also an Athlon X2 5800+ that is based off the Brisbane core that I think is a 65w version that runs at 3ghz.

 

[hydrogenman]

ah, the 4850 was a great buy!

Good advice here, thanks folks

 

[rolli59]

I am very happy with my 8800GT bottlenecked by my Opty 170 on a 22" lcd.