CPU bottleneck

[jesteralex]

hi, my system config is core2duo e4600, 2gb ddr2 ram and intel dg31pr mobo. Two days ago i purchased a corsair tx650v2 psu and saphire hd 6870 GDDR5 graphics card. now iam facing brief interval frame drops during games which the 6870 shud easily handle. when i quickly open up the task manager i would find that the cpu is showing irregular spikes which are hitting the 100% mark. I tried updating the driver and all, but no use.

Is this a cpu bottleneck?? I know that e4600 is a low end cpu but it gave me no problems on the days when i had xfx 8800gt 512mb.
Or is this a Ram problem?? my ram is pretty slow.
Or is this a mobo problem??...the hd 6870 is a pcie 2.1 card but my mobo is pcie 1.0...is the pcie bandwidth bottle necking my graphics card???

Guys plz help me.....if this problem is due to anything other than ram then i would go for a sandy bridge setup....I would also like the option of upgrading to ivy bridge. most people say ANY p67/h67/z68 mobo can support IB. Some say GOOD p67/h67/z68 mobos can support IB with a bios flash. Which is true?? Also plz suggest a so called good p67mobo.....and a temporary low cost gaming cpu compatible with p67....Thank you

 

[Hammy12Edgar]

hi, my system config is core2duo e4600, 2gb ddr2 ram and intel dg31pr mobo. Two days ago i purchased a corsair tx650v2 psu and saphire hd 6870 GDDR5 graphics card. now iam facing brief interval frame drops during games which the 6870 shud easily handle. when i quickly open up the task manager i would find that the cpu is showing irregular spikes which are hitting the 100% mark. I tried updating the driver and all, but no use.

Is this a cpu bottleneck?? I know that e4600 is a low end cpu but it gave me no problems on the days when i had xfx 8800gt 512mb.
Or is this a Ram problem?? my ram is pretty slow.
Or is this a mobo problem??...the hd 6870 is a pcie 2.1 card but my mobo is pcie 1.0...is the pcie bandwidth bottle necking my graphics card???

Guys plz help me.....if this problem is due to anything other than ram then i would go for a sandy bridge setup....I would also like the option of upgrading to ivy bridge. most people say ANY p67/h67/z68 mobo can support IB. Some say GOOD p67/h67/z68 mobos can support IB with a bios flash. Which is true?? Also plz suggest a so called good p67mobo.....and a temporary low cost gaming cpu compatible with p67....Thank you

Hello, sorry to hear about your problem, but yes, the CPU needs an upgrade, thehttp://ark.intel.com/products/33911/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-E8500-(6M-Cache-3_16-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB) would be a great upgrade, and it has the same socket, so you should have no problems switching the two out , PCI-e Is backwards compatible, and your system should not have as much ram as your graphics card, Id at least have 4-6Gb of ram in there

 

[mubin]

Your cpu is too slow for 6870. E4600 is heavily bottleneck your gpu. Even with a ram/cpu upgrade you will see bottleneck (depending on game). Get a whole new rig. New SB cpu, mobo, ram.

Your 8800gt is much slower than 6870. Thats why you see fps drops. 6870 is faster for todays game.

Upgrading to a E8500 will give you a boost but it still cost more than core i3. So get a new rig.

 

[Infikiran]

Hey man. If I were you with your current rig I would get this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/intel-core-2-quad-q9550-2-83ghz-12m-1333-05a-Processor-b355-/380408862750?pt=CPUs&hash=item589222981e

It uses the same socket and is not that bad of a price. It also overclocks well. I used to have this chip overclocked to 3.6 GHz on air cooling.

Do that and upgrade your ram and you're golden.

 

[jesteralex]

Your cpu is too slow for 6870. E4600 is heavily bottleneck your gpu. Even with a ram/cpu upgrade you will see bottleneck (depending on game). Get a whole new rig. New SB cpu, mobo, ram.

Your 8800gt is much slower than 6870. Thats why you see fps drops. 6870 is faster for todays game.

Upgrading to a E8500 will give you a boost but it still cost more than core i3. So get a new rig.

Thank you for your quick reply and i totally agree with you on your SB suggestion.......in fact i have had an eye on the asus p67 sabertooth and i3-2100 for a while now...........but the only thing holding me back is the question of upgradability.........Intel has remained silent about the compatibility of Ivy bridge with p67 chipset.....besides that they have released the Z77 chipset for IB. So i really dont know whether i shud wait for IB or just buy a p67 and hope that it wud support IB.

 

[saige1r]

You can also try to get an intel q6600. I have mine at 3.58 ghz on air cooling. Got mine for under $100 and the hyper 212+ cpu cooler for $28 (they dip as low as $25 on amazon when you're lucky.) Also, at least 2 more gigs of ram wouldn't hurt.

Gaming benchmarks for the q6600 aren't that far behind the i5 2500k, just for reference.

 

[mubin]

Thank you for your quick reply and i totally agree with you on your SB suggestion.......in fact i have had an eye on the asus p67 sabertooth and i3-2100 for a while now...........but the only thing holding me back is the question of upgradability.........Intel has remained silent about the compatibility of Ivy bridge with p67 chipset.....besides that they have released the Z77 chipset for IB. So i really dont know whether i shud wait for IB or just buy a p67 and hope that it wud support IB.

Get a z68 instead of p67. Its better than p67. If intel release IB soon and you can wait for upgrade, then buy later. You will see what happen.