When will my CPU start to bottle neck a GPU upgrade?

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CDutch4580

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I'm currently looking to upgrade my GPU, but my rig I built is now over 4 years old. It still runs great, but I'd like some extra performance when playing BF3 and Skyrim. My current GPU is an amd 5750 1gig running at stock speed and the rest of my setup is listed below. At what level of GPU upgrade will my CPU become a hindrance? I was thinking of getting a 6950, but might wait till Jan when the 7950 comes out. Will the tried and true Q6600 hinder performance?

Current Setup:
Antec 900
Antec 850 PSU (I used to have a crossfire setup with 2900s)
Q6600 OC'd to 3.0ghz
4gig Mushkin ddr2 @ 1066 5-5-5-18 2t
Gigabyte X38-DQ6
MSI 5750 1gig DDR5 @ Stock speeds
Win 7 32bit

edit: Game resolution 1920x1080
 
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It would definitely go well in your system; you have a nice overclocked Core2Quad, which is an incredible processor by today's standards still. It can keep up with the latest games.

For BF3, your processor should be fine. Right here on Tom's an article proved that the processor does not really matter, unless you have something like a Pentium 4, which you don't.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html

"Battlefield 3's single-player campaign doesn’t care if you’re using a $130 Core i3 or $315 Core i7. It doesn’t care if you come armed with two Hyper-Threaded cores or four Bulldozer modules...Any reasonably-modern processor is going to be held back by graphics long before hamstringing...
It would definitely go well in your system; you have a nice overclocked Core2Quad, which is an incredible processor by today's standards still. It can keep up with the latest games.

For BF3, your processor should be fine. Right here on Tom's an article proved that the processor does not really matter, unless you have something like a Pentium 4, which you don't.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html

"Battlefield 3's single-player campaign doesn’t care if you’re using a $130 Core i3 or $315 Core i7. It doesn’t care if you come armed with two Hyper-Threaded cores or four Bulldozer modules...Any reasonably-modern processor is going to be held back by graphics long before hamstringing performance itself."

Skyrim on the other hand is more CPU based and GPU based, but you should be fine. You won't need an upgrade for another year or two maybe.
 
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joedjnpc

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Varies by game. For example:

World of Warcraft a CPU will bottleneck a GPU fast, it can be incredibley CPU intesive in 25 man raids. Same goes for other large multi player games like BF3.

Whereas a single player game like crysis 2 are insanely GPU intensive and older CPU's will keep up fine.

Depends on what you're playing, there's no list of ideal CPU and GPU pairing that will avoid bottlenecking entirely.
 

4745454b

Titan
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You should be ok for the most part. At 6950 and 78xx/79xx you'll start to see some issues with the Q6600. If you can get it to 3.4 or 3.6 you'll be in better shape but I wouldn't push it. There will always be the occasional game that stresses CPUs. As long as your not too demanding when they pop up you'll be ok with that CPU.
 
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