I5 2500k bottleneck?

[mrwhosetheboss]

Hey guys, just wondering, would an i5 2500k bottleneck two hd 7970's? I know its a powerful cpu, but I am buying one now, and then another in a year or so. Also, will a quality 800w psu be enough? or should I get 850W just to be safe?

Thank you =)

 

[rocketracer]

from what I've heard, you might need around 1000w's for dual 7970's, definitely if your going to be OCing. And in gaming, an i5 2500k wouldn't necessarily bottleneck the GPU, since gaming doesn't really use the cpu that much.

 

[neon neophyte]

i could see the 2500k being a bottleneck at times

i used an unlocked and overclocked 6950 and my cpu use spikes to 60 percent in bf3. i can only theorize what a 2nd card would do. more powerful at that.

 

[joshernater9]

i5 2500K is the best gaming CPU we can get today and people use it for Extreme gaming rigs with quad cards and seem to have nothing but praise for it so ....

It's nowhere near the best cpu we can get today for gaming, but it is a great CPU, especially for the price.

 

[anti-painkilla]

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

A quality 850W PSU will be best, then you have room for expansion just incase you want to fill that computer up with stuff.

 

[neon neophyte]

i have one, clocked at 5ghz. what i stated abotu 60 percent on bf3 with a single 6970 is true.

are you telling me its not true?

 

[neon neophyte]

runs just fine, runs at 60 percent tops.

as to answering the op, yeah, a 2500k could quite possibly be a bottle neck in a dual 7970 configuration

 

[mortonww]

What resolution will you be running with the two 7970's? If your CPU is not overclocked and you were running two 7970's on a 1080p monitor, there is a possibility that your CPU could bottleneck the cards. If, however, you plan to game on two 2560 monitors, your CPU will not be the bottleneck. It's hard to tell; maybe someone has some links or references on hand. I don't.

But yeah, what resolution and how many monitors?

 

[mrwhosetheboss]

I would overclock to about 4.2 ghz, and I would game on three monitors

 

[mortonww]

That should still be GPU limited in most cases, then. Two 7970's and three 1080p monitors are a good match for an overclocked i5. Hard to say definitively, though.

 

[mortonww]

That's a great resource. Here's a 7950 crossfire article. Even on one 2560 monitor, CPU doesn't seem to bottleneck, so you should be fine with three 1080p monitors in most cases.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7950-crossfire-review-2-and-3way/1