Will a Phenom II 1090t @ 3.6 Ghz bottlenech 2x GTX 580?

[canadianmarksman]

Hello,
I have recently considered purchasing another 580, however I am unsure if my cpu will bottleneck 2 580's in SLI. If so, are there any AMD processors that can handle this?

 

[skychaser30]

It won't. I have an athlon II x2 240 2.8ghz and it could run gtx 550ti without breaking a sweat. And we all know that your CPU is way ahead of mine. So I think there will be no problem at all

 

[gorz]

Yes it will bottleneck
Edit: forgot to mention that there is no amd cpu that will not bottleneck that setup

 

[luciferano]

skychaser30 and gorz's answer should be ignored. Whether or not your CPU will bottle-neck two GTX 580s will depend on several other factors. The games that you play, what settings that you play at, and to what degree background tasks are impacting your performance (especially if you're multi-tasking while you game). Anyone who says yes or no to your question without asking you exactly what games you want to play and how you want to play them is giving an inaccurate answer.

EDIT: Also, for gorz, any FX-81xx CPU with the second core of each module disabled and the CPU/NB frequency brought up to 2.8GHz or so can compete with even the multiplier-unlocked LGA 155 i5s in OC versus OC performance comparisons and can compete fairly well in power efficiency against the i5-2500K (the 3570K has it beat pretty significantly in that). Knowing how to use an AMD CPU properly can give you a very surprising powerful computer.

It's not as simple as using Intel's CPUs (obviously a strike against AMD, but regardless) and when you see them compared on similarly simple setups such as not going beyond multiplier and/or base clock frequency overclocking with or without overvoltage is wasting a lot of potential on AMD's CPUs. They can be optimized in more ways than Intel for similarly incredible performance to Intel with excellent power efficiency too. Not many sites go the extra mile and review them properly, so it's not a surprise that you might not be aware of it, but now you are.

 

[cuecuemore]

Anyone who says yes or no to your question without asking you exactly what games you want to play and how you want to play them is giving an inaccurate answer.

This is key. Some games will be completely unbottlenecked and others may not average more than 40 FPS.

 

[canadianmarksman]

skychaser30 and gorz's answer should be ignored. Whether or not your CPU will bottle-neck two GTX 580s will depend on several other factors. The games that you play, what settings that you play at, and to what degree background tasks are impacting your performance (especially if you're multi-tasking while you game). Anyone who says yes or no to your question without asking you exactly what games you want to play and how you want to play them is giving an inaccurate answer.

EDIT: Also, for gorz, any FX-81xx CPU with the second core of each module disabled and the CPU/NB frequency brought up to 2.8GHz or so can compete with even the multiplier-unlocked LGA 155 i5s in OC versus OC performance comparisons and can compete fairly well in power efficiency against the i5-2500K (the 3570K has it beat pretty significantly in that). Knowing how to use an AMD CPU properly can give you a very surprising powerful computer.

It's not as simple as using Intel's CPUs (obviously a strike against AMD, but regardless) and when you see them compared on similarly simple setups such as not going beyond multiplier and/or base clock frequency overclocking with or without overvoltage is wasting a lot of potential on AMD's CPUs. They can be optimized in more ways than Intel for similarly incredible performance to Intel with excellent power efficiency too. Not many sites go the extra mile and review them properly, so it's not a surprise that you might not be aware of it, but now you are.

If the available settings are low, medium, high, and ultra, I would be playing on high (usually 4x AA). Most of the games I would play use DX 10 or 11. In case you want something more specific: I would mostly be playing arma 2, battlefield 3, civilization V, farcry 3, and hitman: absolution. The only background tasks would be Firefox and a possibility of Skype. I am also considering a 3D setup, if it's worth the price.

 

[luciferano]

BF3 MP should love your Phenom II x6. I'd have to find CPU benchmarks of the rest of those games to see for sure how well they work with it, but I don't think that any of them would have issues.

However, for a 3D setup, you really might want something like an LGA 1155 i5 in most of those games and you'd want to overclock it for at least some of those games, especially BF3 MP.

 

[gorz]

for reference i use an amd cpu and i am speaking from experience. my 7950 is bottlenecked by my oc'ed 1090t, so i would assume that 2 580s would be bottlenecked

 

[canadianmarksman]

Hello,
I have recently considered purchasing another 580, however I am unsure if my cpu will bottleneck 2 580's in SLI. If so, are there any AMD processors that can handle this?

BF3 MP should love your Phenom II x6. I'd have to find CPU benchmarks of the rest of those games to see for sure how well they work with it, but I don't think that any of them would have issues.

However, for a 3D setup, you really might want something like an LGA 1155 i5 in most of those games and you'd want to overclock it for at least some of those games, especially BF3 MP.

So do you think that it would bottleneck?

 

[luciferano]

So do you think that it would bottleneck?

If you go 3D, then probably, unless you don't game on a 120Hz (60Hz per eye) 3D display (which would suck compared to a 120Hz version unless you really can't tell the difference between 30Hz and 60Hz, especially when FPS can keep up with the refresh rates). What you could try (except in BF3 MP) is disabling two cores and seeing if you can get some more overclocking headroom from it (a 33% core count reduction should let you do overclock at least another 20%).

However, you should get your graphics and your display (assuming that you go 3D) and test games to see if you like how it performs. If you don't like it, then you can upgrade the CPU, but if you do like it, then there's no reason to upgrade. Just because it would probably be a bottle-neck doesn't mean that it would necessarily negatively impact your gaming experience.

 

[canadianmarksman]

If you go 3D, then probably, unless you don't game on a 120Hz (60Hz per eye) 3D display (which would suck compared to a 120Hz version unless you really can't tell the difference between 30Hz and 60Hz, especially when FPS can keep up with the refresh rates). What you could try (except in BF3 MP) is disabling two cores and seeing if you can get some more overclocking headroom from it (a 33% core count reduction should let you do overclock at least another 20%).

However, you should get your graphics and your display (assuming that you go 3D) and test games to see if you like how it performs. If you don't like it, then you can upgrade the CPU, but if you do like it, then there's no reason to upgrade. Just because it would probably be a bottle-neck doesn't mean that it would necessarily negatively impact your gaming experience.

Thanks a lot man!

I'm gonna try out what you suggested, and possibly hunt down some deals on a gtx 580.

Again, thanks for all the help

 

[luciferano]

Thanks a lot man!

I'm gonna try out what you suggested, and possibly hunt down some deals on a gtx 580.

Again, thanks for all the help

You're welcome. Also, just so you know, it might be better to sell your current 580 and buy a single GTX 670 or two GTX 660s if you want an SLI setup or a Radeon 7950 or two Radeon 7870s if you want a Crossfire setup. GTX 580s are often overpriced, so unless you find one for about $200, you're really spending more for less. They don't even scale as well as many newer cards such as the 7870s do and couldn't quite keep up because of that. Even two 7850s or maybe even two 7870s can also use less power than a single 580, so the PSU wouldn't need to be as high-wattage on the +12V rail(s).

 

[Tavo_Nova]

well it depends on what games you play and what you do behind.

it should be ok even on higher resolutions, but also depends on your thermal rate and of course the heat of your room unless you go for a 50 idle then it's another story, (CPU) but yeah it should be fine on most cases, but there might be some circumstance where it might unless you overclock it to a higher level than what you have.