650 ti but afraid of cpu bottleneck

[Deeks]

My friend has a old system he wants to put a 650 ti card into but i don't want to recommend it to him if the cpu will bottleneck him in most cases. He is running a E8400 Core 2 Duo . It is oc'd to 3.8ghz. Do you think this gpu would be the ideal area for maxing out the cpu while still being able to play newer games or would he be better off with something slower ?( 7770, 7750, 650, est . . ) ? Thanks for any insight anyone can give.

 

[daswilhelm]

you could do a 660 if u want.

 

[Deeks]

He will be playing at 1360x768, He would be playing a wide variaty of games ( rts, fps, and mmo ) games are starcraft 2, borderlands 2, guild wars 2, natural selection 2, Diablo 3. i do understand that some games are more cpu dependent and others gpu i am just trying to find him a decent gpu that in most cases will get full utilization of the gpu rather then be bottle necked majority of the time by the cpu. I am not to familiar with the older cpu's to lower end cards for bottleneck reference.

 

[Deeks]

That being said you think he would see less of a bottleneck then if he were to upgrade to a 1080p monitor ? I always thought the higher the resolution the more it required from both cpu and gpu .

 

[daswilhelm]

i dont think that res would bottle that cpu with its given OC.

 

[Deeks]

That is good to know. thanks for the info!!! much appreciated!! you have been most helpful!

 

[Deeks]

Best answer selected by Deeks.

 

[A Bad Day]

When you increase resolution, the CPU usually isn't impacted; it will continue giving the same frames per second if the GPU was liquid nitrogen cooled and OC'ed insanely.

In many games, it's responsible for pathfinding and physics, which doesn't change regardless of resolution. However, GPUs' VRAM and memory bandwidth are affected the most by resolution.

 

[Deeks]

When you increase resolution, the CPU usually isn't impacted; it will continue giving the same frames per second if the GPU was liquid nitrogen cooled and OC'ed insanely.

In many games, it's responsible for pathfinding and physics, which doesn't change regardless of resolution. However, GPUs' VRAM and memory bandwidth are affected the most by resolution.

If the memory bandwidth is one of the most effected with resolution change would i be better off to recommend say the 660 due to the fact that if he decides to upgrade to a 1080p monitor the low memory bandwidth oft he 650 ti might hinder his performance at that level. i just wasn't sure if the cpu would bottleneck the card to a point that this would not even become a factor.