Bottle neck

[xxyurixx]

hey guys its my first thread here and i wanted to ask a question
i soon going to buy a new gamer computer and i wanted to ask what cpu will not bottle neck the 670 gtx windforce oc video card

thanks for helping sorry for bad english

 

[Derza10]

I would suggest an i5 3570 if you don't plan to OC and an i5 3570k if you do. That is if you are looking to spend around $300 on CPU+Motherboard. Although looking at Newegg the K version is only $5 more right now.

Could you give us a budget?

 

[Guest]

depends on the game; even a pentium won't "bottleneck" in playing BF3 in single player.
now if you want to get a recommendation of cpu(s) that will handle that card under any condition: a phenomII x 4 965 BE, FX-8150 or i5-3470.

 

[bigshootr8]

I think loon's suggestions are great. I personally feel your experience with a i5 would be better. It's become quite hard to recommend a AMD CPU.

 

[xxyurixx]

yea i planed on the i5 3570 in fact i don't know if this is recommended so i am asking you
i want to buy the 670GTx with that cpu for example and then like 7 month later buy another 670GTx and to do sli array do you recommend that ? and buy the way the budget is around 1300$
thanks buy they way you are very helpful! i plan to buy the computer just 5 month from now buy ill appreciate if you answer my question

tnx

 

[Derza10]

If you plan to later add a second card then i would recommend the i5 3570k for sure. Always nice to have the option to overclock it when more power is needed. You really can't buy a better gaming cpu than that.

 

[xxyurixx]

thanks derza
more please?

 

[bigshootr8]

I personally don't like SLi or CF. Mainly because of scaling you never know how its going to scale with games/programs. Power is higher and heat. I feel the 670 is more then enough for a while. However yea it may not be a bad idea if you want to add another one down the pipe they will lower in price and it can most certainly extend the value of your card/s.

 

[DarkSable]

Another recommendation for the i5-3570k. It's the best gaming CPU there is right now, and will handle anything you throw at it. Make sure to get a z77 chipset motherboard so you can overclock in the future.

 

[xxyurixx]

what power supply(how much w?) should i take if ill add another 670GTX in the future?

 

[Derza10]

750-850w psu (750 should work but i like to be on the safe side so if it was me i'd go with an 850w) but get a good brand one like corsair and such.

 

[bigshootr8]

yea I agree 750-850 in that ballpark. mainly because it gives you a good amount of headroom. Some will say get a 550 or 600 watt psu because you won't ever touch the wattage but its nice to be safe plus you only get enough power connections with the 750-850w psu's I hate using molex to pci-e adapters.

For corsair if you look at them TX, HX, AX series.

 

[Guest]

what power supply(how much w?) should i take if ill add another 670GTX in the future?

this is perfect:
XFX P1-650X-XXB9 650W $99.99
$89.99 after $10.00 rebate card
PCI-Express Connector 4 x 6+2-Pin

not only does it have enough to SLI two 670s but it will also not be an "overkill" while you have a single card. what most folks fail to understand is that getting too large of a PSU can be almost as bad as getting to small of a PSU. most all PSUs take a huge nose dive in efficiency when under 20% load; as little as 72%. so when the system idles, what it does mostly, the money spent getting a quality 80+, bronze, silver or gold PSU might as well been thrown in the trash - not to mention that it could even get hotter than a 80% load. (ok i could be exaggerating)

a system with a single 670 won't hit 274 watts and a SLI set up will be ~410 watts. there is no need to go crazy.

 

[Derza10]

this is perfect:
XFX P1-650X-XXB9 650W $99.99
$89.99 after $10.00 rebate card
PCI-Express Connector 4 x 6+2-Pin

not only does it have enough to SLI two 670s but it will also not be an "overkill" while you have a single card. what most folks fail to understand is that getting too large of a PSU can be almost as bad as getting to small of a PSU. most all PSUs take a huge nose dive in efficiency when under 20% load; as little as 72%. so when the system idles, what it does mostly, the money spent getting a quality 80+, bronze, silver or gold PSU might as well been thrown in the trash - not to mention that it could even get hotter than a 80% load. (ok i could be exaggerating)

a system with a single 670 won't hit 274 watts and a SLI set up will be ~410 watts. there is no need to go crazy.

Low efficiency at idle is sort of meaningless if at idle you are only using only around 100w anyway.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-feat-evga/17
One 670 in games can use closer to 350w for total system wattage.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/05/10/nvidia_geforce_gtx_670_video_card_review/8
And most PSU are most efficient around 50% load.
http://www.corsair.com/media//650txv2-efficiency.gif (Note the efficiency of being closer to 83% at 20% load)
so even with 1 670 having a 600-650w psu would be the best efficiency but when you bump it up to 2, the watts used will be closer to 500w so having a 750-850w would be better for efficiency, and a good halfway point for both.

Maybe just get a 750w and call it a day

 

[Guest]

Low efficiency at idle is sort of meaningless if at idle you are only using only around 100w anyway.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-feat-evga/17
One 670 in games can use closer to 350w for total system wattage.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/05/10/nvidia_geforce_gtx_670_video_card_review/8
And most PSU are most efficient around 50% load.
http://www.corsair.com/media//650txv2-efficiency.gif (Note the efficiency of being closer to 83% at 20% load)
so even with 1 670 having a 600-650w psu would be the best efficiency but when you bump it up to 2, the watts used will be closer to 500w so having a 750-850w would be better for efficiency, and a good halfway point for both.

Maybe just get a 750w and call it a day

the first system in those reviews will draw more power than the OPs being a sandy bridge-E. the second one stated they measured from the wall so its not showing what the PSU is providing; assuming the PSU was 86% efficient (a silver rating) 350*.86 is 301 watts and at lower efficiency it would be less. and btw, the wattage used was 333 not 350 with the idle measured from the wall @ 88 watts.

oh dear! i just looked at that pc power & cooling turbo in the second review . .its not even a 80+ rated PSU
so lets look at that 333 watt with a more appropriate rating how about being generous and say 81%?
333*.81= 296.73 watts.

thats ~18% less than the close to 350 watts you stated!


a good explanation how using the 50% load theory for choosing a PSU is actually less efficient.
50% Load Myth

here is a chart if you are so inclined
Debunking Power Supply Myths

The first system causes this high-performance power supply to only run at 73% to 81% efficiency, depending on input voltage. Obviously, there's absolutely no need for a 900W power supply if you're running this type of computer.

The midrange system looks quite a bit better, allowing the PSU to run at 80% to 88% efficiency, although the latter only occurs at maximum load. Considering the vast majority of systems rarely run at 100% load most of the time, real-world efficiency will average closer to 82%. Office work and Internet surfing in particular will be at that level.

For the third system, a 900W power supply actually might start to make sense. It's still more than you need, but having a bit of extra room to grow isn't a bad idea. This system idles at over 300W, so it achieves a minimum 86% efficiency with 120VAC. When running a game or other demanding task, the PSU is finally able to reach its potential and provide 89% efficiency with 230VAC (or 87.5% with 120VAC).

The quick summary then is that if you don't have a system that uses 350W of power when idle, it's probably not worthwhile to purchase this type of power supply.

though a 900 watt PSU is used it still is an excellent example of how getting too large of a PSU is not a good thing.



lets see: GeForce GTX 670 2 and 3-way SLI review

Our test system is based on a power hungry Core i7 965 / X58 system. This setup is overclocked to 3.75 GHz. Next to that we have energy saving functions disabled for this motherboard and processor (to ensure consistent benchmark results). On average we are using roughly 50 to 100 Watts more than a standard PC due to higher CPU clock settings, water-cooling, additional cold cathode lights etc.
Measured power consumption one card

System in IDLE = 140 W
System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 279 W
Difference (GPU load) = 139 W
Add average IDLE wattage ~10 W
Subjective obtained GPU power consumption = ~ 149 Watts

Measured power consumption two cards in SLI x2

System in IDLE = 160W
System Wattage with GPUs in FULL Stress = 433W
Difference (GPU load) = 273W
Add average IDLE wattage ~20W
Subjective obtained GPU power consumption = ~ 293 Watts

bottom line is a PSU is best when kept between 20%- 80% at all times; not looking for that 50% "sweet spot" only. with an idle of ~88 watt (going by the review link that was provided) and max load of ~433 watts a 650 watt PSU with four PCI power connections is the better/best.

 

[bigshootr8]

As long as a power supply will support native 4x 6+2 connections I'd be okay with it. It seems like there is enough headroom in the optimal scenario that that chart will be correct for everyone.

Edit: Because by doing so you are showing that you are able to handle the wattage carried out by the extra power connectors. I don't have the exact numbers but the pci-e slot is able to power a certain amount and then each connector supplies x amount of power to the card as well.