Upgrading GPU help?

[YJM]

I was thinking about buying the 660ti for the aspect of "best bang for your buck" concept and i was wondering if that is true. Really my budget is around $300 but i can dish out an extra 100 for a gtx 670. Is the performance between the 660ti and the 670 that noticeable? Actually lets back up abit, is the performance between a 660(non ti) huge compared to a 660ti? I only play on 1 monitor at a 1920x1080 1080p. I have thought about the AMD cards but i have a 6870 right now and i really wanted to try out a Nvidia card to really grasp the feel of both companies. And no i do not wish to wait 6-10 months for the 7xx series, i can no longer bare to play my games with my diminishing 6870. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

PS-I have a X6 II Phenom 1090T (factory speed 3.2ghz) with a Gigabyte ga-870a-ud3 motherboard, will these bottleneck if i get a card like the gtx 660ti or 670?

 

[Supercrit]

I fear that Phenom II will bottleneck it since many recent games are both CPU and GPU intensive. 6950 class cards are already on the limit of being held back for any Star architecture CPU, 660ti will undoubtedly be bottlenecked on many games.

 

[sheepsnowadays]

With a little OC you should be fine, clock for clock the phenoms match piledriver which is definitely capable. I would get the 670 as the 660ti only has a 192 bit memory bus which may limit you at high levels of AA and other settings.

 

[YJM]

How much of a overclock would i need for it to not bottleneck? 3.6? 4.0? For a time i was running my phenom at 4.0ghz. I will be replacing my CPU and Mobo in the near future but not right now because of my budget.

 

[Supercrit]

With a little OC you should be fine, clock for clock the phenoms match piledriver which is defiantly capable. I would get the 670 as the 660ti only has a 192 bit memory bus which may limit you at high levels of AA and other settings.

This is not 100% true
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-3-performance-benchmark,3379-7.html
take a look at this, you probably need to OC it to 5Ghz to stop the bottlenecking, which is impossible on air.
At 3.2-3.6ghz I personally tested with Far Cry 3, GPU hovers at 60-80% usage, F1 2012 50%-70%, all on a 6950, which is already quite a bit of wasted GPU performance. Anything higher will result no improvement, it does contribute to the economy though.

 

[YJM]

So...buying a new graphics card isnt viable? Its either i buy a new GPU for bottleneck or buy new CPU + Mobo for no performance increase?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Take no notice of people going on about bottlenecking, you'll be fine with that card and your current CPU.

 

[Supercrit]

Pretty much, changing either will yield a negligible gaming performance gain. You probably need to wait bit more to have enough funds to change both at once.

Take no notice of people going on about bottlenecking, you'll be fine with that card and your current CPU.

So according to you, the in house testing done by Tom's hardware should be ignored?

 

[YJM]

Okay...i have people telling me two different things at once, sorry im confused.

 

[dish_moose]

Get the GTX 670 if you can afford it. When you upgrade the rest of your hardware you'll be smiling.
-Bruce
Edit: Like Mousemonkey said - 1100T OCed will be fine. EDIT 1090T

 

[YJM]

Its actually a 1090T (if that yields any difference) and if what Supercrit is saying is true; wouldnt it be better to get the 660ti? Save the extra for funding my CPU + Mobo replacement?

Out of topic question; will the 660ti be future proof for a game such as Rome II?

 

[sheepsnowadays]

This is not 100% true
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-3-performance-benchmark,3379-7.html
take a look at this, you probably need to OC it to 5Ghz to stop the bottlenecking, which is impossible on air.
At 3.2-3.6ghz I personally tested with Far Cry 3, GPU hovers at 60-80% usage, F1 2012 50%-70%, all on a 6950, which is already quite a bit of wasted GPU performance. Anything higher will result no improvement, it does contribute to the economy though.

The reason your GPU isn't at 100% is because your card handles those games with ease, not because your cpu was bottlenecking. I bet it would go to closer to 90-100% in BF3 or Metro 2033.

 

[dish_moose]

If you go for anything less than the GTX670 - when you do pgrade the rest of your hardware - you'l be kicking yourself. If you can do it - get the best card you can afford.
-Bruce

 

[Supercrit]

The reason your GPU isn't at 100% is because your card handles those games with ease, not because your cpu was bottlenecking. I bet it would go to closer to 90-100% in BF3 or Metro 2033.

I do look at the fps when I play far cry 3, the frame rate is not solid 60+ when the GPU usage is below 80%, and the CPU consistently hovers around 90%, especially inside the starting town(Amanaki Town), 40fps with GPU at 64%, CPU over 80%. Clearly a sign of CPU bottlenecking. Not to mention I put shadow quality to medium to alleviate CPU load.

More GPU intensive games might get more GPU usage, but topic creator wants to play a strategy game, which will probably end up to be quite CPU intensive.

Bottom line is, update either first, just to make sure pair it right after.

 

[YJM]

I was just using the total war games as example, I do play other games such as far cry 3 And skyrim etc.
so basically, even though I get a 670, I won't see much improvement in my games? And the only way is to basically upgrade everything at the same time CPU + mobo ?

If so, that's a real bummer because I can't afford all of that anytime soon.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I'd say get the card first and see how your games look then go from there.

 

[Supercrit]

Skyrim as well won't be utilizing the GPU power since it's very CPU bound too(badly optimized console port being another reason). 6950 is bottlenecked by Phenom II hard.
Also, another person has a similar build than you, with GTX 670 on this thread, hope it helps.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/386432-33-usage

 

[YJM]

Well that's the thing, I don't want to spend $400 on a GPU and see minimal increase in performance. Maybe even using that money for a better CPU and MOBO might even be more beneficial.

 

[dish_moose]

I have read threads on 1090T/100T and with a decent OC(NB too) the cpu will handle a GTX670 quite well. You will not be throwing $$ by purchasing this card.
-Bruce

 

[dish_moose]

Supercrit - the testing Tom's did was not with an OCed 1090T - will make a big difference.
-Bruce

 

[YJM]

What is considered a decent OC for the 1090T? Actually how much of a OC will i need to do for a GTX 670 to be comfortable? I have a 800W PSU, i have had my CPU clocked at 4.0ghz before but it wasnt exactly stable.

Btw what does "NB" stand for?

 

[Supercrit]

Supercrit - the testing Tom's did was not with an OCed 1090T - will make a big difference.
-Bruce

Yes I know that, with 100% scaled extrapolation, you need to OC that 1090T to 5Ghz to avoid bottlenecking. Read my previous posts please. That's optimistic 100% scaling, I doubt that will happen even the topic creator managed to OC that far.

OC won't fix everything.

All I'm doing here is to prevent YJM getting a bad case of buyer's remorse after seeing a 400$ brand spanking new 670 working at 60% at most. Just wait after you have enough to change both, by then the cards/CPUs would be even more cost efficient.
You get your 670 now, it will lose its value every day without you benefiting from it due to bottleneck.

 

[Mousemonkey]

What is considered a decent OC for the 1090T? Actually how much of a OC will i need to do for a GTX 670 to be comfortable? I have a 800W PSU, i have had my CPU clocked at 4.0ghz before but it wasnt exactly stable.

Btw what does "NB" stand for?

Try things at default clocks first, then OC if you feel you need/want to.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Yes I know that, with 100% scaled extrapolation, you need to OC that 1090T to 5Ghz to avoid bottlenecking. Read my previous posts please. That's optimistic 100% scaling, I doubt that will happen even the topic creator managed to OC that far.

OC won't fix everything.

All I'm doing here is to prevent YJM getting a bad case of buyer's remorse after seeing a 400$ brand spanking new 670 working at 60% at most. Just wait after you have enough to change both, by then the cards/CPUs would be even more cost efficient.
You get your 670 now, it will lose its value every day without you benefiting from it due to bottleneck.

I don't think you understand or have even seen the visual display that the term "bottlenecking" was used by from the first person who was trying to describe what was going on and what was being seen, it was not being used in the context of any PC's single limiting component.

 

[YJM]

Here guys, check this thread out: http://www.overclock.net/t/1328807/x6-1090t-3-7-ghz-bottleneck-gtx-660

Talks about people who claim they have no bottlenecking with the similar build i am going for.