GTX 670 Question

[oprahb747]

Hi everybody. I recently got my hands on the Gigabyte GTX 670 2gig Windforce x3 addition, and absolutely love it. I was hanging around GPU-Z and noticed that the card was running at PCI-E 2.0 x 16. I will list my system details below:

MB: P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
CPU: I5-2500K SANDY BRIDGE (Currently overclocked to 4400 mhz)
PSU: ANTEC 750W GAMER SERIES


So I'm aware through some thread cruising that the sandy bridge i5-2500k doesn't support pci-e 3.0, and I realize that the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 can be marginal in most cases. However, I'm wondering if it is worth it to upgrade my CPU to have access to the 3.0 or not. Is my 2500k going to bottleneck the GPU?

 

[bigcyco1]

It's not worth upgrading and no your i5 is not going to bottleneck the GPU your fine.

 

[abCasPeRR]

Like bigcyo said, its not worth it at all. The only difference is the bandwidth and its very minimal on what it is. You're completely fine to stay with what you have.

 

[oprahb747]

@bigcyco1 & abCasPeRR, thank you both for that piece of mind, that's very good to know.

I have another question on my mind. Is there any bother with using a card as a dedicated PhysX with this card? I have an old 768mb GTX 460 lying around, and am wondering on whether or not it would be worth it to use as a dedicated or not?

 

[JJ1217]

@bigcyco1 & abCasPeRR, thank you both for that piece of mind, that's very good to know.

I have another question on my mind. Is there any bother with using a card as a dedicated PhysX with this card? I have an old 768mb GTX 460 lying around, and am wondering on whether or not it would be worth it to use as a dedicated or not?

It actually might be worth it. The GTX 460 is a very good card. What you have to look out for in dedicated PhysX cards is that the PhysX card does NOT slow down the GTX 670, otherwise you will have worse performance. You can test it and see, I think the GTX 460 is good enough as a PhysX card.

 

[oprahb747]

@ JJ1217

Thanks very much for that detailed information! That was fairly inspiring enough for me to want to give it a shot.

I'll close this topic down. I wish I could give multiple best answers! Gonna give it to the person who gave the most detail to the original question!

Thanks Tomshardware!

 

[oprahb747]

Best answer selected by oprahb747.

 

[bigcyco1]

@bigcyco1 & abCasPeRR, thank you both for that piece of mind, that's very good to know.

I have another question on my mind. Is there any bother with using a card as a dedicated PhysX with this card? I have an old 768mb GTX 460 lying around, and am wondering on whether or not it would be worth it to use as a dedicated or not?

It might be worth it i would try it and see

 

[abCasPeRR]

@bigcyco1 & abCasPeRR, thank you both for that piece of mind, that's very good to know.

I have another question on my mind. Is there any bother with using a card as a dedicated PhysX with this card? I have an old 768mb GTX 460 lying around, and am wondering on whether or not it would be worth it to use as a dedicated or not?

It would be worth it if you play games that utilize physx, if you dont you wont see any improvement. But IMO I have my 660 Ti running BL2 with physx on high and it still does fine. You should be fine to just do it with one card. Which I'm sure a 670 would be able to do just fine.

 

[oprahb747]

@ abCasPeRR

You are correct in your recommendation of using one card. I attempted to use the gtx 460 768mb, but I didn't notice anything important enough to keep it plugged in.

Cheers!

 

[abCasPeRR]

@ abCasPeRR

You are correct in your recommendation of using one card. I attempted to use the gtx 460 768mb, but I didn't notice anything important enough to keep it plugged in.

Cheers!

Happy to see I helped you out. Have fun!