[SOLVED] Bottleneck

[bccorrupt]

Hey, I recently sold my gaming laptop now that I'm not working out of town all the time and bought an immaculate used GTX 950 2GB for $60(luck and good timing) to upgrade my desktop that's been sitting around a couple years to tide me over until I can hopefully catch a new 1650, 1660, 3060, or possibly 5500XT or 5600XT card in stock somewhere. My question is about how far I can go GPU-wise before the system becomes a serious bottleneck on games. I play about 50/50 MMOs and 1 player games.

ASUS P8P67-M PRO
Intel Core i5 2450P
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3
2GB GeForce GTX 950

 

[Lutfij]

Since you're on the 950 from the 900 series, you should be alright but ideally people with a 660Ti were able to enjoy gaming at the time. Depends on the games you play since not all games are designed the same, not all of them have the same optimization and welp, I'm also concerned if you can game at all with that2nd Gen i5, considering that I had a tough time with it when someone wanted a system on a "budget".

Make and model of your PSU and it's age?

 

[bccorrupt]

Thermaltake modular 750w, about 7 years old. Also, yes, when I upgraded the majority of the pieces then I was running a GTX 660 that crapped out a couple years ago and was replaced with a cheap GTX 750 until 3 days ago when I scored the GTX 950.

 

[animekenji]

I wouldn't bother upgrading the video card. That CPU is going to be a serious impediment, even to a GTX 1650. The 950 that you already have is close to the sweet spot for that CPU. I'd upgrade the CPU before anything else. 4 cores/4 threads isn't going to get you very far in 2021, and 8gb is also going to hold you back. I have a Phenom II 945 sitting here collecting dust because it can't keep up in modern games anymore, and I stopped using that around 2012-13.

 

[bccorrupt]

I wouldn't bother upgrading the video card. That CPU is going to be a serious impediment, even to a GTX 1650. The 950 that you already have is close to the sweet spot for that CPU. I'd upgrade the CPU before anything else. 4 cores/4 threads isn't going to get you very far in 2021, and 8gb is also going to hold you back. I have a Phenom II 945 sitting here collecting dust because it can't keep up in modern games anymore, and I stopped using that around 2012-13.

I'm a little rusty on hardware because I used a gaming laptop for 3 years until recently, but today I noticed people on the forums now using this program so I ran it.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/43610669

Unless I'm reading things wrong, it definitely thinks the GPU is a major bottleneck.

 

[animekenji]

I'm a little rusty on hardware because I used a gaming laptop for 3 years until recently, but today I noticed people on the forums now using this program so I ran it.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/43610669

Unless I'm reading things wrong, it definitely thinks the GPU is a major bottleneck.

They use a 2060 Super as the baseline for comparison. Also notice, that it says that it will struggle in resolutions than 1080p. You're not going to be gaming in 4k with that CPU, regardless of what video card you use.

Here is your CPU with a 1650 and with the 950 that you already have

Bottleneck Calculator | PC Builds

We bring you a unique calculator for bottleneck and chokepoint problems in your computer. We will help you to choose most appropriate processor and graphic card for your PC. Our calculator offers you best solutions for reducing or removing bottleneck problems.

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You're looking at an almost 30% CPU bottleneck with a 1650. You won't be running that 1650 at anywhere near what it is capable of, making it overkill with that CPU.

Bottleneck Calculator | PC Builds

We bring you a unique calculator for bottleneck and chokepoint problems in your computer. We will help you to choose most appropriate processor and graphic card for your PC. Our calculator offers you best solutions for reducing or removing bottleneck problems.

pc-builds.com

Whereas the bottleneck drops to 1.6% with your 950, and it's a GPU bottleneck, not CPU, so you're running the 950 flat out.

Even with an i7 2600 and 16gb of RAM, you're still going to be CPU bound with the 1650, but it will be 1/3 what it is with your current CPU.

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Core_i7-2600/GeForce_GTX_1650/00113Mlu/16/100

So you need a better CPU before you can upgrade to a 1650, better still you need to get away from 2nd gen architecture entirely to a newer architecture.