Core 2 Quad Q9400s 2.66GHz GPU Bottleneck

GeforceMasterRace

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Aug 25, 2015
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Rig:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400s 2.66GHz
Motherboard: P5Q PRO
Ram: 4x 2 gigabyte 800MHz
GPU: 2x Asus Radeon HD7850-V2 (2 GDDR5 each) in Crossfire

Hi,
Looking to play games like GTA V, COD. etc. But I'm just wondering whether my current CPU and ram are bottlenecking my 2 graphics cards? I am currently interested in getting a 1156 motherboard and a basic i3 540 however I'm wondering whether this is a worthy upgrade or not as these cards don't seem to be running as well as they should, specifically in GTA V.

Thanks
 
Solution
If you OC that puppy to faster speeds like I did with my Core 2 Quad and pair it with just one of those GPUs it would be a balanced system. Dual cards? Probably overkill. Your RAM is probably actually not able to feed the Q9400 very well. I find faster ram helped with mine some but I also OC'd it using the FSB.

Mobo: P43D3
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q9450 OC to 3.2Ghz (essentially a Q9650)
GPU: HD 5870 1GB
RAM: 8GB DDR3@1600
I get 11679 in CloudGate and 110413 in IceStorm (3DMark). If you want, we can compare to give you a better idea of what your CPU is doing to your GPU's.
If you OC that puppy to faster speeds like I did with my Core 2 Quad and pair it with just one of those GPUs it would be a balanced system. Dual cards? Probably overkill. Your RAM is probably actually not able to feed the Q9400 very well. I find faster ram helped with mine some but I also OC'd it using the FSB.

Mobo: P43D3
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q9450 OC to 3.2Ghz (essentially a Q9650)
GPU: HD 5870 1GB
RAM: 8GB DDR3@1600
I get 11679 in CloudGate and 110413 in IceStorm (3DMark). If you want, we can compare to give you a better idea of what your CPU is doing to your GPU's.
 
Solution
Also have a Xeon X3360 (not able to OC due to mobo limitations) on a Q45 chipset as well, but it uses 8GBs of DDR3 @1066 with scores of 10365 and 97925, respectively. Feel free to compare scores, this will give you an idea of whether or not your graphics cards are helping. Keep in mind that a CPU heavy modern game will undoubtedly lag your system, and that older games (these benchmarks aren't new) are likely going to run fine no matter what. The Q9400 is no slouch, don't let anyone tell you it is - especially if you give it a good boost with some fast ram.
 


Would upgrading to a 1156 mobo and getting something like a i7-750 make any difference?
 
Nope. Very little. You're going from a passmark score of 3430 with a single thread rating of 1133

to 3736 and 1134. So you won't even notice a difference. Your best bet would be to upgrade to a much more modern processor. The Q9400 was a fairly high end chip and it's predecessor did little to improve upon it.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2832/16 Note the Q9650, which is a bit better than your chip. Not much difference when you consider there are CPUs 4x more powerful available to you now. If you find something that is fast per core but double your CPU speed you'll be sitting a lot better.
 


What about a Intel Core i7-870?
 
IF you were to OC your Q9400 you could potentially get it to be about 20% faster. You would probably notice a good 15% faster framerates. So if you're able to play games around 45fps you should be able to get closer to 60fps.
 


Thanks, I'll need to try this