Gigabyte GTX 760 OC 4GB SLI with i5-2400 @ 3.6 ghz

[redbearded]

Hi. I was wondering if an i5-2400 overclocked to 3.6 ghz will bottleneck 2 GTX 760s. I know that some games will always yield more fps with higher CPU clocks no matter what (i.e. Crysis 3) but what I'd like to know is if an i5-2400 @ 3.6 ghz will still allow 2 of those cards to reach 99% gpu usage (except maybe in the most cpu-hungry games, such as Crysis 3)

 

[unknownofprob]

to answer your question no. The i5 2400 is a quad core and still quite a strong CPU. It should let the GPU's go to high usage without bottlenecking so your covered. Just make sure you have a decent CPU cooler (which you probably already have) to keep it cool at 3.6GHz as the stock cooler is not very good and not meant for overclocking temps.

 

[Rammy]

In a word - no. Most games are still GPU bound rather than CPU, and as long as you have a relatively modern CPU, you are fairly unlikely to experience any issues with it holding you back. This is all pretty situational though, and how much CPU/GPU you are actually capable of using is dependant on your system as a whole, as well as what games you are running, and at what settings.

Also, if you haven't bought them, I'd stick with 2Gb GTX760s. The 4Gb cards don't make an awful lot of sense economically, and their performance even in SLI is near to identical to the 2Gbs.

 

[redbearded]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply. Yeah, I never actually used the stock cooler that came with the i5-2400. I already have it running at 3.6 ghz (could actually get it to 3.7-3.8 if I raised the BCLK to 102 mhz, but many people say it's dangerous to raise the BCLK on Sandy Bridge boards, even by as little as 1 or 2 mhz...basically, I made the wrong choice when I bought the cpu...should have bought an I5-2500K instead) and temps don't seem to go above 60...

By the way, I forgot to mention that I play games at 1080p, with an asus p8p67 pro and 8 gb RAM DDR3

 

[unknownofprob]

yeah a 2500k would have been a lot better, but still the 2400 will still do a really good job and depending on how high you clock it, It'll be fine with the right cooler but don't go into ridiculous 4.5GHz+. 3.8GHz on a decent air cooler will run fine.

 

[unknownofprob]

Motherboard, will work fine in SLI as it does have SLI support and two PCI-E x16 slots. (good that it isn't x4 otherwise your second card would be under-performed and limited to max performance.)

 

[Rammy]

Yeah it's not overclocked in the sense that many people would use the term, as it's a locked CPU. I have something very similar on my machine, and I doubt it needs an awful lot more cooling than stock as you are limited to 0.4Ghz over turbo. Honestly, I doubt it makes much difference anyway for gaming, you are probably talking about <1fps here and there.

Your motherboard supports x8 x8 PCIe, so it shouldn't give you any problems for SLI, even though it's only PCIe 2.0 (it's a minor performance limiter at worst), that would have been my bigger concern (the non Pro version only supports x8 x4).

Also, at 1080P, you'll never notice any difference between 4Gb and 2Gb GTX760s, and most of the time a single card makes more sense (if you don't already have a 760). I'm pretty convinced the 4Gb GTX760 is entirely pointless in fact.

 

[redbearded]

Yeah, I'm not worried about being able to SLI on that board, since I bought it in order to run 2 GTX 560 ti's, which has been my setup until I got the GTX 760. From what people have replied, it seems like an i5-2400 @ 3.6 ghz should be enough to handle 2 GTX 760s but I still have a funny feeling the cpu may just fall a little short for 2 GTX 760s. Maybe I'll raise the BCLK from 100 mhz to 102 mhz (I already did it for a day) to get the cpu @ 3.8 ghz but I might be putting the motherboard and/or the cpu at risk by doing that...or maybe I'll end up getting a k-series sandy bridge cpu just so I can get it to 4.5 ghz or something...not sure if it would be worth getting another cpu just to get 900 mhz more on the cores, though.

P.S. an i5-2400 has a stock speed of 3.1 ghz but can go up to 3.6 ghz on all cores without touching the BCLK. It seems like the theoretical maximum for this cpu is 3.99 ghz on all cores, although the real maximum is a little less than that, around 3.8 ghz.

 

[Rammy]

Yeah the 2400 is 3.1 + 0.1 (turbo on 4 cores) + 0.4 (+4 bins) for your 3.6. I would be pretty nervous about messing with the Bclk but like I say I doubt it's necessary. I'm in a similar position with my 3450.

The bigger 'bottleneck' (though in a slightly different sense) is likely to be your monitor, as most games arent likely to need a second gtx760 at that resolution.

 

[redbearded]

Yeah, just 1 GTX 760 is enough for most games at 1080p (except for Crysis 3 and maybe a couple of others) but what about 1-2 years from now? With the new generation of consoles, I expect pc games to start becoming as demanding as Crysis 3, so a single GTX 760 will eventually fall short even at 1080p. I just want my pc to be reasonably future proof (3-4 years).

 

[Rammy]

If I were you I'd save my money. There is nothing that a single GTX760 can't play, though obviously you need to tweak a few settings on the most demanding games.

In 2 years, spend your money on a single GTX960 (or whatever is suitable at the time) and you'll probably have spent a similar amount but have less SLI issues, and potentially better lifespan.

 

[unknownofprob]

GTX 960, That'll be a very decent performer but if you were i tend to buy a better last generation card by the provider, as they tend to be much cheaper and the performance for the price is better. In this case a GTX 870 or equivalent R9 3--x or something. That said one GTX 760 4GB is able to play games just fine at 1080p, but going for a second won't hurt and will work just fine. Just depends on if you want the performance benefit now or later, Either way is fine.