GPU vs. CPU power on my new build

[kane0187]

First time poster, long time lurker!

As I was sharing my proposed build with my friends, one of them brought up the possibility that my proposed GPU's will sacrifice a lot of power by being bottleknecked by my CPU.

What I'm looking for is to see if there is any large or serious disparity as I know this question depends on the type of use and particular application.

CPU
Intel i5 2500K - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

GPU (x2)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130660

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I usually am gaming lower needs games like Starcraft 2, Heroes of Newerth, Team Fortress 2, Portal, etc.

Thanks!!

 

[wathman]

It's possible you might bottleneck some, but I haven't read anything recently that would clearly prove that you are wasting cash on the GPU side of the equation. What I can tell you for sure is that the next i7 processor up is not much of a performance boost over the i5 you picked.

If you have some time to tinker, build your rig with just 1 GPU in place and do some frame rate benchmarks in your games. Drop the second one in and compare your results. If the difference isn't more than a few fps, you have a bottleneck.

 

[nd_hunter]

You will not be bottlenecked by that 2500k. Any reason for SLI? Just go with a single GTX 560 Ti, which will likely be overkill....

 

[michxymi]

It's a million times better, for this price to go with a 580 instead of 2 560Ti

 

[kane0187]

You will not be bottlenecked by that 2500k. Any reason for SLI? Just go with a single GTX 560 Ti, which will likely be overkill....

I guess no real reason for going SLI in particular. My desktop now is so bad I have no frame of reference for what is or isn't overkill.

I think I'll get a mobo that supports SLI but maybe take your recommendation and if need be, slap on a 2nd one later down the road.

 

[nd_hunter]

It's a million times better, for this price to go with a 580 instead of 2 560Ti

He doesn't need anything near that powerful for the games he listed. And, he linked to a GTX 560, not GTX 560 Ti.

 

[michxymi]

True! But if he plans to spend his money on a powerful GPU that he won't need, let it be a 570 or a 580

 

[kane0187]

I think I'll be set on a 560 Ti since that seems to make a lot of sense with the games I play.

Any recommendations between these 2 models of 560 Ti (1Gb vs. 2Gb)?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130683

I really appreciate all the responses as this is my true first build. This community is awesome!

 

[michxymi]

1GB. It's enough for 1920 x 1080 resolution!

 

[kane0187]

1GB. It's enough for 1920 x 1080 resolution!

Yeah I've got a 24'' monitor that's running that resolution I believe so I'll be needing that! I'm also using a smaller 19'' that came with my original desktop just as a secondary monitor. Would that warrant any cause to go for the 2Gb if I bumped the 2nd monitor to a 24'' as well?

 

[michxymi]

Are you planning any NVidia Surround setup at the future? If no, still 1GB is fine!

 

[kane0187]

Are you planning any NVidia Surround setup at the future? If no, still 1GB is fine!

Awesome! That's what I'll be going with then! Thanks everyone for all your helpful advice and suggestions