Gtx 260 and e6400 bottleneck?

[alia83444]

I recently purchased a BFG gtx 260 192 and i am running it with my core 2 duo e6400 @ 2.13ghz. Before i has an 8800gts and had a 3dmark 06 score of 8900 and now with my gtx 260 i have a score of 9900. This seems like a very little jump as i had also upgraded my ram, hd, and motherboard. Is my cpu bottlenecking or is there some other reason?

 

[invisik]

yup 2.1ghz is going to bottleneck the gtx260 i would recommend overclocking it to 2.5ghz+

 

[coozie7]

How I wish that benchmark had never been released!
The problem is that 3D Mark 06 uses the CPU performance as part of the overall score calculation and tends to overemphasize its importaince, hence the 'low' scores so the only way to improve it will to either; overclock or put in a faster CPU.
Read the Overclocking Forum for advice on how to get involved with this dark and dangerous art or just Google it
But I'll lay good money that your games run a good deal better, which is, when all is said and done, the only benchmark that matters.

 

[photonboy]

Yep, it's your CPU all right.

You can use Task Manager "CTRL-ALT-DEL", along with FRAPS to ensure your Framerate is varying (i.e. between 20 and 50FPS).

Open up your first game, run it for five minutes then close it and look at the Task Manager.

Is at least one of your threads "maxed out"?

Repeat for your other demanding games. If your game is struggling but no core reaches 100% it's your graphics card. If your reaching 100% on at least one core it's your CPU that's holding you back.

 

[kyeana]

My 2 cents:

Ignore 3dMark, and check the actual performance increases in game. If you aren't happy with them you always have the option of overclocking

 

[boulard83]

+1 Kyeana

But 2.1ghz is still not blazing fast for your new card. Your lil bottlenecked here. How about your RAM ?

 

[goonting]

great overclocking job will do... actual test will matter...

 

[damocles66]

same specs here, E6400 + GTX 260 192sp

try to get your E6400@ 2.8ghz, in my mobo the bios setting is 7*400fsb= 2800ghz vcore 1.250. RAM set to 800 1.1 the difference in games is noticeable but not that high.. in 3dmark06 scored 12900.

Check if your motherboard is capable of decent OC,

Specs

E6400@2800
PNYGTX260 192sp
G-skill 1x4 GB 800mhz
MB Gigabyte 965p-DS3

 

[N.Broekhuijsen]

That card is quite nice, friend of mine has it, needed to get a quad core to rid of bottleneck. scored 15,500 points!!!

 

[boulard83]

You dont need a QUAD ... this score is just a SCORE ... yes my Q9550 score over 6000pts in 3Dmark06 CPU score..... but most game dont use quad and a Dual with decent Clock is enough for gaming today. Next year ? maybe a quad, but for now, a DUAL is ok.

Last proco : E6850 @ 3.6ghz with GTX285 = 16000
New proco : Q9550 @ 3.74ghz with GTX285 = 19500

This point jump is only from the CPU as the rest of the computer was the SAME. But in game FPS didnt jumped like this. YES the quad helped, but ths CLOCK count.