GTX 970 bottlenecked by a Athlon II x 255?

[DougBR]

Title pretty much says it all.

Will a GTX 970 be a waste of money if the CPU is an Athlon II x 255 (3.1 GHz overclocked to 3.4)?

I'm trying to decide whether to upgrade my graphics card first, or to upgrade the cpu/mobo.

 

[tambeshakunt]

Yes there will be bottlenecking for sure. Defo get a new cpu/board first.

 

[clutchc]

Very much so, yes.

 

[Onus]

There will be a huge bottleneck, but if you're upgrading the CPU/mobo later anyway, it won't hurt to get the GTX970.
What do you have now (please include the brand and model, as well as wattage, of your PSU), and what is your total budget for upgrading?

 

[Rosenthal]

You probably have at least 300 to spend, right?

I'd think going for an 8320/8350 upgrade with an gtx 960 / amd r9 280 or greater would have you set

EDIT: I just realized you probably don't deal in usd...

 

[DougBR]

500w power supply.

XFX Radeon HD 6770 is the current video card.

Total budget: $300-$400 or so. Kind of flexible here, trying to upgrade piece by piece and do pretty much the whole PC.

 

[DougBR]

That 300-400 budget being for either CPU/mobo OR GPU. Whichever one I do will likely fall in that range.

 

[DougBR]

You probably have at least 300 to spend, right?

I'd think going for an 8320/8350 upgrade with an gtx 960 / amd r9 280 or greater would have you set

EDIT: I just realized you probably don't deal in usd...

Yes on the USD

My current MOBO is only AM3 (not AM3+), otherwise I probably would do exactly what you suggested. Since I have to do a new MOBO altogether, I'm going to switch over to one of the i5's.

 

[Onus]

I'm sure you want more, but how much improvement do you need now? What does not run as well as you'd like? This will suggest which of the two areas to upgrade first (while you save some money for the other).
What is the brand and model of the PSU?

 

[tambeshakunt]

How about this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($178.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $400.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-06 13:42 EST-0500


The GPU is a r9 280, not a GTX 970 but you are getting a very capable CPU and H97 board all at $400 which is a very good deal.


This is considering you have a GOOD quality power supply.

What is the make and model of it, just to confirm?

 

[DougBR]

I don't know the brand/model on my PSU, only that it is 500w. I'd have to check it when I get home.

Mainly using the computer for gaming (WoW, Skyrim) and streaming video. Skyrim runs pretty well, WoW freezes up from time to time, and the video streaming is good but not great.

Tambeshakunt, that actually looks like a pretty solid bundle for much less than I was expecting to spend (I assumed to get everything I wanted/needed, I'd be at $700-800).

 

[DougBR]

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54690k
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z97extreme4
= $319

Had these exact parts picked out as one of my possible upcoming purchases.

 

[Onus]

Do not forget that when you replace your motherboard, you will also most likely need a new Windows license.

 

[DougBR]

Do not forget that when you replace your motherboard, you will also most likely need a new Windows license.

I've never replace a motherboard before and did not know that, thank you. I assumed it would be on my HD and hadn't considered that at all.

edit: that stinks

 

[Onus]

You will need to reload Windows. You cannot simply move the hard drive. The drivers are all different, so it probably won't even boot. I believe there are ways to prepare a drive to be moved, but I'm not sure how well they really work. Any old drivers left behind can lead to instability.

 

[DougBR]

Well, at least now I know and it won't be a terrible surprise after spending a bunch of money. I guess that means cpu/mobo/OS.