HD 4670 CPU concern

[Naus]

Hi there,

I have a dell E521 and I was looking forward in upgrading it with a new graphic card, a HD 4670 512 mb. My main concern is if my CPU will bottleneck my system, thus rendering null all my efforts and giving me only some fair, laggy gameplay. If so, by how much ?

I have an AMD 64x2 3800+ at 2.0 GHz
2gb ddr2 ram, dual channel
6150Le (should be a huge upgrade?)
305W dell stock psu

I plan on playing at a 1680x1050 resolution. Thank you !

 

[EXT64]

True, that CPU isn't the fastest, however you still will see a large increase in performance. However, there may not be much difference between a 4670 and a 4650 DDR3 (which costs a little less and uses a little less power). Just something else to consider. And finally, you have confirmed the PC has a free PCI-E x16 slot, correct?

 

[Naus]

Correct, and as for the 4650, I was under the impression that there should be a significant gap between it and the 4670 in term of performance mainly because of the monthly article by toms hardware for the best card for the money.

 

[EXT64]

There is a large gap between the 4670 and 4650 DDR2, though the DDR3 version closes it a little. I mainly meant that due to bottlenecking from the CPU, in many cases the two cards would probably perform close to each other. However, the price difference is pretty small, so you are probably better off with your original choice of a 4670 (and know you are getting the best performance).

 

[Naus]

Ahh, I didn't pay attention the DDR3, my bad. As for the 4670, with bottlenecking kicking in, I should expect to play at what? 80% of it's true capacity? less or more?

 

[Dekasav]

It depends on the game/settings that you use, but it'll run pretty well, overall. I'm running a CPU pretty similar to yours (X2 @ 2.5Ghz) with an HD 4670 and most things run very well.

You won't be disappointed with either one, and your CPU bottlenecking will be pretty slight, regardless (you won't notice, anyway).

 

[EXT64]

That's really hard to say. Really it will depend on the game (whether it is very CPU dependant) however it will certainly run circles around a 6150. For (what are they now, $60-70?) I think it is probably worth it, but as I haven't tried a setup exactly like that I don't know for sure what to expect.

 

[Naus]

Then I should no longer wait, I will try to get it this week. Thank you very much for the quick answers to both of you, was very helpful!