How Big Will My Bottleneck Be?

Mithness

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So I'm buying a ati radeon hd 5670 soon and im just wondering how big will my bottleneck be lol becuase i know my processor is outdated its only a single core but anyways heres the specs

Amd Athlon 3800+
Ati Radeon HD 4350 (soon to be 5670)
1gb Ram
160gb Harddrive

and what will be the diffrence if say someone had the same graphics card and a amd athlon II x2 255 3.1ghz compared to mine in say a game like metro 2033 on high settings and 1280x1024 what will the fps difffrence be compared my system and say that processor?
 

squallypie

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hmm, that processor is a grandma! Well, if u run the game at low resolution, the game becomes more dependent on the CPU so its best to run games at max resolution as possible.. dont know how much of a bottleneck it would be though.. ITS ALSO SINGLE CORE! my dual core runs at 100% and makes my audio choppy when i play something intensive as battlefield. And your RAM is also pretty low.

Dont know what my conclusion is though. i think its best if u build a new pc right away
 

squallypie

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What socket is ur cpu using? ( which motherboard? )

if your socket is fairly new, you could just spend another 50-70$ on a new processor and perhaps another GB of ram and the card u've mentioned and you have a pretty new PC.
 
I would say stay with your current system+HD5670 and save some money to build a whole new system...
I doubt your Amd Athlon 3800+ and 1gb Ram can run Metro 2033 even with lowest setting.

Already bought the card? If you can cancel it then do it now, better save money for a new pc...
 
^+1 to WA1.

Adding the 5670 to your current PC will help, but you will be held back by your CPU. If its a CPU intensive game you may see very minimal improvements. Most modern games are multi threaded and need at least a dual core, preferably more. It would run far better in an athlon II x2 for two reason. Modern CPU architecture, and 2 cores.

Athlon 3800+ = You need a new system for gaming. It's just the reality of the fact.

I personally would not waste the money on a 5670 because in a new build you could get a slightly better psu and get a better video card for a few bucks more.
 
I agree, you need a better processor for current games no matter what card you get.
You can replace the motherboard/cpu/ram for $150-200 if you can afford that. If not and you want something to tide you over that is sufficient for older games an HD4650 would be a decent choice.
 

Mithness

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hey thanks for all the replys, but at the moment im low on money so im planing on buy the 5670 and hopefully beabled to game it doesn't have to be max settings or anything but yea and then around christmas maybe earilier im going to buy a new processor the one im looking at is the AMD Athlon II 255 3.1ghz Duel core, and ram im upgrading very soon to either 2 or 3gb
 

Mithness

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Update: oh my computer is a Acer Aspire t180 it was from 2007 i think? and my motherboard is a acer em61sm/em61pm and i think the socket is 940 or something and its an am2.... and the 255 is an am3 and i think the same pin so would that work with my motherboard?
 
No, you can't use that processor. When you do upgrade I recommend spending slightly more for an Athlon II x3. They don't cost much more and most motherboards can be used to unlock the 4th core.
Your current system has a 250w PSU. The HD5670 may actually be more than it can handle. If you really can't wait either the HD4650 I mentioned earlier or maybe looking for a cheap used card on Ebay or similar would be the way to go for now.
 
Alright, well in that case then you might as well buy a card basically ignoring the current processor, but will be appropriate for when you upgrade at the end of the year. You will still be able to use the card for now but you wont see it's full potential until you upgrade your processor. The HD5670 would be a decent choice but if you can afford it this card is much faster;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102834
 

Mithness

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okay.... uhh new question then if i buy a new AMD Athlon II x2 250 3.0ghz processor would that increase performance in games right now with my crappy 4350? and also will a am3 cpu (amd athlon II x2 250=am3) work on/in an am2 motherboard?
 
I would recommend a x3 like I said earlier but the to answer your question both your processor and card are really very poor for current games. For games less than a few years old you will need to replace both.
For the motherboard question, yeah, pretty much all current AM2+ boards can handle AM3 processors if you are concerned about keeping your current ram. As you only have 1gb though you may just want to go for an AM3 board and get new DDR3 ram. These would be good choices at the moment;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.478082
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148352
If you just want a DDR2 board then go for this;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.478028
but you will still need at least 2 gigs of ram for current games.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148239
 

Mithness

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sorry but i don't have that much money... but i decided im going to get this duel core processor (it'll help in the long shot) and i can get a graphics card a little later im fine with that... and the processor will work on my motherboard will i need to update my bios or anything? and will i get a performance increase in games with just an cpu upgrade

p.s. sorry for all the questions lol
 
From actually looking up your motherboard and what processors it can use.
The processors are backward compatible with the socket but the motherboard needs to be able to use them as well which requires a BIOS update that doesn't exist for your board. I'm not even sure if early AM2 boards like yours can use them even if Foxconn were to give it a BIOS update.