i5 760 @ 2.8 and HD 7950...Bottleneck?

[DrKingSchultz89]

Hi peeps,

First post here so don't be too hard on me


Although the HD 7950 is an older card, I would still consider it more than enough to run most new releases at a decent FPS. I could be wrong though...

I'm currently working with:

i5 760 2.8Ghz
HD7950

RAM is irrelevant as I am maxed on that


Which do I upgrade first? I can do basic research and that research has led me to believe I would upgrade my i5 first?

Any suggestions? I'm on a tight budget, otherwise I would completely rebuild to at least an 1150 socket. But for now, I'm stuck with my 1156 socket.

I'm looking to spend around $200 and not much more.

Ultimately, is my GPU being bottlenecked by my CPU or vice versa?

If so, what do I upgrade?

 

[clutchc]

Overclocked to 2.8 GHz? 2.8 GHz is the stock speed of that CPU. Typo?
I'd say you are right at the margin for CPU bottleneck with the HD 7950. In Tom's CPU Hierarchy Chart, it falls in the same tier as the Phenom II X4 965: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

I have a Ph II X4 965 BE overclocked to 4GHz. It doesn't bottleneck my R9-280 (which is basically the HD-7950) or my GTX 960. But then again, it is OC'ed. But it is at its max. Any faster card, and it would bottleneck. Using that as a gauge, I'd say you would need to upgrade the CPU next if you want to keep that platform. You may not see any performance increase gaming, but then you could get a faster gfx card next if so desired.

 

[Conor17777]

I've personally used the i5 760, It is definitely a bottleneck on that card, but not enough so that it will cause any real performance issues at the moment.
Unless you are playing a CPU intensive game like Planetside 2, in which case yes it will bottleneck the card.

Tbh both the 7950 and i5 760 aren't the best performers anymore (if you plan on running latest games ultra etc)
I'd advise you upgrade the i5 first because it is the simplest and cheapest upgrade then trade your 7950 out for something better,
I personally did this with an old 560ti running off the i5 760, I upgraded to an i7 and then sold the 560ti,
Took the 560ti money and a little bit of savings and bought myself a 7970 (This was a while ago) it was one of the best decisions I had ever made.

So TLDR, Upgrade the CPU, but expect to upgrade GPU sooner rather than later if performance is your thing.

 

[DrKingSchultz89]

Overclocked to 2.8 GHz? 2.8 GHz is the stock speed of that CPU. Typo?

Thank you for catching that. Edited.