Is my CPU bottlenecking my GPU

[crustation123]

Hello, I've recently upgraded my PC and it seems to still be having trouble running games like guild wars 2 at a decent frame rate of over 30.. even on low settings.

The upgrade was a new gtx 650 but im afraid that the core 2 Q8200 is bottlenecking it as i can't get the FPS over a certain point.

My questions is, will the CPU bottleneck this GPU and what CPU would be a good replacement to allow this card to run at its full potential without busting the bank.

Thanks in advance.

 

[lostgamer_03]

Hello, I've recently upgraded my PC and it seems to still be having trouble running games like guild wars 2 at a decent frame rate of over 30.. even on low settings.

The upgrade was a new gtx 650 but im afraid that the core 2 Q8200 is bottlenecking it as i can't get the FPS over a certain point.

My questions is, will the CPU bottleneck this GPU and what CPU would be a good replacement to allow this card to run at its full potential without busting the bank.

Thanks in advance.

The GTX 650 is a low-end GPU, but the Q8200 is really old and slow compared to the current CPUs nowadays.

You would need a new MOBO with a new CPU.

You could get a FX 4300 or a FX 6300, they're actually quite good at the price. Remember to get a MOBO with AM3+ socket.

Or you could get one of the ivy-bridge pentium CPUs. Remember to get a MOBO with LGA 1155 socket.

 

[Karsten75]

I"m not necessarily sure the OP needs a new MOBO. The processor he has is LGA775 board. There are still a lot of CPUs that support LGA775.

Get something like Speccy, and get the details of your motherboard from there.

Post back when you know what mobo you have and maybe we can find one that will run on that mobo.

But be warned, you may also have to spend a few $$$ to get netter RAM.

 

[adamv1]

Your North Bridge controller plays into the speed of the GPU. On the motherboard there is a GPU controller that helps the communication with the processor and ram. Just getting a new processor isn't going to help much if you north bridge doesn't support good functionality.
Upgrading the CPU and Motherboard is the best choice. Just upgrading the CPU may help but it will still bottleneck if the north bridge doesn't allow fast communication.

 

[crustation123]

Thanks for the fast replies. Here's my specs.

Operating System
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP2
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33GHz 46 °C
Yorkfield 45nm Technology
RAM
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (6-7-7-19)
Motherboard
ASRock N7AD-SLI (CPUSocket) 34 °C
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1280x1024@60Hz)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
Hard Drives
932GB Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 ATA Device (SATA) 35 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S222L ATA Device
DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

Also just bought a new 600W ATRIX PSU.

Would just like to get the GPU that i have to run aswell as i can without splashing out too much.

 

[adamv1]

You could try getting another 4 gigs of ram if you want to get the most out of your system. Vista 64 Home Premium supports 8gig's.

A faster clock speed on your processor would help too. But I don't condone over clocking. Unless you want to get a new MOBO and CPU real soon. Your MOBO supports overclocking though and that is an option. Your processor can't really handle overclocking it seems. The below article points out the problems.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-phenom-pentium,2366-12.html

 

[Karsten75]

Look at he specs here () and see if one of the listed procesors meet or exceed your current config. Use the benchmarks here:

Note that your current CPU is classified as mid-range. I'd say for the time and age, you made a pretty good buy and that motherboard may be able to get a little more out of it.

I think it really depends on how much money you have to spend. If you change the mobo, you'll have to change memory. Then it adds up.

If at all possible I'd also see if I could run Windows 7 as opposed to Vista - Vista was a real dog. Just doing that may give you some relief.

 

[shellls45]

Get a hyper 212 evo and overclock that C2Q as high as you safely can. Guild wars is a very cpu intensive game http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-7.html

 

[Rammy]

I'm not sure it's bottlenecking as such. GW2 is pretty CPU heavy, even a modern dual core (Pentium/i3 etc) will struggle. A lot of games will probably run absolutely fine at that resolution (1280x1024) because by modern standards it's pretty low.
For games like GW2 (Planetside2 springs to mind as well), they have taken advantage of the trend towards more cores, and I think a quad core is probably going to be advisable. I'm really not sure why the system requirements are as low as they are, because all the benchmarks I've seen suggest otherwise.

Even though there's a variety of quad core cpus that would fit, there's probably not much point upgrading a 775 CPU though, it's just not economical. It's likely to be fairly expensive due to a lack of supply. As mentioned above, more ram might help a bit but it's unlikely to be a game changer. In the long term, you are probably looking at a new cpu/motherboard/ram which isn't going to be cheap.

 

[shellls45]

If you look at the toms article that i posted you will see that the quad Llano was getting minimums in the under 30 range. His C2Q will probably get similar performance to that. Faster CPUs had much better framerates, meaning an overclock would greatly help his system.

BTW OP that new PSU you bought is a piece of crap and could destroy your system

 

[adamv1]

shells45, he can't safely overclock that CPU. The article I linked to show that there is no point and it will probably destroy his computer.

 

[Deeks]

You will need to OC the *** out of that CPU in order to keep up to any modern game that is CPU intensive. I have a old Q6600 and i needed to push it to 3.6ghz in order to lift the bottleneck from my gtx 560 ti 448. If you have DDR2 1066 ram then you can you should be able to oc a fair amount assuming your mobo can support it. if you cannot get a decent oc out of it then your better off to save your money for a new mobo ( cpu, ram, mem ). I would also upgrade your OS to win 7 because vista was a horrendous OS. If your going to go for a new mobo other go for a 3570k, 8 gigs of ram and a decent mobo, or if you want a save a little go with the AMD FX8350. I would recommend Intel over AMD any day though as single core performance is MUCH better!! and if you play any games that are CPU intensive that only use a few cores that can mean a lot. ( sc2 , D3 est. . )

 

[shellls45]

shells45, he can't safely overclock that CPU. The article I linked to show that there is no point and it will probably destroy his computer.

I don't think you know what you are talking about, how does that article prove that he will destroy his computer? Have you ever overclocked before? I'm not trying to be rude but you need to back up your statements with fact.

 

[adamv1]

Yes, I have overclocked before shells45. Overclocking can lead to stability issues if you don't have the cooling to compensate. You can have fun with it if you want, but the locked multiplier in the 8200 will make any overclocking of this chip mediocre at best.

Not to be rude, but if your saying the article doesn't apply perhaps you should have read it.

 

[shellls45]

Yes, I have overclocked before shells45. Overclocking can lead to stability issues if you don't have the cooling to compensate. You can have fun with it if you want, but the locked multiplier in the 8200 will make any overclocking of this chip mediocre at best.

Not to be rude, but if your saying the article doesn't apply perhaps you should have read it.

Obviously overclocking can lead to issues, it is an inherently risky enterprise. And I did read the article, even a 10% to 15% OC would improve the game performance.