Firelance

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Hello. I am currently trying to get some new parts for my PC but don't really have a lot of money. If I were to get a 6950, 560 Ti, or 570 and have my E8400 CPU.. would it bottleneck? The CPU is almost 4 years old but for me it is still alive and ready to tackle at least another year or so before I upgrade.

Thanks!
 

carbonfountain

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I had the same CPU until this January and I can tell you that my impression is it will not bottleneck. If you buy a decent aftermarket cooler for $20-30, and overclock it to around 3.6-3.8, it will run well with a 560 Ti. Have you considered the 7850? Toms reviews puts it at around or above a GTX and 570 and it appears to be only $250 on most places.
 

Firelance

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Thanks for the answer man. Can anyone else, just to be on the safe side, confirm it would not bottleneck? I have yet to buy an aftermarket but am planning on buying because I am clueless on which one to buy. I was looking at the Cooler Master Hyper 212 or the EVO version. What do you think?
 

Firelance

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Alright thanks for the info. I will keep my current CPU, and save up for the GPU. I have seen a lot of reviews on the 7850 vs the 560 Ti but has mixed reviews.. Can anyone give me some more reviews? Thanks.
 

Dreadteir

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I've got a C2D E8400 myself. Will the CPU bottleneck performance? Compared to a new processor, yes, but it's really not worth upgrading the CPU.

As amuffin said though, it is a higher end C2D, so if you choose one of those video cards you will see huge performance gains, I saw gains myself when I switched from a GeForce 8800 GT 512MB to a Radeon HD6670 (The 1GB Frame Buffer made the difference).

Out of idle curiosity though, are you planning on doing anything with the system when you retire it? Personally, I'm going to use it as an HTPC. IF you ARE going to reuse the system, then it might be worth it to go with the 78XX series or, as amuffin says, wait for the Kepler mainstream cards.

Cheers,

Dreadteir
 

mayankleoboy1

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i would say to get at least a quad core. probably something like a Q6600.

i had a E7300 @3.3 GHz with a gtx580.
it performed very bad on modern games like:

crysis2: avg fps:20, gpu usage30%
BFBC2: avg fps:20. gpu usage 35%

for slightly older games, a dual core is OK. but newer games are quite multithreaded and can use 4 cores.

playing BF3, it was using 90% of my Q6600@ 3.0ghz.

i too had thought i could do with a E7300@3.3 , but pretty soon i had to get a quad core.
i suggest you too get a quad core alongwith the GPU upgrade.
 

Firelance

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As long as we are talking about my GPU, I might as well post my specs.

XFX GTS 8800 512 MB
E8400 @ 3.00 GHz
P5N-t Deluxe (Crappy)
2GB Patriot DDR2 (2 x 1GB) (Needs to be upgraded)
2 HDD 596GB
1 HDD 200GB

I have been thinking though, and I am on a tight budget and hope you guys would help me. As you can see, my build is not the greatest and that is why I am planning on upgrading. I was going to buy the aftermarket cooler today along with some thermal paste and case fan for a little over $50.. but I don't know what I should upgrade first and hope you guys can help me.

I would hope to start with the mobo, since I would be able to buy more RAM (since my current one can't even support more than 3GB.) Asus is a brand I seem to trust, but what would you think about the P8Z77 model that just came out new? I do not know what really what I want in the mobo besides some nice OC potential. I only have one USB mouse and another for my wireless keyboard. I was really looking for something under 150. What would YOU guys recommend for the best price?
 

bwrlane

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I had the same CPU for a while and it performed extremely well. Mine ran in conjunction with an ATI 4870x2. This is pure conjecture but I believe the 4870x2 is probably more powerful than a 560 Ti or 6950 (albeit incapable of DX11 graphics). I saw no signs of CPU bottlenecking, confirming my general belief that provided you have a moderately capable CPU, the bottleneck in games is almost always the GPU. As others have said, the Wolfdale Duos also overclock very well.

Bear in mind that the main benefit of getting a good GPU like a 560 Ti or a 6950 is that it allows you to crank up the eye candy. This has no implication for the CPU at all - eg cranking up AA, AF or tessellation requires more GPU power but not more CPU power.

Another thing to bear in mind when considering a CPU/GPU combo is this: most PC games are developed to run on consoles. The current generation of consoles have far less CPU and GPU power than modern PCs. If you take a PC game, you can make it fit the lower graphical capability of a console by cranking down the resolution and effects. However, the CPU power is more about the game engine, artificial intelligence and basic geometry. These are fundamental to the game and have to be roughly the same in the PC and console versions if the game play is to be kept equivalent. To put it another way, there is no way to make the game fit a lower CPU spec without fundamentally changing the game.

This means that if the game will run on a console, then its CPU capability requirements will seldom be much more than the PC CPUs that were around at the time. The E8400 is a high end version of the core 2 duo that was released a year or so after the current range of consoles were launched, so it's fair to say that it can take more or less any game you throw at it. As an aside, gaming enthusiasts will be hoping that the next generation of consoles ships with substantially more CPU power. Hopefully then, games will start to get a bit more interesting and intricate. Games are all a bit same-same these days IMHO.

As other have noted, I would sincerely wait for the mid-range 6 series nVidia GPUs to be released. The AMD 7950 is the successor to the 6950 but is priced very much as a high end part.
 
you will get away with it if you play single or dual threaded games but as soon as you try a game like bfbc2 your system will choke and choke badly...
yes its nice to have a high end gpu and pretty gfx. but if your system isnt balanced then sooner or later you will bottleneck...
all i do is play games and i play about 6-8 games a week. i can tell you straight up if you want to play todays AAA releases you will need a quad core sooner rather than later...
you may get away with it on older game engines like unreal and tech 5 (cod games)but frostbite 1 and 2 will bottlneck...
 

Firelance

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Well, I will take your advice and wait. It will take maybe a year or less to get all the components. Since I have never OCed before and want to try it to hopefully get some better performance, I was thinking about OCing the CPU. I have attempted to OC my GPU before, but ended in failure when the temps reached 100 C even if I changed it by one. If I was to OC the CPU, would I first of all need to buy that aftermarket cooler? Right now I am stuck with the fan that came with the CPU and doesn't cool the best. Also with the specs I posted above, would I lose any performance if I OCed the CPU? Because recently.. I have been noticing my performance go down. The only game I play currently is GTA: SA (2004 game) and for some reason, I get lag spikes. This recently started happening. Trying to clean the GPU failed when I chipped the tiny screw to take off the cover. I then thought maybe my CPU was the problem, but I read that most of the time it isn't. I really never thought about my PSU since I never had problems with it before. And if I was to take the same CPU fan, take it off, and when I get my new mobo put it in, would that work?

A lot of stuff I wrote by I thank you for helping me.
 

Firelance

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Hmm I read some info on my current mobo and would really like to add the extra 2GB, but I am confused on what is says about how much will actually be recognized.

From Asus:

4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended.

I really don't understand what that meant.. I am running on Win 7 Home Premium 64bit. And if anyone could recommend some RAM for me.. the RAM sticks I have now are long gone and no where in stock. (I live in the U.S.)
 

Firelance

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Ok I finally read it an understand. But would I be able to get a 8GB set? Like my previous post can anyone recommend me some sticks? I would really like them to be on Newegg and over $50 since I have a coupon.

Still one question.. Does that mean I actually have to get RAM speeds lower than 1333 or 1600 so it could work on my mobo?
 

Firelance

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Ok thanks for that. I currently have some Patriot RAM. Would that mean I buy 2 of the Crucial ones to get 4 GB or just place them all in? I was also wondering if I should just get a new mobo and then RAM, since that would mean I don't have to upgrade RAM again.. Is DDR3 a real big step up from DDR2? I have been looking at the Z68 series.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

Unless there are some new mobo's coming out in a short time?
 

Firelance

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Ok thanks for the info. Currently I'm looking at the ASrock mentioned above for 120 and 8GB for around 50-55. Around 180 with the tax and stuff. I am waiting on the GPU and other stuff for later. Can I ask if anyone has this mobo and has experienced any problems with it that are common? And also if you could explain to me with what these specs are it would help as I am clueless with the USB and other stuff.

Would this mobo support 1 HDMI, a USB for my DeathAdder, a circular USB (Don't know what it is called) for my wireless keyboard, an adapter from tv to the mobo (Also dunno what the is called), and the computer speaker wire?

You also recommend me waiting to buy this stuff until I actually get more money to buy GPU, PSU, other stuff, or just buy it now?