Will I be bottlenecked? (5870)

[TMLewiss]

I want to upgrade my gcard (currently a 8800GTS G92), and right now I am looking into either the 5870 or the 5850. However, I am wondering if anything on my system may bottleneck the GPU performance. Which I suspect it will.

Current Specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 (this may be the problem)
8g DDR-800 (4x2g in Dual Channel.)
Western Digital Caviar 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready

 

[hallowed_dragon]

I am in the same situation as you. I currently own a 4870 and want to buy a 5870. The bad news is that there will be a bottleneck at that CPU speed. As soon as I get the 5850 I will OC the quad to at least 3 Ghz and at that speed any bottleneck under the resolution of 1920x1200 will be almost eliminated (maybe we will lose 2-3 FPS, but that is minor). As soon as you crank up the details (AA&AF and the resolution) the power will shift to the graphic card and bottlenecks due to the CPU will disappear.

 

[englandr753]

Depending on your motherboard and ram, you should be able to overclock that cpu close to 3.2ghz. As hallowed_dragon stated you will want to try to hit at least 3.0ghz or higher to help eliminate any cpu bottlenecks...

 

[mactronix]

At 3ghz your Q6600 will be fine. At 2.4, yes thats a bottleneck.

SHHHH................S/S will hear you.
Besides i totally agree with him its not a bottleneck its a restriction.

Mactronix

 

[TMLewiss]

I have yet to overclock anything, ever. I am always to afraid I will mess something up. Though, I pretty much figured my processor would bottleneck me, there are not a ton of quad core processors that even come as 3ghz+. So either spend 400+ on that or overclock. I will read up on the guide on overclocking, anyone have any suggestions as well?

I would also imagine that if I overclocked I would need to get a better CPU fan than just the stock fan.

As a note my RAM is 2x: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

If I must, i will just upgrade everything, as I said though, it seems like I am going to need to overclock my CPU no matter what if I want Quad core... and lord I do.

 

[obsidian86]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-240001_11_0.html

 

[mactronix]

I am in the same situation as you. I currently own a 4870 and want to buy a 5870. The bad news is that there will be a bottleneck at that CPU speed. As soon as I get the 5850 I will OC the quad to at least 3 Ghz and at that speed any bottleneck under the resolution of 1920x1200 will be almost eliminated (maybe we will lose 2-3 FPS, but that is minor). As soon as you crank up the details (AA&AF and the resolution) the power will shift to the graphic card and bottlenecks due to the CPU will disappear.

Well deserved best answer


Mactronix

 

[englandr753]

Yes, the nail was strickend on thy head. 😉