Will i Bottleneck?

OmegaStalker

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Dec 22, 2008
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I want to buy a GTX 260 and do you think i'l bottleneck it and if so what will i be running 80% of the card? if i dont bottleneck do you think i could run an GTX280?
My pc specs as follows:
2.6Ghz e4700
2 GB ram at 800Mhz
500AntecEarthwatts
22"monitor
Thanks for your advice...
 
I had the GTX 260 c216 in my PC for a week. It gave me artifacts in certain games and locked up in crysis so I returned it since it was obviously defective when it reached a certain temp. Got a 4870 instead. But not before I did some testing. (see below)

I have an e6400 (clocked to 3.0GHz). And honestly the 260 was NOT a vast improvement over my 8800GTS/512 (OCed 750/1000). It did a little better, but not what i expected. We tested it in my buddies new i7 build and it ran like a CRAZY WILD BANSHEE. I think the new GTX's really rely on the CPU alot, so unless you have a quad core clocked high or an i7 you don't get the full benefit.

With a slower CPU I would recommend the 9800GTX+ or a 4850/4870 card. They seem to do better with older CPU's. My 4870 works really well and runs great. I really need to upgrade to Vista though to get the DX10 benefit. The 9800GTX+ seems to do really well.
 

OmegaStalker

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lol i used to have an 8800GTX and had to sell it so at the moment im running on my Motherboards 7050 on board! :p hmmm maybe i'l get the hd4870 according to jay 2 tall, i have two weeks before i buy and want to know what to buy :) thanks carry on commenting please!
 
We tested with FarCry2 and Crysis. And they both did WAY better on his than my system. We ran 3DMark06 and he saw a much larger benefit than I did on the graphics section. (but who cards about 3Dmark).

Not to say the GTX 260 runs BAD, I just didn't notice much of a benefit going from my 8800GTS to the GTX 260.

It may also be the x58 chipset and the architecture that the i7 uses that gave the GTX260 the benefit. I am not sure. all I know is the 4870 seems to run much better than the GTX 260 did.
 

I would not suggest the 55nm cards, stick with the 65nm's. The 55nm's run a little hotter and have a cheaper(smaller) cooler. Just because its a die shrink doesn't mean it runs cooler, it's just cheaper for them to manufacture. Add a smaller cooler and they save more.
 

Stupido

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jay2tall, I think your card might be bottlenecked by the PCIe? Your PCIe is 1.1 and the one on your friend's i7 is PCIe2.0...
I'm running GTX280 on P35 based motherboard which means PCIe1.1 and I noticed that probably my card is also bottlenecked... I played a bit with Crysis and found out that the FPS doesn't change that much (just a few FPS). I have overclocked Q6600 (@3.6GHz) but still FPS stays ~30-35.
Right now I'm also wondering whether I change my motherboard to P45 based (I really like GA-P45-UD3P)
 
THe GA-P45-UD3P board is my 775 board of choice. I build a PC for someone recently and it is just a nice inexpensive board if you don't want to do Crossfire or SLI.

I was told the PCIe 1.1 will not bottleneck the card as the x16 throughput is still not fully utilized.
 

Stupido

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Yeah... I also read here and there that it should not bottleneck, but all those are judged by relatively old GPU's from today's state. So I'm wondering what about 4870x2 or GTX295? Or upcoming graphic cards? HD5000 or GTX300 series?