Will SLI GTX 970 be bottlenecked by FX-6350?

[dsprehe89]

I currently have a FX-6350 that I have overclocked to 4.2gHz and have it cooled with a Cooler Master Hyper TX3. I also have a MSI GTX 970 4GD5T OC.

I plan on upgrading my monitor later this year to an ultrawide 2560x1080 and would like to be able to max out nearly every game I play. I have thus decided to upgrade my motherboard to a Gigabyte GA990FXA-UD3 and get another GTX 970.

I must upgrade my motherboard because my current Gigabyte GA970A-D3P does not support SLI.

From what I understand the 990 should be able to overclock the 6350 better than the 970 and so I should be able to get closer to 4.6gHz.

My question is, will the overclocked 6350 bottleneck dual 970s? If so, what would get me to not being bottlenecked? If I have to upgrade to a 8320/8350 along with getting a new mobo I will probably just upgrade to a I5-4690K through one of microcenters bundle deals.

 

[iAboodz]

It all depend on the games you play, but it will have a fair amount of bottleneck on demanding games specially multiplayer ..
The 4690k would be a perfect upgrade

 

[unknownofprob]

Unless your CPU is throttling at 100% usage, it's not bottlenecking your graphics cards.

I would upgrade your CPU to the intel i5 4690k and grab a Z97X Killer with it, great bundle. This is my recommendation as you have to replace the board anyways.

 

[dsprehe89]

Unless your CPU is throttling at 100% usage, it's not bottlenecking your graphics cards.

I would upgrade your CPU to the intel i5 4690k and grab a Z97X Killer with it, great bundle. This is my recommendation as you have to replace the board anyways.

Well I just looked it up, and I can get a 8320 along with the Gigabyte GA990FXA-UD3 for the same price as a 4690K without a motherboard ($240 at microcenter after taxes). Obviously you and iAboodz are both Intel guys (which is fine), but I would like to wait and get some AMD guys impressions.

Currently I feel that $/performance the 8320 would be a better buy. After overclocking it I think it would provide high enough performance that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, I was just hoping to find someone that currently has a 6350 and SLI 970 setup and see how it is working for them.

 

[unknownofprob]

"8320 along with the Gigabyte GA990FXA-UD3 for the same price as a 4690K without a motherboard"

Great deal, Go for it. I am not one-sided (especially with graphics cards), so AMD are also my recommendations too. The performance per $ is noticeably better, and for what you pay the FX 8320 is a great processor.

 

[iAboodz]

LOL mate, i may be an nvidia guy but that's me i don't force that on others. And I chose the 4690k because you posted it there and i thought you could afford it with a motherboard. And the 4690k will outperform the 8320 game wise, that's the reason for my recommendation 😛

But yes the price factor is kinda big and as you said with a bit of overclock you can manage to bypass the performance difference.

 

[dsprehe89]

"8320 along with the Gigabyte GA990FXA-UD3 for the same price as a 4690K without a motherboard"

Great deal, Go for it. I am not one-sided (especially with graphics cards), so AMD are also my recommendations too. The performance per $ is noticeably better, and for what you pay the FX 8320 is a great processor.

Didn't mean to say that you were an Intel only person. I usually prefer Intel over AMD, but with my last couple of builds AMD has just been much cheaper for the performance I was wanting.

I was just wanting to not have to upgrade my processor, but the more I think about it the better it seems to just go ahead and do it. Buying both the motherboard and processor at the same time saves me $40 at microcenter, so I would rather just buy both than get just a motherboard and find out that my cpu is bottlenecking me.

I'm going to give the thread a couple of days to see if anyone out there already has a 6350 with sli 970s. If not I will close the thread.

Thanks for your input. It's nice to see that there are people that can discuss Intel and AMD comparisons and not go into a thread war.

 

[iAboodz]

"8320 along with the Gigabyte GA990FXA-UD3 for the same price as a 4690K without a motherboard"

Great deal, Go for it. I am not one-sided (especially with graphics cards), so AMD are also my recommendations too. The performance per $ is noticeably better, and for what you pay the FX 8320 is a great processor.

Didn't mean to say that you were an Intel only person. I usually prefer Intel over AMD, but with my last couple of builds AMD has just been much cheaper for the performance I was wanting.

I was just wanting to not have to upgrade my processor, but the more I think about it the better it seems to just go ahead and do it. Buying both the motherboard and processor at the same time saves me $40 at microcenter, so I would rather just buy both than get just a motherboard and find out that my cpu is bottlenecking me.

I'm going to give the thread a couple of days to see if anyone out there already has a 6350 with sli 970s. If not I will close the thread.

Thanks for your input. It's nice to see that there are people that can discuss Intel and AMD comparisons and not go into a thread war.

Well it's really simple ..
If this system is meant for gaming, get the 4690k it's worth the performance and will last for more years, and when it starts to lose just overclock and it'll go even further. If this system is meant for more than gaming, like work or video editing or any apps that uses more cores then the 8320 is the winner here for obvious reasons plus the price.

Don't forget that the 8320/8350 is two years old and the 4690k is this year old..

 

[dsprehe89]

LOL mate, i may be an nvidia guy but that's me i don't force that on others. And I chose the 4690k because you posted it there and i thought you could afford it with a motherboard. And the 4690k will outperform the 8320 game wise, that's the reason for my recommendation 😛

But yes the price factor is kinda big and as you said with a bit of overclock you can manage to bypass the performance difference.

I can afford the difference. Justifying whether I would get $100 worth of performance gain is all I am trying to determine. Also didn't mean to associate you with any particular brand. I am also an Nvidia guy. I also prefer Intel, but AMD just seems to provide more than adequate performance for the $.

I was mainly trying to determine if my current FX-6350 would be a bottleneck. I was hoping someone out there would already have a FX-6350 and SLI 970 setup and could provide some information.

I didn't mean to turn it into a "which processor should I get if I upgrade" thread. That is my bad. Honestly, I have seen so many "which processor" threads turn into Intel-vs-AMD war threads that I try to avoid them all together.

 

[iAboodz]

LOL mate, i may be an nvidia guy but that's me i don't force that on others. And I chose the 4690k because you posted it there and i thought you could afford it with a motherboard. And the 4690k will outperform the 8320 game wise, that's the reason for my recommendation 😛

But yes the price factor is kinda big and as you said with a bit of overclock you can manage to bypass the performance difference.

I can afford the difference. Justifying whether I would get $100 worth of performance gain is all I am trying to determine. Also didn't mean to associate you with any particular brand. I am also an Nvidia guy. I also prefer Intel, but AMD just seems to provide more than adequate performance for the $.

I was mainly trying to determine if my current FX-6350 would be a bottleneck. I was hoping someone out there would already have a FX-6350 and SLI 970 setup and could provide some information.

I didn't mean to turn it into a "which processor should I get if I upgrade" thread. That is my bad. Honestly, I have seen so many "which processor" threads turn into Intel-vs-AMD war threads that I try to avoid them all together.

Yeah i've seen some of those.
Well an 8350 is not a bottleneck for a single 970, it's just about 4-6% slower than a mid range i5. So as i said you'd be alright with it for a while, specially with a decent overclock..

 

[dsprehe89]

LOL mate, i may be an nvidia guy but that's me i don't force that on others. And I chose the 4690k because you posted it there and i thought you could afford it with a motherboard. And the 4690k will outperform the 8320 game wise, that's the reason for my recommendation 😛

But yes the price factor is kinda big and as you said with a bit of overclock you can manage to bypass the performance difference.

I can afford the difference. Justifying whether I would get $100 worth of performance gain is all I am trying to determine. Also didn't mean to associate you with any particular brand. I am also an Nvidia guy. I also prefer Intel, but AMD just seems to provide more than adequate performance for the $.

I was mainly trying to determine if my current FX-6350 would be a bottleneck. I was hoping someone out there would already have a FX-6350 and SLI 970 setup and could provide some information.

I didn't mean to turn it into a "which processor should I get if I upgrade" thread. That is my bad. Honestly, I have seen so many "which processor" threads turn into Intel-vs-AMD war threads that I try to avoid them all together.

Yeah i've seen some of those.
Well an 8350 is not a bottleneck for a single 970, it's just about 4-6% slower than a mid range i5. So as i said you'd be alright with it for a while, specially with a decent overclock..

After thinking about it, I think I will just go with the 8320 bundle and overclock it. It would be exactly $240 after taxes and I've read reviews of people that have 8320's with dual 970s and they aren't being bottle-necked. With that setup I think it would be quite a while before there are any games out there that I couldn't play maxed out or at least near maxed at the resolution I want.

Just an FYI though, if you know anyone that is upgrading and spending serious coin on their system, Microcenter has the i7-5820k for $299 right now. You can get it bundled with a good mobo for around $600. I would be all over that if I could convince the wife. She just doesn't see the value in a good desktop like the rest of us on here .

 

[iAboodz]

LOL mate, i may be an nvidia guy but that's me i don't force that on others. And I chose the 4690k because you posted it there and i thought you could afford it with a motherboard. And the 4690k will outperform the 8320 game wise, that's the reason for my recommendation 😛

But yes the price factor is kinda big and as you said with a bit of overclock you can manage to bypass the performance difference.

I can afford the difference. Justifying whether I would get $100 worth of performance gain is all I am trying to determine. Also didn't mean to associate you with any particular brand. I am also an Nvidia guy. I also prefer Intel, but AMD just seems to provide more than adequate performance for the $.

I was mainly trying to determine if my current FX-6350 would be a bottleneck. I was hoping someone out there would already have a FX-6350 and SLI 970 setup and could provide some information.

I didn't mean to turn it into a "which processor should I get if I upgrade" thread. That is my bad. Honestly, I have seen so many "which processor" threads turn into Intel-vs-AMD war threads that I try to avoid them all together.

Yeah i've seen some of those.
Well an 8350 is not a bottleneck for a single 970, it's just about 4-6% slower than a mid range i5. So as i said you'd be alright with it for a while, specially with a decent overclock..

After thinking about it, I think I will just go with the 8320 bundle and overclock it. It would be exactly $240 after taxes and I've read reviews of people that have 8320's with dual 970s and they aren't being bottle-necked. With that setup I think it would be quite a while before there are any games out there that I couldn't play maxed out or at least near maxed at the resolution I want.

Just an FYI though, if you know anyone that is upgrading and spending serious coin on their system, Microcenter has the i7-5820k for $299 right now. You can get it bundled with a good mobo for around $600. I would be all over that if I could convince the wife. She just doesn't see the value in a good desktop like the rest of us on here .

Good choice !
Too bad my upgrades are already on the way damn it.
Uh man I have a plan of building a superb pc that will last at least 5 years right before i get married, also to have a man cave with a secret budget.

 

[dsprehe89]

So after spending probably a hour in microcenter staring at the motherboards and cpu case, I ended up splurging and getting the i5-4690k along with a Gigabyte Z97x-SLI. I won't get to hook it all up until tomorrow, but I can't wait.