Is my Graphics card bottlenecking my system?

[Daragon]

Ok, I got the following setup

3.2 Ghz AMD 64
1.5gb ram
Geforce 5900 XT 128 mb

In most of my newer games, the fps constantly drop to a crawl. The card is only a year old and while I have my eye on a Geforce 6800/ATi X800, I don't want to spend all that cash and find out that there is no noticable improvement over what I have currently

[Ciaran]

Its definatley the graphics card holding you back.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-08.html

[RobRoy]

I have pretty much the same specs as you apart from i have an ATi X800 XT. all the latest games run full detail at a high res with basically no slow down at all

[VR46]

Its definatley the graphics card holding you back.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/gra...charts-08.html

wonder why the 6600GT wasn't included in that test ? and yes you could do with a 6600GT or better, try running 3DMark2001/2003/2005 (www.futuremark.com) with old card and your new one to really see the 3D performance difference stats and fps wise

[Ciaran]

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/vga_charts-07.html

Its in the PCI-E section.

[simoran1]

im not so sure it is the card thats bottlenecking. i have a 9800se softmodded so its running at pro speeds, and that will run most of the newest games at decent levels and with decent fps. your 5900xt i think is better than my card so it could be a driver issue. the card could be better and it may bottleneck the rest of your system a bit, but not so much that games should drop to a crawl. what res are you running the games at?

edit: - actually it is your card thats the bottleneck, just checked the thg chart and i was thinking of a diff card.sorry!, id recomend a 6600gt minimum, if you can afford though, either 6800gt/ultra or x800xt onwards. do you have a budget?

[nips]

Well, according to Tom, the 9800SE unmodded performs better than the card in the first post... The 9800 PRO, fairs twice as well as the Geforce 5900... they're not exactly the same cards, but it certainly suggests that you'll do better with a newer card... as you'd expect

[Valken]

Like everyone said it's the card... I have a better CPU but less RAM and a 6800GT and my system ****ing hammers games with **** on full at 1280*1024.

The 5xxx cards from Nvidia aren't the greatest.

[smokedog]

Ok, I got the following setup

3.2 Ghz AMD 64

Do AMD make a 3.2 Ghz cpu?

[Ciaran]

I assume he's talking about a A64 3200+

[Daragon]

I assume he's talking about a A64 3200+

Yep, thats the one

always get confused with that, think the speed is about 2.2 Ghz, which doesn't sound like a lot, but I've been reliably informed it serves its purpose very well when it comes to the latest CPU intensive games.

[replicant]

Ok, I got the following setup

3.2 Ghz AMD 64
1.5gb ram
Geforce 5900 XT 128 mb

yes its a very low lvl card.

get a 6800gt as a minimum.

[replicant]

Yep, thats the one

always get confused with that, think the speed is about 2.2 Ghz, which doesn't sound like a lot, but I've been reliably informed it serves its purpose very well when it comes to the latest CPU intensive games.

The clock speed of the A64 doesnt have the same emphasis as the clockspeed of the P4.

[replicant]

Do AMD make a 3.2 Ghz cpu?

They do if u overclock in a vaporchill system

Highest clockspeed officially from AMD is the 2.6gig Fx55. Its possible to beat that via overclocking though.

[VR46]

Daragon, bit of hard fact (figures) for you all done by myself few weeks back.

768mb 2300 Sempron PC with FX5200

3DMark 2001:4510
3DMark 2003:941
3DMArk 2005:240

768mb 2300 Sempron PC with 6600GT

3DMark 2001:10,006
3DMark 2003:6,818
3DMark 2005:3,009

No overclocking CPU or card, some improvement eh, especially on the more recent graphic card intensive tests.
(by overclocking you can increase the 6600GT card figures by at least 10% )