CPU bottlenecking graphics card - real issue?

[Baseley09]

Hi guys, more PC jibber jabber for your eyes.

In one of my desktops i'm running an Athlon X2 64 5000+, currently pumping with the sensational 8600 GTS gfx card, though the woes of time are catching up with it, this card is now the lowest supported one going, so needs an upgrade.

Looking at say HD 5870, or GTX 480 or along those lines, are such cards going to be minced badly by the CPU here, or is it a marginal issue.

Fastest CPU my mobo can handle is a 6400+, would that be worth the upgrade also?

Much love.

[speedlolita]

Upgrade to a 6400+ ain't worth it, might as well just overclock.

Those cards will be fine, but will be limited a little bit. You'll notice a huge improvement over the 8600 GTS though. A marginal issue really.

I think going with a 5770 would be the smartest thing to do though, a better compliment. Make sure your PSU is up to it also.

[Baseley09]

Thanks, yes I am looking to get a new PSU, my 350w wont take the strain (probably), gonna pimp for at least a 600w.

Why would you suggest the 5770 in particular over the 5870?

[Matt]

I'd look online and get some benchmarks of the card you want with your CPU and proposed CPU. I'm not up on these things right now, but I think you could be fighting a losing battle and even the faster CPU will kill the cards performance in many games.

Guess it depends on the games. Older games, you'll be fine and have a blistering frame rate. Newer titles you'll be heavily CPU limited. Can your mobo handle a CPU with more cores? If not, maybe consider holding off a bit, saving up and going for a complete upgrade.

Regarding PSU's, don't skimp - get a decent one, not the cheapest one with the highest power you can. You need stability, so again check online benchmarks and get something with stable power across the rails.

[Baseley09]

I'd look online and get some benchmarks of the card you want with your CPU and proposed CPU. I'm not up on these things right now, but I think you could be fighting a losing battle and even the faster CPU will kill the cards performance in many games.

Guess it depends on the games. Older games, you'll be fine and have a blistering frame rate. Newer titles you'll be heavily CPU limited. Can your mobo handle a CPU with more cores? If not, maybe consider holding off a bit, saving up and going for a complete upgrade.

Regarding PSU's, don't skimp - get a decent one, not the cheapest one with the highest power you can. You need stability, so again check online benchmarks and get something with stable power across the rails.

Unfortunately not, the fastest CPU it can handle is the Athlon 64 X2 6400+

[eastyy]

always bugs me when people say the cpu is limiting my graphics cards (always thought the idea of graphics cards were to help take the load off the cpu) worse when people said it about my quad core duo pentium 2

think either way though doubt you could get a major performance increase without spending some money i would probably say ....if you can afford it get a bundle like a case/cpu/motherboard/memory combo from over clockers and if your graphics card is pci express whack it into that ( though i think with the bundles can have a geforce 430 added for a extra £50 )

[Matt]

always bugs me when people say the cpu is limiting my graphics cards (always thought the idea of graphics cards were to help take the load off the cpu) worse when people said it about my quad core duo pentium 2

Well if you're still running a Pentium 2.....

Keeping things simple, the GPU does the graphics, the CPU does the rest. If you're playing a RTS with a thousand units, all path finding, calculating trajectories, etc, that's a lot of CPU cycles. You need to send the GPU the data so it can render. What's the use in a GPU being able to render in 2ms if the CPU is so bogged down it can only work out a new frame every 50ms. You can max out all the graphics settings, put it into an obscene screen mode, but you're only making it looker better, not improving performance of the game.

A decent gaming PC needs balance, including RAM and HDD. You'd not put two thousand pound top of the line performance tyres on a Skoda. You can, but you're not going to be getting much more out of them than your old tyres.

[abigsmurf]

A decent gaming PC needs balance, including RAM and HDD. You'd not put two thousand pound top of the line performance tyres on a Skoda. You can, but you're not going to be getting much more out of them than your old tyres.

That aside, if you have a CPU massively out of step with a GPU what ends up happening is the GPU does everything it's asked to in order to render a frame and then just sits there twiddling it's thumbs whilst it waits for further instructions from the CPU.

Most games at the moment are designed for 360s and PS3s so tend not to require too heavy a processing load but a lot of game engines now are starting to break away from consoles so bottlenecking will get work.

Anyhow, back to the op. I'd say you need to overclock it and rather than a 5870, go for a 6870. It isn't as fast but it's cheaper, cooler and quiter (I've a 5850 and it's rather jet engine like under heavy load). It also handles some DX11 stuff better.

[Baseley09]

good deal do we reckon?

http://www.it247.com/product/1/PWCCA003/AX5770-1GBD5-H-PowerColor-Radeon-HD-5770-1GB-GDDR5-PCI-E-2-1-Graphics-Adapter.html

Looking to spend a bit less at the min and do a full upgrade later on.

[Dirty Sanchez]

good deal do we reckon?

http://www.it247.com/product/1/PWCCA003/AX5770-1GBD5-H-PowerColor-Radeon-HD-5770-1GB-GDDR5-PCI-E-2-1-Graphics-Adapter.html

Looking to spend a bit less at the min and do a full upgrade later on.

edit - sorry I added a link for a 5570, not a 5770. That looks a cracking price.

[Baseley09]

Agree I went and did it, should give me a decent acceleration for a while, I play at 1024x1280 should do me fine. Maybe.

Having spastic times trying to overclock my 5000+, such a noob.

[speedlolita]

Needs moar volts.

[Baseley09]

Things seem to have calmed down a bit did some reading, tinkered, I'm sure there's more fiddling ahead.

Card arrived next day, installed and running fine on 350w psu.