My CPU and Bottlenecks w/ new GPU

[Danuel]

So, i am looking to upgrade my Video card, between lines right now though, i want to buy a 8800 series card, but from what i hear, i will have a bottle neck becasue of my CPU. My system is no where near crap, if you look at my sig, im what some would consider a mainstream gamer, i have the set up to definately handle a 8800 POWER wise, but according to some, i would bottle neck w/ my cpu, can anyone explain to me how i would notice that bottle neck, or even at all? Also, becasue of that bottle neck i am almost driven to pick up a 7900gs or gt to hold me off until the main stream version of the 8000 series come out, kinda like a 8800gs or 8600gt or something a long those lines , for DX10. 7900gs from what i hear run like champs, my card does the trick, but i want a little more for oblivion, i lag here and there due to 12 piplines and slow gpu. What are some of your guy's and gal's reccomdendations. Thanks in advance

Cheers

[Redbeaver]

the cpu will bottleneck abit with an 8800 series... probably not so much with the GTS... but still...

 

ud probably notice CPU bottleneck if u overclock. if u notice a big difference after u overclock ur CPU, then it is the bottleneck... if not, then other hardware is...

 

that, and also depending on what software ur using...

[cuoficr]

sigh, you wouldnt exactly notice a bottleneck in the way you might be thinking, I think this is in part due to the crappy way the term is thrown around, and pourly explained.

 

First of all it depends on what speed your X2 is running at, Angry_Games posted a good thread about it, and just what you need to take advantage of the 8800 series cards. According to the results in that thread you will be just fine, and notice a huge difference from your current card.

 

Aside from that look at it like this, at some point, or some screen resolution you will notice diminishing returns (meaning that you just wont get any better frame rates) that may be limited by your CPU, but it will still be far far greater than anything you ever saw with that 6800GS.

 

 

read

 

Good article to read here:

 

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=603&p=0

[UncleDavid218]

LOL ever heard of periods? 18 commas if I count correctly...

 

OK anyway, on topic. My friend has an 8800GTS with almost the same system as yourself (Same CPU anyway) and his systems runs AWESOME.

 

There may be a bottleneck, but his system is noticeably faster than mine.

[cuoficr]

If the comma's are the only thing about my post that you find incorrect then your grammar usage and writing isnt any better than mine. In my defense most of it is from bouncing back and forth while writing it.

 

On topic, as UD says your system is plenty good enough to run and take advantage of the 8800 series GPU. Provided of course it is what you want.

[UncleDavid218]

If the comma's are the only thing about my post that you find incorrect then your grammar usage and writing isnt any better than mine. In my defense most of it is from bouncing back and forth while writing it.

 

On topic, as UD says your system is plenty good enough to run and take advantage of the 8800 series GPU. Provided of course it is what you want.

I was talking about the OP

 

Should have quoted I spose

[Danuel]

LOL ever heard of periods? 18 commas if I count correctly...

 

OK anyway, on topic. My friend has an 8800GTS with almost the same system as yourself (Same CPU anyway) and his systems runs AWESOME.

 

There may be a bottleneck, but his system is noticeably faster than mine.

 

 

 

hahah, i type like i talk, fast and non stop.

[Fenix-Dark]

"bottleneck" is computer jargon for a limit. Its the same exact thing like you did in high school chemistry with the limiting reactant. if you have X grams on one substance and Y grams of another, you'll be able to produce Z grams of a different substance. If you double the amount of substance X, it wont necessarily double the amount of substance Z, same thing applies with substance Y.

 

In terms of computer hardware the bottleneck is the component that is the first limit of your performance. In games performance is measured in frames per second. You could have a top of the line core 2 duo x6800, and 2 8800gtx's in sli and have 512mb of ram. The ram would be the biggest bottleneck. If you overclock the cpu and gfx cards you wont notice much improvement (in fps) if any, but if you upgrade the ram to 1gb of 2gb you'll notice a big jump in performance. That either reduces the bottleneck or moves it to another component. With 2gb of ram, a c2d x6800 and 2 8800gtx's in sli, now your cpu is the bottleneck. You can reduce the bottleneck by overclocking your cpu, but that wont completely remove the cpu as the current bottleneck unless you get an insanely high overclock.

 

if you upgrade to either of the two 8800 line cards, you cpu will be the biggest (or smallest =P ) bottleneck. Since the cpu would be the bottleneck, upgrading from say 1 8800gtx to 2 of them in sli would gain you nothing since it doesn't alleviate the cpu bottleneck. Even going from a 8800gts to a 8800gtx would gain you no performance improvements, if any at all.

 

It doesn't make sense to spend more money on components that wont remove the bottleneck. So in your situation the best thing to do (money and performance wise) is to buy an 8800GTS and overclock you cpu.

 

btw individual components also have bottlenecks. Take hard drives for example. You could have one that uses the sata I interface, and the same drive but with the sata II interface. Would you gain ainy performance from upgrading to the sata II equivalent of the same hard drive? No, since the interface isn't the bottleneck.

 

Hope that was a detailed enough explanation for ya.

[Danuel]

Excellent detail on bottle neck, i see how it works now, though like ones stated before i will definatley notice a huge jump from 6800gs to 8800GTS, as far as over clocking the cpu, i need to study up some on how to do it.

[THEnumber337]

Excellent detail on bottle neck, i see how it works now, though like ones stated before i will definatley notice a huge jump from 6800gs to 8800GTS, as far as over clocking the cpu, i need to study up some on how to do it.

 

There's a great guide here. I'm sure it can get your started in the right direction.

[Guest SuppA-SnipA]

heh would i bottle neck my cpu with a 8800 gtx or gts?

or should i buy liek the 7950?

[Praz]

The only time I'm concerned about any type of bottleneck is with the component I intend on purchasing.

 

When building a system and not planning on upgrading it for the next several years all components should be performance matched.

 

Most of our systems are in a constant state of upgrade. Because that's what we like to do or a new game requires it or whatever. This being the case, something is always going to be a bottleneck.

 

What I try to do is buy the best component I can realistically afford. Then when the next part is upgraded hopefully the part I just replaced won't be holding the system back.