Bottlenecking gfx much?

[Monkeynut]

Spec as per sig, am I bottlenecking the card in Crysis, Bioshock, C&C3? If so is quad core the logical option?

Incase sig gets removed:
AMD 4200+ (2.35GHz OC)
Crucial 2GB DDR
ATi Radeon 3870 512
Win XP 32bit

 

[queamin]

I same cpu but at 2.8 with a 8800gts320 and hoping that it willn't bottleneck a 4870 to much until next year when i upgrade.

 

[Monkeynut]

Hmm, I'm in a hot room and on a poor clocking board (nForce 4 SLI and cost £55) so much overclocking is out of the question. I'm just wondering whether a quad core is worth it.

 

[OrphanBoy]

I don't think so...not yet any way! I've got a similar spec to you and Crysis is the only thing that runs less than stellar. Unless you're running at some low resolution in your games it'll be a GPU thing, not CPU.
Don't forget that the majority of titles are not able to use four processors.

 

[easyrider]

Hmm, I'm in a hot room and on a poor clocking board (nForce 4 SLI and cost £55) so much overclocking is out of the question. I'm just wondering whether a quad core is worth it.

No,

An upgrade to a cheap C2D would be worth it by selling your current CPU mobo and ram.

I reckon 50 quid after you sell the bits will get you a C2D @ 3.2ghz being hugly faster than your current rig.

This price includes chip mobo and 2 gig of DDR2

 

[OrphanBoy]

...yeah and all the fun of reinstalling Windows

 

[easyrider]

...yeah and all the fun of reinstalling Windows

Reinstalling windows is hardly a biggy.

If all your data is on a seperate drive or partition.

Which it should be.

Reinstalling windows takes me 10 mins.

Then I just install my programs when I need them.

 

[OrphanBoy]

Oh totally - that's not a bad way of doing it actually!
However have you ever sat through a Visual Studio install? Makes your eyes bleed!

Back to the OP - is there any scope to clock the CPU a bit more? (or even the 3870 for that matter?)

 

[Monkeynut]

Barely. Gets really hot as iit is a really crap overclocking chip and a **** poor mobo. I'll see if I can get it a tad cooler though.

Thanks for the responses guys, much appreciated!

 

[the_jetsetwilly]

overclock your CPU some more

 

[Dark_Angel]

Do as suggested and grab a cheap C2d setup, even something like an E2180 would be faster than what you have, especially since they will overclock to 3GHZ+ with ease.

Jetset, he can't overclock his CPU more (at least that is what the OP said) And sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your signature is over the 4 lines max (rules of the forum obviously, not mine )

 

[the_jetsetwilly]

your signature is over the 4 lines max (rules of the forum obviously, not mine )

cheers for the heads up, have changed it, wouldnt want the internet to stop working would we

 

[Monkeynut]

Is it best to look second hand? Will I be able to get a better system and should I wait for new tech?

 

[Bonjour]

I'm currently on a 939 setup, but holding out for the new techs due next year.

What res do you play at, and are there any games in particular you're having trouble with?

 

[Monkeynut]

1680 x 1050, C&C3 runs fine, framerate on bioshock is ok is suppose, but IIRC at medium detail on Crysis I'm only getting 20FPS ish, should be better than that surely?

 

[Bonjour]

Not sure. Crysis is a bit of a dog on most computers, and the only game I can't get totally satisfactory framerates in. Medium's fine, but 'high' is a bit stuttery. This is with an 8800GT.

I'm going to hold out for as long as possible before I upgrade, as it's going to involve mobo/mem/cpu and probably PSU. The longer you leave it, the better upgrade you'll get.

 

[-iceblade^]

i get 30-40 FPS (which i consider playable) in Bioshock on a single core s939 3400+ at 2.2 (stock), with no lags, and an 8800GT taking care of things. (res is 1280x1024)...

ie, no lags.

don't worry about a bottleneck too much tbh