Q9450 @ 3.6 bottleneck 480 SLI?

[Sweeet]

Hello, I've just managed to get my Q9450 to a stable 3.6GHz on air and was wondering whether I'd have the option to go SLI with another 480 in the future without bottlenecking. My specs are;

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 3.6GHz
Asus Striker II Extreme nForce 790i Ultra SLi
Corsair 4GB DDR3 DHX 1600MHz Twin3X (2x2GB)
Thermaltake ToughPower 850W (will have to upgrade this I know)
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Asus GTX 480

I've heard people saying they got a massive boost by upgrading from a Q9*** series to an i7 meaning there had to be a bottleneck with the Q9***, but they were all running on DDR2 motherboards. As my MB is already at the DDR3 standard for i7's do you think this will help?

Muchos gracias

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Welcome to the forums.

Firstly, why do you feel the need for a second 480? What do you expect to gain? Your system is pretty decent already and certainly high enough to run all of todays games and for a few years yet.

Secondly, did you notice a massive differences between the OC of your Q* on higher settings in games. If any significant OC (say 3.2Ghz -v- 3.6Ghz), yields little or no difference to your video performance then i guess your CPU is bottlenecking the card.

Lastly, the i7 requires 3 modules to activate triple channel memor and upgrading to DDR3 will produce little performance gain.

If i were you, i would sit on what you have and maybe get that Q* to 3.8GHz and invest in an SSD then see what the newer Intel and AMD chips have in store early next year.

 

[RavenXXX2]

^^+1

480 is a beast on its own I don't think SLI is worth the effort and cash with the games we currently have available to us, an SSD would be a more worthwhile upgrade as suggested.

Regarding bottlenecking, from comparisons I have seen between i7 CPU's and Intel's previous tech, yes it will bottleneck an 480 SLI setup.

 

[subbytna]

^^+2

no point as one 480 with a clock on it is enough for most games these days - SSD is the next natural step for you.

 

[Sweeet]

Welcome to the forums.

Firstly, why do you feel the need for a second 480? What do you expect to gain? Your system is pretty decent already and certainly high enough to run all of todays games and for a few years yet.

Secondly, did you notice a massive differences between the OC of your Q* on higher settings in games. If any significant OC (say 3.2Ghz -v- 3.6Ghz), yields little or no difference to your video performance then i guess your CPU is bottlenecking the card.

Lastly, the i7 requires 3 modules to activate triple channel memor and upgrading to DDR3 will produce little performance gain.

If i were you, i would sit on what you have and maybe get that Q* to 3.8GHz and invest in an SSD then see what the newer Intel and AMD chips have in store early next year.

Thanks

I'm not after one now, I'm just thinking down the line. I'm going to get a 9800GT to use as a dedicated PhysX card for heavy PhysX orientated games like mafia 2 for now. I was told by someone with a 480 it boosted their min frames from 25 to 45 when max PhysX was enabled!

I only overclocked my CPU to 3.6 when I got the 480 but I'll run some tests at stock speeds tonight. I would try for 3.8 but I'm already at the max temp I'm willing to take it on air. Thought about getting a SSD but I've already got 2 HD's raided together in stripe so I'm not sure how much of a performance boost it would be.

 

[uv]

Thought about getting a SSD but I've already got 2 HD's raided together in stripe so I'm not sure how much of a performance boost it would be.

It would be a massive performance boost. I went from raid0 Velociraptors to a single SSD, and the performance benefit is very noticeable. Remember, raid just increases throughput, whereas access times give a more noticeable day to day benefit.

 

[Sweeet]

One thing I am concerned about is my northbridge temp. I've been doing some stress testing since the overclock and although my CPU falls within acceptable limits, my northbridge is hovering around 66 degree's at full load hitting a max of 71. Is this all right for a 790i northbridge?

 

[Duff-Man]

That depends on what resolution you're playing at.

I have SLI'd GTX480s and a i7-930 at 4.2Ghz, and at 1920*1200 virtually everything is CPU-bound. Even Crysis at 1920*1200 with 8xAA doesn't push the GPUs much above 90% for the most part. If I were sticking at 1920*1200 I would not have gone for a second GTX480 (waiting on a repair of my 30" 2560*1600 screen).

So, in short, if you're going to use a single 1920-res screen, then yes. You will be mainly CPU bound. If you're going to use a higher-res screen, or a triple-monitor setup, then no - the GPUs will be the limiting factor in a lot of recent games.

 

[Reality|Bites]

Welcome to the forums.

Secondly, did you notice a massive differences between the OC of your Q* on higher settings in games. If any significant OC (say 3.2Ghz -v- 3.6Ghz), yields little or no difference to your video performance then i guess your CPU is bottlenecking the card.

.

Did you mix it up there? If he overclocked his CPU and saw no gaming performance increase then would that not suggest the graphics card was doing all it can and can handle anymore from the CPU?

If you overclocked the graphics card and saw no gain then the CPU would be bottenecking the graphics card.

 

[Peter450]

Hello, I've just managed to get my Q9450 to a stable 3.6GHz on air and was wondering whether I'd have the option to go SLI with another 480 in the future without bottlenecking. My specs are;

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 3.6GHz
Asus Striker II Extreme nForce 790i Ultra SLi
Corsair 4GB DDR3 DHX 1600MHz Twin3X (2x2GB)
Thermaltake ToughPower 850W (will have to upgrade this I know)
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Asus GTX 480

I've heard people saying they got a massive boost by upgrading from a Q9*** series to an i7 meaning there had to be a bottleneck with the Q9***, but they were all running on DDR2 motherboards. As my MB is already at the DDR3 standard for i7's do you think this will help?

Muchos gracias

I just bought a Yorkfield quad, to replace my dual core, i clocked it in at 3.8, i too thought about getting a I7, but with sandybridge just round the corner i thought it best to stick with my 4 gig's/Mobo/HD etc and just bung in a Yorkfield as it means spending cash on just a chip and not replacing perfectly good memory and other components, it will be more than enough to give top quality gamming for another 18 months, then i can look to upgrade at the start of a new CPU architecture, rather than buying into the end of one

I think two GTX480 will be CPU bound by a Yorky quad, even a higly clocked one, but i think that will be true of even the I7, unless the res is really high, if the I7 were just a chip upgrade it might be worth it, but it's memory + Mobo etc which push's the costs up a lot, and seeing as a new CPU is just round the corner makes little sense. Now is not the time to be spending big bucks on I7 IMO

 

[Sweeet]

Well I've just ordered a Corsair Hydro H70 High Performance CPU Cooler as my Zalman isn't quite cutting it, even just at 3.6 it runs far too hot. And I can't get a high-performance air cooler as I have a big fan built into the side of my case and the 160mm air coolers won't fit, so water cooling is my only option. But hopefully the Corsair will allow me to try for 3.8-4GHz.

I've been playing BFBC2 and GTA4 @1680x1050 with max settings and so far they've both been smooth as silk very happy with my 480 and definitely no bottlenecking on the Q9450 @3.6GHz with a single GPU, and if there is, it certainly isn't noticeable. Also I've decided I'm not even going to attempt SLi as no matter how high I clock the Q9450 it will always bottleneck - this is according to people at overclock.net who've had dual 480's with a Q9*** who've upgraded to i7's. They've all noticed a massive performance increase with the i7 when running the 480's in SLi over the Yorkfield.

That's good advice Peter, I think I'll follow it lol.