Cpu bottlenecking cards?

[Energize]

Will an x2 3800 bottleneck 2x x1900xtx's when playing oblivion? Im sure this is why some people are getting lower performance than they should. Adding to that a 3800 will only perform like a 3000/3200 because oblivion doesnt really take advantage of dual core (even though it claims to).

 

[Thing]

I would think so, you're running a 3200 (effective) alongside a pair of the best GFX cards in the world after all...

 

[Naffa]

Any CPU would get bottlenecked with dual cards, even an FX60. So to get rid of the bottleneck, the best solution is to just apply as much AA as possible and crank up the resolution. Granted it wont run as well, but it will remove the CPU bottleneck.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

games like oblivion are not cpu limited even a quad sli setup is gfx card limited in games like oblivion and fear unless you run them with low details at 640x480

 

[Energize]

games like oblivion are not cpu limited even a quad sli setup is gfx card limited in games like oblivion and fear unless you run them with low details at 640x480

I wouldnt be so sure, there are some scaling graphs which show how oblivions framerate increases as the clock speed increases and that there is barely any framerate difference between 640x480 and 1600x1200 which can only mean that the cpu is holding the gfx cards back. @2.2ghz.

Though im not sure wether your saying that the gfx cards wont be bottlenecked by the cpu or that the cpu doesnt limit the fps because the gfx cards arent powerfull enough.

 

[easyrider]

Will an x2 3800 bottleneck 2x x1900xtx's when playing oblivion?

Yes a 2ghz cpu is not fast enough for a single x1900 nevermind two.

 

[The Asgard]

Actually Oblivion is CPU bottlenecked. I ran Oblivion on a 3 Ghz Opty 148 and then on a 2.8 Opty 170 running on a single X1900 XT-X 690/800 and the dual was a far smoother experience. Really felt like the game was running twice the speed. That was at 1920x1200 with HDR

 

[man_from_uncle]

Yeah, no question you'll get bottlenecked by an X2 3800 at stock in Oblivion. You'll have to play at something like 1920x1200 or 2048x1536 before the CPU starts to drop out of the equation. Fortunately there are few games as CPU intensive as Oblivion so you'll get most of the wonder those cards are capable of in most applications. Overclocking that X2 up to 2.4ghz or so will help too. You'll see a straight corolation between extra CPU speed and extra framerates up to 1600x1200 if you've got a pair of cards like that.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

I wouldnt be so sure, there are some scaling graphs which show how oblivions framerate increases as the clock speed increases and that there is barely any framerate difference between 640x480 and 1600x1200 which can only mean that the cpu is holding the gfx cards back. @2.2ghz.

Though im not sure wether your saying that the gfx cards wont be bottlenecked by the cpu or that the cpu doesnt limit the fps because the gfx cards arent powerfull enough.

i see where yur comming from. in certain situations my card becomes cpu limited where in a game i go right up next to a wall and look at the wall my framerate shoots to like 200fps. if i had a faster cpu then i could have got 220 or more fps at that point.

but the minimum fps scored in a game like oblivion or new tombraider etc is like 15fps or less even in outdoor areas where there is lots going on. and im pretty sure that having more gfx card power at that point would increase the framerate by a very high amount. adding more cpu power at that point would prove to be useless.

 

[man_from_uncle]

In Oblivion the worst stutters come from combat outside. The combination of physics and AI pummels the CPU and causes much worse slow down than the graphics alone (not to mention that the CPU needs to feed the graphics card with all its texture info while doing all this). It's not too much of a problem for me as my CPU is quite fast, but a friend who owns 2x7800gtxs and a 4000+ cpu get's severe slowdown when fighting a couple of oponents on a steep hil for example (by the standards of his framerate otherwise). His rig generally runs the game better than mine, but even at 1280x1024 he gets more frustrated by slow downs than I do at 1600x1200 (though he is the kind that get's frustrated easily).

 

[Cyber-Mav]

your running it at 1600x1200 is that with HDR enabled?

 

[man_from_uncle]

Yep. It's not perfect, but it's more than playable. It's also virtually no slower than at 1280x1024.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

ahh, i see the overclock on your card is paying off.

what cooling you got on that card and whats its max temps rise up to?

 

[man_from_uncle]

I'm using the Zalman vf900. If I run the computer all day and it was warm like yesterday (28c in my room) I can make the temps break 51c even on max fan speed. But considering that's still cool enough to touch I don't think I've got any serious problems. Might even try the 1.55v mod and get to 700+ on the core.

The overclock in my sig is what I run oblivion on, but in other games (Quake 4 and FEAR) I can push it up to 630/1800. For benching I've had it at 665/1918 or something like that. Breaking 11,000 on 3dmark05 is not really that hard with the 1.4v mod (though it takes a bit of guts to keep pushing your card up just to see how far it will go).