GPU bottleneck question?

[Space Monkey]

Hi chaps,

Just trying to plan my pc purchases, and one route I'm considering is getting an AMD 8350 CPU, now my question is this, if the CPU is overclocked to say 5GHz, whats the best GPU you could run with it without bottle necking the GPU, would it bottle neck a GTX780Ti? Or......?

Thanks

 

[Marine-RX179]

Hi chaps,

Just trying to plan my pc purchases, and one route I'm considering is getting an AMD 8350 CPU, now my question is this, if the CPU is overclocked to say 5GHz, whats the best GPU you could run with it without bottle necking the GPU, would it bottle neck a GTX780Ti? Or......?

Thanks

Games dependent. Games that use all the cores/threads or with Mantle working properly you should have any CPU bottleneck issue; the most likely situation you would see the CPU bottleneck hurt you the most is CPU intensive mmos, RTS, online multiplayers that DON'T use all your CPU cores.

But to be honest, with the FX8350 I would say a 290 or GTX780 would be the sweet spot, as the performance advantage of the GTX780Ti might not even be noticeable because of the CPU you are using, so it's not worth spending the £100-£150 extra on it.

 

[Space Monkey]

So, for Mantle, I'd need an AMD GPU?

My main games are the TrackMania series and Football Managers, so I'm not sure if they use multi core CPUs well? So if no Mantle and poor multi core utilisation then a 780Ti is a no no? Would it pair well with a GTX770?

 

[Marine-RX179]

So, for Mantle, I'd need an AMD GPU?

My main games are the TrackMania series and Football Managers, so I'm not sure if they use multi core CPUs well? So if no Mantle and poor multi core utilisation then a 780Ti is a no no? Would it pair well with a GTX770?

I would imagine those games would not use more than 1 or 2 cores, but with that said with your FX8350 overclocked I would think it should hold 40-60fps without problem anyway.

And if those are your main games, then GTX780 and 290 would be overkill (by quite a bit as well). Just grab a 280 or 280x and you would be able to max those games fine (if you do get dips in frame rate, it would most likely because of CPU rather than the 280 not being fast enough).
280:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-171-PC&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842
280x:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-322-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1842

 

[Space Monkey]

Thanks for the info

The reason I'm looking at the 780Ti or equivalent, is that TrackMania did really push my previous GTX670 to its limits, so wanted something stronger

 

[Marine-RX179]

Thanks for the info

The reason I'm looking at the 780Ti or equivalent, is that TrackMania did really push my previous GTX670 to its limits, so wanted something stronger

Wait you are using a GTX670?

It should be more than enough for the games you mentioned...you sure it is not your FX8350 holding you back already?

Racing games in general are much harder on the CPU than graphic card. Have you monitored what kind of GPU usage while gaming on your GTX670?

Just to clarify the 280/280x are faster than the GTX670, but not by too much.

Sidenote: Just did a quick google, the performance issue of TrackMania seem to be CPU related (with the game seem to be single-threaded).

 

[Space Monkey]

Wait you are using a GTX670?

It should be more than enough for the games you mentioned...you sure it is your FX8350 holding you back already?

Sorry for the confusion, my previous PC had a GTX670 and an i7 3820, but that was all sold as need the funds for other things at the time

So I'm now looking to build from scratch, my budget could get an 8350 build a lot quicker and a lot cheaper, hence my consideration of it, ideally I'd like an i7 build with a 780Ti but that's going to take a lot longer to raise the funds and cost a lot more, even an i5 build would cost more, so not sure what to do?

I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure

 

[Marine-RX179]

Sorry for the confusion, my previous PC had a GTX670 and an i7 3820, but that was all sold as need the funds for other things at the time

So I'm now looking to build from scratch, my budget could get an 8350 build a lot quicker and a lot cheaper, hence my consideration of it, ideally I'd like an i7 build with a 780Ti but that's going to take a lot longer to raise the funds and cost a lot more, even an i5 build would cost more, so not sure what to do?

I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure

If you don't play games that are heavily-threaded, and poor-threaded/1-2 threaded games (i.e. Track Mania type of games) are all you play, you may be in luck.

I think you have hear about new wave of Intel CPUs are on the horizon and soon to be release, and to celebrate 20 years anniversary of the Pentium brand, Intel (probably for this time only) will be releasing unlocked Pentium dual-core CPU! (yea shame no unlocked i3 lol)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7872/unlocked-haswell-pentium-due-mid2014

For single/two threaded games, highly overclocked Pentium Haswell dual-core WILL trash FX's performance! lol

 

[Space Monkey]

Thanks Marine, you've been most helpful, I'll have a look into that, though with what you've said I may just pay a bit more and get an i5, that should be enough for a single high end GPU would you say?

 

[Marine-RX179]

Thanks Marine, you've been most helpful, I'll have a look into that, though with what you've said I may just pay a bit more and get an i5, that should be enough for a single high end GPU would you say?

One issue with Haswell i5 is for the unlocked-K version, you'd looking at spending around £160-£170+...and for the locked i5 (around max boost clock 3.60GHz), they would be slower than a Haswell Pentium overclocked to 4.80GHz in those games you mentioned

 

[Space Monkey]

Really? The Pentium would have better IPC? Wouldn't an i5 go to about 4.5GHz?

Any idea on the Pentium price?

Forgot the

 

[Marine-RX179]

Really? The Pentium would have better IPC? Wouldn't an i5 go to about 4.5GHz?

Any idea on the Pentium price?

Forgot the

No. IPC would be the same, but what I was talking about was that non-K i5 would be locked and lack the ability to overclock...if you were thinking i5-K, then yes it would be better.

Pentium CPUs should be around £35-£70 depending on the model...but unlike previous Pentium CPUs that are locked and the price premium of one Pentium CPU over the other is because of the higher clock speed, I think you just need to buy the cheapest one (probably one with the lowest stock clock) and overclock it.

 

[Space Monkey]

Ah gotchya

Thanks for your time, you've confirmed what I was feeling