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SLI GTX 670's and CPU load?

DamoTourettes

DamoTourettes

DamoTourettes

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Joined
14 Dec 2010
Posts
495
Hey all, have got an X58 i7 950 overclocked to 4.0Ghz and am going to pick up a couple of GTX 670 Windforce cards in the US when I'm over there in a month - just wondering if this CPU config might bottleneck the cards? I'm thinking not, but is a Sandy Bridge overclocked to 4.8Ghz or similar going to be a better bet?
 
My i7 clocked to 4Ghz bottlenecks SLI 470s in BF3.
I haven't found it a bottleneck in others yet but games are getting better and the 670s are a lot more powerful so who knows...

It all depends how CPU dependent the games are that you play.
 
DamoTourettes said:
Oh really? I play BF3 exclusively so if SLI 470's are bottlenecked then GTX 670's would defo bottleneck it, right? I was going to buy 2 of the Windforce suckers today...

:(
Click to expand...

You will see a performance increase, it just won't max both cores. BF3 is highly CPU dependent especially on large maps with over 48 players.

I used to use 1680x1050 120Hz, both 470s would be at about 80% usage. Increasing my overclock increased the usage (no CPU overclock would often see below 50% usage).
I now game at 2560x1440 so GPU usage has increased to 90%-95%.

Do you play using a 120Hz monitor?
Do you play at 60Hz with vsync?
What res do you use?

If using 120hz monitor then the 670s run SLI will still give best performance
If using 60Hz with vsync there is no point in SLI 670s, 1 will be fine
If playing above 1080p then 2 maybe useful for full settings however 1 will give you grunt for 60fps @ 1440p with only the odd drop in massively smoky times where there is a lot going on. Hell, my 470s run 60fps average at 1440p Ultra but lack vram resulting in occasional stutter so I needed to lower the settings for that reason.
 
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I'm currently using an i7 950 @ 4.0Ghz, along with a single GTX 580 1.5GB and a 30" @ 2560x1600 - hence me wanting to throw some serious GPU horsepower at it to max everything. Haven't played around with vsync so it's not currently enabled, but I tend to get somewhere around 60fps average (with no MSAA and high FXAA), HBAO on and varying settings for texture and draw detail etc.

I thought BF3 was primarily GPU limited, which is why I thought a 4.0Ghz overclock would suffice, but appears not... :(
 
no_1_dave said:
You will see a performance increase, it just won't max both cores. BF3 is highly CPU dependent especially on large maps with over 48 players.

I used to use 1680x1050 120Hz, both 470s would be at about 80% usage. Increasing my overclock increased the usage (no CPU overclock would often see below 50% usage).
I now game at 2560x1440 so GPU usage has increased to 90%-95%.

Do you play using a 120Hz monitor?
Do you play at 60Hz with vsync?
What res do you use?

If using 120hz monitor then the 670s run SLI will still give best performance
If using 60Hz with vsync there is no point in SLI 670s, 1 will be fine
If playing above 1080p then 2 maybe useful for full settings however 1 will give you grunt for 60fps @ 1440p with only the odd drop in massively smoky times where there is a lot going on. Hell, my 470s run 60fps average at 1440p Ultra but lack vram resulting in occasional stutter so I needed to lower the settings for that reason.
Click to expand...
At 1920x1200 on ultra settings, no msaa, post aa on high, 16xaf, motion blur off and SSAO on my 470's gave a constant 99% usage, i7 920 @4.0ghz. Now on a single gtx 670 with a pretty decent oc on it. Can run bf3 on ultra with 4x msaa and HBAO on, havent seen it dip below 65fps yet. Im gonna add another 670 at some point but by then i hope to have either a higher res screen or a 120Hz one.
 
Mariusz said:
I game at 2560X1600 with two 580 GTX 1.5gb overclocked to 940 on the core and a i7 990x @ 4.4 with hyperthreading on and I see approx 99% usage on both cards at Ultra settings.
Click to expand...

OK, so a six core chip clocked to 4.4Ghz versus a 4 core clocked to 4.0, and your comparison is what? Or are you just massively epeening?
 
My 920 @ 4GHZ is running at around 99% on all 8 threads and my 2 7970s are running at around 75% at 1080p.

My cards are bottlenecked by my cpu in BF3 Multiplayer.
 
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