What happens when your CPU is the bottleneck.

xGaffner · 11 Nov 2009 at 14:43

As title says really. Finally ready to buy a 5870 but have a few concerns. My CPU is a X2 550 overclocked to 3.8Ghz (can't unlock it wth this motherboard), but i'm still worried about it being a huge bottleneck. I take it all that will happen is my FPS will be capped right? I don't mind if my FPS is capped as long as its capped at a playable framerate. (Anything over 40-45 is good enough for me) Any insight into this?

Thanks

BigBruiserAl · 11 Nov 2009 at 15:02

a 550 at 3.8Ghz will be fine nothing to worry about

xGaffner · 11 Nov 2009 at 15:06

You sure mate? I think i remember reading that the 5870 even bottlenecks an i7 sometimes. If you are right then that makes me feel a lot better lol.

Nocky24 · 11 Nov 2009 at 15:19

xGaffner said:
You sure mate? I think i remember reading that the 5870 even bottlenecks an i7 sometimes. If you are right then that makes me feel a lot better lol.

Do you mean the i7 bottlenecks the 5870 or the 5870 bottlenecks the i7? Either way the i7 won't really bottleneck any of the current gpus and nor will your cpu to be honest unless you're looking at sli or crossfire. The best thing to do is to work out what games you play and what sort of power they need e.g. if i mainly played the cod series i'd be looking at a high end gpu and not worry about the cpu so much.

OCP · 11 Nov 2009 at 15:21

I would think CPU these days can handle any graphics cards.

roop128 · 11 Nov 2009 at 16:16

just to add my own quesiton will an e8500 bottleneck a 5850?

Greebo · 11 Nov 2009 at 16:17

Yes it bottlenecks but not that badly. You may lose 5% of the performance.

roop128 · 11 Nov 2009 at 16:22

would it be wise getting one then?

Greebo · 11 Nov 2009 at 16:35

Depends what your old card is tbh. Say if you look at reviews and your old card gives you 30fps and the 5870 unbottled gave you 60 fps, you would still get 57fps and would be a major increase.

roop128 · 11 Nov 2009 at 16:55

ive got a 4850

BigBruiserAl · 12 Nov 2009 at 10:00

Greebo said:
Yes it bottlenecks but not that badly. You may lose 5% of the performance.

where did you get the figure from please?

feeddagoat · 12 Nov 2009 at 11:22

Does it not also depend on screen resolution? CPU bottlenecks are more likely at low res?

Greebo · 12 Nov 2009 at 11:46

BigBruiserAl said:
where did you get the figure from please?

To be fair it was an educated guess after reading articles like these:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/xfx-gf-gtx285-gtx295.html

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=807

feeddagoat said:
Does it not also depend on screen resolution? CPU bottlenecks are more likely at low res?

cpu bottlenecks will occur more at lower resolutions.

roop128 · 13 Nov 2009 at 10:38

I run at 1024 X 1280

gurusan · 13 Nov 2009 at 10:58

roop128 said:
I run at 1024 X 1280

fail.

Get a better monitor. 1680x1050 is the bare minimum these days IMO....

roop128 · 13 Nov 2009 at 11:06

Don't worry I'm getting a new one soon

roop128 · 13 Nov 2009 at 11:07

This one is like 4 years old and has server me well

demon8991 · 13 Nov 2009 at 11:16

No point getting a 5870 at that res really!

Get a 24" running 1920 x 1200 or 1920 x 1080 and then get the graphics card!

PaulyD · 13 Nov 2009 at 11:50

Agreed, a sub £100 graphics card will easily max that monitor out, get the monitor first then upgrade

feeddagoat · 13 Nov 2009 at 12:44

Just saw an article yesterday on tomshardware it was looking at matching processors with graphics cards. All processors are at stock with no overclocking and its only latest releases. Check it out