7900gtx with A64 3200 newcastle.cpu bottleneck?

[SHAGVIRUS]

i am curently running specs below..was looking into purchasing a 7900gtx and selling my 6800gt's..

is cpu going to be the bottleneck here?

thanks for your time.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

almost certainly

i was bottlenecked with a 3200 and 7800GT SLI.

i overlclocked my 3200 to 2.5 and i got some nice gains

 

[TheRyuu]

Overclock

 

[Bull Dog]

Sure you'll be bottlenecked, but chances are that the only real gains you'll see are in benchmarks.

Havin said that you should try taking your 3200+ Newcastle up to at least 2.2GHz.

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: Bull Dog
Sure you'll be bottlenecked, but chances are that the only real gains you'll see are in benchmarks.

Havin said that you should try taking your 3200+ Newcastle up to at least 2.2GHz.

at stock it is running @2.2ghz. i had a 3200+ Newcastle that did 2.55ghz easy with 1.55~1.6v and stayed cool with a thermalright xp-90.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: SHAGVIRUS
i am curently running specs below..was looking into purchasing a 7900gtx and selling my 6800gt's..

is cpu going to be the bottleneck here?

It depends on what games you play and the resolution you play them at. If you strictly play UT2k4 at 1024x768, yes, you will see a good increase with a faster CPU. But if you play FEAR or COD2 at that same resolution, you will see no increase whatsoever with a faster CPU.

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel

Originally posted by: SHAGVIRUS
i am curently running specs below..was looking into purchasing a 7900gtx and selling my 6800gt's..

is cpu going to be the bottleneck here?

It depends on what games you play and the resolution you play them at. If you strictly play UT2k4 at 1024x768, yes, you will see a good increase with a faster CPU. But if you play FEAR or COD2 at that same resolution, you will see no increase whatsoever with a faster CPU.

exactly. except in ut2004 at that res, i dont think you'll notice between 150fps and 200fps

 

[Wall7486]

Is better for the CPU to bottleneck than the GPU. CPU will always be the bottleneck because GPUs are evolving at such a rapid pace. Of course you wouldn't want a 1.8ghz running a 7900GTX 512MB.

 

[Regs]

You could have a FX and still be bottlenecked.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: SHAGVIRUS
i am curently running specs below..was looking into purchasing a 7900gtx and selling my 6800gt's..

is cpu going to be the bottleneck here?

thanks for your time.

You should be fine. I think only UT2004 is signficantly (i.e. noticeable in actual play) CPU dependent out of the relatively modern games.

I played some games before overclocking anything on my machine and subjectively speaking, I couldn't see any difference at all in almost every game I tried (everything except UT2004 and Deus Ex) after pushing the processor up from 2ghz to 3ghz. I got 3000 more 3dmarks and some game benchmark scores increased (the maximum framerates probably shot up), but it didn't do much else as far as games go.

That being said, that 3200 probably has some headroom in it. You should be able to get it to at least 2.4-2.5ghz without much trouble.

 

[SHAGVIRUS]

i have not really OC'd my cpu that much..i know i can get 225x10 ez..

just wondering if that high of a video card would be worth it to buy or step up cpu first..

games i mostly play are World of Warcraft, CSS, looking into some Cod2.

thanks for the info guys..

 

[deadseasquirrel]

You didn't say what resolution you play at.

Anyway, I can't speak to WoW or CSS, but in CoD2 the difference between an FX57 and a 3200+ Newcastle is 3 frames at 1024x768. It would be even less at a higher resolution.

If you're looking for more performance in games, get a new GPU, not a new CPU. And, although you didn't ask this, the x1900xt would be a better buy than the GTX right now. You'd likely only be out-of-pocket around $50-$100 after selling your GTs.

 

[SHAGVIRUS]

really depends on the game..

WoW i run 1280x1024 v sync off i get great frames 90s to 50s..very fluent.

i really care for more speed in games compared to the AA/AF wowzers effect...

you kind of need speed to be competive for CSS, Cod2.

I am kind of an nvidia man myself..never took the jump in the ATI market so i will prob stay with nvidia because of driver base.