e5200 @3.8ghz and GTX 285

[Shingi]

wondering if my CPU is bottling this setup. it's currently running 3.8hz and my vid is the gtx 285. Will I get better performance if I upgrade my cpu to say a 9650 or something i5.

shingi

 

[Indus]

That depends on what your defenition of bottleneck is.. is it reducing the amount of maximum frames you get or the minimum framerate.

It might reduce a bit off the top but not the minimums. (For example some scenes can give 300 frames per second and some give less than 30). The 300+ is thanks to the cpu but the less than 30 is all GPU.

 

[vj8usa]

That depends on what your defenition of bottleneck is.. is it reducing the amount of maximum frames you get or the minimum framerate.

It might reduce a bit off the top but not the minimums. (For example some scenes can give 300 frames per second and some give less than 30). The 300+ is thanks to the cpu but the less than 30 is all GPU.

That's not entirely true; it's application dependent. There will be some modern games where your minimum framerate is caused by your CPU (in physics-heavy scenarios, for instance). Realistically speaking though, a 3.8GHz E5200 is a more than powerful enough CPU for any game today. There will be a handful of games that love quads where you'll see some dips in framerate that wouldn't have been as pronounced with a fast quad, but nothing that makes the game unplayable as a whole.

 

[happy medium]

wondering if my CPU is bottling this setup. it's currently running 3.8hz and my vid is the gtx 285. Will I get better performance if I upgrade my cpu to say a 9650 or something i5.

shingi

You cpu is fine. There are a few games a quadcore might do a bit better, but that cpu will play all games just fine.

 

[AzN]

The only game that's doesn't get good frame is probably GTA4. Other wise your CPU is fine for any game out there.

edit:
I really hate the term bottleneck and is used here quite frequently by people who doesn't know where this term came from. Bottleneck the way I learned it was when CPU get same frame rates across all resolution no matter how much GPU you pump in to your system. I think the correct term would be CPU limitation but then all things are limited in some way.

 

[n7]

Games that do well with quads (& more cache) will definitely benefit from an upgrade.

(Stuff like UT3 & many other UE3 games, L4D2, GTA4, Sup Com, etc.)

That said, i doubt you'll see a huge difference.

 

[happy medium]

Games that do well with quads (& more cache) will definitely benefit from an upgrade.

(Stuff like UT3 & many other UE3 games, L4D2, GTA4, Sup Com, etc.)

That said, i doubt you'll see a huge difference.

l4d2? .......Dosent that run on the Source engine?

 

[Shingi]

thanks guys. Really helpful. I guess my little e5200 will hang around for a while with my gtx285.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

l4d2? .......Dosent that run on the Source engine?

Yes. It is one of the most CPU dependent engines out there.

For instance, with CS:S (single threaded) i didn't notice much of a difference (no AA) when I upgraded from a x1650pro to an 8800GTS. Paired with an athlon 3500+ venice. Adding to that not much was also observed with TF2 going from a HD3850 to a 4830 OC with my quad. Only overclocking raises FPS. That app is dual threaded.

L4D is optimized for Tri-Cores (nearly constant 75% util for me) and L4D2 really benefits from quad cores. Once again (similar to UT3) a weak quad core such as a Phenom X4 9550 2.2ghz is comparable or faster than a stock E8500/8600 (3-3.16ghz).

 

[Shingi]

One last questions. I do have another spare gtx 285 on my other machine. If I slap on that with my current one this would defnitely have an limitation right.

e5200 @ 3.8ghz and gtx 285 SLI.

Should I decide to SLI, then I feel a 9650 quad is the way to level performance of these two?

 

[AzN]

Like I said all things are limited to a degree. You would get better frame rates but the return is small.

There's no game out there you can't play with your CPU except for GTA4 comfortably.

Adding more GPU on top of your current GPU will only improve frame rates even further.

Would you get better frame rates with a faster CPU? Yes... Would you get faster frame rates with a faster GPU? Yes... What will be the best return in game frame rates? GPU

If you have the money to burn on your computer I say go for it. Might as well. There's only a handful of quad optimized games though. Even those games that people think its quad optimized is getting slightly better frame rates due to the bigger cache on quad-core CPU's and not really taking advantage of quad core from the ground up. However there's been a influx of games that has been quad optimized recently.

Dragon Age, Resident Evil 5, GTA 4... OF those 2 you can already play comfortably.