How fast can my 4890 go (need to know for CPU overclock)

[MrMatt]

OK, so I hear people say things like "I don't bother OC'ing my processor faster than 3.4 since my 4870 can only go that fast"....I'm not sure what that means exactly. If I have a 4890, what's the fastest I could OC my cpu to before it exceeds the video card?

 

[Billb2]

Huh? A video card won't bottleneck a CPU, it's the other way around.

And video cards being bottle-necked by CPUs only applies to gaming.
Even if you do have a video card bottle-necked by a CPU, the CPU will still do all it's other stuff faster than a lesser clocked CPU.

 

[RockinZ28]

It depends on your resolution and the game. Basically, the higher your resolution/quality settings, the more demanding it is on your gfx card. Once you reach your card's max fps at a given quality setting, no matter how far you oc your cpu, you are not going to gain any fps.

Just made up numbers to give you an example:

Say you get 30fps in Crysis at 1920x1200. Then you overclock your cpu from 3.0 to 3.4ghz and you get 35fps. Your cpu was your bottleneck.
Then say you went from 3.4ghz to 4.0ghz and still got 35fps. Your gpu is your bottleneck.

At high res your gpu is almost always going to limit you, that's why I'm still on a E6600 and have upgraded my gfx card 3 times.

 

[toyota]

It depends on your resolution and the game. Basically, the higher your resolution/quality settings, the more demanding it is on your gfx card. Once you reach your card's max fps at a given quality setting, no matter how far you oc your cpu, you are not going to gain any fps.

Just made up numbers to give you an example:

Say you get 30fps in Crysis at 1920x1200. Then you overclock your cpu from 3.0 to 3.4ghz and you get 35fps. Your cpu was your bottleneck.
Then say you went from 3.4ghz to 4.0ghz and still got 35fps. Your gpu is your bottleneck.

At high res your gpu is almost always going to limit you, that's why I'm still on a E6600 and have upgraded my gfx card 3 times.

well to be fair your already decent cpu is overclocked by 50%. lol