How Much would My CPU Bottleneck ?

[Durvelle27]

I'm looking to turn my HTPC into a nice little low end gaming rig. Games i Play Assassins Creed all of them, Far Cry 2 & 3, Skyrim, Call of Duty Black OPs, MW2, MW3, Batman AC, Sleeping Dogs, DOTA, Rift, Diablo III, World of Warcraft etc.


Current Specs:

Intel Pentium D 915 2.8GHz
OCZ 2GB(2x1GB) DDR2 667MHz
Seasonic 300w PSU
ASUS HD 5450 Silent
Crucial 64GB SSD
Western Digital 500GB


I was possibly looking at getting one of these cards:
GTX 460, GTX 465, GTX 550 Ti, HD 4850, HD 4870, HD 5770, HD 6770, HD 6850, and HD 7770

 

[lavaheadache]

ouch, That cpu is going to hurt you in a lot of games.

I would seriously consider finding a core 2 variant if you want to make it a viable machine

 

[Hinda65]

I just scrapped together a rig for my nephew to play minecraft on....i took a 9800gtx that was paired up with a E8400 and put it with an old prescott 3.0.

I got about half the frames with the Prescott as I did with the E8400 and thats with a 9800gtx so i'd think you'd be extremely bottlenecked with that setup...If you had an extra $200.00 to spend (on top of the card) you could get a decent gaming rig going.....

 

[Durvelle27]

ouch, That cpu is going to hurt you in a lot of games.

I would seriously consider finding a core 2 variant if you want to make it a viable machine

The highest cpu the board accepts is the Pentium D 950

 

[Termie]

Buy an HD6570 for $40AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102994

It will be significantly bottlenecked, but will allow you to play some, if not all, of the brand-new games you mentioned.

 

[Durvelle27]

Buy an HD6570 for $40AR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102994

It will be significantly bottlenecked, but will allow you to play some, if not all, of the brand-new games you mentioned.

wouldn't a HD 4870 be faster than that

 

[jacktesterson]

2nd vote for HD6570 or 5650 for $40-50 range.

Even that is going to be bottlenecked, no sense spending any more than that.

The 4870 is essentially a 5770/6770 speed, but your Power supply probably won't be up to spec.

 

[Termie]

wouldn't a HD 4870 be faster than that

Generally speaking, yes, but not on a Pentium 4 system. Furthermore, it probably would not run on a 300w PSU, as it uses a lot of power (as does your CPU).

 

[lavaheadache]

The highest cpu the board accepts is the Pentium D 950

Even with an updated Bios?

Then either stick with nothing higher than a 7800 GTX/X1900 or 8800 if you don't mind GPU bottleneck.

The other option is get a motherboad that supports Core 2 if you are hell bent on using your existing ram.

If none of those make you feel warm and fuzzy I'm sure you could piece together a decent I3 barebones for less than $200.

 

[Termie]

Even with an updated Bios?

Then either stick with nothing higher than a 7800 GTX/X1900 or 8800 if you don't mind GPU bottleneck.

The other option is get a motherboad that supports Core 2 if you are hell bent on using your existing ram.

If none of those make you feel warm and fuzzy I'm sure you could piece together a decent I3 barebones for less than $200.

I wouldn't recommend DX9 cards at this point, even for an old system, although the OP has mentioned what OS he's using. If he has WinXP, he should realize some new games won't run because WinXP is DX9 only.

 

[lavaheadache]

I wouldn't recommend DX9 cards at this point, even for an old system, although the OP has mentioned what OS he's using. If he has WinXP, he should realize some new games won't run because WinXP is DX9 only.

I was merely mentioning the legacy cards to give him an idea of the caliber of processor he is dealing with

 

[Durvelle27]

Even with an updated Bios?

Then either stick with nothing higher than a 7800 GTX/X1900 or 8800 if you don't mind GPU bottleneck.

The other option is get a motherboad that supports Core 2 if you are hell bent on using your existing ram.

If none of those make you feel warm and fuzzy I'm sure you could piece together a decent I3 barebones for less than $200.

Nope not even with the BIOs update and the board only supports 2GB of ram

but if i could build a new system it would have to be under $100

 

[Durvelle27]

I wouldn't recommend DX9 cards at this point, even for an old system, although the OP has mentioned what OS he's using. If he has WinXP, he should realize some new games won't run because WinXP is DX9 only.

Oh sorry about that

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

 

[lavaheadache]

wow, with 2 gb and a pentium d that thing must be awfully sluggish

 

[Durvelle27]

wow, with 2 gb and a pentium d that thing must be awfully sluggish

nahh it does everything i need it to just fine which was web browsing and watching HD videos

 

[SPBHM]

used 5750/5770...

uses a lot less power than the 4870, it's a lot faster than the 6570 and probably easy to find/cheap.

now the Pentium D will bottleneck basically anything, but at least you can play some games and user higher IQ settings

 

[Durvelle27]

also want to note the res will be 1920x1080 or 1280x720

 

[Durvelle27]

used 5750/5770...

uses a lot less power than the 4870, it's a lot faster than the 6570 and probably easy to find/cheap.

now the Pentium D will bottleneck basically anything, but at least you can play some games and user higher IQ settings

ok thx gonna look into those

 

[UaVaj]

i have a similar setup for my the seven year old. pentium d 945. 3.4ghz. it plays wow at fair setting (~50fps). struggle a bit at good setting (~30fps).

in wow with fair setting at 1440x900.
with a gtx260 - cpu 90% while gpu is 60%. obvious cpu bottleneck.
with a radeon 4650 - cpu is 90% while gpu is 100%. much better match.

in comparison. given your cpu is even slower and all the card you listed is way faster. you will definitely experience cpu bottleneck. also you will need a new psu. 300w is not enough for any of those cards listed.

good luck.

 

[ocre]

i would snatch up some used stuff. Something like this:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2289643

There is a 775 motherboard and a CPU that would be significantly better. Also he has some ram but u should be able to use your old ram fine if he will sell without the ram. He is asking 40 for the ram and i think its a little high. For everything its only 130 which you might get down some like 110-120.

Anyway, this is just the first one i found. If you look you could find plenty i am sure. The great part with a 775 is you could go core2 quad. I have a q6600/q9450 system that plays every single game i throw at it with no problems whatsoever. Its overclocked and is every bit as smooth as my i7 920.

a core2 is significantly better than a pentium D. An e8400 overclocked mildly should be fine for you with the option of one day dropping a cheap 775 quad in one day. You do what you want though. I am sure there are plenty of HW out there used. You may find a way better deal.

good luck

 

[SPBHM]

i have a similar setup for my the seven year old. pentium d 945. 3.4ghz. it plays wow at fair setting (~50fps). struggle a bit at good setting (~30fps).

in wow with fair setting at 1440x900.
with a gtx260 - cpu 90% while gpu is 60%. obvious cpu bottleneck.
with a radeon 4650 - cpu is 90% while gpu is 100%. much better match.

in comparison. given your cpu is even slower and all the card you listed is way faster. you will definitely experience cpu bottleneck. also you will need a new psu. 300w is not enough for any of those cards listed.

good luck.

5750 1GB ddr5 don't use a lot of power, I think for the average gaming is around 60w, and it's faster than a 4850 (it's slower than the 260 but uses a lot less power, and supports DX11)... if you can find one used for a good price I think it's the best option.... it's even some 20-30% faster than a 6670 DDR5, on par with a GTS 450 DDR5 (but the 5750 uses significantly less power)

 

[Durvelle27]

5750 1GB ddr5 don't use a lot of power, I think for the average gaming is around 60w, and it's faster than a 4850 (it's slower than the 260 but uses a lot less power, and supports DX11)... if you can find one used for a good price I think it's the best option.... it's even some 20-30% faster than a 6670 DDR5, on par with a GTS 450 DDR5 (but the 5750 uses significantly less power)

gonna look around for one of these

 

[Durvelle27]

ok i've decided to just get a micro atx AM3+ board and just drop my Fx 4100 in it so there won't be a bottleneck

 

[tweakboy]

Wow don't bother gaming with that Pentium D ...... its such a slouch a Athlon 64 3800 blows it away. Its like P4 with 2 cores.

You need a new quad core processor if you dont wanna get bottlenecked. gl

 

[toyota]

yeah there would be no point in trying to play most of those games on an old 2.8 Pentium D. that cpu does not even come close to meeting requirements and its like a Core 2 duo running at just 1.4. most games would be way too sluggish and no gpu would help that.