Is my gpu cpu bottlenecked?

[Midwayman]

Just got an ATI x800XL 256m apg card. Its runnning on p4 2800 system (800fsb, older HT)
Should that be okay, or should I be looking to bump up the cpu a bit as well? I have 1.2g system memory as well.

 

[peleejosh]

that cpu doesnt do wel with games, but you should be ok, can you overclock it? also what is 1.2gb?

 

[Midwayman]

1.2gb system ram DDR. It came with 256m and I threw an extra gig in it.

 

[Concillian]

Likely you are not, but there is a fairly easy way for you to tell if you are CPU bottlenecked.

1) Benchmark whatever game(s) you play at the settings you normally use.
2) Benchmark again at 1 step lower resolution
3) Benchmark again at 2 steps lower resolution

If there is a significant difference between all three, or if there is a significantly larger difference between 1) and 2) than 2) and 3) then you are video card limited.
If there is no significant difference between any of them, then you are CPU limited.

This techreview article shows some very good examples of video card limited and CPU limited scenarios.
The HL2 part shows how the situation changes as the resolution increases for most cards (CPU limited at low resolutions, GPU limited at high resolutions)
http://www.techreport.com/etc/2005q3/hires-gaming/index.x?pg=6
The 7800GTX shows it has enough GPU capability to maintain the CPU limit in pretty much every situation here.

then the Far Cry and Doom3 results show a picture where many cards are GPU limited the whole way (when paired with the FX57)
Far Cry: http://www.techreport.com/etc/2005q3/hires-gaming/index.x?pg=5
Doom 3: http://www.techreport.com/etc/2005q3/hires-gaming/index.x?pg=4

So try out some of your games yourself, you can figure out whether or not you will really see much benefit from a better CPU. Also you can see at what level the performance is maxed with your current CPU so you can see if increasing CPU will really buy you better PERCEPTIBLE performance. For example, Far Cry is showing a CPU limit in the tr3-pier demo around 90-95 FPS. If this is the case, is the CPU REALLY limiting? I mean if they ran 3.0 GHz instead they would get higher performance, but would you really notice the difference between 110 FPS compared with 95 FPS?

I really encorage people to do their own benchmarks in a case like this. You can see exactly whether you are CPU or GPU limited without any guesswork, and you can also get some realistic expectations for how much a CPU upgrade will really buy you.

 

[Jeff7181]

Yes it is likely a bottleneck in all but the most shader intense games. Should you care? Probably not... it may be limiting you to "only" 100 fps rather than 150 if you had an FX-57.