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Maximum GPU before bottlenecking my system???

mentalcrisis00

mentalcrisis00

Senior member
My current build is in my sig and I have my e7400 at 4.0GHZ stable. I'm wondering out of the current video card line up, what card would be the maximum that I could use before my system would start bottle necking? I'm looking into 4870, GTX 260, or GTX 275 primarily. Is there a limit to how much GPU power I can pair with my build? If so what would it be in theory?

I realize the maximum card my power supply could handle would be a 9800GTX+ so I imagine I'd have to upgrade to at least a 550W if I bought any of the above cards.

I'm just curios and waiting for the day when the high end cards come down 30 or 40 bucks.
 
haha I have both of those games already, however I could probably sell em for 15-20 bucks each and it'd be the same price as the other gtx 260's. I was gonna go with evga for the step up program, but I've never used it and I have come to like xfx cards alot. Thanks for the suggestion I'll look at some benchmarks and see if I wanna spend that much. I'm only running 2 HDD's and a sata DVD-RW.
 
Originally posted by: mentalcrisis00
My current build is in my sig and I have my e7400 at 4.0GHZ stable. I'm wondering out of the current video card line up, what card would be the maximum that I could use before my system would start bottle necking? I'm looking into 4870, GTX 260, or GTX 275 primarily. Is there a limit to how much GPU power I can pair with my build? If so what would it be in theory?

I realize the maximum card my power supply could handle would be a 9800GTX+ so I imagine I'd have to upgrade to at least a 550W if I bought any of the above cards.

I'm just curios and waiting for the day when the high end cards come down 30 or 40 bucks.
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I think it depends on the resolution used by your monitor.

The higher the resolution and detail setting wanted the greater the yields a person could get from better and better video cards.

 
OP, with your CPU at 4ghz, the sky is pretty much the limit in terms of a GPU, especially if you push higher resolutions like 1080P and above.

I'd say get the best price/performance card you can find. I'm liking the 4890 for $215AR lately.
 
thanks for the quick replies guys, those prices for the 4890 at ewiz are amazing! $184 after rebate is the lowest price I've seen on those. I might have to jump on that before they're all gone.
 
Originally posted by: mentalcrisis00
thanks for the quick replies guys, those prices for the 4890 at ewiz are amazing! $184 after rebate is the lowest price I've seen on those. I might have to jump on that before they're all gone.
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I doubt you would be disappointed at that price.
 
Originally posted by: vj8usa
Originally posted by: spacemanspliff1
Just that the ati drivers suck
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What issues have you run into with ATI's drivers?
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LOL, definitely some paid Nvidia boys in these boards.The ATI drivers are fine, Nvidia's are the ones that are not doing so well right now. The 185's lost about 5% performance.

ATI cards is where it's at right now, there's no denying that. The price stickers speak for themselves.
 
Originally posted by: angry hampster
Bottlenecking is a bit of a ridiculous term. Something in your computer will ALWAYS be the weakest link.
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The term is legitimate. How it's being used as some sort of bogeyman is ridiculous.

OH NOES!!1 MY SYSTEMZ HAS TEH BOTTLENECK!!!1!
 
Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
Originally posted by: angry hampster
Bottlenecking is a bit of a ridiculous term. Something in your computer will ALWAYS be the weakest link.
Click to expand...

The term is legitimate. How it's being used as some sort of bogeyman is ridiculous.

OH NOES!!1 MY SYSTEMZ HAS TEH BOTTLENECK!!!1!
Click to expand...

LOL, I think my dvdrw is bottlenecking my system at the moment btw, it's either that or my powercord.
 
Originally posted by: way2fast91
Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
Originally posted by: angry hampster
Bottlenecking is a bit of a ridiculous term. Something in your computer will ALWAYS be the weakest link.
Click to expand...

The term is legitimate. How it's being used as some sort of bogeyman is ridiculous.

OH NOES!!1 MY SYSTEMZ HAS TEH BOTTLENECK!!!1!
Click to expand...

LOL, I think my dvdrw is bottlenecking my system at the moment btw, it's either that or my powercord.
Click to expand...

My wallet has been bottlenecking my systems for as long as I can remember... if only i had unlimited funds my pc would destroy all you n00bs!
 
Originally posted by: soccerballtux
Originally posted by: vj8usa
Originally posted by: spacemanspliff1
Just that the ati drivers suck
Click to expand...

What issues have you run into with ATI's drivers?
Click to expand...

LOL, definitely some paid Nvidia boys in these boards.The ATI drivers are fine, Nvidia's are the ones that are not doing so well right now. The 185's lost about 5% performance.

ATI cards is where it's at right now, there's no denying that. The price stickers speak for themselves.
Click to expand...
Attempting to discredit perceived fanboyism with misinformation only makes you look the part from the exchange:

185 vs. 182 drivers on GTX 275

185 drivers clearly don't result in a 5% decrease and actually outperform the 182s with few exceptions. The only way you'd see a decrease is in games you enable Ambient Occlusion but for some reason I don't think that's what you were referring to. 😉


Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
Originally posted by: angry hampster
Bottlenecking is a bit of a ridiculous term. Something in your computer will ALWAYS be the weakest link.
Click to expand...

The term is legitimate. How it's being used as some sort of bogeyman is ridiculous.

OH NOES!!1 MY SYSTEMZ HAS TEH BOTTLENECK!!!1!
Click to expand...
LOL ya, I don't know why, but at some point the term bottleneck became taboo when its been used in PC hardware enthusiast circles since the very beginning and much longer than that in other areas like engineering, logistics, warfare, navigation etc.
 
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