Will a socket 939 PC bottleneck a 4870?

[trogoldito]

I'm thinking of upgrading my 7800gt to a 4870 512mb on the following PC:

165 Dual Core Opteron (OC to 2.5ghz)
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000)
DFI nF4 Ultra-D
520w OCZ powerstream psu
Syncmaster 225bw 1680x1050 native resolution

Would this system severely bottleneck a 4870? If so, what card would you recommend?
I mostly plan on playing Warhammer: Online, Mass Effect, and Unreal Tournament 3.

Thanks for the help.

p.s.: I may want to sometimes play on a 52" 1080p hdtv lcd through HDMI.

 

[Dkcode]

A 939 system will bottleneck a 8800GTX so it will most certainly limit the 4870.

I would still buy the card though, as you will still see a massive difference in all your games.

 

[Vipeax]

Yes it will, my Opteron 170, clocked at 3GHz, used to neck my 8800GTS 640MB back then... I upgraded to an E6750 and even on stock it was faster. The impact on the limit will depend on the game tough (don't run 3Dmark )

 

[MarcVenice]

2.5ghz isn't a whole lot, if it would be faster, let's say 3.0ghz, then you should be fine. Thing is, some ppl will say that a HD4870 will be bottlenecked even by a 3.0ghz e8400. But it depends on how you look at the bottleneck. If you only get 20fps instead of 40-50, then you're really being bottlenecked. If it's 70fps instead of 90fps, then it's a moot point. I'd say you could buy a HD4870, but a HD4850 might be better, unless you plan on upgrading in the near future, to a 3.0ghz c2d ...

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yeah, i was thinking the same question.

 

[biostud]

I just upgraded my 7800GTX to an 8800GT which I got for a good price. I would say that a 8800gt or 4850 is the fastest I would get for a s939 system.

 

[trogoldito]

Thanks for the informative responses. I think I'm going to buy a 4850 like some of you recommended.
I should be fine with the 512mb version right? Or do you think the 1gb would make much of a difference?

 

[jaded25]

There were some reviews that said the 1gb model didn't really add that much over the 512mb. So I'd say go with the 512mb.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: jaded25
There were some reviews that said the 1gb model didn't really add that much over the 512mb. So I'd say go with the 512mb.

Depends on your resolution and the level of AA you're using. If you are gaming at more then 1920X1200 then I'd say the 1 gb model would do a better job then the 512 mb model. Look at anandtech's article" 4870 1 gb, the card to get"!

 

[bryanW1995]

if he's going to push the card hard enough to need the 1gb then he'll be cpu bottlenecked anyway. there are very few games out there that need more than 512mb on radeons.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

I actually thought about this, myself. I have an Opty 165 OC'ed to 2.7GHz and also thought about upgrading from a 7900GT to a 4870. (my STALKER performance sucks)

How can one tell if they are encountering a bottleneck?

 

[Vipeax]

If your fps increases by overclocking your cpu...

 

[MarcVenice]

Right now I'm waiting for A) Nehalem to come out, making c2d's drop in price a bit more, same for the p45 mobo's. And B) for the HD4870 or GTX260 to come down in price, below 200 euro's preferably. Depending on which happens first, I will buy one, and if need be, I will pair it with my x2 3800+ @ 2.6ghz, no problemo. It's not like games will be running below 30fps with a gtx260 or HD4870, even with a 'relatively' slow CPU, and I will still be able to crank all the settings way up.

Then, as soon as I can afford to spend another 200 euro's on a CPU/MOBO/RAM, i will upgrade those.

 

[alcoholbob]

You're gonna be CPU bottlenecked in pretty much any game these days on a 939...

Firingsquad did a CPU scaling review the week the 8800GT came out to test Crysis..

The intro scene, all CPUs were managing between 15-17fps over the course of about 5mins. But when the C-130 began diving over the island, the 939 chips were around 5-6fps...the Core2Duos were still managing about 12+ fps.

Exploration style games, you could get away with a pretty low end CPU...but when the action starts, the CPUs will start pulling away from each other.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I'm reluctant to upgrade my 939. It has been playing my games with no problems at all. I just spent $60 to upgrade to 4GB of pc3200 and i hope that will stave off any upgrade needs for another year. I mean, think about it. Its a dual core at 2.2Ghz. I remember when the 3500+ came out. It was one of if not the best mainstream cpu;s available. Now double that and it is what i have. Almost all of my games play at over 60fps at my native resolution of 1680x1050.

CS:Source
DOD:Source
Team Fortress 2
All Half-Life 1 Games and Mods
Battlefield 2142
Battlefield 2
Madden 2008
NBA Live 2008
Doom 3
Trackmania (one of the most CPU intensive games ever. At medium my laptop with its poopy integrated gfx manages 35fps. CS 1.6 gets 15.)

Games that run pretty good

Gears of War (High DX10) Single Player 35-90fps
Gears of War (High DX10) Fuller Server 25-50fps
Dirt (high) Single Car Racing.................25-80fps
Dirt (high) Multi-Car Racing...................13-40fps

Games that blow:
Crysis (high)........................................15-24fps
Crysis (low).........................................55-140fps

So i guess i'm doing alright. Another 2GB of DDR will help with my multi-tasking and vista's pre-fetching.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Love mine; I won't be giving it up for some time.

 

[RallyMaster]

I don't think it's wise to go past a HD4670 for an X2/dual core Opteron 939 system. At least that's how I'm gonna do it sometime soon.

 

[evolucion8]

He with it's X2 will do fine with a HD 3870, I'm CPU bound and still able to play games on very high with no issues, even Crysis at 1,024 was playable at DX10 mode mode with textures on high, physics on high, post processing on very high, volumetric on low since this option doesn't do a thing in graphics when sunshafts is on, shaders on very high, game effects on high and object effects on high. I was able to do the same on Warhead albeit without Anti Aliasing, the geometry load on that game is considerably higher, also I used the r_useedgeaa instead because FSAA does very little in the game, and I wouldn't even bother to use Super Sampling on that game loll. The HD 4670 is a nice card, but is slighly slower than a HD 3850 in most scenarios.

 

[Wuzup101]

Originally posted by: RallyMaster
I don't think it's wise to go past a HD4670 for an X2/dual core Opteron 939 system. At least that's how I'm gonna do it sometime soon.

It really depends on your preferred upgrade path though. If you are going to upgrade to a new mobo/cpu in 6 months or so... then getting a 4870 or 4850 now isn't such a bad idea. It's still a big upgrade from a 7 series gforce, and it's not like the cpu bottle neck is going to hurt the card. Now, if the OP isn't planning on upgrading the rest of his rig (or was just looking for a card to hold him until he build a completely new rig) than yeah, there are better options than a 4870 for his system.

Personally, I would go with a lower end card unless I was planning on upgrading the rest of the system in short order (month or two). If it was going to be longer than that, I would drop a G92 based card in there (or a 3870... maybe a 4850 if I could get a really good deal on it) and save the rest of the money for a new card when I refreshed the rest of the system.

 

[gnomepunk]

I've been considering the same questions. I think my sig has my current hardware.

I finally decided on an 8800GT/9800GT and will just update the whole system once the next round of procs comes out. I haven't picked up the new video card yet so I might change my mind, but right now I wouldn't suggest going for anything higher than a G92 card for a s939 unless you are planning on using that stronger card in a new build.

I'll want to keep my s939 box so I'll be building from scratch.

cheers!

 

[cupper24]

Yea, I picked up a 4870 about two weeks ago, and I'm getting a pretty good bottleneck with my amd x2 4800 OC'd to 2.88GHz. When there's AI present, my frames suffer pretty noticeably.

I'm going to update my entire system by next spring, so should I consider rolling back to my 3870 for now on my current s939 system? Will I see better frame rates using a slower graphics card like a 3870 as opposed to a 4870?

cupper24

 

[Munky]

This bottleneck issue is blown out of proportion by some ppl. Last year I upgraded my 2.5ghz Opty 165 from a x1900xt to a 8800gt and saw a massive improvement in games. Would I get slightly higher fps with a C2D? Most likely... Do I care, when I need a gpu to play comfortably at 1920x1200? Absolutely not. Right now I'm playing Clear Sky, and my 8800gt can't run it smoothly on max settings, even in DX9, so if I wanted a cost-effective upgrade, I would most certainly get a 4870 first, and think about the cpu later.

 

[SlowSpyder]

A 4870 would be a huge upgrade on your system, even though it's 939. Will your CPU hold back some of the FPS you could be getting? Most of the time it probably will. But, it will still be a huge upgrade.

Seeing as you still have a 7 series card I'm guessing you like to keep your cards for a little while. The 4870 will still be a solid card for a while, so if you decide to upgrade your platform you can still use it. I don't see any reason not to upgrade your video card, it will give you huge performance increases over what you have now with room to grow when/if you upgrade your platform.

 

[cupper24]

Originally posted by: munky
This bottleneck issue is blown out of proportion by some ppl. Last year I upgraded my 2.5ghz Opty 165 from a x1900xt to a 8800gt and saw a massive improvement in games. Would I get slightly higher fps with a C2D? Most likely... Do I care, when I need a gpu to play comfortably at 1920x1200? Absolutely not. Right now I'm playing Clear Sky, and my 8800gt can't run it smoothly on max settings, even in DX9, so if I wanted a cost-effective upgrade, I would most certainly get a 4870 first, and think about the cpu later.

I agree... I had a Connect3D x1900xtx which I upgraded to a 3870, and saw huge gains. I picked this 4870 up at a price I couldn't pass up. Upon trying it on some of the older games I play, my performance was worse (BF2, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Hitman Blood Money). BTW, my monitor only goes up to 1280x1024... I know I'm CPU limited, because at stock on Hitman during 'You Better Watch Out...' where ther's lots of people in the area I was sitting around 45fps (FRAPS). When I returned to my OC settings, it was more like 55-57fps.

If using a 3870 over my 4870 for now stabilizes my framerates better, I would want that more, so that's my question...

I'm just trying to wrap my head sround this whole CPU bottlenecking thing, and what the best cpu/gpu combo for my system as it is would be, til I upgrade next year.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: cupper24

Originally posted by: munky
This bottleneck issue is blown out of proportion by some ppl. Last year I upgraded my 2.5ghz Opty 165 from a x1900xt to a 8800gt and saw a massive improvement in games. Would I get slightly higher fps with a C2D? Most likely... Do I care, when I need a gpu to play comfortably at 1920x1200? Absolutely not. Right now I'm playing Clear Sky, and my 8800gt can't run it smoothly on max settings, even in DX9, so if I wanted a cost-effective upgrade, I would most certainly get a 4870 first, and think about the cpu later.

I agree... I had a Connect3D x1900xtx which I upgraded to a 3870, and saw huge gains. I picked this 4870 up at a price I couldn't pass up. Upon trying it on some of the older games I play, my performance was worse (BF2, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Hitman Blood Money). BTW, my monitor only goes up to 1280x1024... I know I'm CPU limited, because at stock on Hitman during 'You Better Watch Out...' where ther's lots of people in the area I was sitting around 45fps (FRAPS). When I returned to my OC settings, it was more like 55-57fps.

If using a 3870 over my 4870 for now stabilizes my framerates better, I would want that more, so that's my question...

I'm just trying to wrap my head sround this whole CPU bottlenecking thing, and what the best cpu/gpu combo for my system as it is would be, til I upgrade next year.

As you increase the resolution, the load becomes greater on the video card. So, at 1280x1024 a 4870 isn't being stressed too much, and if you're only getting 45fps you're likely cpu-limited. At 1920x1200, however, you'd need a 4870 just to reach 45fps regardless of what cpu you're using, so for someone using a high rez monitor a faster video card usually provides the biggest improvement.