Will a socket 939 PC bottleneck a 4870?

[Mem]

Originally posted by: 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.

Yes but you do get benefits,I replaced my 7800GT card with a 4870 card and can now run a lot of games at max with added AA/AF@1680x1050 res etc......yes my 3800+ X2 is holding my video card back but thats going to be replaced in a couple of months,you have to look at the whole picture as they say.


I might even add another 4870 card later for crossfire when I get my new cpu/board etc...

Take it from me a 4870 card in your system is a noticable improvement in FPS even on an old 939 board.

 

[AzN]

It will be limited to a certain extent but if you have a dual core CPU I don't see how you can't play any modern game out there. You should keep what you have until you can't play anymore unless you have money like that.

 

[cupper24]

I guess hitting those 30-40 fps areas in games like BF@ when in heavy combat gets extremely annoying.

If, like I said, you guys think I should roll back to my old 3870 (for this s939 machine and save my 4870 for my new build), because it might help stabilize my framerates, I'd rather do that...

Will a slower card like a 3870 help with the CPU bottleneck?

cupper24

 

[krnmastersgt]

Originally posted by: cupper24
I guess hitting those 30-40 fps areas in games like BF@ when in heavy combat gets extremely annoying.

If, like I said, you guys think I should roll back to my old 3870 (for this s939 machine and save my 4870 for my new build), because it might help stabilize my framerates, I'd rather do that...

Will a slower card like a 3870 help with the CPU bottleneck?

cupper24

At your res, I don't see why a 4870 would perform much better than a 3870. CPU aside those cards should chew out pretty much any game.

 

[cupper24]

Think that might be the problem. You can't set the CPU aside in my case. When I upgrade next year to the newest platform with PCI-E 2.0 and all that jazz, I'm sure this 4870 will eat lots of games for lunch.

As of now, I am squeezing every last bit of MHz of out my RAM and proc, so that's as good as they're going to get. In areas with no AI to speak of, framerates are great at the highest settings. But, when it comes to heavy combat (again, for exmaple, BF2) they drop off, and the rendering gets rather stuttery (choppy, whatever...).

My system is ORTHOS and PRIME stable at 24 hrs, so I think I can rule out a faulty proc or MoBo. The video card is brand new, so I believe my system is running in tip-top shape hardware-wise. If I could find a way to just improve my current state, with this bottleneck, I'll be happy camper till I'm able to upgrade.

cupper24

 

[Martimus]

The last few days I have put a HD 4870 in my S939 system (see sig), and it definitely allowed me to crank everything up to the maximum. I don't see much difference (or any really) at 1280x1024 (where I usually set my resolution) but I can really see a difference at 1600x1200 (my monitors maximum resolution). Crysis plays well with 4X AA (although it does do a slideshow at times in the snow portion), and the Witcher EE hasn't had any slowdowns at all at maximum settings. I just put the card in to test for my buddy, since it is part of the build for his new computer and it was an open-box special from New-Egg. I don't see a reason it won't work for you though.

 

[Concillian]

Even if you hit a bottleneck with CPU (minimum frame rate on a test low, and not influenced by video settings), the nice thing about a video card upgrade is you can always crank up the resolution or AA / AF settings to at least get something out of it. Then when you do upgrade to a new CPU platform, is you can then reap the benefits immediately.

Unless you're playing an OLD game or at like 800x600, there are going to be new options to enable with a 4870 that you weren't able to use with adequate framerate on your 7800GT.