Article on CPU/GPU bottlenecking (sp?)

Heya

I know you guys made an article on how many CPU cores games need but I think it would be nice if, at some point, you made an article on bottlenecking (is this even a word?).

I have a lot of experience hardware wise but I still always end up hesitating before an upgrade because I fear either my CPU or my GPU is going to bottleneck the whole thing and make the upgrade pointless. I would love to have an option with tests and results on the subject


thanks

 

Seconded! Various factors could be tested which would really help answer a lot of the questions seen in the Hardware forums.

Could try something like Phenom II X2 tested with all sorts of GPUs from older/low end to new/high end. And there could be a section on PCIe limitations. Is 8 lanes really enough? Or is PCIe 1.0 limiting my new high end card even with 16 lanes? Maybe even a test with that shiny 980X turning on and off cores to show at what point the bottleneck becomes the CPU.

 

See ?

I am currently looking at 460 GTXs and I am hesitating because I don't know if my CPU would be enough to drive it :-/