Other Bottleneck advice - C2D e4500 & gtx460

Hi,

I'm planning to upgrade my monitor to one with a 1680X1050 native res and buy a gtx 460 1gb to play games on it as my 8800gt would not be able to cut it. Any idea if my e4500 will be a bottleneck for the gtx 460? The cpu is currently overclocked to 2.9GHz.

 

from memory the cpu is always the bottleneck of the GPU, it just depends by how much

 

I thought that the gpu was the bottleneck in games not the cpu since most games only use 2 cores anyway. Could be wrong though

 

Most games only use 2 cores but the speed of the cores is also important. I would think that with a C2D at that sort of speed it probably won't be the bottle neck on most games. Though if they have a physics engine running on the cpu that will have a larger effect;

How many CPU cores do games need?

That should demonstarte some of the differences and it does mention nearer the end that overclocking can make up for fewer cores in some games.

 

Normally the bottleneck would be the GPU, ofcourse depending on the game/application you're running (RTS games with large numbers of soldiers would need more CPU power then say the average FPS)

 

It will be a bottel neck not too much but you will notice it in games like Tf3 and GFBC2.

 

Jesus loads of tosh here.

OP, What games do you play?

what games do you intend to play

 

The CPU will only bottleneck in low end games, the more higher end the more chance the GPU will bottleneck it, though by how much will depend on the game.

As yakyb says, what games? A 2.9GHz CPU is generally enough for most games, but BFBC2 will benefit from a better CPU while something like Crysis is likely to be bottlenecked by the GPU but a game like CoD would be CPU bottlenecked due to its engine being ancient now (oddly no one realises).

 

Stuff like Supreme Commander rapes CPU's and RAM tons before it even touches the GPU. I ran if with the symbian AI with 7 AI's with the unit cap at 2000 per army. After 40 minutes the AI's had maxed the unit cap, and it was chewing 90% of my CPU and 3.5GB of RAM... GPU was at 20%...

 

I tend to play a variety of games. Fps like crysis and RTS games like supreme commander as well as racing games. Maybe it'll be worth investing in a second hand q6600 or e6850 or e8400. Anyone selling one with heatsink and stock fan?

 

There are a few s775 CPU's in the Marketplace for sale, check it out.

 

I use an e8400 with a GTX460 and im very impressed. Can max out the settings on most games nows.

 

With my previous E4700 oc 3.5ghz, in BFBC2 my GPU was used at 55%. Since I have my Q6600, it is fully used.

I use EVGA Precision to know my Temp, Fps, Frequency and other thing relative to the GPU

 

Afaik BFBC2 doesn't utilise more than two cores. It does sound though, from your example, like it does utilise L2 cache as the Q6600 has 8mb and the E4700 has 2mb. In addition, the Q6600 has a 1066MHz FSB and the E4700 has a 800MHz FSB.

Would the extra threads of the Q6600 play a part as well?

 

The point is, E4*** are too short for this particular game, even Overclocked It will diffinitely Bottleneck your GPU. When I say to short, I dont mean unplayable, just a little bit unconfortable with a 45-55 Fps

 

hmm you should be able to hit 3ghz with only 1.4v on that chip.. I've build a system with the e4500 before

1104 fsb, 11x multi..