Is my CPU bottlenecking my video card?

[TaC_Up]

I currently have a 8800GTX but a core2duo E6300 running at 1.8ghz. I'm a noob so I'm not sure but I believe this is bottlenecking my vid card, can anyone confirm it?

Google is giving me mixed opinions D:

[kayode]

I would say yes.

From everything I've read, a GTX shouldn't be paired with anything less than a e6600.

You won't be able to really get the best out of your gpu.

[Paradoxxx]

Based on the fact that you have a high end vidcard and a low end cpu, I would agree with kayode.

Why don't you OC your CPU and see if FPS increase is significant?

[TaC_Up]

Based on the fact that you have a high end vidcard and a low end cpu, I would agree with kayode.

Why don't you OC your CPU and see if FPS increase is significant?

Well I'm running on stock cooling but I think I could oc to at least 2.4ghz using that. Got any tools you would recommend?

[Paradoxxx]

Prime for stability, CPU-z for verification that all went well, something to monitor your temps thats about it.

Do a 2.0 OC then a 2.2 and give us feedback.

[TaC_Up]

Prime for stability, CPU-z for verification that all went well, something to monitor your temps thats about it.

Do a 2.0 OC then a 2.2 and give us feedback.

Oced to 2.2 GHZ and it's stable but running a bit hot so I'll put it back to stock, funny thing is that I haven't received much of an FPS increase, only thing noticeable was Crysis which got a 10 FPS increase but everything else probably only got about 5-6 increase D:.

Crysis is at Max with no AA because it's currently not optimised properly and the AA causes problems graphically but I'm thinking if it's so slight I'm fine with the stock speeds, even though there is a bottleneck it's very slight or appears to be slight with the few things I tested it with which were

Resolution was 1600x1200.


WoW(Maxed)60-100fps
Crysis Beta(Maxed with no AA) 20-30fps
CSS(Maxed)80-110 FPS
Hl2 Episode one(Maxed) 80-110FPS

After OC

WoW(Maxed)65-110fps
Crysis Beta(Maxed with no AA) 30-45fps
CSS(Maxed)80-110 FPS
Hl2 Episode one(Maxed) 80-110FPS

Biggest difference is with Crysis but I haven't seen much of a difference, unless the bottleneck is only being slightly cleared up @ 2.2GHZ, I have read a test on tom's hardware saying only 3GHZ clock speed avoid bottlenecking with an 8800 but with the lower clock speeds of the C2duos the bottleneck isn't that bad but they are noticeable when compared to 3GHZ.

[opium]

lol, well right there as i can see it looking like yuh res might be a too high, so u fine,

once u over 60fps u doh really need to care

[ecktt]

There you go. You answered your own question. You got minimal performance returns with an increase in CPU speed. That show show the cpu was not much of a bottle neck unless the initial fps were quite low, which i highly doubt. Anything over a 2.4 GHz Core 2 processor is pretty much gravy for gaming.

[TaC_Up]

There you go. You answered your own question. You got minimal performance returns with an increase in CPU speed. That show show the cpu was not much of a bottle neck unless the initial fps were quite low, which i highly doubt. Anything over a 2.4 GHz Core 2 processor is pretty much gravy for gaming.


Yea it was an issue of try and see. I don't like that route since I'm a nub at hardware overlocking :P, reason why I asked instead of just doing it.

[trinithemc]

My E6300 goes straight to 2.6 on the stock cooler without any trouble . Yours should be able to reach similar speeds..

The Quad core E6600 is pretty cheap now , and can O/C to over 3ghz with a good cooler if your looking to upgrade .


You probably are bottlenecking but it won't make a difference at high resolutions with anti aliasing etc. An extra 2-3 FPS isn't really worth a whole new CPU.

[Paradoxxx]

Based on the results of the test the bottle neck does not seem to be the CPU, OC ftw!
How did you determine that the OC was stable?

Interesting frame rates though, I expected better. Maybe there is something else holding you back.

[Doobs]

maybe you can use windows performance counters to get a more quantitative analysis of your cpu usage. so you can precisely say that your cpu is bottlenecking.

that aside, you have done real world tests which has given you your answer.

[P30N]

Once your getting an acceptable frame rate at the settings you want to play at it doesn't matter does it?

If you getting 60+ fps already at highest res and max quality then you obviously ok. But if your getting 15fps and oced 20fps THEN it makes a significant difference and every fps/mhz counts.

Crysis looks like a good reason to boost cpu power from those results. For a 200mhz increase it sure did increase alot and showed an even more important trend of a higher low fps value.

Now I just picked 60 as a example...for some games/people less is ok for some hardcore gamers they might claim you need at least 60. You get the picture.

PS cpu usage doesn't necessarily indicate "power" usage.

[P30N]

On a related note,
most people think that just because you see cpu usage spread among your different cores that it means the process/program is multi-threaded. This is absolutely not true.

There is no way to be sure other than the developer to say it is so, or you measure it internally. Even if you get a performance boost it could be due to other reasons. Encoding may not be MT but other aspects in the chain may be MT such as when using virtualdub, Avisynth etc which can use additional threads to handle other stuff, freeing up more cpu power to the actual encoding process thus making it appear to be so.