Bottlenecked?

V

Vorg

Limp Gawd
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If I was going to upgrade any part of my sig. should it be the video card or upgrade the cpu and motherboard, to say an I7 + x58. I use my desktop to game primarily.

Games I play: Crysis, Fallout 3, COD 4, Cod: world at war, BF 2142 plus and new game coming out this year. I like to run at 1920 x 1200 with all setting as high as they will go and FPS being around 60 or higher for all games.

I have searched this forum seems like I might not gain anything by upgrading to a GTX 285 I might see some improvement by going to a GTX 295 but not much. Thus the question would I see any improvement by keeping my 8800 GTX's and just changing to X58 + I7.
 
You would not see much if any upgrade in gaming with an i7. A video card upgrade would give you more performance. Either the GTX 295 or the HD 4870X2 would be a nice upgrade for gaming.
 
a video card upgrade in your situation will yield more performance in gaming than an e6600 to an i7
 
OP you have a very strong system there and you are at the point where if you upgraded your video setup your e6600 cpu will somewhat hold you back and would not be worth the cost of the video cards. on the other hand keeping your current video setup and upgrading cpu will make even less of a difference. you are at a point where a huge change isnt likely without upgrading both cpu and gpu. imo if you do choose only one option then just go with a gtx295 but be aware you wont be getting all that card has to offer in very game with your current cpu.
 
cannondale06 said:
OP you have a very strong system there and you are at the pint where if you upgraded your video setup your e6600 cpu will somewhat hold you back and would not be worth the cost of the video cards. on the other hand keeping your current video setup and upgrading cpu will make even less of a difference. you are at a point where a huge change isnt likely without upgrading both cpu and gpu.
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I agree. Whichever one you upgrade will end up bottlenecking the other. With that said, a GPU upgrade would help more than going to an i7 platform.
 
why dont you oc that chip a bit more.. I had a e6600 running @ 3.8ghz np... Then, upgrade the gpu and youll get the best of both worlds.. No bottleneck and a badass card to game with :p
 
I saw a hell of an improvement going from an 8800GTX to a GTX280. i7 is pretty well wasted as far as gaming is concerned. save the money and use a good core 2 setup if you want to upgrade but a higher end video card will bring you the best bang for the buck.

strongly recommend the the 4850/70X2 cards right now, if you want higher end then that sli GTX280 can be had for around 600 (if your wanting to spend that kind of money.) other wise you can get a 4850X2 for around 280, a 4870X2 for around 400.
 
High resolution gaming (1680x1050~2560x1920) is still greatly influenced by GPU performance fortunately. If you have the itch to upgrade just get a quad core CPU + GTX 280/285/295 or 4870x2. That should make for a pretty solid spec for the next year or so.

Upgrade to core i7 if you want to encode/edit movies or run 19x12 or a 30" monitor with dual graphics cards. If none of that fits your bill, it'd be (in my opinion) pointless to jump on i7 with your current spec.
 
Thank you all for your input. You have reenforce what I thought. I just wanted some confirmation I before I jump into anything.

I have tried OC'ing the E6600 beyond what it is, but I keep getting the Blue screen. I don't know if it is just a limited chip or the 680i is holding me back.

I don't see the I7 helping me right know. I have thought about changing the motherboard to the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R. Putting the the E8400 cpu that is in my HTPC and adding either the GTX 280 or the 4850/70. I think on H2o I could get a good oc on the E8400 and my HTPC won't know the difference when I drop in the E6600. Its on the video's card I don't really know which one I think the 4870 1gb ram may be the way to go.
 
Yeah I was thinking about that, for the cost of the water block I could just move up to the GTX 295.
 
Vorg said:
Thank you all for your input. You have reenforce what I thought. I just wanted some confirmation I before I jump into anything.

I have tried OC'ing the E6600 beyond what it is, but I keep getting the Blue screen. I don't know if it is just a limited chip or the 680i is holding me back.

I don't see the I7 helping me right know. I have thought about changing the motherboard to the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R. Putting the the E8400 cpu that is in my HTPC and adding either the GTX 280 or the 4850/70. I think on H2o I could get a good oc on the E8400 and my HTPC won't know the difference when I drop in the E6600. Its on the video's card I don't really know which one I think the 4870 1gb ram may be the way to go.
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The E8400 is at least 10% better clock-for-clock due to the minor architectural upgrades intel made from 65 to 45nm, so that would be a good idea to get that E8400 in there. Not only that, but your E8400 will get to and past 3.8 GHz easily and probably without much of a voltage bump. E8400 + new card will probably yield a noticeable difference IMHO.

Edit: And in terms of watercooling, unless you already have a full loop going and can afford to watercool a new gpu or two, it's kinda pointless since you won't get too much gain out of a multi hundred dollar upgrade. There is a point of diminishing returns, keep in mind.
 
Vorg said:
OH I would really like to water cool the video card so what do you all think about this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143165

I know I could just get the card for like $100 cheaper but the block alone would run that.
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if the water cooling is worth it to you but as said diminishing point of returns here.

right now unless your going for a high end sli I would not be getting a GTX280, they need to come down some in terms of price vs the competition.
 
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