CPU Bottleneck?

Derfman

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Messages
1,220
Hey guys,

I just recently upgraded to a XFX Radeon 5870 from a EVGA GeForce 280 GTX SSC. While everything seems smooth enough it doesn't seem to have as much of a punch as I was expecting it to.

This leads me to think that my overlocked Q6600 3.2 Ghz may just not be enough for this graphics card.

Those of you who have a similar setup, do you notice a bottleneck at all?

I intend to upgrade to a Core i7 920 sometime in the near future, but it's not something that I can immediately do.

I admit that I have yet to put the card through extensive gameplay and I really only spent an hour or two with it last night. I'm basically just looking for advice from the guys in the know. :)
 
Push past 3.2ghz and see if fps go up, I would try for 3.6

It's the stepping before the G0 so I am afraid that won't work on air for my current motherboard, RAM, etc. Tried it before and it wouldn't even POST.
 
overclock @ 3.2G-3.6G is fine..

no bottleneck there...

but if you go for 5970, you will be in a HUGE bottleneck...
 
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2521-8.html
A rough idea shows it probably wasn't that big a jump anyhow since it's only 1 tier difference.

There was a similar topic a while back here too which may interest you altho I don't think that OP found a solution.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1455558

I really wouldn't bother looking at the second one, its too long ...

anyway..

I just upgrade from Q6600 @ 3.6g to i7 @ 4.1G

I can tell you, you won't notice much of difference if you have a single 5870.

the funny part is when I have my Q6600 @ 3.6G, I have less fps with 5970 than 5870? :confused:
but after i7 upgrade... its like a Viagra to it... :p
 
but after i7 upgrade... its like a Viagra to it... :p

Hahaha! Wonderful description... Well I appreciate the responses so far, I did use driver cleaner to clean out any remnants of my Nvidia drivers and I am running Windows 7 64 bit (which I failed to mention).

From the little time I had with the card I didn't notice anything drastic that would lead me to believe that it is seriously under performing when compared to my previous card. I may do a fresh install of Windows 7 just to have some peace of mind and see how things go from there.

Good news, I don't have to rush to get an i7 at least. :p
 
I asked that same question in another forum and they gave me this.

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=13454&all=1
I dont believe his results at all. he always talks about his Core 2 duo at 2.0 will not bottleneck a gtx285 or even 5870 which is BS for many newer games. I can give a quick example of how bad a Core 2 at 2.0 will bottleneck just a gtx260 even at 1920x1080 with 2x AA.

Far Cry 2
Settings: Demo(Ranch Long), 1920x1080 (60Hz), D3D10, Fixed Time Step(No), Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(2x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Very High), Vegetation(Very High), Shading(Very High), Terrain(Very High), Geometry(Very High), Post FX(High), Texture(Very High), Shadow(Very High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High)

E8500 @ 2.0

Total Frames: 11808, Total Time: 284.02s
Average Framerate: 41.57
Max. Framerate: 84.90 (Frame:1851, 26.47s)
Min. Framerate: 23.28 (Frame:5683, 125.34s)


E8500 @ 3.8

Total Frames: 16568, Total Time: 284.01s
Average Framerate: 58.34
Max. Framerate: 114.58 (Frame:4, 0.04s)
Min. Framerate: 36.90 (Frame:7835, 125.13s)


thats a 40% increase in average and 58% increase in minimum framerate by running my E8500 at 3.8 instead of 2.0. :eek:

there are plenty of games that will improve by 20-30% going from 2.0-3.8 even at highest settings and 1920x1080 with just my mediocre 192sp gtx260 and I have numbers to prove that. heck there are games like Ghostbusters, Red Faction Guerrilla, and GTA 4 where the playability is noticeably affected in spots with my E8500 at 2.0.
 
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I think I managed to nail down what is bothering me. In DiRT 2 no matter what I set the AA at Off > 4x > 8x. I am noticing a stutter of sorts, it tends to be random but it also feels like it is causing input lag for my controls as well.

The reason why I mention that it happens under any AA setting is because I don't think it's a problem related to the card being taxed too heavily. I tried messing around with the CCC settings, but maybe I am missing something. My other thought is the possibility that I am using the HDMI port and sound provided by the built in Realtek sound solution that my ATI card provides and maybe there is a bug with the drivers for that?

Has anyone had any stuttering / input lag issues with DiRT 2 on their Radeon 58xx?

Thanks again for all your input guys. I believe I am going to have to do a fresh install of Windows on PC just to remove any other possible reasons.

EDIT: I switched my audio back to 16 bit instead of 24 bit and it seems to be running smoother.. Hopefully it was just a problem with DiRT 2 and those audio settings.
 
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