Is it my 9800GT 512MB bottlenecking me or my X2 4800+?

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dubbyah

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Messages
174
Well, I have a MSI Neo4-SLI mobo with 2GB of ram and an x2 4800+ running stock. I have a PNY 9800GT 512MB I picked up for around 100 from best buy a month ago or so.

I game at 1680x1050.

I can not run TF2 on low-medium settings over 40FPS in larger fights with my current setup. When nobody is around I can run it smoothly, but whenever there's action, it bogs down. I crank the settings to the lowest and it's playable, but it's not enjoyable.

So I'm not sure what the problem is. Part of me thinks it's because the card's only 512, but part of me thinks it could be the CPU.

I'm thinking of upgrading, but maybe instead of upgrading my video card I should upgrade my mobo and my chip?

What's going on here! Help.
 
If you are willing to overclock your x2 4800 you could easily take it up 3-400 MHz and gain a few fps with that route. Otherwise look into getting a new Mobo+Ram+proc. Look into an AMD phenom II setup if you want to save a few dollars, or Intel Core i5 & up if you have more cash on hand and you'll be happy as can be.
 
Ahh okay, thanks for the reply. So it seems by your reply that you think the 9800GT 512MB should be okay running at 1680x1050 and isn't the biggest problem? And that if I got those new things I could keep this video card?
 
I'm betting mostly the CPU... get a prog that can log CPU usage while you are gaming... then look at it, I am betting you are hitting 100% CPU usage when your frames drop.
 
It is your CPU 100%. I used to have a 4200+ and an 8800GT and fixed all of my TF2 FPS problems when I switched to my E8400 and it made my 8800GT seem like a brand new card. Upgrade your CPU, it's ancient at this point and it's bottlenecking your GPU bad.
 
The source engine is very processor-bound, but most game engines aren't. If TF2 is your main game, look to your processor first. For any other game, you'd get a much bigger kick out of a graphics card update.
 
Like other posters have said, its your cpu holding you back, not the videocard. I'd suggest looking for a new cpu/mb/ram. If your 4800+ is a socket 939 they good for a good amount on ebay so you can sell what you have and use that towards new parts.
 
There should be nothing wrong with your rig. Something broke in TF2 with the latest MS update or the latest Steam update. Not sure which, but I have been running TF2 on my 1.8Ghz P4D / 4GB / 10Krpm Raptor equipped machine for three years with no trouble -until the past week. Now it is virtually unplayable,
 
C|aymore said:
There should be nothing wrong with your rig. Something broke in TF2 with the latest MS update or the latest Steam update. Not sure which, but I have been running TF2 on my 1.8Ghz P4D / 4GB / 10Krpm Raptor equipped machine for three years with no trouble -until the past week. Now it is virtually unplayable,
Click to expand...

TF2 seems to do that a lot, release a patch that fucks the game for some people that is.
 
Whether or not a patch messed up TF2, I think in most games you're being bottlenecked by your CPU. Is your mobo an AM2+ socket type? If so, see if it supports AM3 CPUs. If so, maybe you could get a cheap AM3 CPU (even the Athlon II X2 series should murder that CPU.)
 
i don't know the specifics of tf2 but remember that whether your bottleneck is (1) cpu or (2) gpu (3) crappy game coding depends on the game itself. some games like bfbc2 use 4 cores so even if you have a nice gpu on a dual core, you'll be disappointed with performance. other games like modern warfare 2 use only 2 cores but are more gpu intensive and so cpu upgrade makes no improvement (or even OC'ing in the case of MW2). then there are other instances i.e. someone posted last week mediocre results for his i7 & 5870 (top of the line stuff). that was due to poor coding.

so before you decide what to upgrade, ask people with dual cores and then people with quads how they're doing with this game.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I should have said in my original post it's not just TF2 that doesn't run how I want it to, it's all games. MW2 only runs on low or medium, Crysis the same, etc. I want to run current games with good settings smoothly. Seems like I'll probably have to upgrade everything for that, eh?
 
As said, it's the CPU. I had an old X2 3800+ at 2.9Ghz with an 8800GT and it was a bottleneck in the majority of modern games. If you're looking to upgrade cheap, look at an AM3 motherboard and Athon II, or the Core I3 platform. Either one will show the true potential of your current GPU.
 
You need to upgrade to a modern cpu/mobo platform. Your video card is being seriously bottlenecked by that processor. What's your budget? If you go to the new systems forum, they can recommend you on what parts to buy if you like to build em yourself. Otherwise you can buy a pre-made barebones system from newegg or some other etailer. All you have to do is install your OS and games on it.
 
Definatly a CPU issue. One of my older systems is a X2 5200+ @ 3.2GHz paired with a 9800GT and even then I'm CPU limited in many games. This is also at 16x10. Most games run OK, but a few it really struggles with. BC2 isn't what I consider to be playable. AC2 has very noticablly slowdowns when there are lots of people on the screen. Same story with Dirt 2 and NFS Shift, significant slow downs when lots of cars are on the screen.
 
Looks like the CPU is getting upgraded then!

Here's a good question though, on ebay I see used Toledo X2 939's selling for 130-170 bucks! If I remember correctly that's more than I paid for mine... anyone explain why the price is so high? Seems like selling it is the obvious choice... do people want to practice overclocking on these, or what?!
 
Some people are still running single core s939 CPU's and while spending ~$150 on such old technology may seem odd, the alternative is to spend several hundred on a new system
 
I had an Athlon 64 x2 3800+ running at anywhere from 2.5 - 2.8 with my 5770 and it was pretty horrible. Anything intense from the last few years ran like shit, so it's definitely your processor.
 
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