Quick question...CPU bottlenecking maybe?

[Scheibler1]

Just wondering how to tell if your CPU is a bottleneck. I'm running a E2180 with a measly 1mb cache @ 3ghz and think it may be bottlenecking my GTX 260 oc'd. My CPU never really maxes out to 90-100% usage, but I think the cache is really hurting performance. Reviews with Quad cores overclocked to 3.0-3.2ghz and dual cores overclocked to 3.0-4.0ghz are getting higher benchmarks then me(especially minimum fps) and I believe this may be do to the cache size of the dual/quad cores being 4-6mb.

I remember reading that by changing the resolution you should be able to tell if your cpu is holding you back, but forgot the details. I don't really gain any fps going from 1920x1200(my gaming res) to 1680x1050 or even 1440x900 in crysis. I guess I need to test COH and WiC too...

What do you think?

 

[gwai lo]

I think that if your FPS doesn't change between 19×12, 1680×1050, and 1440×900, then you've got software issues or bottlenecking. Cache really shouldn't play a significant role in determining your FPS in games, do you have specific numbers for each resolution?

 

[harpoon]

I think that if your FPS doesn't change between 19×12, 1680×1050, and 1440×900, then you've got software issues or bottlenecking. Cache really shouldn't play a significant role in determining your FPS in games, do you have specific numbers for each resolution?

What? Cache plays a HUGE part in gaming performance.

 

[END]

if you got a bottleneck at any res in crysis then you got one hell of a system. Look somewhere else for the problem. and yes try other games to test for bottlenecks not crysis.

 

[gwai lo]

What? Cache plays a HUGE part in gaming performance.

Okay, rephrase, if clock speed high enough, then GPU should be main bottleneck...at least based on articles we've seen on this issue as they all show differences at 1024×768 or something, not 19×12.

 

[Scheibler1]

Well from the articles I ahve read my E2180 @ 3ghz is equivilant to a E6600 or E6700 clocked at 2.6ghz. It has also been noted that you need a 3ghz c2d to remove a bottleneck.

I've come to my own conclusion that I will see a cpu and even gpu boost(b/c bottlenecked) if I go with a Q6600 @ 3ghz do to the higher clock speed and 4mb cache.

 

[gwai lo]

You could just keep going..unless you got a solid wall at 3 GHz. Free performance right there, just keep going till you run into temperature issues..

 

[Scheibler1]

I'm stuck @ 3ghz. I can't get the mobo to post past 333mhz fsb for some reason

 

[Crispy002]

As long as you're stable over 30 FPS, it doesn't really matter. Below 25 is when things start to get choppy and it makes playing difficult. There MAY be a bottleneck but I suspect your resolutions are so high it's just the card maxing out.