How much will a Q9550 bottleneck a GTX 780

[Average_Joe]

Hello guys, I'm a newbie and I have a question for you. Now before you all shoot me, this is just a theoretical situation.

 

I have this motherboard and this graphics card and 8GBs of Kingston DDR2 800MHz RAM. I was wondering how much would a GTX 780 be bottlenecked by the Q9550? Would I get like 5-10% less performance or more like 40-50% less performance from the GPU? I am not planing to upgrade to a GTX 780 because I don't have the money and I actually find my GTX 560 Ti to be still a nice graphics card, but I was just curious what would happen, so to speak.

Because not all games use four or more CPU cores, do they? I am aware that the architecture of a CPU is important, but I don't think that Q9550 is a bad CPU for gaming, it's still a quad-core and it still has 12MBs of cache, albeit Level 2, but still 12MBs. People tend to think that as soon as a new CPU generation comes out, the old generation is utterly useless and that it should die a fiery death, with which I disagree. I would take my Q9550 over any new Core i3, for example, it's just a better CPU despite being like 4/5 generations old.

 

By the way, my CPU is at stock speeds, but I can overclock it to 3.4GHz if needed :).

 

I've heard that this community is very friendly, that's why I asked this here, I hope I won't get shot. Everybody feel free to chime in with your opinions, every opinion is welcomed. Let's kinda all talk about this here and share our opinions, eh?

[mvitkun]

well linus actually did some tests

 

even running with a single core there was only a small performance difference,though it is a 3930K core.

 

so I would say in gpu dependent games,there will be little loss of fps.

in cpu dependent games you may have significantly lower minimum and lower average fps than the card should otherwise have.

[ALXAndy]

haha you're kidding right?

 

Up until recently I was running a Sandybridge Xeon @ 3.3ghz and switching to a FX 8320 @ 4.2ghz has doubled my minimum frame counts.

 

If you were talking about a GTX 660 here I would say go for it but that old CPU will choke a 780.

 

It's time for a proper upgrade man. Maybe drop to the 770 and get a FX 8320 and board or something.

[mvitkun]

haha you're kidding right?

 

Up until recently I was running a Sandybridge Xeon @ 3.3ghz and switching to a FX 8320 @ 4.2ghz has doubled my minimum frame counts.

 

If you were talking about a GTX 660 here I would say go for it but that old CPU will choke a 780.

 

It's time for a proper upgrade man. Maybe drop to the 770 and get a FX 8320 and board or something.

you should read what he actually wrote under the topic.

[ALXAndy]

you should read what he actually wrote under the topic.

 

I did.

[frize86]

I had a Q8300 with a gtx660 and i had a great increase of fps just by buying an amd fx-6300.

 

You will be looking at a strong bottleneck. Due to the different architecture existent in the new cpu's, bottlenecks arent much of a factor now, IMHO.

 

But if you have the possibility buy it!! Later you upgrade your platform with a good cpu.

 

Just be advised on the new nvidia drivers that are causing a little bit of trouble for now.

[frize86]

By the way, if you overclock your cpu, you will still have a good experience. A very good one.

[AdamG1401]

Q9550 is still decent. My secondary rig uses a Q6xxx C2Q thing and a 550Ti and it can still handle BF3 and Crysis 3 at decent settings (obviously getting held back by the 550). As long as you OC it a bit and get a decent board and cooling etc, that and a 780 would still swallow 95% of modern games on high/ultra at playable FPS easy. 

 

Don't see why people still bash those high end Core 2 Quads and Xeons. They are still good performing chips! Especially for gaming. As for a platform upgrade, I'd recommend a 990FX board and a 6xxx or a 8xxx series FX chip. More than enough for gaming and cheaper boards and chips. All the latest Haswell stuff is just a miniscule jump and is mainly a tactic to get noobs to go "OH LOOK, IT'S NEW, I MUST HAZ". 

[mvitkun]

Q9550 is still decent. My secondary rig uses a Q6xxx C2Q thing and a 550Ti and it can still handle BF3 and Crysis 3 at decent settings (obviously getting held back by the 550). As long as you OC it a bit and get a decent board and cooling etc, that and a 780 would still swallow 95% of modern games on high/ultra at playable FPS easy. 

 

Don't see why people still bash those high end Core 2 Quads and Xeons. They are still good performing chips! Especially for gaming. As for a platform upgrade, I'd recommend a 990FX board and a 6xxx or a 8xxx series FX chip. More than enough for gaming and cheaper boards and chips. All the latest Haswell stuff is just a miniscule jump and is mainly a tactic to get noobs to go "OH LOOK, IT'S NEW, I MUST HAZ". 

I agree with the first point,the Q9550 is still a perfectly capable processor.

 

as to the second point it depends what you meant.

from ivybridge to haswell it was a small jump,though the power consumption is much improved.

though if you meant from yorkfield (Q8xx0,Q9xx0,and QXxx0) to haswell was a small jump your very wrong.

[AdamG1401]

Thanks mate, gald there's some common sense around here! ;)

 

Yeah, I meant from 3rd gen (Ivy-Bridge) to 4th gen (Haswell), not from the yorkfield stuff to 4th gen.

 

I somewhat like what they're trying to do with Haswell, I just want it to be more refined and have less focus on the onboard graphics. (Completely remove them for desktops [eg, make a new range that is the same, just without the GPU component for less or something]). Onboard VRM is a good step though. Just need to get cooling under control. But with everyone and their dog using H80i or H100i's nowadays, it shouldn't be a problem.

[AdamG1401]

And let's face it, from i5's up, who gives a flying pig about power consumption? It kicks out so much heat that you'll be using those extra few saved watts on pumps and fans to cool the thing ;)

[Average_Joe]

First of all, thank you all for your kind replies.

well linus actually did some tests

so I would say in gpu dependent games,there will be little loss of fps.

in cpu dependent games you may have significantly lower minimum and lower average fps than the card should otherwise have.

 

I completely forgot about this video :mellow: but thank you for sharing it, I watched it again :) .

 

haha you're kidding right?

It's time for a proper upgrade man. Maybe drop to the 770 and get a FX 8320 and board or something.

 

No, it was a theoretical situation, like I said. And I don't see a good reason why I should upgrade, my system is still decent and fast enough for me. I'd rather buy an SSD or a case. I really want to buy a Ducky keyboard though.

 

you should read what he actually wrote under the topic.

 

Exactly.

 

But if you have the possibility buy it!! Later you upgrade your platform with a good cpu.

 

By the way, if you overclock your cpu, you will still have a good experience. A very good one.

 

Well that's why I asked the question, it's theoretical, but I may actually have a chance to get the GTX 780 for cheaper from a local dealer. Eventually I could upgrade to a new platform and keep the graphics card, but I don't know if I'll get the "special" discount yet.

I can overclock it to 3.4GHz without any voltage increase and it is stable (at 3.6GHz at stock voltages it's stable, but I haven't tested it for 24 hours+, so I can't be sure). I haven't tried overclocking it over 3.7GHz because the temps are getting a bit hot for my CPU cooler (a Cooler Master V8).

 

Q9550 is still decent. My secondary rig uses a Q6xxx C2Q thing and a 550Ti and it can still handle BF3 and Crysis 3 at decent settings (obviously getting held back by the 550). As long as you OC it a bit and get a decent board and cooling etc, that and a 780 would still swallow 95% of modern games on high/ultra at playable FPS easy. 

 

Don't see why people still bash those high end Core 2 Quads and Xeons. They are still good performing chips! Especially for gaming. As for a platform upgrade, I'd recommend a 990FX board and a 6xxx or a 8xxx series FX chip. More than enough for gaming and cheaper boards and chips. All the latest Haswell stuff is just a miniscule jump and is mainly a tactic to get noobs to go "OH LOOK, IT'S NEW, I MUST HAZ". 

 

My toughts exactly, I too, don't understand why people kinda hate the Core 2 Quad series...yes, they are very old, but they aren't THAT slow. "OH LOOK, IT'S NEW, I MUST HAZ". - This made me LOL so hard :lol: hahahahaha.

 

I agree with the first point,the Q9550 is still a perfectly capable processor.

 

as to the second point it depends what you meant.

from ivybridge to haswell it was a small jump,though the power consumption is much improved.

though if you meant from yorkfield (Q8xx0,Q9xx0,and QXxx0) to haswell was a small jump your very wrong.

 

Agreed.

 

I somewhat like what they're trying to do with Haswell, I just want it to be more refined and have less focus on the onboard graphics. (Completely remove them for desktops [eg, make a new range that is the same, just without the GPU component for less or something]). Onboard VRM is a good step though. Just need to get cooling under control. But with everyone and their dog using H80i or H100i's nowadays, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

Yeah, it would be nice to have an eight-core beastly CPU, instead of a quad core with an IGP. About VRM being built-in into the CPU...I'm not sure. It is nice, yes, but it really limits how much the average user can overclock the CPU because of the higher heat output. Not everybody has a custom water cooling setup :). You can't have the best of both world, I guess.

 

And let's face it, from i5's up, who gives a flying pig about power consumption? It kicks out so much heat that you'll be using those extra few saved watts on pumps and fans to cool the thing ;)

 

Well more power consumed means more heat output, so it's not just about the power consumption, I guess.

 

-----------------

 

What a cool community, thank you very much guys for your kind replies, I really enjoy this forum, I don't post a lot, but I read a lot. Thanks!

[Flamewalker]

There is actually quite a good review of a e8400 vs q9550 vs i5 3570k with a radeon 7970 on tomshardware, that basicly shows the difference in fps compared to them. (with and without overclocks on the e8400 or q9550)

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487.html

 

About the gtx 780 upgrade , i dunno , you will still gain quite abit fps in most games compared to your current card, but the q9550 will bottleneck it (some games more then others)

[mvitkun]

Thanks mate, gald there's some common sense around here! ;)

 

Yeah, I meant from 3rd gen (Ivy-Bridge) to 4th gen (Haswell), not from the yorkfield stuff to 4th gen.

 

I somewhat like what they're trying to do with Haswell, I just want it to be more refined and have less focus on the onboard graphics. (Completely remove them for desktops [eg, make a new range that is the same, just without the GPU component for less or something]). Onboard VRM is a good step though. Just need to get cooling under control. But with everyone and their dog using H80i or H100i's nowadays, it shouldn't be a problem.

personally I liked the onboard gpu,for the first few months after building my rig I was using HD 3000 graphics because the graphics card I had planned to use with it had the vrm's go out.

though I think they should limit the onboard graphics to a max of 10-15 watts.

50 watt IGPU's are insane.

[Average_Joe]

There is actually quite a good review of a e8400 vs q9550 vs i5 3570k with a radeon 7970 on tomshardware, that basicly shows the difference in fps compared to them. (with and without overclocks on the e8400 or q9550)

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487.html

 

About the gtx 780 upgrade , i dunno , you will still gain quite abit fps in most games compared to your current card, but the q9550 will bottleneck it (some games more then others)

 

Thanks for the link, very useful info! Yeah, I figured. Well I think I'll wait until I save up some money for a new build and then just buy everything.

 

50 watt IGPU's are insane.

 

Agreed.

[91wow]

I am still on my Q8200S and I am only upgrading because of video work and such but I am buying a 650TI BOOST for the C2Q system I have and still going to use it to off load live streams onto and run a dayZ server off of since I have 8GB's of 1066 ram and this thing is doing me fine at 3.2GHZ :)

[Nit3Rid3R]

That core 2 quad is still a good CPU, I've run one myself before upgrading to sandy bridge, and it still managed to play all the games I wanted it to. Will it bottleneck a 780, I can't be sure, it wouldn't think it would bottleneck it by much. 

[The Last MeMe]

Although I know less then many of the people on here if you can get a special discount on the 780 then I would grab it and then just upgrade your board and CPU later. Saves you money now to get a great GPU for cheaper now rather than later and plus if you get an FX series CPU you can always get a 6-core version and save a bit plus you can find some pretty cheap boards for em. I have a gigabyte GA-970A board for my FX-8150 and I believe I spent 70$ on the board and it works great.

[Average_Joe]

Although I know less then many of the people on here if you can get a special discount on the 780 then I would grab it and then just upgrade your board and CPU later. Saves you money now to get a great GPU for cheaper now rather than later and plus if you get an FX series CPU you can always get a 6-core version and save a bit plus you can find some pretty cheap boards for em. I have a gigabyte GA-970A board for my FX-8150 and I believe I spent 70$ on the board and it works great.

 

Yes, I may do this, I'm still waiting for a reply about the discount though.

[cdoublejj]

well linus actually did some tests

 

even running with a single core there was only a small performance difference,though it is a 3930K core.

 

so I would say in gpu dependent games,there will be little loss of fps.

in cpu dependent games you may have significantly lower minimum and lower average fps than the card should otherwise have.

 

Can you by any chance re link this article or video? Which ever it is doens't show up.