i3 4130 with sli gtx 660

[nokturrduk84]

CPU will bottleneck

[ForsakenLive]

tell your friend he should sell the i3, because it is bad ( had one, no overclocking means bad ) tell him to buy a decent CPU, he will get the boost just by doing that... i3 is a NO for a good GPU

The Core i3 is quite a good CPU, it's like a i7 with 2 cores less, most of today's games don't use over 2 cores. On single threaded performance it does a pretty good job

[The Doctor]

Yes it will bottleneck the hell out of the system. Sell the i3 and any old junk laying around. Buy an i5 4330 and then buy another 660. No bottleneck then.

[JAW96]

The Core i3 is quite a good CPU, it's like a i7 with 2 cores less, most of today's games don't use over 2 cores. On single threaded performance it does a pretty good job

hate to break it to ya but it's not 2006 most games use 4 cores, I say get a better CPU first.

[Opsilon]

The Core i3 is quite a good CPU, it's like a i7 with 2 cores less, most of today's games don't use over 2 cores. On single threaded performance it does a pretty good job

Like an i7 but with 2 less cores, that is the same as saying that BMW 3 is the same as BMW 7 series but with 4 less cylinders.... No, just No, an i3 is good for office work, that's it.

i had one, and now i have an i7, the difference is huge. Even in single/dual threaded games it has lag, when you are pushing to the limits of the chip.

I played battlefield 3, and crysis 3 on that, you can't play that at high, because the CPU will be at it's limit all the time, you will suffer, and crysis 3 will run soo poorly it is sad, even games like LoL at high settings can dip under 40, and you will notice that.

 

i3's and fx4000 are pretty much 720p modern games, and 1080p older games ready, so he could step up to an FX 6350 it is not that much more expensive, and sell the i3 ( i would not recommend a chip that can't overclock these days ).

No point making multi GPU configurations if your CPU is not capable, yes the i3 has outstanding single threaded performance, but that is far from being enough!!! 

[Leonard]

a dual core is fine my friend runs battlefield 4 fine on his i3

Your questions was about the i3 bottlenecking a 660 SLI not what games can run on the setup. An i3 with a 660 SLI will have a bottleneck. You would still be able to ply your games on it but the bottleneck would be there. What your friend should do is keep the money he has now and keep adding to it and some time later this year get a new motherboard, CPU, a k skew preferably and GPU and some RAM and put together another system.

[tp95112]

Your questions was about the i3 bottlenecking a 660 SLI not what games can run on the setup. An i3 with a 660 SLI will have a bottleneck. You would still be able to ply your games on it but the bottleneck would be there. What your friend should do is keep the money he has now and keep adding to it and some time later this year get a new motherboard, CPU, a k skew preferably and GPU and some RAM and put together another system.

He doesnt need a new motherboad just save up for a better cpu

[Leonard]

He doesnt need a new motherboad just save up for a better cpu

He can do that too.

[itsMacyyyy]

No!!! People seem to say stuff they hear on the internet and its mostly not the case. The GPU will still perform to its full potential. If you're running a game that is purely GPU intensive then the performance would not be affected unless you're running it with a CPU few generations old. Also most games only use 2 cores so haswell i3 won't hold it back.

 

I get better FPS in most games with i3 4140 and GTX 770 than a friend with 3570k and a GTX 760 and so would anyone else...

[ForsakenLive]

This is not a lousy i3, the haswell chips are very powerful, there are benchmarks and reviews all over the internet.

 

 

No!!! People seem to say stuff they hear on the internet and its mostly not the case. The GPU will still perform to its full potential. If you're running a game that is purely GPU intensive then the performance would not be affected unless you're running it with a CPU few generations old. Also most games only use 2 cores so haswell i3 won't hold it back.

 

I get better FPS in most games with i3 4140 and GTX 770 than a friend with 3570k and a GTX 760 and so would anyone else...

 

This guy knows what I'm talking about

[kristaps552]

Like an i7 but with 2 less cores, that is the same as saying that BMW 3 is the same as BMW 7 series but with 4 less cylinders.... No, just No, an i3 is good for office work, that's it.

i had one, and now i have an i7, the difference is huge. Even in single/dual threaded games it has lag, when you are pushing to the limits of the chip.

I played battlefield 3, and crysis 3 on that, you can't play that at high, because the CPU will be at it's limit all the time, you will suffer, and crysis 3 will run soo poorly it is sad, even games like LoL at high settings can dip under 40, and you will notice that.

 

i3's and fx4000 are pretty much 720p modern games, and 1080p older games ready, so he could step up to an FX 6350 it is not that much more expensive, and sell the i3 ( i would not recommend a chip that can't overclock these days ).

No point making multi GPU configurations if your CPU is not capable, yes the i3 has outstanding single threaded performance, but that is far from being enough!!! 

I was playing bf3 at 1080p max (ultra) settings with an i3 2100 and a 660ti, and I was getting (depending on the amount of shit blowing up in my face) 45-60 fps... After I upgraded to i5 3570k, my fps did stay at 55-60fps though. So yeah... not sad and poor at all.

So to answer the OP's question, It will bottleneck, but if it's temporary, then you will still see an improvement.

 

[nsyedhasan]

Get a new CPU. Get something like a low end i5 and then go for GTX 660Ti SLI.

[KamiKatze]

@OP The combination isn't great. It will probably bottleneck a little bit but not too bad. Just fiddle with the settings if some game is laggy.

 

What I'd recommend is, after you got the SLI, save up for a better CPU, as long as Haswell is still fresh and you can sell that 4130 for a good price.

So save up to a 4670K and sell the 4130 while it's still the newest generation.

[KamiKatze]

deleted 

[flibberdipper]

so should he be ok with getting antother gtx 660

For the time being. But tell him to get a i5 if possible later on to really let the two 660's perform at their best.

[Opsilon]

I was playing bf3 at 1080p max (ultra) settings with an i3 2100 and a 660ti, and I was getting (depending on the amount of shit blowing up in my face) 45-60 fps... After I upgraded to i5 3570k, my fps did stay at 55-60fps though. So yeah... not sad and poor at all.

So to answer the OP's question, It will bottleneck, but if it's temporary, then you will still see an improvement.

 

Funny because i got the same with my i3 but it felt laggy, the shown FPS did not really translate in real life, controlling recoil was much harder, and my i7 fixed that, but my FPS is way over yours i have a gtx 670, that is not that much fater, i can even get over 100 fps on maps like firestorm and in team DM maps.

i3 is not for gaming over 720p realistically even if you get good FPS it can cause laggy and stuttery gameplay , so an i5 and an i7 are way better, i said nothing wrong, an i3 isn't a good 1080p gaming experience, you can get 1080p on lowest possible settings with some AAA titles, but still, not that great, if that is enough, then go for it. dual cores from intel and quad cores from AMD are not good for multi GPU configurations, that is it!