PCIe 1.0a bottleneck?

[TheJanWillem]

Hey everyone!

 

I'm hoping so much that you guys can give me a concrete answer for this :P

 

I'm currently using an 'old' Dell Precision 690 Workstation:

• 2x Quad Xeon (3ghz)
• 32gb ddr2 RAM (ecc)
• 100gb+1tb PCIe hybrid drive (boot)
• 2tb raid array

and last and least:

• NVIDIA Quadro® FX 3450 (256mb ddr3 etc :D)

So, because I am using the PC for video editing and such, I was thinking to buy a new GPU. I thought about an Nvidia one because I use Sony Vegas Pro which is able to use CUDA. Note: AMD is also supported, although less powerful than Nvidia, please tell me if AMD is a better option.

 

I was thinking about buying an Nvidia GTX 660 (ti).

Then I noticed this:

Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB:
Bandwidth 144/GB/sec
(http://www.bit-tech.net/h...force-gtx-660-2gb-review/)

 

and:

 

 

So, as anyone can see, the (max.) bandwith of the card seems to be higher than that of the PCIe x16 slot.

 

Does anyone know if this is going to affect my performance? Because if the card can't use almost half of it's power, then maybe something like a lower budget AMD card is a better option for me, as I don't feel like wasting the extra money on a card that I'm not going to use.

 

I really hope someone is able to provide me a good answer! :D

I've been searching around the web for some time, but haven't really found anybody that has experience themselves.

 

Thanks!

 

ps:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=a6403652

"Compatibility
This product is compatible with the following systems:
(...)
Precision Workstation 690 (1 Kw Power Supply)
Precision Workstation 690 (750 Mw Power Supply)"

 

So at least it's supported by Dell themselves.

 

Also, my chipset is an Intel 5000X

 

[TheJanWillem]

Bump? :-/

[A10-FTW]

great pc man  ^_^ (i know is old, but i really like it, is well built)

 

1s to all, yes... it will be a bottleneck

 

2 - the PCIe x16 "1.0" is not that BIG bottleneck (the main bottleneck start in the CPU 1s)

 

 

 

i think,  you can add a 660ti there and have "not full performance" but yes a decent performance

 

still this is just my opinion, i like old systems and i use a PCIe x16 1.0 with my 7850 (super OC)  B)

 

if you can, pass me more info of the CPU (this one can be problematic in some cases)

 

 

 

(keep a eye in the 760 and 750 in case they came before buy the 660ti, just i case)

[TheJanWillem]

Thanks! I'm so happy to hear that I'm not the only one with these sort of setups :P

 

Here is some more info on the CPU's:

"Quad-core Intel Xeon 5300series
processors with up to 1333MHz front side bus and 2 x 4MB shared cache; All processors are 64-bit, XD and VT capable"

 

And I think this should be the exact type: http://ark.intel.com/nl/products/30702/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5365-8M-Cache-3_00-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB

It's the dutch site, but I don't think the terms differ that much from English.

 

And yes, I will look for the new 700 series and such. I'm not in a hurry buying a new card, so I also might have a look around for second hand cards.

[A10-FTW]

as far as i know, all will work perfect  ^_^ (is awesome that you have 8 cores)

[Opsilon]

Oi mate

The 660ti will be bottlencked but as was said earlier your cpu will be more of a bottleneck. as far as PCIe 1.0 should be same as 8x PCIe 2.0, that shouldn't be a problem for gaming, but for work you might see that, but i think if you take into account what card you have and you need CUDA, you might be of good with a 660 ( non-ti) or even he 650ti boost cards, because they are cheaper, but still work well and you will save money, to eventually buy a new cpu and mobo XD

 

I really like your machine, that thing must have been a killer back then!!!

[TheJanWillem]

Thank you both :P Yea, it was lightning fast back then already, and I gave it some upgrades through the years (more RAM, SSD, extra CPU etc.).

 

Also, I was thinking to buy the 660 instead of the Ti version, but is the CPU really the most limiting factor on the GPU? I know they are older, but the performance in comparison to a single 3770K isn't that big of a deal right?

 

And I see that the 7850 2gb is priced almost the same (a bit more expensive) as the 650 ti 2gb. Any advice on wether to buy the 650ti or 7850?

 

Finally, is a second hand HD6950 a good option? I see it's comparable to the 7850, but even second hand comparably priced.

[Opsilon]

Hmm i can't really say is the 650 ti boost a lot better, but i think they are neck and neck, but if you need CUDA 650ti boost is better ofc, as far as 6950 it should be better than a 7850 when overclocked, but since it's second hand i would go with a new card any day of the week, just because i am a warranty freak XD

[Glenwing]

If it's at full x16, no there will be no bottleneck from your PCI Express slot.