Bottlenecks

[Napussei]

Will a Gtx 760 (when it is released to the market) create a noticeable bottleneck with a Phenom II 955be clocked to 3.8ghz ? If so, should I spend my money in a new mobo and processor, or should I just buy a gtx 700 series card soon, and buy a new CPU and mobo later on? What do you guys recommend that I do? Buy a new GPU now or a new Mobo and CPU? 

[Andi]

your cpu is still fast enough for gaming...a GTX760 should be fine.

[david cassar]

I would say that you would see a bottleneck but it would be very minimal.

[Salmiakbal]

What card do you have currently?

[Napussei]

What card do you have currently?

A GTX 560 non-ti

[Chevaishr]

your cpu is plenty fast as is you would hardly notice if you upgrade your cpu and mobo 

[Dim]

955 BE's are beast chips - would not upgrade it any time soon. I assume since you've overclocked it you're not running a stock cooler, but if you are, that would be the component to upgrade. You won't see much of a bottleneck with new cards, even with a 780 the bottleneck would be very minimal.

[majorawsome]

How do people tell if there is a bottleneck in the first place?

[Napussei]

Ok thanks guys, I will be getting a 760 non-ti/ti when it comes and start saving up for a new cpu/mobo.

[Napussei]

955 BE's are beast chips - would not upgrade it any time soon. I assume since you've overclocked it you're not running a stock cooler, but if you are, that would be the component to upgrade. You won't see much of a bottleneck with new cards, even with a 780 the bottleneck would be very minimal.

So if I go with a 770 or 760, the bottleneck would be quite unnoticeable?

[Dim]

So if I go with a 770 or 760, the bottleneck would be quite unnoticeable?

Yep. Don't worry about it. Great chip :)

[A10-FTW]

a simple way to see it is

 

 

1 core = it's bottleneck

 

2 cores = it's bottleneck but it defends well (is a good start)

 

 

3 cores = (no idea lol, is a grey area)

 

4 cores = is not (it's simple like that)  ^_^

[Dim]

How do people tell if there is a bottleneck in the first place?

You have to compare it on a chip-by-chip basis. I've personally used a machine with the 955 BE and a GTX 680, and it was just as smooth in performance and detail on FarCry 3 (as an example) as a 2500K.

 

I think the only time you would see a large difference in performance between the 955 BE and something like a 2500K (which, by the way, has a very small bottleneck when compared to the 3570K/4670K) is when the game uses only 1-2 cores. But because these games aren't very intensive anyway, the bottleneck will be very small.

 

Will a 955 BE bottleneck something like a 680/770? Probably. Will it be noticeable enough to warrant a motherboard and CPU upgrade? Definitely not. CPUs are still bottlenecked by the graphics cards at this point in time, and most games are not CPU-intensive, but GPU-intensive.

 

For CPU-intensive games, there will be more of a bottleneck. The reason games like Starcraft 2, Crysis 1, etc. can be bottlenecked easier by the CPU is because they rely on only 1-2 cores, and therefore these cores need to be stronger. Newer games don't have this issue, since most utilize four cores where they can.

 

That said, a 955 BE with a 770 will not give anything less than max specs on SC2/Crysis anyway, which is indicative of the fact that the bottleneck is too small to cause a noticeable difference.

 

So, how do you tell if there is a bottleneck? If the game runs lower on your system with your current chip, say a Core 2 Duo, than it does on benchmarks running with a 3960X (most benchmarks are done with this chip to eliminate the CPU as a bottleneck as much as possible - 3970X's aren't really used much as benchmarkers don't bother to upgrade for the 1-5% difference), you know you have a bottleneck.

 

I know from personal experience how good the 955 BE is though, and I would recommend this chip to most gamers if they can get it at a good price. I would consider to upgrade in the future from it, but at the moment the cost of something like a 4670K is way too much to warrant an upgrade for an increase of 3-5 fps on a game you are getting more than 70 from anyway.

 

Does that make sense?

[Glenwing]

There will be no bottleneck from the CPU.

 

 

How do people tell if there is a bottleneck in the first place?

 

Experience becomes instinct.

[Dim]

I'll also add that because OP has overclocked their CPU to 3.8GHz, they won't see as much of an issue with single/dual threaded games regardless because those cores are running at a higher frequency which in turn removes the bottleneck even more.

[majorawsome]

You have to compare it on a chip-by-chip basis. I've personally used a machine with the 955 BE and a GTX 680, and it was just as smooth in performance and detail on FarCry 3 (as an example) as a 2500K.

 

I think the only time you would see a large difference in performance between the 955 BE and something like a 2500K (which, by the way, has a very small bottleneck when compared to the 3570K/4670K) is when the game uses only 1-2 cores. But because these games aren't very intensive anyway, the bottleneck will be very small.

 

Will a 955 BE bottleneck something like a 680/770? Probably. Will it be noticeable enough to warrant a motherboard and CPU upgrade? Definitely not. CPUs are still bottlenecked by the graphics cards at this point in time, and most games are not CPU-intensive, but GPU-intensive.

 

For CPU-intensive games, there will be more of a bottleneck. The reason games like Starcraft 2, Crysis 1, etc. can be bottlenecked easier by the CPU is because they rely on only 1-2 cores, and therefore these cores need to be stronger. Newer games don't have this issue, since most utilize four cores where they can.

 

That said, a 955 BE with a 770 will not give anything less than max specs on SC2/Crysis anyway, which is indicative of the fact that the bottleneck is too small to cause a noticeable difference.

 

So, how do you tell if there is a bottleneck? If the game runs lower on your system with your current chip, say a Core 2 Duo, than it does on benchmarks running with a 3960X (most benchmarks are done with this chip to eliminate the CPU as a bottleneck as much as possible - 3970X's aren't really used much as benchmarkers don't bother to upgrade for the 1-5% difference), you know you have a bottleneck.

 

I know from personal experience how good the 955 BE is though, and I would recommend this chip to most gamers if they can get it at a good price. I would consider to upgrade in the future from it, but at the moment the cost of something like a 4670K is way too much to warrant an upgrade for an increase of 3-5 fps on a game you are getting more than 70 from anyway.

 

Does that make sense?

YES! Thank you!