i7 950 bottleneck 290 xfire?

[NakedChicken]

I'm looking at buying a new psu and I want to know if my cpu would bottle neck me if I were to buy a second 290 later on. I used to have an oc on my i7 but I didn't realize how much power the 290 uses and I can now only oc one at a time, My system reboots if I even touch the clock on the i7 because the 290 uses so much power. I don't want to go out and buy a 1000 watt psu if my cpu can't push a second card. And no I'm not getting any bottle necks at my i7's base speed. thanks.

[thekeemo]

nah

[D2ultima]

It will do that in some heavier CPU games. I'd recommended at least Sandy Bridge or higher i7s for that kind of setup.

 

But if you get a 1000W PSU and overclock the 950 to within an inch of its life and then OC the R9 290 cards it might be a better deal. A 4.5GHz 950 would be a 50% increase over a 3.06GHz 950, which can extend its life. Then maybe you can grab Skylake or Cannonlake later.

[arnavvr]

I would recommend buying a 980X

[Lotus]

Yes, it will bottleneck in many games. It even bottlenecks a single R9 290. You've got the multi-threaded performance, but not the single-threaded performance. This is coming from an i7-920 owner running it at 3.9 GHz.

[NakedChicken]

It will do that in some heavier CPU games. I'd recommended at least Sandy Bridge or higher i7s for that kind of setup.

 

But if you get a 1000W PSU and overclock the 950 to within an inch of its life and then OC the R9 290 cards it might be a better deal. A 4.5GHz 950 would be a 50% increase over a 3.06GHz 950, which can extend its life. Then maybe you can grab Skylake or Cannonlake later.

I had a 4.3 before when I still had my 660, so I could do something like that. My 630 just doesn't cut it my Hw monitor app says the cpu alone is using 140-150 watts at stock.

[NakedChicken]

I would recommend buying a 980X

I just looked on ebay and they're going for around $250, I could justify spending that on a 7 year old processor. But the Xeon x5650 could work!

[NakedChicken]

Yes, it will bottleneck in many games. It even bottlenecks a single R9 290. You've got the multi-threaded performance, but not the single-threaded performance. This is coming from an i7-920 owner running it at 3.9 GHz.

My 290 hasnt bottle necked on me yet, I get 100% usage in bf4, but that might be because of mantle. 

[NeverNotExhausted]

It will do that in some heavier CPU games. I'd recommended at least Sandy Bridge or higher i7s for that kind of setup.

 

But if you get a 1000W PSU and overclock the 950 to within an inch of its life and then OC the R9 290 cards it might be a better deal. A 4.5GHz 950 would be a 50% increase over a 3.06GHz 950, which can extend its life. Then maybe you can grab Skylake or Cannonlake later.

 

Your not going to get 4.5 these days on a 950. There's a few years of chip degradation in play and 4.5 on even a twin rad back like a h100i in the day was pushing it.

[NakedChicken]

https://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

Thats my build, everything is stable at stock speeds but once I touch any voltages it shuts down. 

[Lotus]

My 290 hasnt bottle necked on me yet, I get 100% usage in bf4, but that might be because of mantle. 

 

Many doesn't mean all. The majority of modern games lean more on multi-threaded performance than single-threaded, however certain games will be very rough for you in certain situations, usually when lots of physics simulation or just lots of action in general is going on in-game. You'll be going along just fine, then hit major frame-dips when you hit action. In my own experience, Diablo 3 is the most obvious of this when I get FPS dips down to even 5-10 FPS during heavy action and physics simulation, but it's also noticeable in Planetside 2, and even a Playstation 2 emulator. I don't play RPG games typically, but games like WoW are also notoriously difficult. Usually these are PC only games that you run into these issues.

 

 

 

edit: also, 100% usage doesn't mean no bottleneck. While less definitely signifies a bottleneck, 100% doesn't mean a lack of one.

https://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

Thats my build, everything is stable at stock speeds but once I touch any voltages it shuts down. 

 

 

You have to paste the perma-link to it. That just takes us to our own personal parts list.

[Sintezza]

yes it will.

There will allways be a bottleneck at a certain point, no matter which cpu.

[NakedChicken]

Many doesn't mean all. The majority of modern games lean more on multi-threaded performance than single-threaded, however certain games will be very rough for you in certain situations, usually when lots of physics simulation or just lots of action in general is going on in-game. You'll be going along just fine, then hit major frame-dips when you hit action. In my own experience, Diablo 3 is the most obvious of this when I get FPS dips down to even 5-10 FPS during heavy action and physics simulation, but it's also noticeable in Planetside 2, and even a Playstation 2 emulator. I don't play RPG games typically, but games like WoW are also notoriously difficult. Usually these are PC only games that you run into these issues.

 

 

 

 

You have to paste the perma-link to it. That just takes us to our own personal parts list.

My bad:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3rdLK8

[Lotus]

My bad:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3rdLK8

 

Get a new PSU. That PSU is a piece of shit. Regardless of future plans, you really should get a new PSU.

 

A rosewill Capstone would serve you well, as would an EVGA G2 PSU. Avoid EVGA G1 units as they have absolutely atrocious 12v rail voltage stability, which is critical to us gamers as the 12v rail is what feeds our GPUs. Heck, the EVGA 600B is better at the 12v rail than the EVGA 650-G1 model.

[NakedChicken]

Get a new PSU. That PSU is a piece of shit. Regardless of future plans, you really should get a new PSU.

 

A rosewill Capstone would serve you well, as would an EVGA G2 PSU. Avoid EVGA G1 units as they have absolutely atrocious 12v rail voltage stability, which is critical to us gamers as the 12v rail is what feeds our GPUs. Heck, the EVGA 600B is better at the 12v rail than the EVGA 650-G1 model.

I was looking at a 1000 watt g2 on amazon its only $140. Do you have any idea how good the Rm750 is? I've seen some some bad but a lot more good things about it. I figured it'd be half decent for $100.

[Lotus]

I was looking at a 1000 watt g2 on amazon its only $140. Do you have any idea how good the Rm750 is? I've seen some some bad but a lot more good things about it. I figured it'd be half decent for $100.

 

Both are fine, but honestly 1000W is kind of insane. The only reason you're running into problems right now is because your PSU is highly overrated wattage-wise. It can only supply 430W on all its 12v rails. An 850W EVGA G2 unit would be sufficient for your CPU and dual R9 290s, provided you don't have a ton of other add-ons like several HDDs/SSDs in raid and so on. Yes, that's even factoring in overclocking. If it were me, I'd go for an 850W for dual GPU purposes, and 600W for single GPU purposes (if the GPUs are R9 290s). However, remember that a second R9 290 won't really help with your current setup.

 

 

Also, what is your monitor? Even with a brand new i5-4690k overclocked to 4.5 GHz, unless you have a 144hz or 1440p monitor, a second R9 290 will be kind of pointless as a single R9 290 can max out every game right now at 1080p 60hz on ultra, except for poorly coded/ported UBShit games.

[NakedChicken]

Also, what is your monitor? Even with a brand new i5-4690k overclocked to 4.5 GHz, unless you have a 144hz or 1440p monitor, a second R9 290 will be kind of pointless as a single R9 290 can max out every game right now at 1080p 60hz on ultra, except for poorly coded/ported UBShit games.

I'm using a 1080p samsung 60 hz tv right now but I'm waiting for that 120 hz asus 1440p screen and buying it when it releses. The only eason I was looking at the 1000 watt over the 850 was becasue amazon actually had the 1000 for cheaper.

[Lotus]

I'm using a 1080p samsung 60 hz tv right now but I'm waiting for that 120 hz asus 1440p screen and buying it when it releses. The only eason I was looking at the 1000 watt over the 850 was becasue amazon actually had the 1000 for cheaper.

 

Ah, that makes sense then. That makes it a fine choice then. Just make sure you get G2 models only, and avoid G1 models.

[D2ultima]

edit: also, 100% usage doesn't mean no bottleneck. While less definitely signifies a bottleneck, 100% doesn't mean a lack of one.

Thank you for actually understanding this. People like to claim "100% usage, omg, no bottleneck" way too often.

[NakedChicken]

Ah, that makes sense then. That makes it a fine choice then. Just make sure you get G2 models only, and avoid G1 models.

Are the gs series any good? I just found them on newegg for about the same price. 

[Lotus]

Are the gs series any good? I just found them on newegg for about the same price. 

 

Yup, those are good too:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=414

[NakedChicken]

Yup, those are good too:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=414

Thanks for your help!

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

It's an Intel CPU. It'll be fine.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2013/-20-Crysis-II,3175.html

[TravisTea]

If you get too concerned about bottlenecks with an X58 system, I recommend a Xeon X5650 off of ebay. Solid six core cpu that has great overclocking potential. Should alleviate any bottlenecks for a while. Plus they're going for $60-$80 USD which is very nice.

[Lotus]

If you get too concerned about bottlenecks with an X58 system, I recommend a Xeon X5650 off of ebay. Solid six core cpu that has great overclocking potential. Should alleviate any bottlenecks for a while. Plus they're going for $60-$80 USD which is very nice.

 

That doesn't solve the single-threaded problem, which is where the bottleneck is. It adds 2 more cores and 4 more threads, but does not increase single-threaded performance.