Graphics Cards & Bottlenecks?

Question

Hey all,

I'm building a new pc and i have the cpu... but it isn't the newest cpu on the market... so i'm wondering how to determine for myself what graphics card will and won't be bottlenecked my my new system.

I'd prefer not to disclose what cpu etc. my new system has... i just want to know how to figure out bottlenecking for myself instead of always needing to ask.

Thanks!

Regards, Mortagen

Answer 1

The high end cards like the Geforce 8800 series are so fast that they are still a bit bottlenecked even by fast processors. Only overclocking of the fast processors further unleash the remaining untapped power of those fast cards. Check out this processor overclocking exercise that used an 8800GTX.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q6600_8.html#sect0
Observe the framerates between stock cpu clock and when overclocked.

So if your processor does not even come close to an E6850 and you have no plans to overclock it, expect it to bottleneck the high end cards.

Answer 2

in case you have a processor this is greater desirable than quickly adequate for a interest, and your pictures card is consequently the limiting ingredient, then you definately're being bottlenecked by using your GPU. What bottlenecks what relies upon on the interest, nonetheless. In Crysis, in spite of an HD5800 sequence card, you're incredibly much truthfully GPU bottlenecked, except you have a ridiculously damaging processor. In TF2 or L4D, you're incredibly much truthfully going to be bottlenecked by using your processor as long as you have a respectable video card.

Answer 3

believe it or not, your monitor size will determine this to a great extent. The hotter graphics cards really only excel at higher resolutions - take a look at the Graphics card charts here:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html
Look at the lower resolution benchmark results and you'll notice that they have a much smaller 'spread' among the top end cards, than the higher resolution benchmarks.

If you go to the CPU charts you will notice that they run all the benchmarks at lower resolutions so that the graphics card is essentially taken out of the equation.

Bottlenecking is pretty much unavoidable at common resolutions like 1024x768, but if you have a big monitor, it pays to get the best card you can afford.

Answer 4

get any graphics card you can either pci-e or agp

Answer 5

just pick one
theres not much diff