Will It Bottleneck???

[stjimmyskater]

So, seeing as I'm going to have a decent amount of cash this Christmas, I figured I'd invest in upgrading my rig. I've already got my new case and PSU picked out, so those are set, but in picking out a new graphics card, I'm kinda worried about bottle-necking.

Current Specs:

6GB DDR2 RAM at 800Mhz (I think)

AMD Athlon X2 5000+ dual core Overclocked to 2.6Ghz (Can go all the way to 3, but I don't prefer to)

I don't really think the other specs are necessary, but the graphics card I'm looking at is the XFX Radeon 5870 (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5753618&CatId=3669)

Do you guys think my current specs will bottleneck the card???

[Haloruler64]

Get quad core, dual cores are just a no-no these days. Also get an Intel i7 (or i5) and a 5870 seems fair, though I would go for a GTX 460 the 5870 is cheap

[brarei200]

i3's are good too

[stjimmyskater]

@Dima: A quad would mean a whole new mobo, which would also mean new RAM which I don't have the money for right now. I could try to unlock the other cores on my processor again, but that didn't end too well last time. I went with the 460 for fear of bottlenecking, plus it's cheaper. Below is the shit I picked up.

Case: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4631382&CatId=1509

PSU: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&csid=_23

Vidja Card: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6976278&Sku=E145-0475

I've still got more cash coming my way, so who knows, I might be able to upgrade to a quad core yet.

[rokrboy]

It'll bottleneck some, but it's in many conditions, variable to the game or the application. The gtx460 after all, is about equivalent to a gtx 280. You are fine for now, however, if you go sli, you really need a new mobo and processor. And as far as I remember, the chipset on your motherboard doesn't allow for core unlocking. But, if you still want to go amd, there are a lot of good deals lately. As a matter of fact, newegg was blowing out a few CPUs like the phenom II x3 which almost certainly unlock to quads for 69 bucks. If you could score a cheap mobo, that would be a good setup.

FYI, the new intel chips are coming out Q1 of next year, so prices on i7's, i5's, and i3's should begin to go down. I'd overclock your processor if you have a decent cooler for it, when faced with a bottleneck from a graphics card, you see more performance gains from overclocking a bit.

[stjimmyskater]

It'll bottleneck some, but it's in many conditions, variable to the game or the application. The gtx460 after all, is about equivalent to a gtx 280. You are fine for now, however, if you go sli, you really need a new mobo and processor. And as far as I remember, the chipset on your motherboard doesn't allow for core unlocking. But, if you still want to go amd, there are a lot of good deals lately. As a matter of fact, newegg was blowing out a few CPUs like the phenom II x3 which almost certainly unlock to quads for 69 bucks. If you could score a cheap mobo, that would be a good setup.

FYI, the new intel chips are coming out Q1 of next year, so prices on i7's, i5's, and i3's should begin to go down. I'd overclock your processor if you have a decent cooler for it, when faced with a bottleneck from a graphics card, you see more performance gains from overclocking a bit.

Overclocking to 3Ghz only brought my temperature up 5 degrees when I maxed out the fans due to the fact that I have 6 fans going through this thing, and my new case has 3 200mm fans and 1 or 2 120mms, so it should keep things pretty cool. Also the case supports water cooling, which will be something I'll look into. If I've got the cash, I still might be able to swing a new mobo and processor as well as new RAM seeing as DDR2 is hard to come by unless you buy a shit motherboard.