What's the bottleneck?

pererace70

Hey everyone,

I need some advice... I want to know what's bringing my system down; since I upgraded my ram from 1gb DDR2/400 to 2gb DDR2/667Mhz and noted that the performance gian was not high at all. Is my CPU perhaps bottlenecking my rig, being a bit outdated now?

Thanks in advance.

I'm running the following system

Pentium D 930
2gb DDR II / 667Mhz
Nvidia 7900GT 512mb

Mannerheim · 07-28-2008, 09:45 | posts: 4,480 | Location: Finland / Helsinki

U dont have a bottleneck. CPU is good and fast enought for 7900 card.

Adding memory wont increase ur overal FPS much. It only helps with loading. So u get more stable fps and faster loading.

pererace70 · 07-28-2008, 09:48 | posts: 8 | Location: South Africa

Thanks,

So when I decided to upgrade, what should I look at first?

The Graphics Card or the CPU?

aircool · 07-28-2008, 09:46 | posts: 13,426 | Location: Devon, In A Little Town.

Its pretty even, parhaps a slight bottleneck if you were to compare it in 3DMark but in real world it should be ok (Maybe 1-5% difference from a higher end cpu).

Could try and get some overclocking done though, that should help aswell

morbias · **Memory**: 6GB HyperX @1600 6-7-6-18

I would go for a new graphics card first, it would make the biggest difference to gaming performance.

pererace70 · 07-28-2008, 10:05 | posts: 8 | Location: South Africa

...so, something like a ATi Radeon HD4850?

I would imagine that card to eclipse my 7900 quite easily and it's not as expensive as, say a GTX 260

http://www.take2.co.za/electronics-a...e-3876164.html

morbias · **Memory**: 6GB HyperX @1600 6-7-6-18

Yes, it looks like great value for money, you can get a good idea of the performance from the guru3d vga charts

Mannerheim · 07-28-2008, 13:38 | posts: 4,480 | Location: Finland / Helsinki

With newest GPU u woud be quite badly slowed by CPU. But still u woud get alot better framerate than with new CPU and old GPU.

U must remember to check ur PSU power also. Pentium D sucks quite alot power and new GPU´s also. I had P D820 with 6800 and 350W Enermax was about 100% usage all the time. I coud not add any other stuff in it or it crashed.

500W with 30A /+12V is totally minimum that i recommend. More W and amps is more futureproof and secure. PSU that run its limits can cause serious injury to ur whole computer.

Candymancan · 07-28-2008, 14:01 | posts: 17

Quote:

Originally Posted by pererace70

Hey everyone,

I need some advice... I want to know what's bringing my system down; since I upgraded my ram from 1gb DDR2/400 to 2gb DDR2/667Mhz and noted that the performance gian was not high at all. Is my CPU perhaps bottlenecking my rig, being a bit outdated now?

Thanks in advance.

I'm running the following system

Pentium D 930
2gb DDR II / 667Mhz
Nvidia 7900GT 512mb

More memory only helps with how fast your system responds too when loading APP's games ect. For example if you play a game like COD4 with 1gb of memory when you go to windows ALT TAB windows will take along time to load up.

If you had 2gb it would improve that. More memory doesnt improve FPS just loading times.

If you want more FPS your gonna have to get a new cpu and video card. I would get a new video card first tho

aircool · 07-28-2008, 14:04 | posts: 13,426 | Location: Devon, In A Little Town.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Candymancan

If you want more FPS your gonna have to get a new cpu and video card. I would get a new video card first tho

Not quite, more memory can and likely will help raise frame rates.

It ussually just helps out the averages and minimum rates which are more hopeful than just raising the highs.

Candymancan · 07-28-2008, 14:21 | posts: 17

Quote:

Originally Posted by aircool

Not quite, more memory can and likely will help raise frame rates.

It ussually just helps out the averages and minimum rates which are more hopeful than just raising the highs.

I guess thats true, it also helps on stutterring in game. I just didnt want him to him think your gonna get like 50fps more from more memory. Some people actually belive that