Hello guys. For many times i just upgraded my GPU, GTX 570, GTX 670, GTX 770, GTX 780ti and now i have an EVGA GTX 980 SC. But my CPU remains the same, an i7 950 @3,20 Ghz with a Gigabyte X58A-UD3R with 6GB of RAM DDR3-1333 in triple channel. My CPU is good enough for the GTX 980, or it gives me some bottleneck? Is there any way to measure it? Tks.
The only sure way to measure it would be to use another CPU and compare the results. But I guess you'd be okay with one card. But there could be bottlenecking already, I'm not sure myself, but there will be one especially if you plan on going to SLI later down the road.
Tks for the reply. I don't pretend SLI even because i also would need to change my PSU, and all the new VGAs seems to need less power then the ones before. I hope the CPU is enough. I see that more RAM would bee good too.
Why dont you clock the cpu to 4ghz, that speed should be alright for that video card, though it may be a bottleneck but not enough to give you a bad gaming experience.
Because, i think, my GPU can't handle that. The Zalman is rated to deliver 460W, and when i overclock the CPU i think the whole system will need more then the GPU can deliver....or not?
In all honesty, I don't know that I would trust putting a 980 with that PSU...if something were to happen to your supply (short out, over power, etc) it could take that GPU with it. My personal recommendation, get a nice 750W or so if you only plan on 1 card, 1000W or so if you plan on SLI'ing in the future. The power supply in my opinion is the single most important item in your build. Without it, nothing will function. Get a cheap one, and it can blow your whole system. So to recap, get a new PSU and OC your 950. I was running a 940 at 3.5 with my 770 4GB and didn't run into any bottlenecking (not quite the same but close).
I don't think your CPU is really the bottleneck here. Putting a GTX 780 and now a GTX 980 on a 460 watt PSU is really stressing your PSU. You are lucky it ran and didn't overheat and eventually get damaged. The first thing you should do is upgrade your PSU. Make it's at least a 750 watt 80 PLUS Bronze. Later on, increase your RAM to 8 GB minimum.
Run some realtime monitoring like MSI AB and run the cpu cores/threads using the OSD (on screen display). If your cpu is maxxing out 100% then it could be bottlenecking your card. So Overclock your cpu to as much as you can (i can help you with this if you do not know) then run agame again and retest using the same method.
You could always grab a better Power Supply and downgrade to the GTX 970. The 970 pretty much man handles any video game at 1080p as it is.
