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A Question About Bottlenecking a 7970.

post #1 of 14
8/19/12 at 12:28pm
Thread Starter 
Hello everyone, I have been browsing this quite interesting forum. I can only say about the tons, and tons of info, and knowledge I got surfing this wonderful community. It was about time I joined in the fun.

I had a question in mind regarding my will to upgrade my GPU (again). I have had the same rig for a good amount of time. It served me well, but one thing that I always did was change the graphics card. I went through a GT 210 (Which came with it) to a GT 240, to a GTX 280, then I joined the ATI family with my 5870. And now I plan to buy a Gigabyte 7970 OC edition ( With the 3 fans).

My Specs are:

PSU: Mercury ATX 180 / 1200w
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q8300 @ 2.5 GHZ
Cooling: I forgot what is the manufacturer of the fan, but is a aftermarket heatsink and a fan for the CPU. Not the stock one.
RAM: 3GB DDR3 1333

Will my CPU, and/or Ram bottleneck the 7970?


*Note: The Cpu is not overclocked, would that be necessary? I have read that overclocking a Q8300 is not a wise decision. Specially that I have never done this before.

Thanks for everyone who took the time to read through my unnecessary wall of text. I cherish this community, and forums for the amount of help and intelligence that goes through the boards.
Edited by Enemity - 8/19/12 at 1:05pm
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post #2 of 14
8/19/12 at 12:30pm
Yes it will.
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post #3 of 14
8/19/12 at 12:31pm
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What part of it? The CPU or the RAM? Would it help if I overclock the CPU?
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post #4 of 14
8/19/12 at 12:38pm
Mostly the CPU, if you overclock it it will help, but to utilize it you should pair the new card with a newer chipset. If you can find something used, get sandy bridge i5 or i7 k edition and overclock it. If you're a big spender get a 3770k but you must have exceptional cooling for IB
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post #5 of 14
8/19/12 at 12:41pm
only way to ddr 2 3 gbis 2x 1gb and 2x 512 Mb making sure to pair .anything less=no ddr 2.i would up ram first to 4gb or 8 if is support it.then from there make plan
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post #6 of 14
8/19/12 at 12:44pm
Get 4gb-8gb of ram.And if the cpu cooler is decent try to get to 3ghz+
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post #7 of 14
8/19/12 at 12:47pm
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My motherboard does not support the newer chips. I will be getting a new motherboard and CPU soon.

How much of a decrease I am going to feel?

Will I be able to run most games on 1920x1080p Max settings? Or I would have to make sacrifices?
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post #8 of 14
8/19/12 at 6:33pm
You would see more in game gains by keeping your 5870, upgrading the CPU/Mobo/Ram than if you slapped a 7970 in your current rig.
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post #9 of 14
8/20/12 at 1:47am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DB006 View Post

You would see more in game gains by keeping your 5870, upgrading the CPU/Mobo/Ram than if you slapped a 7970 in your current rig.

I know where your coming from, but I just stumbled upon this article. http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-cpu-scaling-performance-review/2

It shows that with the Athlon II X4 645, which is pretty equivalent to my Q8300. The 7970 only suffers a very, very small performance drop compared to i5, and i7 CPU's.

What are your thoughts on this? I am very confused right now. I am regretting ordering the 7970 so bad right now.
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post #10 of 14
8/20/12 at 1:54am
I've had a 6970 on a Q9450, but the 9450 is probably a better clocked.

i ran the cpu at 3.0~ghz and it didnt bottleneck the 6970.
but thats a pci-e2.0 spec card. it did run everything maxed at 1080p, even BF3, with 30~60 fps.
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