[Baini]

Hello there!

I have a little problem with my rig. At the moment I might think that my PSU is broken, but it's on RMA and that doesnt really matter for this question.

What I was wondering is if my 955 will act as a bottleneck for my CF 5870 setup. I've been told so from one site, but I see that many people prefer to put this CPU together with both 2 and 3-way CF. So if it's not my PSU that is bricked, then what might it be?

My rig:
Gigabyte 790FXTA-UD5
AMD Athlon II X4 [email protected]
Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz CL8 (4x2GB)
2x XFX Radeon HD5870 1GB (one stock one 'XXX')
The PSU wich is not really important, but it is a 850W MIST (Norwegian brand)

 

[Devilmaypoop]

Yeah, there will be a bottleneck. You can probably completely eliminate it by overclocking it to 3.7-4ghz and 2600mhz-2800mhz IMC.

 

[Baini]

Ok, so overclocking the CPU I know how to do, had it on 3.7Ghz before. But I'm not so sure what you mean by the IMC, as far as my googling gave me info it's Integrated Memory Controller. What more do you mean by that?

Also I was told that having 4 RAM-bricks would hinder my overclocking capabilities. Was also told that the northbridge might need some clock. Haven't touched any of those with positive results yet.

But I suppose that the time is right to buy a Noctua NH-D14 to cool it off.

 

[Devilmaypoop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baini Ok, so overclocking the CPU I know how to do, had it on 3.7Ghz before. But I'm not so sure what you mean by the IMC, as far as my googling gave me info it's Integrated Memory Controller. What more do you mean by that? Also I was told that having 4 RAM-bricks would hinder my overclocking capabilities. Was also told that the northbridge might need some clock. Haven't touched any of those with positive results yet.

IMC is the same as CPU/NB, which you can overclock. Yes, having all dimms populated usually hinders overclocking a little.

 

[Baini]

I don't have to replace any coolers on the NB? Also there wont be much hindering with 4 dimms filled compared to 2 or?

 

[Devilmaypoop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baini I don't have to replace any coolers on the NB? Also there wont be much hindering with 4 dimms filled compared to 2 or?

Nope, the NB you are overclocking is actually on the CPU, not the motherboard. It has been somewhy named CPU/NB instead of IMC. It will be cooled with your CPU.

Well having only 2 dimms might get you better results. It depends. What kind of RAM do you have?

 

[Baini]

Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz CL8. It says it's not compatible with my motherboard, apparently my shop don't know much of RAM and MB compability.

 

[sccr64472]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baini Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz CL8. It says it's not compatible with my motherboard, apparently my shop don't know much of RAM and MB compability.

That doesn't mean that it won't perform great with your setup. The compatibility lists are never complete and some vendors don't even send ram to get verified with the board makers.

 

[Devilmaypoop]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sccr64472 That doesn't mean that it won't perform great with your setup. The compatibility lists are never complete and some vendors don't even send ram to get verified with the board makers.

Yeah. DDR3 is just DDR3 and they usually work on every board that supports any DDR3.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

You left out a key part, which was screen or screens.

If you're running 1 1080p screen you'll be cpu limited in most titles.

If you're running 3 900p or higher screens you'll be gpu limited in most titles.

The best way to answer your own question is to use a program to monitor gpu usage with vsync off while you play whatever games you play. Just remember the cpu doesn't need to be at 100% for it to be the limiting factor, there are several factors at play here, such as how many cores the game can use.

 

[222Panther222]

Before overclocking, if your not sure if your cpu bottleneck you or not, run the game in 800x600 and if you do not have higher fps (40 and higher) that mean your cpu bottleneck. The cpu have the same task at low or high resolution, but the gpu do not, if you have almost the same fps at low res that mean the cpu can't do enough operations per sec to feed the two gpu.

 

[Furrby]

My sig rig is bottlenecked bad but im waiting to see how bulldozer performs to decide on my next upgrade.

 

[Baini]

I'm using a 1920x1080 22" screen, a BenQ T2210HD. So i'll see when I recieve my new PSU and CPU-cooler