Will an E8500 Core2 Duo Bottlenect a HD6950?

M

Maneki Neko

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So, in preparation for BF3 I was thinking about a slight upgrade. I'm currently running a HD4870 at 1680x1050, 4GB DDR2, and a stock E8500 3.16GHz Core 2 Duo. I'd like to stay at 1680x1050 so would an HD6950 be overkill for my CPU and be bottlenecked by it? If so, what would be a good match for my CPU?

.. and yes, I mispelled 'bottleneck' in the thread title.
 
depends on the game.

For BF3, yes most likely.

For something like crysis? probably no
 
Hmm, i don't feel like dishing out $1000 for a system upgrade right now, so what would be a good card to match my existing CPU? and how much improvement would I see over my HD4870?
 
If BF3 is anything like BC2, it will pretty much require a quad.

I suggest finding a used Q9550 or similar.
 
Thanks for the responses. Didn't take too much looking around to see how much frostbite favors quad cores. Seeing as a quad core LGA775 will run around $200 (the same as an i5 Sand Bridge), I might as well look into a new mobo and some RAM.
 
Heya, my suggestion is go for the i5-2500k sandy bridge. Just finished my upgrade from a Q9550 and it is amazing! Overclocked to 4.6Ghz with one click. It may have been partly the upgrade to 8gb of ram that helped too but I got a frame rate increase in BC2 of over 40fps!! One the most dramatic upgrades I have had. And this is with the same GTX 260 core216 that I had before. I cant wait til next payday when I complete the upgrade with a new vidcard. On the fence between a 560 Ti 2GB and a 6950. The 560 Ti is a bit cheaper allowing me to get another in sli a lot quicker but I have heard pretty good things about the 6950. I am leaning a bit more to the ASUS GTX 560Ti DirectCUII TOP at the moment due to how cool they are supposed to run and how much OC potential they are supposed to have.
 
Getting some good info here. I think rather than trying to update my semi-dated system, I'll sell it while I can get some decent cash for it still. I'm probably looking at selling my current components for around $250-$300 and spending about $700 on new stuff. I'm looking at the i5-2500K plus aftermarket cooler maybe a Hyper 212+, new mobo, 8GB DDR3, and probably an HD6950.

I would like some advice on a mobo. Doesn't need anything special, just quality components, single x16 PCI-e slot (maybe 2 depending on price difference but I'm not anticipating going to crossfire), full sized ATX.

Also, for those with HD6950 or similar, how hot do they run and how loud are their stock cooling systems? So, basically I'm wondering which of all of the different cooling systems these manufacturers use work best without sounding like a jet engine.
 
Be aware that q6600's are bottlenecks in BC2 multiplayer... I should know, I have one. Just upgraded to a 2600k myself to fix that problem.

edit: I would look at the Asus P8P67 -- it's fairly feature rich for the price. I'm running the P8Z68-V Pro myself (nearly the same board, slightly more features).
 
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