Bottlenecking?

[Dr. Rick Dagless M.D.]

So, anyone honestly knowledgable about this topic? I understand the basic principal, you're only as fast as your slowest component...Very simple to understand...But I want to know with greater specificity what this is all about.

A short while ago, I got my GTX260, and I did a handful of tests to look at framerates and image quality settings I ran 3dmark06 and for the first time scored [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGzLKKe6TzU"]over 9000[/ame] ...but I'm looking at my system and thinking how old the CPU is relative to today, and how It may be a hindrance in my performance.

I've heard varying things, that there is no such thing, that you may be limited by a single component, but visual processing and CPU are somewhat seperate.

 

[Not-Z]

There are many ways to see this. Bottlenecking is something that is "situational".

If you have a GTX 260, and are running it with P4 processor yes, you are bottlenecked. There are Core 2's and Core Quads. Some will say having Core 2 will bottleneck, some will not.

It's all about spending money and making wise upgrades that YOU CAN AFFORD. Tech is always evolving as everyone can see and it's making smart decision to where you spend your money.

 

[Dr. Rick Dagless M.D.]

It's actually an Athlon X2 5000+ 2.6 GHz Windsor core. I think with one video card I'm fine, but if I bought a second one, which I intend to do eventually...that the system would be bottlenecked.

 

[Not-Z]

I thknk that is a dual core if I'm not mistaken. And if it is, it's not really a "bottleneck". Maybe getting higher clock speed by either overclocking or just buying a new cpu would get you better results but I don't see that as a bottleneck but that's just my opinion.

It's all about the usage, are you just gaming? Are you doing photo/movie editiong? It's your personal usage that can also be seen as a "bottleneck".

Something I read a few years ago and it read "Are you no longer satisfied with the performance with your rig? Can you no longer run the newer application?"
That is when you know you've been bottlenecked by one or more components.
That is how I determine what I need for my computer and choose the upgrade path. I think it is very important to factor those in, my mother will never need a pimping graphic card or 4 gigs of memory for what she does on her computer. If anything, she can still be using Pentium 2 for what she does with her computer (calculations, inet).

For your CPU specifically, yes, it is quiet outdated without a doubt, but are you looking to play the newer upcoming games? If so, are they graphically heavy? or processing heavy? maybe even both. If not, are you happy with your rigs performance? or is it slower than a fat dog? It's really all in the eye of the beholder. While some bottleneck is just extremely appearant, some are about personal preference. I deem your rig fine as is, although I actually think GTX 260 is an overkill for now.

If you so choose to go with a better processor, and if you have an AM2+ mobo. Check your vendors website to see if it has an update for the new Phenoms. Yes they are not performing as well as Intel counterparts but you don't need to buy another mother board and still see 4 cores in your rig.

 

[warshy]

i thought bottlenecking was a myth once...till my friend bought a 8800gt coupled with his old school athlon (not an X2)

he actually had stutters in source games (so sad i know)

but in your situation, you have a dual core, so any bottlenecking that occurs isn't going to be noticeable

 

[Josey Wales]

Your GTX260 should be getting much higher scores than that (unless you're running aa or something that doesn't come with the free version you should be in between mid teens easily). You are definitely bottlenecked somewhere (or something is not right), but I find it hard to be your cpu. Something doesn't seem right, but without more info it will be hard to pinpoint.

 

[Dr. Rick Dagless M.D.]

I think driver maturity is an issue...but yeah, I sort of expected a slightly higher score...not that synthetic benches mean that much...A lot of my components are slow relative to hardware released in the last several months...I have a pair of 7200rpm hdds, 2 gigs ddr2 800 ram, and the video card mentioned and the processor, on an nforce 570 chipset mobo.

 

[Josey Wales]

I think driver maturity is an issue...but yeah, I sort of expected a slightly higher score...not that synthetic benches mean that much...A lot of my components are slow relative to hardware released in the last several months...I have a pair of 7200rpm hdds, 2 gigs ddr2 800 ram, and the video card mentioned and the processor, on an nforce 570 chipset mobo.

You probably nailed it, sorry I didn't think of it. The rest all seems more than reasonable, but if you are thinking of sli'ing that bad boy (which I wouldn't), you would be better off replacing the cpu and motherboard and going intel. Or you could just go phenom if the 570 allows it (not sure). The rest of your system wouldn't be bottlenecking you unless you are benchmarking competitively.

 

[Dr. Rick Dagless M.D.]

I have something of a slow upgrade path in mind, one component after another to build up to a new system. I could put a phenom in the socket, in fact at one point that was what I planned to do, but I might get an intel CPU with a more modern xxxi nforce chipset.

 

[Havegooda {A|R}]

Wow, that's bad. My 3870 got 13k on stock clocks on 06...

OC your CPU a bit more and give it a shot?

~Gooda~