cpu-vid card ??

[Todorov]

How do you know if your cpu is bottlenecking the video card or the video card bottlenecking the cpu ?? im confused, i have a64 3000+6600gt is this bottlenecked?

 

[coomar]

the article your looking for:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/digest3d/index0502.html

 

[imported_Kensai]

Nope, your system isn't even close to being bottlenecked.

 

[UzairH]

I assume when you talk about bottlenecking, its in games. As a general statement one can say that you need a CPU and GPU to balance each other. For instance if you have a 1.8 GHz P4 with a 6800 Ultra you're gonna be severely CPU limited. You should have a modern A64 to take advantage of such a powerful GPU. Otherwise the CPU would reach its fps limit long before the GPU would.

Remember what we are looking for is the CPU and GPU should reach their fps limit at about the same time. In fact, it is better to be GPU limited than CPU limited, since the GPU plays a more central role in games. Generally you will find that the latest games like Doom 3 are more GPU limited, while older ones like Quake 3 and UT2003 are more CPU limited.

In your case, you have a pretty decent CPU as well as mid-high end vid card. I don't see you getting CPU limited in all but a few of the older games and flight-sims like MS Flight Simulator, which is extremely CPU limited. But don't sweat it, your CPU should handle any setting the GPU is running just fine.

 

[Todorov]

ok thanks for replies

 

[Todorov]

Originally posted by: UzairH
For instance if you have a 1.8 GHz P4 with a 6800 Ultra you're gonna be severely CPU limited.

Yeah thats actually what i want to know, how do you know what CPU speed will bottleneck the video cards?

i mean if you got a new video card how do you know what speed of CPU that wont bottleneck the video card?


and my a64 is 1.8 ghz too ...

 

[kurt454]

When you lower all graphic settings in a game, even drop to 640x480, and the game still has a choppy framerate, then you know your cpu can't pump out the data fast enough. A fast cpu keeps minimum framerate up.

 

[coomar]

ATTENTION! This issue is dedicated to the dependence of performance on CPU (and system) clock rates in the HEAVY MODES with 4X ANTIALIASING and 16X ANISOTROPY!

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/digest3d/index0502.html

 

[JBird7986]

Just out of curiosity, anyone here think I will have a bottleneck if I go from what I've got to the next "latest and greatest"? (i.e. G70-R520? NOTE: AGP)

 

[Todorov]

Originally posted by: JBird7986
Just out of curiosity, anyone here think I will have a bottleneck if I go from what I've got to the next "latest and greatest"? (i.e. G70-R520? NOTE: AGP)

id like to know that too

 

[kylebisme]

It depends on the situation, some games require more CPU than others.

 

[Todorov]

ok so the only way you can know, you have to test it yourself to see if the system is bottlenecked or not at high resolution right?

 

[kurt454]

If every game you play can maintain a good minimum framerate, then do not worry about bottlenecking.

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
It depends on the situation, some games require more CPU than others.

Yes, especially unreal engine based games.

 

[RussianSensation]

It's safe to say there will most likely be some degree of cpu bottlenecking even in high resolutions (ie. HL2); just in general. Still, what matters, is how severe it is. For games, as long as you have above P4 3.0ghz or A64 3000+, with these processors or above, getting a faster videocard nets a much greater benefit in games. As long as this condition remains true, then there is little worry about cpu bottlenecking. The article linked shows that A64 1800mhz is sufficient enough to meet such a condition. In other words, when cpu bottlenecking is present, you have to evaluate how much of a performance increase are you happy with if you get a new videocard. For instance, if G70 gives you 80% of its increase as opposed to 100% because of the slower cpu, is it stillw worth it? what about 60/40/20%? You get the idea. A good frame of reference would be to see what resolution and settings you prefer to play at and see how much cpu speed matters at those specific settings.

In your case the 6600GT is the bottleneck in general.

 

[aka1nas]

well, technically you will always have a bottleneck as either the GPU or CPU will be faster than the other one. The only reason that you should care is that if there is an extreme difference then you won't be using your hardware very efficiently. I.E. for an extreme example, lets say you only have a 1Ghz Pentium 3 and somehow managed to get a 6800 Ultra working with it. You would a powerful video card but the CPU would be too wimpy to keep it fed with data to process. In other words, yeah you have a nice card but you wasted $500 on a card as your game performance will still be very low due to the slow CPU. You would have been better have getting a less expensive card and a CPU/mobo upgrade in such a case.

 

[palouse]

Originally posted by: Todorov
How do you know if your cpu is bottlenecking the video card or the video card bottlenecking the cpu ?? im confused, i have a64 3000+6600gt is this bottlenecked?

Has anybody tried using Task Manager in WinXP? When game FPS are going down, turn on Task Manager, Performance tab, and ensure 'CPU Usage History' is enabled. After playing through a 'slow' portion of the game, go to Task Manager, and review the History. Was the CPU 'pegged', or 100% utilized for long periods? (The graph shows plateaus at the 100% level.) If so, then CPU bound.

My son would try to play WC3 on a 1.7 Celeron system with a TI-4200. He would turn on massive maps with 11 computer players. It would slow down 10 minutes into the game, and lock up at 15. It was easy enough to see that the CPU was pegged using Task Mgr.