On P4 3.4 ht, is a X1950XTX a waste?

[9nines]

First, thanks to everyone hat helped me determine my PSU should be enough to handle the X1950XTX. Now my last question, before I buy:

If I have a P4 3.4 ht, with 2 gigabytes of ram, will the CPU be such a bottleneck on an X1950XTX that the video card is a waste and instead I should get an X1900XTX or maybe even an X1900GT instead?

In other words, will me CPU be such a bottleneck that I might get similar performance from an X1900GT as I would an X1950XTX.

I do mind spending the money if the X1950XTX will be better but I hate to waste $100, if CPU bottleneck would make the X1900XTX be just as good or $200 if the X1900GT would be.

Thanks for any opinions and again thanks to all who helped me on determining if my PSU was enough.

 

[brianmanahan]

That's the CPU I've got, and I'm planning on spending about $100 or so on a 7600GT and waiting till I can get a new system with DX10 to get a better card. I figure that your CPU would limit the card somewhat, but I'm not sure how much.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

yes, the cpu will bottleneck, esp if you're playing steam based games which are very cpu dependant. p4's suck at gaming and 3d benchmarks.

 

[adairusmc]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
yes, the cpu will bottleneck, esp if you're playing steam based games which are very cpu dependant. p4's suck at gaming and 3d benchmarks.

:roll:

 

[brianmanahan]

Bah, I've had a P4 3.2 and it's been OK -- well OK enough for me. I'm waiting till things settle for a while and then I'll get a sweet comp.

 

[happy medium]

x1900gt seems like a good match for your cpu.

 

[Lord Banshee]

It depends on the res. What are you going to game at?

 

[9nines]

1600X1200 that is native of my monitor.

 

[Gautama2]

Just overclock it and you'll be straight lol

 

[Maximilian]

No, itll be fine.

 

[imported_Crusader]

3.4 P4 will not bottleneck any video card on the market today.

Sorry to break the news to the doubters here.

 

[JBT]

no its fine esp for 1600x1200

 

[PING]

HardOCP had an article on the effect of CPU speed on games. I think their conclusion is 3.2GHz is the mininum speed when the CPU stop being the bottleneck.


HardOCP - CPUs & Real-World Gameplay Scaling

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: adairusmc

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
yes, the cpu will bottleneck, esp if you're playing steam based games which are very cpu dependant. p4's suck at gaming and 3d benchmarks.

:roll:

what? You deny this? It isn't intel bashing -- it's teh truth'd.

 

[n7]

At 1600x1200, you'll almost never be bottlenecked by CPU.

It's fine, even with a P4.

 

[akshayt]

1)1900XTX will bottleneck your CPU, but a 1900XT will be worth it for you.

2)At the moment you should be able to play games with max settings mostly with a 1900XT especially once you overclock the CPU.

3)Get the 1900XT.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: 9nines
First, thanks to everyone hat helped me determine my PSU should be enough to handle the X1950XTX. Now my last question, before I buy:

If I have a P4 3.4 ht, with 2 gigabytes of ram, will the CPU be such a bottleneck on an X1950XTX that the video card is a waste and instead I should get an X1900XTX or maybe even an X1900GT instead?

In other words, will me CPU be such a bottleneck that I might get similar performance from an X1900GT as I would an X1950XTX.

I do mind spending the money if the X1950XTX will be better but I hate to waste $100, if CPU bottleneck would make the X1900XTX be just as good or $200 if the X1900GT would be.

Thanks for any opinions and again thanks to all who helped me on determining if my PSU was enough.

What motherboard do you have? The X1900 series is PCIe and to my knowledge, there are very few PCIe boards that support 478 processors.

 

[akshayt]

1950XTX could be a waste for your GPU and so could a 1900XTX. You may not get much of a performance difference over 1900XT. You should rather just get a 1900XT and spend the rest for Core 2 Duo.

 

[josh6079]

1)1900XTX will bottleneck your CPU, but a 1900XT will be worth it for you.

What are you talking about?

2)At the moment you should be able to play games with max settings mostly with a 1900XT especially once you overclock the CPU.

Again, what are you talking about?

3)Get the 1900XT.

So you're whole suggestion is that an X1900XTX will bottleneck the CPU, but an X1900XT won't?

1950XTX could be a waste for your GPU and so could a 1900XTX. You may not get much of a performance difference over 1900XT. You should rather just get a 1900XT and spend the rest for Core 2 Duo.

It depends on the game. In either case, an X1950XTX could yeild up to around 20% more performance than an X1900XT, and that's without overclocking.'

You're having troubles with that X1900XT of yours and you should really consider trading me for my X1900GT. It is problem free, you won't be disappointed. Besides, that X1900XT is crap anyway.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: PING
HardOCP had an article on the effect of CPU speed on games. I think their conclusion is 3.2GHz is the mininum speed when the CPU stop being the bottleneck.


HardOCP - CPUs & Real-World Gameplay Scaling

-
These test were done with a 7800gtx. I thought we were talking a x1950xtx? Thats a big difference. My best guesstimate would be you would need a pent 4 @3.7 at least to use the capabilities of a x1950xtx. He's better of with a 7900gt or x1900gt which is about the performance of a 7800gtx.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Somebody tell me why akshayt goes around pimping the X1900XT and Antec NeoHE PSUs considering all the trouble he's had (has?) getting his to work???

Dude, I hate to flame you but you make it too easy. You have absolutely no business offering advice to anyone on these forums. Stick to asking questions. Please.

"X1900XTX will be a waste but the X1900XT might be alright" - WTF??? There's only like a 25MHz core and 50MHz Memory difference between the two. I challenge you to tell the difference during gameplay unless you are comparing benchmark stats.

OP, P4 3.4GHz is fine for gaming with a high-end GPU. Pretty damn fine.

 

[Paratus]

WTF

Crank the rez & eye candy until the card is the bottleneck.

 

[adairusmc]

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
Somebody tell me why akshayt goes around pimping the X1900XT and Antec NeoHE PSUs considering all the trouble he's had (has?) getting his to work???

Dude, I hate to flame you but you make it too easy. You have absolutely no business offering advice to anyone on these forums. Stick to asking questions. Please.

"X1900XTX will be a waste but the X1900XT might be alright" - WTF??? There's only like a 25MHz core and 50MHz Memory difference between the two. I challenge you to tell the difference during gameplay unless you are comparing benchmark stats.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
Somebody tell me why akshayt goes around pimping the X1900XT and Antec NeoHE PSUs considering all the trouble he's had (has?) getting his to work???

Dude, I hate to flame you but you make it too easy. You have absolutely no business offering advice to anyone on these forums. Stick to asking questions. Please.

"X1900XTX will be a waste but the X1900XT might be alright" - WTF??? There's only like a 25MHz core and 50MHz Memory difference between the two. I challenge you to tell the difference during gameplay unless you are comparing benchmark stats.

OP, P4 3.4GHz is fine for gaming with a high-end GPU. Pretty damn fine.

QFT

i think everyone knows by now . . . except akshayt
:Q



kinda sad really

the P4 3.4 is fine with an XTX as long as the resolution is high [16x12] and you crank up the AA/AF to offload as much work to the GPU as possible.

and of course you can always o/c that P4 a couple hundred more mhz.

 

[CP5670]

The CPU limitation issue is blown out of proportion in my experience, at least as far as FPSs go. Last year I played some games with an Opteron 146 at stock speeds and a pair of 7800GTs before pushing the CPU up to 3ghz. While some non-game apps and emulators showed large improvements, I couldn't tell the difference in any modern FPS I tried except for UT2004 (while playing normally rather than benchmarking).

1)1900XTX will bottleneck your CPU, but a 1900XT will be worth it for you.