Will Cpu bottleneck Gfx?

Willymuncher

Hey guys, I've just ordered the XFX 6800GS 256mb Agp graphics card from komplett to replace my fx5700 and now I'm starting to wonder a little, will my Athlon Xp Barton 2600 hold the card back much from performing to its best ability? I see a decrease in performance in todays games, and I'm not entirely sure if its all down to my old card or if my processor is pushing it a little, I don't really have much of an idea when it comes to this and I lack the cash to upgrade everything, do you think it'd be capable of running call of duty 2? quake 4? (not too bothered about fear) reasonably well? I have 1gb of ram...so thats not really a problem. I'd like to hear views of people who know their stuff....a few mates of mine are telling me I shouldn't expect much in terms of a performance boost :-/.

SouperComputer

Oh you'll see an improvement alright, but yes the CPU will be holding it back a little. The FXs series are generally duff, so that card should be a decent jump.

Of course, if you have a good mobo, you can get a decent cooler and overclock!

Personally, id cancel the order and grab a used 9800pro

K.O.Kiki

SouperComputer wrote:

Oh you'll see an improvement alright, but yes the CPU will be holding it back a little. The FXs series are generally duff, so that card should be a decent jump.

Of course, if you have a good mobo, you can get a decent cooler and overclock!

Personally, id cancel the order and grab a used 9800pro

I'm guessing you mean "grab a used 9800Pro as it's more suited to an elderly processor", eh?

ShiverinEskimo

I think he means you'll see as much an improvement with a 9800 pro as you will with the 6800 due to your CPU..if you're planning on upgrading yoru CPU in the near future tho - stick with your 6800.

SouperComputer

A 9800pro will give you a massive improvement and cost you as little as 80-100 euro.

Willymuncher

Ah okay thanks for replying lads, I suppose I'll see soon enough what the performance is like, I won't expect too much.

conzy

Have a look at these benchmarks, they show performance of the 6800 series of cards with various athlon xp processers

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/half-life_2_athlon_xp/page5.asp

As you can see the card is limited by your cpu but it manages a very smooth 46fps at 1600*1200 with 4*AA and 8*AF in Half life 2, what more could you want;)

Willymuncher

Woah, thats actually a lot better than I'm currently getting on Half Life 2, course its a GT they tested, but even going by the plain old 6800...its still miles better than I currently get. Thanks a lot for that.