Because bottlenecking is on everyone’s mind as of late…

[ChinStrap]

I have a p4c Northwood running stock right now @ 2.67 GHz, it’s non H/T – graphics is a 6800 GS OC unlocked and overclocked to 435/1200 16pp/6vs. I have zero complaints about my GPU. It runs great 100% of the time. I think it was worth the 130 bone I spent on it here a couple of months ago now.

Anyway, to the meat.

After looking into a 7800GS AGP to maybe be the next up grade till tax time I was semi-confused. The 7800 GS has 16pp/6vs and runs stock at 400/1250 – in my mind this really wasn’t an upgrade at all from what I am running. Unless the different core architecture really makes that big of a difference?

This got me thinking about my CPU maybe bottlenecking my 6800. I turned the clock back to stock on my p4 and played a couple of hours of COD2 – in the background I had the taskmanger open and had it expanded to be as long as my screen (1440 x 900)– so it would record the CPU usage for like an hour.

When I was done playing and returned to desktop I was astonished to see that my CPU had been running between 90 and 100% most of the time I was gaming.

So… I turned up the clock to 3.2 (the farthest I have ever pushed it) and repeated the same tasks.

Again when returning to desktop the CPU had been running between 70-90% most of the time I was in-game.

I didn’t think a 6800 would do that – I know I have it clocked up pretty good – but still!!!

I guess it’s about time for that e6600 system upgrade.

 

[Mr. $T$]

I would defiently say the Processor will hold you back. Considering the price of highend AGP cards and the processor you have in order to get your money's worth I'd say a PCIe system would be a good option. Keep putting your pennies away then when you have enough green dump it on whatever suits your budget. That's what I did and I'm happy I was patient enough to keep saving.

 

[Hipcrostino]

Games will always run the cpu at 100%.

a 7800GS will increase your fps, but not by enough to justify the cost. I have both (i bought the 7800gs first) so that is my experienced view.

 

[Deadman93723]

Oh yeah, I hate to say it, but P4's are dying faster than AGP is, my 3.0E(Prescott) is running at 3.7Ghz, and my 7800GS running at 500/1450 I know is as close to a bottleneck as you can get without actually having one.

I have to wait awhile before I can upgrade, so it looks like my PC gaming days are numbered. Back to Playstation soon.