• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

E5200 + 5850 = bottleneck

anonemus

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
183 (0.03/day)
Location
Davao City, Philippines
System Name Perpetual Upgrade Rig
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 3.5Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte G31M-S2C
Cooling Scythe Ninja Plus, rev. B
Memory 2x2GB Kingston KVR DDR2-800
Video Card(s) Powercolor HD4650 1GB DDR3
Storage WD Caviar Blue 320GB SATA
Display(s) Acer X233H 23" 1080p LCD
Case Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply OCZ ModXStream-Pro 500W (soon: Antec TPN 650)
Software Windows XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit
Hello, folks!

I was chugging along with my Palit HD4850 Sonic 512MB paired with my OCd Intel E5200 @ 3.5Ghz when I suddenly won a Gigabyte HD5850 1GB OC card in an internet contest. I'm a budget gamer and uses a 23" 1080p LCD monitor.

I know my E5200 is not that powerful, but how bottenecked am I really? I mostly play FPS, racing games and my son likes RTS. OCing to 3.5Ghz really helps in games.

If I OC to 4Ghz can I still chug along?
 
Last edited:

dies900

New Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
93 (0.02/day)
Location
Estonia
System Name 24/7 system
Processor core i7-2600 @ max turbo
Motherboard Asus p8p67 evo @103 mhz
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory Kingston valueram 1333 c8 4x2 gb(low height) @ 1378 mhz
Video Card(s) club3d hd5850(975/1200)
Storage 2x samsung hd502hj (raid0)
Display(s) LG 2342p-pn
Audio Device(s) amd hdmi output
Power Supply chieftech 700-14cs
Software windows 7 64bit
higher oc always helps.
dont know how much are you bottlenecked cause from my experience whatever you are oc-ing performance rises anyway.
I have e8500 and I guess I am bottlenecked too cause if I do a vantage run @ 3.8 ghz gpu score 19100 and when I oc to 4 ghz I get 19700 and games run much much smoother.
so yeah it helps but how much bottlenecked wait until anyone with quad core answers:D
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
601 (0.11/day)
Location
Ireland.
You'd probably hit more FPS if you did OC to 4Ghz. But is it causing an issue? Are you getting poor FPS?
And what cooling are you using for that E5200? If you want to OC it further, chances are you might need a better HSF.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
2,076 (0.39/day)
System Name Omen
Processor i7-4710HQ
Cooling Dual fan/heatpipe
Memory 16GB
Video Card(s) 4GB GTX 860M
Storage 256GB PCIE SSD/256GB PNY UHS-1 SD Card
Display(s) 15.6' 1080P
Case Aluminium
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Brick
Software Win 10
Probably not, buy a nice cooler and OC that e5200 to 4ghz. I'm running a e7400 @ 3.6ghz with two 8800 ultra's in SLi, they are just a bit slower than a single 5850 and i don't experience any bottleneck at all. All should be well.
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
355 (0.06/day)
Location
Canberra Australia
Processor i5 750 4.2ghz 1.4V
Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P
Cooling Corsair H70
Memory 2X2G Gskill @2140 8-11-8-28-1T
Video Card(s) 2xGainward Phantom3 570@860/4200
Storage 2xWD 500G AAKS Raid0 + 2XWD 1T Green in Raid0
Display(s) 24" HP w2408h+23" HP w2338h
Case SilverStone Raven2E-B
Audio Device(s) onboard for now
Power Supply Antec 1000W Truepower quattro
Software Win7 Ultimate 64bit
bottlenecks caused by CPU really don't matter unless you care about benchmark ratings, games run smooth with better CPUs and your graphics card will run as smooth with your E5200, for most games that is. But a few titles rely heavily on CPU, overclocking always helps for this situation.
 

anonemus

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
183 (0.03/day)
Location
Davao City, Philippines
System Name Perpetual Upgrade Rig
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 3.5Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte G31M-S2C
Cooling Scythe Ninja Plus, rev. B
Memory 2x2GB Kingston KVR DDR2-800
Video Card(s) Powercolor HD4650 1GB DDR3
Storage WD Caviar Blue 320GB SATA
Display(s) Acer X233H 23" 1080p LCD
Case Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply OCZ ModXStream-Pro 500W (soon: Antec TPN 650)
Software Windows XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit
higher oc always helps.
dont know how much are you bottlenecked cause from my experience whatever you are oc-ing performance rises anyway.
I have e8500 and I guess I am bottlenecked too cause if I do a vantage run @ 3.8 ghz gpu score 19100 and when I oc to 4 ghz I get 19700 and games run much much smoother.
so yeah it helps but how much bottlenecked wait until anyone with quad core answers:D

Can't seem to reach 4Ghz as my Kingston Value Rams DDR2-800 can't reach 1Ghz. I believe I need 1066 RAMs. I cant test Vantage as I don't have net access at home :(

You'd probably hit more FPS if you did OC to 4Ghz. But is it causing an issue? Are you getting poor FPS?
And what cooling are you using for that E5200? If you want to OC it further, chances are you might need a better HSF.

I'm using a Scythe Ninja Plus, rev. B. Very cool even at low RPM for its 120mm fan. For FPS and racing games, I v-sync and set settings to max, and get consistent 60fps. Except when I load RTS games, FPS is around 30. Is my CPU limiting me? Or is 30PFS what most RTS play on?

Probably not, buy a nice cooler and OC that e5200 to 4ghz. I'm running a e7400 @ 3.6ghz with two 8800 ultra's in SLi, they are just a bit slower than a single 5850 and i don't experience any bottleneck at all. All should be well.

This is my Scythe. It's still a decent performer, no?



What games do you usually play? At what resolution?

bottlenecks caused by CPU really don't matter unless you care about benchmark ratings, games run smooth with better CPUs and your graphics card will run as smooth with your E5200, for most games that is. But a few titles rely heavily on CPU, overclocking always helps for this situation.

I really don't care much about benchmarks. All I really want is consistent 60fps (v-synced) on my 1920x1080 monitor with most games on max settings, even if on 0AA.

So my E5200 is enough for now if OCd to 4Ghz?
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
355 (0.06/day)
Location
Canberra Australia
Processor i5 750 4.2ghz 1.4V
Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P
Cooling Corsair H70
Memory 2X2G Gskill @2140 8-11-8-28-1T
Video Card(s) 2xGainward Phantom3 570@860/4200
Storage 2xWD 500G AAKS Raid0 + 2XWD 1T Green in Raid0
Display(s) 24" HP w2408h+23" HP w2338h
Case SilverStone Raven2E-B
Audio Device(s) onboard for now
Power Supply Antec 1000W Truepower quattro
Software Win7 Ultimate 64bit
Yes a lot RTS games capped @ 30FPS, and for most games a better CPU will not help frame per second, I mean sure it will gives like 1~2 fps' increment but it sure doesn't worth the effort right? But there are a few games rely on CPU more than graphics card like the supreme commander, but other than those games you are totally fine.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
2,076 (0.39/day)
System Name Omen
Processor i7-4710HQ
Cooling Dual fan/heatpipe
Memory 16GB
Video Card(s) 4GB GTX 860M
Storage 256GB PCIE SSD/256GB PNY UHS-1 SD Card
Display(s) 15.6' 1080P
Case Aluminium
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Brick
Software Win 10
Yeah, it should be enough. The e5/6/7/8 are great performers and overclockers. It should be fine!
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
355 (0.06/day)
Location
Canberra Australia
Processor i5 750 4.2ghz 1.4V
Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P
Cooling Corsair H70
Memory 2X2G Gskill @2140 8-11-8-28-1T
Video Card(s) 2xGainward Phantom3 570@860/4200
Storage 2xWD 500G AAKS Raid0 + 2XWD 1T Green in Raid0
Display(s) 24" HP w2408h+23" HP w2338h
Case SilverStone Raven2E-B
Audio Device(s) onboard for now
Power Supply Antec 1000W Truepower quattro
Software Win7 Ultimate 64bit
Ah, and you can always turn down your ram multi just for CPU to go higher and. You can try a different OC on your ram with lower frequency and also lower latencies, not always a bad thing.
 

anonemus

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
183 (0.03/day)
Location
Davao City, Philippines
System Name Perpetual Upgrade Rig
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 3.5Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte G31M-S2C
Cooling Scythe Ninja Plus, rev. B
Memory 2x2GB Kingston KVR DDR2-800
Video Card(s) Powercolor HD4650 1GB DDR3
Storage WD Caviar Blue 320GB SATA
Display(s) Acer X233H 23" 1080p LCD
Case Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply OCZ ModXStream-Pro 500W (soon: Antec TPN 650)
Software Windows XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit
@gaximodo -- I thought the latest Supreme Commander will be a resource hog, surprisingly my previous Palit 4850 Sonic gave me 60fps on max settings at 1080 gaming. I've been trying every combination but with my current rig, I can only hit 3.75Ghz game-stable

@ 1nf -- do you think it's worthy to go to E7xxx or E8xxx or should I just make sure I hit 4Ghz stably by upgrading my DDR2800 RAMs to 1066?
 

dies900

New Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
93 (0.02/day)
Location
Estonia
System Name 24/7 system
Processor core i7-2600 @ max turbo
Motherboard Asus p8p67 evo @103 mhz
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory Kingston valueram 1333 c8 4x2 gb(low height) @ 1378 mhz
Video Card(s) club3d hd5850(975/1200)
Storage 2x samsung hd502hj (raid0)
Display(s) LG 2342p-pn
Audio Device(s) amd hdmi output
Power Supply chieftech 700-14cs
Software windows 7 64bit
Its probably enough @ 3.5 too.
yeah the 4 ghz can be tricky:D
and if you cant go 4 ghz oc the graphic card itself some pixels per second helps too with high quality image:).
There is no point of upgrading from core2duo to core2duo of you thinking of upgrade go for quadcore:)
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
355 (0.06/day)
Location
Canberra Australia
Processor i5 750 4.2ghz 1.4V
Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P
Cooling Corsair H70
Memory 2X2G Gskill @2140 8-11-8-28-1T
Video Card(s) 2xGainward Phantom3 570@860/4200
Storage 2xWD 500G AAKS Raid0 + 2XWD 1T Green in Raid0
Display(s) 24" HP w2408h+23" HP w2338h
Case SilverStone Raven2E-B
Audio Device(s) onboard for now
Power Supply Antec 1000W Truepower quattro
Software Win7 Ultimate 64bit
All I'm saying is your current CPU isn't that bad, games you can't maxed most likely won't be maxed with a better CPU, if you really have to upgrade (yeah the upgrade itch we all suffer it) go with something really makes a difference, probably a quad-core. Even the E8x00 will not give you noticeable performance gain in games.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
2,076 (0.39/day)
System Name Omen
Processor i7-4710HQ
Cooling Dual fan/heatpipe
Memory 16GB
Video Card(s) 4GB GTX 860M
Storage 256GB PCIE SSD/256GB PNY UHS-1 SD Card
Display(s) 15.6' 1080P
Case Aluminium
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Brick
Software Win 10
@gaximodo -- I thought the latest Supreme Commander will be a resource hog, surprisingly my previous Palit 4850 Sonic gave me 60fps on max settings at 1080 gaming. I've been trying every combination but with my current rig, I can only hit 3.75Ghz game-stable

@ 1nf -- do you think it's worthy to go to E7xxx or E8xxx or should I just make sure I hit 4Ghz stably by upgrading my DDR2800 RAMs to 1066?

The e7xxx series are great performers. An e7400 is almost as good a a top end e8600. I'm at 3.6ghz with stock cooling. 31 degrees celcius idle, 52 degrees celcius at load! If you put your scythe you should easily get 4ghz, maybe even more with great temps. If you can I would upgrade as the l2 cache on the e7400 also helps a lot with performance! I would upgrade if I were you!
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
2,076 (0.39/day)
System Name Omen
Processor i7-4710HQ
Cooling Dual fan/heatpipe
Memory 16GB
Video Card(s) 4GB GTX 860M
Storage 256GB PCIE SSD/256GB PNY UHS-1 SD Card
Display(s) 15.6' 1080P
Case Aluminium
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Brick
Software Win 10
All I'm saying is your current CPU isn't that bad, games you can't maxed most likely won't be maxed with a better CPU, if you really have to upgrade (yeah the upgrade itch we all suffer it) go with something really makes a difference, probably a quad-core. Even the E8x00 will not give you noticeable performance gain in games.

He's not talking about performance in games, if you cpu is too slow it cannot provide information fast enough to your gpu, causing bottleneck. A cpu has to process millions of numbers which are 0 and 1, the faster your processor the faster the information goes to your gpu. If your cpu cannot provide information fast enough, this ultimately causes bottleneck.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
355 (0.06/day)
Location
Canberra Australia
Processor i5 750 4.2ghz 1.4V
Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P
Cooling Corsair H70
Memory 2X2G Gskill @2140 8-11-8-28-1T
Video Card(s) 2xGainward Phantom3 570@860/4200
Storage 2xWD 500G AAKS Raid0 + 2XWD 1T Green in Raid0
Display(s) 24" HP w2408h+23" HP w2338h
Case SilverStone Raven2E-B
Audio Device(s) onboard for now
Power Supply Antec 1000W Truepower quattro
Software Win7 Ultimate 64bit
which he cares only about the cpu processing zeroes and ones in games, which called gaming performance in layman's term, and no it will not bottleneck the GPU for most of the games.

Edit: and I kindly didn't quote your CPU process 1 and 2's statement which made me laugh for a while, thank you. I was very hungry and much better now :D
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
2,076 (0.39/day)
System Name Omen
Processor i7-4710HQ
Cooling Dual fan/heatpipe
Memory 16GB
Video Card(s) 4GB GTX 860M
Storage 256GB PCIE SSD/256GB PNY UHS-1 SD Card
Display(s) 15.6' 1080P
Case Aluminium
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Brick
Software Win 10
:shadedshuPeople make mistakes...we aren't perfect
 

anonemus

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
183 (0.03/day)
Location
Davao City, Philippines
System Name Perpetual Upgrade Rig
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 3.5Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte G31M-S2C
Cooling Scythe Ninja Plus, rev. B
Memory 2x2GB Kingston KVR DDR2-800
Video Card(s) Powercolor HD4650 1GB DDR3
Storage WD Caviar Blue 320GB SATA
Display(s) Acer X233H 23" 1080p LCD
Case Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply OCZ ModXStream-Pro 500W (soon: Antec TPN 650)
Software Windows XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit
Guys, thanks for the replies!

I'm just relieved that my E5200 can still hack it when OCd. I'll try upgrading my RAMs to 1066 and/or go for an E7xxx if someone will sell a used proc cheaply.
 

dies900

New Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
93 (0.02/day)
Location
Estonia
System Name 24/7 system
Processor core i7-2600 @ max turbo
Motherboard Asus p8p67 evo @103 mhz
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory Kingston valueram 1333 c8 4x2 gb(low height) @ 1378 mhz
Video Card(s) club3d hd5850(975/1200)
Storage 2x samsung hd502hj (raid0)
Display(s) LG 2342p-pn
Audio Device(s) amd hdmi output
Power Supply chieftech 700-14cs
Software windows 7 64bit
I gotta say I upgraded from 4870 1gb to 5850 1gb and seriously I havent seen holy crap improvements everything improved only when I oc-d graphic card to 1000/1250 so I guess there is cpu bottleneck cause 5850 should be twice as powerful improvements have been just there where you only need graphics card calculating power but when you need all of the components working as one team there has been very little improvement.I´m just saying thats my experience:)
 

anonemus

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
183 (0.03/day)
Location
Davao City, Philippines
System Name Perpetual Upgrade Rig
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 3.5Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte G31M-S2C
Cooling Scythe Ninja Plus, rev. B
Memory 2x2GB Kingston KVR DDR2-800
Video Card(s) Powercolor HD4650 1GB DDR3
Storage WD Caviar Blue 320GB SATA
Display(s) Acer X233H 23" 1080p LCD
Case Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply OCZ ModXStream-Pro 500W (soon: Antec TPN 650)
Software Windows XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit
I believe you, dies900. But since my 5850 is brand new, I won't stress it yet for a few weeks ;)
 

dies900

New Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
93 (0.02/day)
Location
Estonia
System Name 24/7 system
Processor core i7-2600 @ max turbo
Motherboard Asus p8p67 evo @103 mhz
Cooling Noctua NH-D14
Memory Kingston valueram 1333 c8 4x2 gb(low height) @ 1378 mhz
Video Card(s) club3d hd5850(975/1200)
Storage 2x samsung hd502hj (raid0)
Display(s) LG 2342p-pn
Audio Device(s) amd hdmi output
Power Supply chieftech 700-14cs
Software windows 7 64bit
Thats a wise thing to do:D
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
601 (0.11/day)
Location
Ireland.
@gaximodo -- I thought the latest Supreme Commander will be a resource hog, surprisingly my previous Palit 4850 Sonic gave me 60fps on max settings at 1080 gaming. I've been trying every combination but with my current rig, I can only hit 3.75Ghz game-stable

@ 1nf -- do you think it's worthy to go to E7xxx or E8xxx or should I just make sure I hit 4Ghz stably by upgrading my DDR2800 RAMs to 1066?

From a 5200, its not really worth upgrading any further. I have a E7200, and while the extra cache helps in some applications, it probably wont help your games much. its not worth the money for you.

How about switching from linked to unlinked for your OC, you might be able to push the CPU a little higher then.
 

anonemus

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
183 (0.03/day)
Location
Davao City, Philippines
System Name Perpetual Upgrade Rig
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 3.5Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte G31M-S2C
Cooling Scythe Ninja Plus, rev. B
Memory 2x2GB Kingston KVR DDR2-800
Video Card(s) Powercolor HD4650 1GB DDR3
Storage WD Caviar Blue 320GB SATA
Display(s) Acer X233H 23" 1080p LCD
Case Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply OCZ ModXStream-Pro 500W (soon: Antec TPN 650)
Software Windows XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit
@roast -- unfortunately my Gigabyte mobo (G31 chipset) doesn't give me the option to unlink my CPU and RAM speed.

Do you think going for a Q8xxx proc will help me in games?
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
355 (0.06/day)
Location
Canberra Australia
Processor i5 750 4.2ghz 1.4V
Motherboard Gigabyte P55-UD4P
Cooling Corsair H70
Memory 2X2G Gskill @2140 8-11-8-28-1T
Video Card(s) 2xGainward Phantom3 570@860/4200
Storage 2xWD 500G AAKS Raid0 + 2XWD 1T Green in Raid0
Display(s) 24" HP w2408h+23" HP w2338h
Case SilverStone Raven2E-B
Audio Device(s) onboard for now
Power Supply Antec 1000W Truepower quattro
Software Win7 Ultimate 64bit
Only NV boards have linked and unlinked options, and upgrading your ram is waste of money seriously, it won't help OC if you have already tried lower multi, it's most likely your board can't withstand higher FSB, or there are not enough volts on your NB and such, (haven't OCed a C2D for ages, you might need helps on overclocking your CPU and MB.)
 

anonemus

New Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
183 (0.03/day)
Location
Davao City, Philippines
System Name Perpetual Upgrade Rig
Processor Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 3.5Ghz
Motherboard Gigabyte G31M-S2C
Cooling Scythe Ninja Plus, rev. B
Memory 2x2GB Kingston KVR DDR2-800
Video Card(s) Powercolor HD4650 1GB DDR3
Storage WD Caviar Blue 320GB SATA
Display(s) Acer X233H 23" 1080p LCD
Case Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply OCZ ModXStream-Pro 500W (soon: Antec TPN 650)
Software Windows XP Pro SP3 / Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit
@ gax -- some users with exactly the same proc and mobo as mine are able to reach 4Ghz with 1066 RAMs. But your point makes sense that going from 3.75 to 4 might be a waste of money if I change RAMs...
 
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
601 (0.11/day)
Location
Ireland.
Do you think going for a Q8xxx proc will help me in games?

Yes, but I think the price/added performance ratio would be good enough to justify the purchase..

Only NV boards have linked and unlinked options, and upgrading your ram is waste of money seriously, it won't help OC if you have already tried lower multi, it's most likely your board can't withstand higher FSB, or there are not enough volts on your NB and such, (haven't OCed a C2D for ages, you might need helps on overclocking your CPU and MB.)
Agreed. New RAM would be a waste of cash I think.
 
Top