2500k & 780Ti Bottleneck

[jacquiburn]

CPU _ 2500k
GPU _ asus 780Ti dc2oc
how much should i OC the CPU to make it easy for the GPU?

 

[Bo$$]

I'm running the same setup, I'd assume running around 4.2-4.4GHZ would be enough, however it depends on the game

 

[Aquinus]

What @Bo$$ said. There are many games where you'll even see minimal improvement if you overclock. I would address it as it becomes an issue, otherwise it's just wasted power and heat imho.

 

[MT Alex]

No way in heck a 2500k is going to bottleneck a 780ti, be it stock or OC.

 

[eidairaman1]

Youll want to disconnect from the internet to get rid of your old video card drivers. Before putting new one in

 

[MxPhenom 216]

No way in heck a 2500k is going to bottleneck a 780ti, be it stock or OC.

Yep, except for only being PCIe 2.0 capable.

 

[Bo$$]

No way in heck a 2500k is going to bottleneck a 780ti, be it stock or OC.

It does. If the game is CPU heavy then it can easily do so...

 

[RCoon]

It does. If the game is CPU heavy then it can easily do so...

ANY processor will be a bottleneck to ANY GPU in CPU heavy games. For every other generic game in existence, the 2500K + 780ti is a non issue.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

ANY processor will be a bottleneck to ANY GPU in CPU heavy games. For every other generic game in existence, the 2500K + 780ti is a non issue.

This, and if you are still worried about it, those chips are really easy to OC to ~4.5ghz

 

[Bansaku]

Well, my brother runs an X58/i7 with a Radeon HD7970x2 setup and he has yet to have the CPU bottleneck the GPU, and he games in 1600p. Even with PCIe 2.0 vs the current gen. 3 the difference (for now) is nominal. Unless you are using an old Core 2 or Athlon x2 you shouldn't worry.

It really depends on the type of game you are playing. FPS, simulation, driving, RPG you will have no problems. RTS though, even if the game is optimized for multi-core, will most definitely bog down your system if you have a weak CPU. The Anno series is a good examples of this.

 

[Flibolito]

Modern drivers/APIs are steering away from CPU intensive scenarios. With mantle and the move towards optimized DX11 and DX12 the focus will be on the GPU even in what are current CPU limited games like RTS. I would say a 2500K is plenty and will get a second wind later this year through optimizations. Unless you need a stronger CPU for editing or whatever I would hold out until you notice you need a new chipset. If game performance is not on par with what you want open GPU-z and let it update in background and run windows task manager. Keep an eye on the load graphs. If the GPU is 90%+ it's getting what it needs. If the CPU/RAM graphs are 90%+ you are nearing your upgrade.

Also keep in mind that for gaming a 2500K is plenty right now IMO, especially as the resolution increases (which is happening right now for many people). For a person who multitasks a bunch a 4770K is a world ahead. For example BF4 with 2500K @4.5GHz and 8GB of RAM is butter. But BF4 with those settings running mozilla with 15+ tabs open, recording the gameplay, skype, VLC on another screen adds up and is about where my system starts to show weakness in the CPU/RAM department.

It is all about what you are doing with your system. For me a 2500K is still very solid although I am slowly wishing I had a sweet clocking 2700K in here since I do a good bit of editing and recording now.

 

[Aquinus]

Yep, except for only being PCIe 2.0 capable.

I doubt that will be a bottleneck at 16x @ 2.0.

 

[Slizzo]

my 2500K does quite well with my 780. I'm clocked at 4.5GHz. Basically all I did to OC was set the multi to 45, and increase the volts a touch.

 

[Easy Rhino]

are you talking synthetic benchmarks or actual gameplay? there is simply no way a 2500k will bottleneck a 780 ti during gameplay.

 

[brandonwh64]

2500K should not bottleneck at all. Hell even a I3 wouldn't bottleneck too much

 

[True Christian]

If you can get your i5 2500K to 4.3Ghz then your laughing. Sandy Bridge was such a leap forward over Lynnfield that it made a lot of sense to upgrade to an i5/i7 Sandy Bridge. But the difference between an i5 2500K and a Haswell I5 4670K is 5-10% at best. Our CPUs still rock. I've got mine at 4.5Ghz. I've never had any other CPU for this long. This is how great the i5 2500K still is.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I echo with the above posters. A 2500k clocked to around 4.2ghz would not bottleneck a GTX 780 Ti.

Even in CPU intensive games it can still more than hold it's own against the newer ivy bridge or haswell cpu, since they are not that much faster.

Even at stock their shouldn't be a bottleneck. Chip boosts to 3.8-3.9 alone.

 

[Prima.Vera]

I doubt that will be a bottleneck at 16x @ 2.0.

Unless his gaming at 1600p with 8xMSAA...

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

The only gaming scenario where I've seen a major cpu bottleneck recently was so severe even Haswell couldn't cope.

 

[Jetster]

Unless his gaming at 1600p with 8xMSAA...

Not even then. It would take two cards

 

[Frizz]

OP should specify why he's feeling bottlenecked, could be an unoptimized application/game he's running in which case a CPU overclock can sometimes help.

 

[eidairaman1]

The only gaming scenario where I've seen a major cpu bottleneck recently was so severe even Haswell couldn't cope.

Aka RTS

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Aka RTS

I haven't seen a RTS max all 8 threads.

This was Crysis 3, second level, with e_MergedMeshesInstanceDist = 100. That's a grassy level, and some element of the grass is done on the cpu, and that pushes the animation rendering way out there. For comparison on the previous level cpu usage was 100% on the primary core, up to 75% occasionally on the others. On level 2 the spot with the big field and metro cars with that command it's 100%/98% and it doesn't matter if you have one or two 780s your FPS is the same, epic CPU bottleneck, crazy high temps for a game. But of course this is a modded scenario.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Yeah I have had my 2500K since release and been running it at 4.7GHz since day one. It's stable at 5GHz as well but I have to use too many volts so I prefer to run it at 4.7GHz.

I do need to upgrade my VGA though and add another 8GB of memory.