ok guys, I have general question about my dual quad core xeons I'm running in my system wich are both xeon x5450 cpu's. my question is would they be adaquete to run a modern video card such as a gtx 970? they handle well my 570 so far and every game I play on my pc runs good so far. I do have to turn settings down on some of the newer games such as far cry 4 and gta 5 for example.
One thing I do want to mention though I have seen my cpu utilization go past 55% on a game as of yet and they usually hover between 40 and 50 % depending on the game.
and if posted this in the wrong section please move it mods. thank you.
thanks in advance.
I think your rig should be able to run a 970 with not much problems at all. As long as you are running a respectable Panel like 1080p or higher and use high/ultra settings it will reduce your CPU bottleneck. CPU bottleneckss usually rear their ugly head at lower resolutions and low settings when the card want to pump out 100+ FPS and the CPU cannot keep up..if you load the GPU a lot to the point the card is straining to do 60 fps CPU bottlenecks do not show as much.
As for the power supply requirements the 970 is a pretty power friendly card and uses around 150 watts under normal gaming loads. So as long as you have a decent PSU it will work.
Also if you install the 970 and your CPU/rig has problems keeping up then you know it is time to upgrade your rig. If money is tight any thing used from a 2500/2600k or 3570,3770k rig will work fantastic and keep up with a Haswell rig in gaming. My 2600K at 4.6-5.0 ghz has no problem with its 2 EVGA GTX 770 classified 4gb cards running anything on my LG 34" UM95 21/9 monitor at 3440-1440 resolution. The gaming difference between Sandy bridge,Ivy bridge and Haswell is around 5%. This is why my 4+ year old rig can still hang with brand new rigs and has been the best CPU I have ever bought
