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

Motherboard hunting.

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman
Joined
Jul 2, 2007
Messages
40,435 (6.61/day)
Location
Republic of Texas (True Patriot)
System Name PCGOD
Processor AMD FX 8350@ 5.0GHz
Motherboard Asus TUF 990FX Sabertooth R2 2901 Bios
Cooling Scythe Ashura, 2×BitFenix 230mm Spectre Pro LED (Blue,Green), 2x BitFenix 140mm Spectre Pro LED
Memory 16 GB Gskill Ripjaws X 2133 (2400 OC, 10-10-12-20-20, 1T, 1.65V)
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon 290 Sapphire Vapor-X
Storage Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, WD Velociraptor 1TB
Display(s) NEC Multisync LCD 1700V (Display Port Adapter)
Case AeroCool Xpredator Evil Blue Edition
Audio Device(s) Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply Seasonic 1250 XM2 Series (XP3)
Mouse Roccat Kone XTD
Keyboard Roccat Ryos MK Pro
Software Windows 7 Pro 64
Erm a mobo change would cost less considering he can get a sli capable board and 2 vc for less than a cpu, Board and 2 vc considering intel fetches a riduculous price for something that only shows perf gain in synth tests but real world isnt better than a Sandybridge chip...
 

de.das.dude

Pro Indian Modder
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
8,757 (1.74/day)
Location
Stuck in a PC. halp.
System Name Monke | Work Thinkpad| Old Monke
Processor Ryzen 5600X | Ryzen 5500U | FX8320
Motherboard ASRock B550 Extreme4 | ? | Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling 240mm Rad | Not needed | hyper 212 EVO
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB | 16 GB DDR4 3600 | 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s) Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB | Vega 8 | Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) | some samsung SSD
Display(s) Dell 2723DS | Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS | Dell 2240L
Case Ant Esports Tempered case | Thinkpad | Antec
Audio Device(s) Logitech Z333 | Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply Corsair RM750e | not needed | Corsair GS 600
Mouse Logitech G400 | nipple
Keyboard Logitech G213 | stock kb is awesome | Logitech K230
VR HMD ;_;
Software Windows 10 Professional x3
Benchmark Scores There are no marks on my bench
Maybe its just me, but 2x660 sli would be much better for gaming improvement compare to platform change. Let see 10-20% improvement maybe in some cases because of new cpu+mb. Up to +90% from sli. If your goal is gaming with better fps, i would go sli.
p.s. can u borrow another 660 just to try it?
thats just dreaming dude. you can never get more than 80% sli scaling on a good day. expect 50-70% as an average. also. nvidia cards have their sudden death issue which will mean 2x the chance of failure with SLI.

i bought a sli/crossfire board. but decided single cards are worth way more.

also when you finally upgrade from an sli you will not get back your investment as its already too old or probably broken.
 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,226 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
I think changing to a 4690k would probably be best. I just gotta find a AM3+ board to see if my FX-6300 is dead or not.
 
Joined
Mar 31, 2014
Messages
1,533 (0.42/day)
Location
Grunn
System Name Indis the Fair (cursed edition)
Processor 11900k 5.1/4.9 undervolted.
Motherboard MSI Z590 Unify-X
Cooling Heatkiller VI Pro, VPP755 V.3, XSPC TX360 slim radiator, 3xA12x25, 4x Arctic P14 case fans
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB 4000 16-19-19 (b-die@3600 14-14-14 1.45v)
Video Card(s) EVGA 2080 Super Hybrid (T30-120 fan)
Storage 970EVO 1TB, 660p 1TB, WD Blue 3D 1TB, Sandisk Ultra 3D 2TB
Display(s) BenQ XL2546K, Dell P2417H
Case FD Define 7
Audio Device(s) DT770 Pro, Topping A50, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, Røde VXLR+, Modmic 5
Power Supply Seasonic 860w Platinum
Mouse Razer Viper Mini, Odin Infinity mousepad
Keyboard GMMK Fullsize v2 (Boba U4Ts)
Software Win10 x64/Win7 x64/Ubuntu
Any news about that RMA? Asus not accepting it?
 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,226 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
Any news about that RMA? Asus not accepting it?
I've gotta go and check up on it. I'll do that now.

EDIT: Nope. It's over the 30-day thing so NewEgg won't RMA it.
 

XSI

Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Messages
390 (0.09/day)
Location
Vilnius. Lithuania
System Name Mother PC/XSI PC/ Laptop
Processor I3 6100 Skylake@3.7/Intel Core2Duo E8400@3.0-3.7Ghz/Amd sempron 2100+
Motherboard B150M MSI Night ELF/ASUS P5Q PRO P45/
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212/ X 2
Memory Kingston HyperX Fury 2x4GB DDR4@2133 Dual channel /Adata 2x2 GB DDR2@800 dual channel/ 2,5GB
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Windforce 950GTX/MSI 8800GT OC Zilent edition@660/1650/950 / ATI Radeon x1250
Storage 1pc:240GB SSD Kingston HyperX Fury/2PC:Intel 330 SSD 60GB/Samsung 500 GB/Samsung 320GB/80 GB
Display(s) LG 22MP58VQ 1920x1080/ Samsung 2232BW - 22" 1680X1050 and LG Full HDTV 50" / 15" 1280x800
Case Deepcool Tesseract Red/ Modded no name case
Audio Device(s) Realtec 1150/Creative X-FI, Xtreme Gamer + Samsung 5.1 HT + additional 4 speakers and subwoofer
Power Supply EVGA 500B Bronze 80+/ Chieftek 650W 80+.
Mouse Cheapo 5$ mouse/ trackpad :)
Keyboard Some cheap 10$
Software Windows 10/Win 10/ Win 8.1
Benchmark Scores later :)
thats just dreaming dude. you can never get more than 80% sli scaling on a good day. expect 50-70% as an average..
i had litteraly 100% Sli scaling in many games with 8800gt (crysis 20 one 40+ in sli, cod4 40+ one 70-80+ for sli. ut3 same. world in conflict 90+% ). it was 6 years ago. so please dont tell me they got worse over the years. if scaling is 50-70% something else in the system has an effect. so maybe i got lucky but i had wonderful experience with my sli setup. except for micro stuttrler.
 
Joined
Feb 18, 2006
Messages
5,147 (0.78/day)
Location
AZ
System Name Thought I'd be done with this by now
Processor i7 11700k 8/16
Motherboard MSI Z590 Pro Wifi
Cooling Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4, 9x aigo AR12
Memory 32GB GSkill TridentZ Neo DDR4-4000 CL18-22-22-42
Video Card(s) MSI Ventus 2x Geforce RTX 3070
Storage 1TB MX300 M.2 OS + Games, + cloud mostly
Display(s) Samsung 40" 4k (TV)
Case Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic EVO Black
Audio Device(s) onboard HD -> Yamaha 5.1
Power Supply EVGA 850 GQ
Mouse Logitech wireless
Keyboard same
VR HMD nah
Software Windows 10
Benchmark Scores no one cares anymore lols
I've gotta go and check up on it. I'll do that now.

EDIT: Nope. It's over the 30-day thing so NewEgg won't RMA it.
Should be able to go to the manufacturer for an RMA then. So you need to open a ticket with Asus.
 

de.das.dude

Pro Indian Modder
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
8,757 (1.74/day)
Location
Stuck in a PC. halp.
System Name Monke | Work Thinkpad| Old Monke
Processor Ryzen 5600X | Ryzen 5500U | FX8320
Motherboard ASRock B550 Extreme4 | ? | Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling 240mm Rad | Not needed | hyper 212 EVO
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB | 16 GB DDR4 3600 | 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s) Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB | Vega 8 | Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) | some samsung SSD
Display(s) Dell 2723DS | Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS | Dell 2240L
Case Ant Esports Tempered case | Thinkpad | Antec
Audio Device(s) Logitech Z333 | Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply Corsair RM750e | not needed | Corsair GS 600
Mouse Logitech G400 | nipple
Keyboard Logitech G213 | stock kb is awesome | Logitech K230
VR HMD ;_;
Software Windows 10 Professional x3
Benchmark Scores There are no marks on my bench
i had litteraly 100% Sli scaling in many games with 8800gt (crysis 20 one 40+ in sli, cod4 40+ one 70-80+ for sli. ut3 same. world in conflict 90+% ). it was 6 years ago. so please dont tell me they got worse over the years. if scaling is 50-70% something else in the system has an effect. so maybe i got lucky but i had wonderful experience with my sli setup. except for micro stuttrler.

explain this please
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2365/12

 
  • Like
Reactions: XSI
Joined
Mar 31, 2014
Messages
1,533 (0.42/day)
Location
Grunn
System Name Indis the Fair (cursed edition)
Processor 11900k 5.1/4.9 undervolted.
Motherboard MSI Z590 Unify-X
Cooling Heatkiller VI Pro, VPP755 V.3, XSPC TX360 slim radiator, 3xA12x25, 4x Arctic P14 case fans
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB 4000 16-19-19 (b-die@3600 14-14-14 1.45v)
Video Card(s) EVGA 2080 Super Hybrid (T30-120 fan)
Storage 970EVO 1TB, 660p 1TB, WD Blue 3D 1TB, Sandisk Ultra 3D 2TB
Display(s) BenQ XL2546K, Dell P2417H
Case FD Define 7
Audio Device(s) DT770 Pro, Topping A50, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, Røde VXLR+, Modmic 5
Power Supply Seasonic 860w Platinum
Mouse Razer Viper Mini, Odin Infinity mousepad
Keyboard GMMK Fullsize v2 (Boba U4Ts)
Software Win10 x64/Win7 x64/Ubuntu
CPU Bottleneck
 
  • Like
Reactions: XSI

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,226 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
Well my laptop charger just came in, so no more AIO bs. (Yay)
 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,226 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
Okay, so a family friend might be able to get me an i7 for cheap. So now I need a motherboard that'll go with an i7 4770k/4790k with a budget of $125.
 
Last edited:

XSI

Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Messages
390 (0.09/day)
Location
Vilnius. Lithuania
System Name Mother PC/XSI PC/ Laptop
Processor I3 6100 Skylake@3.7/Intel Core2Duo E8400@3.0-3.7Ghz/Amd sempron 2100+
Motherboard B150M MSI Night ELF/ASUS P5Q PRO P45/
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212/ X 2
Memory Kingston HyperX Fury 2x4GB DDR4@2133 Dual channel /Adata 2x2 GB DDR2@800 dual channel/ 2,5GB
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Windforce 950GTX/MSI 8800GT OC Zilent edition@660/1650/950 / ATI Radeon x1250
Storage 1pc:240GB SSD Kingston HyperX Fury/2PC:Intel 330 SSD 60GB/Samsung 500 GB/Samsung 320GB/80 GB
Display(s) LG 22MP58VQ 1920x1080/ Samsung 2232BW - 22" 1680X1050 and LG Full HDTV 50" / 15" 1280x800
Case Deepcool Tesseract Red/ Modded no name case
Audio Device(s) Realtec 1150/Creative X-FI, Xtreme Gamer + Samsung 5.1 HT + additional 4 speakers and subwoofer
Power Supply EVGA 500B Bronze 80+/ Chieftek 650W 80+.
Mouse Cheapo 5$ mouse/ trackpad :)
Keyboard Some cheap 10$
Software Windows 10/Win 10/ Win 8.1
Benchmark Scores later :)
"explain this" cpu bottleneck and another reason very early test even before crysis was out. i used my system with e8400@3.8 and about 6-8 month after this review.OP enjoy your new system.
 

de.das.dude

Pro Indian Modder
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
8,757 (1.74/day)
Location
Stuck in a PC. halp.
System Name Monke | Work Thinkpad| Old Monke
Processor Ryzen 5600X | Ryzen 5500U | FX8320
Motherboard ASRock B550 Extreme4 | ? | Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling 240mm Rad | Not needed | hyper 212 EVO
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB | 16 GB DDR4 3600 | 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s) Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB | Vega 8 | Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) | some samsung SSD
Display(s) Dell 2723DS | Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS | Dell 2240L
Case Ant Esports Tempered case | Thinkpad | Antec
Audio Device(s) Logitech Z333 | Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply Corsair RM750e | not needed | Corsair GS 600
Mouse Logitech G400 | nipple
Keyboard Logitech G213 | stock kb is awesome | Logitech K230
VR HMD ;_;
Software Windows 10 Professional x3
Benchmark Scores There are no marks on my bench
CPU Bottleneck
Yes. In doubt it. You probably haven't heard of an and tech. But their scores are as reliable as can be. Look at the test setup. Its not being bottle necked.
 
Joined
Mar 31, 2014
Messages
1,533 (0.42/day)
Location
Grunn
System Name Indis the Fair (cursed edition)
Processor 11900k 5.1/4.9 undervolted.
Motherboard MSI Z590 Unify-X
Cooling Heatkiller VI Pro, VPP755 V.3, XSPC TX360 slim radiator, 3xA12x25, 4x Arctic P14 case fans
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB 4000 16-19-19 (b-die@3600 14-14-14 1.45v)
Video Card(s) EVGA 2080 Super Hybrid (T30-120 fan)
Storage 970EVO 1TB, 660p 1TB, WD Blue 3D 1TB, Sandisk Ultra 3D 2TB
Display(s) BenQ XL2546K, Dell P2417H
Case FD Define 7
Audio Device(s) DT770 Pro, Topping A50, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, Røde VXLR+, Modmic 5
Power Supply Seasonic 860w Platinum
Mouse Razer Viper Mini, Odin Infinity mousepad
Keyboard GMMK Fullsize v2 (Boba U4Ts)
Software Win10 x64/Win7 x64/Ubuntu
Anandtech make great reviews, but at least for the CoD4 one I am 100% certain it is a CPU bottleneck. The game runs on a single thread and an X6800 is far from great in single thread performance. My 3.2GHz ivy bridge CPU struggles to keep the game running at over 150FPS, so taking into account the older architecture of the CPU used in the benchmarks, and the fact that they don't seem to have overclocked it (so it runs at 2.93GHz) I would be surprised if that is not the bottleneck.

It also coincides with the fact that the lower 3 resolutions tested the SLI setup gives about the same FPS, while the single cards are already falling off slightly.
 

de.das.dude

Pro Indian Modder
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
8,757 (1.74/day)
Location
Stuck in a PC. halp.
System Name Monke | Work Thinkpad| Old Monke
Processor Ryzen 5600X | Ryzen 5500U | FX8320
Motherboard ASRock B550 Extreme4 | ? | Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling 240mm Rad | Not needed | hyper 212 EVO
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB | 16 GB DDR4 3600 | 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s) Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB | Vega 8 | Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) | some samsung SSD
Display(s) Dell 2723DS | Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS | Dell 2240L
Case Ant Esports Tempered case | Thinkpad | Antec
Audio Device(s) Logitech Z333 | Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply Corsair RM750e | not needed | Corsair GS 600
Mouse Logitech G400 | nipple
Keyboard Logitech G213 | stock kb is awesome | Logitech K230
VR HMD ;_;
Software Windows 10 Professional x3
Benchmark Scores There are no marks on my bench
i doubt its a CPU bottleneck the core 2 duo extremes were great in their day. if there is something wrong it might be drivers. nothing else. and i doubt a good driver will make a huge difference.

you are comparing mobile CPU with desktop. which are very very different. your mobile CPU never gives peak performance because it is thermally restricted and it keeps throttling down.

and in any case newer cards arent supplied with as good drivers as before. neither are the newer games coded as efficiently.
hence 80% max at best. that too subjected to high resolutions.

since most cards can already play the demanding games at ultra at 1080p for a very reasonable price of around 200$ i dont think SLI is specially useful. not at this time.
 
Joined
Mar 31, 2014
Messages
1,533 (0.42/day)
Location
Grunn
System Name Indis the Fair (cursed edition)
Processor 11900k 5.1/4.9 undervolted.
Motherboard MSI Z590 Unify-X
Cooling Heatkiller VI Pro, VPP755 V.3, XSPC TX360 slim radiator, 3xA12x25, 4x Arctic P14 case fans
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB 4000 16-19-19 (b-die@3600 14-14-14 1.45v)
Video Card(s) EVGA 2080 Super Hybrid (T30-120 fan)
Storage 970EVO 1TB, 660p 1TB, WD Blue 3D 1TB, Sandisk Ultra 3D 2TB
Display(s) BenQ XL2546K, Dell P2417H
Case FD Define 7
Audio Device(s) DT770 Pro, Topping A50, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, Røde VXLR+, Modmic 5
Power Supply Seasonic 860w Platinum
Mouse Razer Viper Mini, Odin Infinity mousepad
Keyboard GMMK Fullsize v2 (Boba U4Ts)
Software Win10 x64/Win7 x64/Ubuntu
During the tests I was running I had the CPU pinned to 3.2GHz and it was not by any means thermally restricted. Maximum temperatures in game were rarely over 65c. The only game I have played that the CPU can't maintain 3.2GHz is BF3, where I have to downclock it to 3.1GHz to avoid a TDP throttling scenario.

The x6800 is a dual core, but since ioquake is single threaded that doens't really make a difference (I think it is safe to assume that there were no background programs eating up CPU time), but given that the architecture has lower IPC than ivy bridge and runs at a lower clock speed than my CPU, on top of the possibility of other restrictions (memory bottlenecking, PCIe, etc) I would not at all be surprised if it is something other than the GPUs that is limiting the SLI (and even the singe card) setups at the lower resolutions.

Now for the OP, I would suggest getting a single card later on (GTX 870 or AMD equivalent) rather than another 660. I don't really see the point in having SLI outside the top end GPUs.

For the board I would suggest spending $15 extra and getting a Z97x-UD3H, Z97x-gaming5, or Z97-A. Even though you are not a big overclocker, it is so easy on Haswell that there is no excuse not to.
 
Last edited:

XSI

Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Messages
390 (0.09/day)
Location
Vilnius. Lithuania
System Name Mother PC/XSI PC/ Laptop
Processor I3 6100 Skylake@3.7/Intel Core2Duo E8400@3.0-3.7Ghz/Amd sempron 2100+
Motherboard B150M MSI Night ELF/ASUS P5Q PRO P45/
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212/ X 2
Memory Kingston HyperX Fury 2x4GB DDR4@2133 Dual channel /Adata 2x2 GB DDR2@800 dual channel/ 2,5GB
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Windforce 950GTX/MSI 8800GT OC Zilent edition@660/1650/950 / ATI Radeon x1250
Storage 1pc:240GB SSD Kingston HyperX Fury/2PC:Intel 330 SSD 60GB/Samsung 500 GB/Samsung 320GB/80 GB
Display(s) LG 22MP58VQ 1920x1080/ Samsung 2232BW - 22" 1680X1050 and LG Full HDTV 50" / 15" 1280x800
Case Deepcool Tesseract Red/ Modded no name case
Audio Device(s) Realtec 1150/Creative X-FI, Xtreme Gamer + Samsung 5.1 HT + additional 4 speakers and subwoofer
Power Supply EVGA 500B Bronze 80+/ Chieftek 650W 80+.
Mouse Cheapo 5$ mouse/ trackpad :)
Keyboard Some cheap 10$
Software Windows 10/Win 10/ Win 8.1
Benchmark Scores later :)
"and in any case newer cards arent supplied with as good drivers as before. neither are the newer games coded as efficiently.
hence 80% max at best"
that's a good point. anyway there were few games that liked 3.5Ghz+ on the cpu 3.0 and 3.5+ had some difference.
you backed your point with proof, but that straight line with 2x8800gt surely CPU bottleneck. I think we can finish this, it doesn't really matter as OP decided to go for new platform and our sli debate is not worth it anymore.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
6,874 (1.02/day)
Location
USA
System Name Computer of Theseus
Processor Intel i9-12900KS: 50x Pcore multi @ 1.18Vcore (target 1.275V -100mv offset)
Motherboard EVGA Z690 Classified
Cooling Noctua NH-D15S, 2xThermalRight TY-143, 4xNoctua NF-A12x25,3xNF-A12x15, 2xAquacomputer Splitty9Active
Memory G-Skill Trident Z5 (32GB) DDR5-6000 C36 F5-6000J3636F16GX2-TZ5RK
Video Card(s) EVGA Geforce 3060 XC Black Gaming 12GB
Storage 1x Samsung 970 Pro 512GB NVMe (OS), 2x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB (data 1 and 2), ASUS BW-16D1HT
Display(s) Dell S3220DGF 32" 2560x1440 165Hz Primary, Dell P2017H 19.5" 1600x900 Secondary, Ergotron LX arms.
Case Lian Li O11 Air Mini
Audio Device(s) Audiotechnica ATR2100X-USB, El Gato Wave XLR Mic Preamp, ATH M50X Headphones, Behringer 302USB Mixer
Power Supply Super Flower Leadex Platinum SE 1000W 80+ Platinum White
Mouse Zowie EC3-C
Keyboard Vortex Multix 87 Winter TKL (Gateron G Pro Yellow)
Software Win 10 LTSC 21H2
If you want to save cash and don't mind losing overclocking, sli, and other features you could go with the cheaper chipsets.
 

de.das.dude

Pro Indian Modder
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
8,757 (1.74/day)
Location
Stuck in a PC. halp.
System Name Monke | Work Thinkpad| Old Monke
Processor Ryzen 5600X | Ryzen 5500U | FX8320
Motherboard ASRock B550 Extreme4 | ? | Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling 240mm Rad | Not needed | hyper 212 EVO
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB | 16 GB DDR4 3600 | 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s) Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB | Vega 8 | Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) | some samsung SSD
Display(s) Dell 2723DS | Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS | Dell 2240L
Case Ant Esports Tempered case | Thinkpad | Antec
Audio Device(s) Logitech Z333 | Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply Corsair RM750e | not needed | Corsair GS 600
Mouse Logitech G400 | nipple
Keyboard Logitech G213 | stock kb is awesome | Logitech K230
VR HMD ;_;
Software Windows 10 Professional x3
Benchmark Scores There are no marks on my bench
During the tests I was running I had the CPU pinned to 3.2GHz and it was not by any means thermally restricted. Maximum temperatures in game were rarely over 65c. The only game I have played that the CPU can't maintain 3.2GHz is BF3, where I have to downclock it to 3.1GHz to avoid a TDP throttling scenario.

The x6800 is a dual core, but since ioquake is single threaded that doens't really make a difference (I think it is safe to assume that there were no background programs eating up CPU time), but given that the architecture has lower IPC than ivy bridge and runs at a lower clock speed than my CPU, on top of the possibility of other restrictions (memory bottlenecking, PCIe, etc) I would not at all be surprised if it is something other than the GPUs that is limiting the SLI (and even the singe card) setups at the lower resolutions.

Now for the OP, I would suggest getting a single card later on (GTX 870 or AMD equivalent) rather than another 660. I don't really see the point in having SLI outside the top end GPUs.

For the board I would suggest spending $15 extra and getting a Z97x-UD3H, Z97x-gaming5, or Z97-A. Even though you are not a big overclocker, it is so easy on Haswell that there is no excuse not to.
the clocks are straight does not mean that its running at full potential. you can lock a chip to 3GHz and it will only consume full power when it is needed not when its not under load. what happens in laptop is they lay back the load a bit. not just underclock.

also as i mentioned before mobile hardware and desktop hardware cannot be compared.

my laptop too runs a quadcore at 2.4ghz, an a crossfire of 7670m. but comparing that to real 7670 cfx is just foolish. it can only run things in high not ultra.
 
Joined
Feb 18, 2006
Messages
5,147 (0.78/day)
Location
AZ
System Name Thought I'd be done with this by now
Processor i7 11700k 8/16
Motherboard MSI Z590 Pro Wifi
Cooling Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4, 9x aigo AR12
Memory 32GB GSkill TridentZ Neo DDR4-4000 CL18-22-22-42
Video Card(s) MSI Ventus 2x Geforce RTX 3070
Storage 1TB MX300 M.2 OS + Games, + cloud mostly
Display(s) Samsung 40" 4k (TV)
Case Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic EVO Black
Audio Device(s) onboard HD -> Yamaha 5.1
Power Supply EVGA 850 GQ
Mouse Logitech wireless
Keyboard same
VR HMD nah
Software Windows 10
Benchmark Scores no one cares anymore lols
i doubt its a CPU bottleneck the core 2 duo extremes were great in their day. if there is something wrong it might be drivers. nothing else. and i doubt a good driver will make a huge difference.

you are comparing mobile CPU with desktop. which are very very different. your mobile CPU never gives peak performance because it is thermally restricted and it keeps throttling down.

and in any case newer cards arent supplied with as good drivers as before. neither are the newer games coded as efficiently.
hence 80% max at best. that too subjected to high resolutions.

since most cards can already play the demanding games at ultra at 1080p for a very reasonable price of around 200$ i dont think SLI is specially useful. not at this time.

look at the graph! the 8800gt sli at 1280x1024 is just a few frames higher than 2560x1600! ie it is just barely faster at 1.3 megapixels than it is at 4 megapixels! 3x the pixels to generate!

So yeah at everything up to 2560x1600 a CPU bottleneck is present. This is normal, GPU's have outpaced CPU's ever since the Voodoo, Geforce, and Radeon lines launched. So you would need a newer cpu to go with the older 8800gt sli to avoid a cpu bottleneck. That being said I don't think there is much of one at 2560x1600 at which point the single 8800gt is hovering just above 50 and the sli is hovering just above 80. 60% for unreal, ~ 50% for COD4. Drivers could make up for the difference, but I still think 80% for 8800gt sli would be max. I have seen up to 90% on my GTX 480 sli, but that's several generations more that they've had to refine it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: XSI

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,226 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
There goes the main topic. :(
 
Joined
Mar 31, 2014
Messages
1,533 (0.42/day)
Location
Grunn
System Name Indis the Fair (cursed edition)
Processor 11900k 5.1/4.9 undervolted.
Motherboard MSI Z590 Unify-X
Cooling Heatkiller VI Pro, VPP755 V.3, XSPC TX360 slim radiator, 3xA12x25, 4x Arctic P14 case fans
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB 4000 16-19-19 (b-die@3600 14-14-14 1.45v)
Video Card(s) EVGA 2080 Super Hybrid (T30-120 fan)
Storage 970EVO 1TB, 660p 1TB, WD Blue 3D 1TB, Sandisk Ultra 3D 2TB
Display(s) BenQ XL2546K, Dell P2417H
Case FD Define 7
Audio Device(s) DT770 Pro, Topping A50, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, Røde VXLR+, Modmic 5
Power Supply Seasonic 860w Platinum
Mouse Razer Viper Mini, Odin Infinity mousepad
Keyboard GMMK Fullsize v2 (Boba U4Ts)
Software Win10 x64/Win7 x64/Ubuntu
the clocks are straight does not mean that its running at full potential. you can lock a chip to 3GHz and it will only consume full power when it is needed not when its not under load. what happens in laptop is they lay back the load a bit. not just underclock.

also as i mentioned before mobile hardware and desktop hardware cannot be compared.

my laptop too runs a quadcore at 2.4ghz, an a crossfire of 7670m. but comparing that to real 7670 cfx is just foolish. it can only run things in high not ultra.
7670m =/= 7670... The same way the GTX 670m is not the same as the desktop 670, They are based on completely different chips.

The CPU performance of my laptop (when it is not throttling) is exactly the same as any other ivy bridge quad core with HT running at 3.2GHz. The way it works is that if there is thermal headroom it will boost from its base clock (2.4) to anywhere up to 3.2GHz. When the CPU is under load and I am not putting a very heavy load (furmark like) on the GPU the CPU runs at 3.2GHz and performs like a 3.2GHz ivy quad with HT. When there is not enough power (for example when I suck up too much power with the overclocked dGPU) the CPU will throttle to where it can fit within the power limits imposed by the BIOS
 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,226 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
Thread title changed. Have fun.
 

XSI

Joined
Sep 4, 2012
Messages
390 (0.09/day)
Location
Vilnius. Lithuania
System Name Mother PC/XSI PC/ Laptop
Processor I3 6100 Skylake@3.7/Intel Core2Duo E8400@3.0-3.7Ghz/Amd sempron 2100+
Motherboard B150M MSI Night ELF/ASUS P5Q PRO P45/
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212/ X 2
Memory Kingston HyperX Fury 2x4GB DDR4@2133 Dual channel /Adata 2x2 GB DDR2@800 dual channel/ 2,5GB
Video Card(s) Gigabyte Windforce 950GTX/MSI 8800GT OC Zilent edition@660/1650/950 / ATI Radeon x1250
Storage 1pc:240GB SSD Kingston HyperX Fury/2PC:Intel 330 SSD 60GB/Samsung 500 GB/Samsung 320GB/80 GB
Display(s) LG 22MP58VQ 1920x1080/ Samsung 2232BW - 22" 1680X1050 and LG Full HDTV 50" / 15" 1280x800
Case Deepcool Tesseract Red/ Modded no name case
Audio Device(s) Realtec 1150/Creative X-FI, Xtreme Gamer + Samsung 5.1 HT + additional 4 speakers and subwoofer
Power Supply EVGA 500B Bronze 80+/ Chieftek 650W 80+.
Mouse Cheapo 5$ mouse/ trackpad :)
Keyboard Some cheap 10$
Software Windows 10/Win 10/ Win 8.1
Benchmark Scores later :)
make some decisions: do you need sli/crossfire. plans to OC. other special features. prices going from 100-400$ so less you need cheaper you can get it
 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,226 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
make some decisions: do you need sli/crossfire. plans to OC. other special features. prices going from 100-400$ so less you need cheaper you can get it
No SLI/Xfire. Mild OCing. All I need is two PCIx16's and @x16/x4. One for my GPU and one for my sound card. I'll be running an i7 4770k or 4790k.
 
Top