# Bottleneck on GTX 670 on PCI Express 2.0?



## tkim113 (May 15, 2012)

Thanks for reading, your tutelage is much appreciated! Buying this PSU and GPU...

GPU: *Gigabyte Nvidia gtx 670* http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423

PSU: *Antec 750W High Current Gamer Series* http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371049


...to add onto my old setup listed below. Goal is to play Witcher 2 on highest settings. I think CPU will hold up fine. Might get 4 gbs of ddr2 ram to add onto build-- not sure more ram is necessary though. Mostly concerned with my mobo as I know it will bottleneck performance of gpu somewhat, but unsure as to what degree (PCI Express 2.0).


Mobo: *ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard *http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299
CPU:* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core Processor* http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Q6600-Q...ve=165953&creativeASIN=B000LRMR26?afsrc=fstfx
RAM: *CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2* http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184


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## byteninja2 (May 15, 2012)

Shouldnt be, but, the real bottleneck will be your cpu, that cpu is up to Med on bf3, that GPU is for near max settings.


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## jonnyp11 (May 15, 2012)

Yeah, the cpu will do fine but it's going to be bottlenech. as for the pci-e bottleneck, no games out yet fully use 2.0 x16, only unprofessional things like CAD do. and i know the 7970 barely got anything from it, only a few percent i think, according to the only bench i saw comparing them, less than 10% even for those, and the 670 is weaker i believe, so it would get less from it.


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## spirit (May 15, 2012)

The Q6600 shouldn't really bottleneck it all that much, but it may bottleneck a 670 a bit. However sticking a 670 in a PCI-E 2.0 slot should be fine. They're designed for PCI-E 3.0 but really there isn't much speed difference between 2.0 and 3.0.


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## tkim113 (May 15, 2012)

Any thoughts on the ram issue? I have 4 gbs of ddr2 ram right now, is it worth an upgrade to 8gbs of ddr2 ram? Also, is it ok to mix ram production companies? For example, having a set up with 2 ocz rams and 2 corsair rams as long as they are both ddr2?


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## spirit (May 15, 2012)

I'd advise sticking with one brand - upgrade to 8GB if you want, it's probably going to cost quite a bit though because as RAM gets older it gets more expensive. I'd probably recommend going from 4GB to 8GB. 

It may be worth upgrading your whole system though to something like an i5 3570K and 8GB of DDR3 RAM.


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## tkim113 (May 15, 2012)

Interesting. Posted this on other forums also and opinions are torn in regards to if cpu needs an upgrade. 

As far as ram goes, The gist I am getting is that RAM is not that important for gaming and 4gb ddr2 should do fine. Would you all agree?


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## spirit (May 15, 2012)

I'd still upgrade to 8GB anyway, not just for gaming, but for other stuff too. 4GB is kind of low those days, 8GB is usually the norm for people who build new systems.

The CPU should be OK as I said, but it may bottleneck your 670 a bit. The best Core 2 Quad available for LGA 775 IIRC was the QX9770, but these are expensive and hard to come by. If you don't want to upgrade to a newer platform, then see if you can grab a cheap/second hand Q9550 or Q9650 and see how you do with that for a while.


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## jonnyp11 (May 15, 2012)

I'd say grab a decent cooler and overclock the cpu for now, then save up to upgrade the entire system.

like he said though, the cpu will do the job, but at 1080p it's going to hold the gpu back.


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## spirit (May 15, 2012)

jonnyp11 said:


> I'd say grab a decent cooler and overclock the cpu for now, then save up to upgrade the entire system.



I agree. With good cooling you should be able to get your Q6600 from the stock 2.4GHz to 3.4GHz easily, you may even be able to go higher than that. The Q6600 should overclock well with that board too.


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## tkim113 (May 15, 2012)

vistakid10 said:


> I agree. With good cooling you should be able to get your Q6600 from the stock 2.4GHz to 3.4GHz easily, you may even be able to go higher than that. The Q6600 should overclock well with that board too.



Admittedly, I dont know much about overclocking but getting a full gig upgrade per core sounds over-dramatized.


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## spirit (May 15, 2012)

tkim113 said:
			
		

> Admittedly, I dont know much about overclocking but getting a full gig upgrade per core sounds over-dramatized.


It's quite feasible actually, and it's not per core - each core does not run at 2.4GHz, that is a common misunderstanding. I've got my 2500K overclocked by 1GHz easily, and I could push it further if I wanted.


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## tkim113 (May 15, 2012)

vistakid10 said:


> It's quite feasible actually, and it's not per core. I've got my 2500K overclocked by 1GHz easily, and I could push it further if I wanted.



so are you saying 1ghz total boost? Not 3.4 x 4.

Ive heard some conflicting things about buying fans. Some say stock fan should be good enough for 1ghz upgrade. opinions?


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## spirit (May 15, 2012)

tkim113 said:
			
		

> so are you saying 1ghz total boost? Not 3.4 x 4.


Yep. The clockspeed is of the 'whole processor' if you like, no each core. 



			
				2tkim113" said:
			
		

> Ive heard some conflicting things about buying fans. Some say stock fan should be good enough for 1ghz upgrade. opinions?


You cannot overclock a Q6600 by 1GHz using the stock cooler and still get decent temperatures. It's possible to overclock on a stock cooler, but it won't cool the CPU sufficiently and it will damage your chip. You need aftermarket cooling such as this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099 but be aware that usually using an aftermarket cooler can obstruct one of your RAM bays.


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## jonnyp11 (May 15, 2012)

vistakid10 said:


> Yep. The clockspeed is of the 'whole processor' if you like, no each core.
> 
> 
> You cannot overclock a Q6600 by 1GHz using the stock cooler and still get decent temperatures. It's possible to overclock on a stock cooler, but it won't cool the CPU sufficiently and it will damage your chip. You need aftermarket cooling such as this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099 but be aware that usually using an aftermarket cooler can obstruct one of your RAM bays.



yeah, going from 2.4 to 3.4 will get you about a 30% boost in performance where it can be utilized. I'd get the 212 plus though, the evo just costs more and adds like 2 more sockets it can work with, but it doesn't matter to you unless you want to upgrade to a 600 buck processor


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## Mr.Moose (May 16, 2012)

Also, to answer his question in the title. A GTX 670 will not saturate the PCI E 2.0 slot, you will see no performance decrease in that regard.


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## kdfresh09 (May 16, 2012)

i would say, get an after market cooler and overclock the cpu to at least 3.2Ghz or more.  its deffinatly capable of doing it.  this should eliminate most of your bottleneck for the most part.  upgrading to 8 gigs is an option, however i personlay wouldnt do it since the platform is a socket 775 and out dated.  i would rather save the money and put it towards a new platform.  but if you dont see that happening anytime soon, then an ipgrade to 8 gigs would be a wise choice.  as far as the pci-e 2.0 vs 3.0.  i wouldnt worry about that.  the main issue here is getting that stock 2.4Ghz cpu up to a performing 3.2Ghz+.  that will net you the most performance increase over anything else in regaurd to your system.


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## SuperDuperMe (May 16, 2012)

jonnyp11 said:


> I'd say grab a decent cooler and overclock the cpu for now, then save up to upgrade the entire system.
> 
> like he said though, the cpu will do the job, but at 1080p it's going to hold the gpu back.



Thats actually not true, his cpu would bottleneck him at lower resolutions. the higher the res the more strain it puts on the gpu and takes off from the cpu. 

Also, I dont think he will see a massive bottleneck with the q6600, especially if he decides to overclock, and even then the bottleneck shouldnt really hinder him for gaming at 1080.


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