lifespan of cpus.

[PerfectSK]

Just a quick question. How do you know when your cpu is bottlenecking? I'm just curious.

 

[ownage]

You cant really tell, but compare it. Its like running an overclocked processor against one at stock. The oc'ed processor is going to perform faster. But generally graphics processors are greater powerhouses than cpus. So generally cpu are the bottlenecks in physics intensive games.

 

[kchi55]

the x6800 core 2 duo? you'll be safe with that for a very long time, no ugprades in the cpu department for quite a while if you decide to purchase that. most games aren't even built around dual core technology right now if any. if anything, you should be worrying about your graphics card as directx10 cards will be released around when vista is. of course it will be flawed in the beginning, but once it sinks in you'll be wanting a new card. for sure.

 

[mammikoura]

Actually it depends what video card you match it with. Balance is what it's all about. I have my 3200+ running at 2.6Ghz (completely stable) and I can easily tell it's bottlenecking my X1900 XT. Just because you can overclock it skyhigh DOES NOT mean it'll be super fast. It'll be faster, but it only lasts so long.

It might be bottlenecking the vid card, but still u can run any game u want with that 3200+. So it has enough power to run new games, so something like the x6800 will probably be enough for many years.

 

[alvino]

Yeah, I know. I run The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with max settings and HDR with no lag and a decent framerate. Sometimes it just gets lag spikes, mostly because the X1900 I have is being bottlenecked by my 3200+. Still a great processor nontheless.

 

[MikeReiner]

How much did you spend on that X1900XT alvino?

 

[alvino]

$369.99, but that's not with tax and shipping factored in. I got it from Monarch Computers, and now it's $349.99 I think...

 

[Jamxx]

Have you considered your RAM being a factor in that? It seems you only have a gigabyte of memory (according to your signature) and doesn't Oblivion utilize more than one gigabyte of memory? Could be wrong though.

 

[alvino]

Oblivion utilizes a lot of RAM. When I Alt+Tab and go to Task Manager Oblivion uses at least 130,000 K of my memory. My RAM also factors in, but most of the time it's communication between the CPU and GPU.