Bottleneck

[PokerDegenerate]

basically, any 2 current gen cards in sli will outperform a single card

But usually cost about the same price and don't leave room for future SLI/Crossfire capabilities.

If You already had one 260 core 216 I would say go SLI. But since you are building new it is much smarter to go with the more powerful single card so that way down the road you can always add another 285 and keep up with the new technology. There is only a small difference between the SLI 260's and the 285 and honestly your not going to notice the difference really. If I had both of those setups and allowed you to play on both of them and then tell me which one has the SLI and which one has the single 285 unless you have Fraps or something else telling you the frames per second you arent going to notice the difference in game.

 

[rohan23]

But usually cost about the same price and don't leave room for future SLI/Crossfire capabilities.

If You already had one 260 core 216 I would say go SLI. But since you are building new it is much smarter to go with the more powerful single card so that way down the road you can always add another 285 and keep up with the new technology. There is only a small difference between the SLI 260's and the 285 and honestly your not going to notice the difference really. If I had both of those setups and allowed you to play on both of them and then tell me which one has the SLI and which one has the single 285 unless you have Fraps or something else telling you the frames per second you arent going to notice the difference in game.

This.

 

[Doninator]

But usually cost about the same price and don't leave room for future SLI/Crossfire capabilities.

If You already had one 260 core 216 I would say go SLI. But since you are building new it is much smarter to go with the more powerful single card so that way down the road you can always add another 285 and keep up with the new technology. There is only a small difference between the SLI 260's and the 285 and honestly your not going to notice the difference really. If I had both of those setups and allowed you to play on both of them and then tell me which one has the SLI and which one has the single 285 unless you have Fraps or something else telling you the frames per second you arent going to notice the difference in game.

I see the wisdom in what your saying.. I just had a bad experience once in building a system where I did not get 2 video cards initially and then the card became discontinued.. my goal here is to create a system where the video card/s and cpu have approximatly similiar power.. ie no real bottleneck where one is signigantly more powerful than the other. I realize that I could run just one 260 and have good game performance ( I consider anything above 30 fps playable really)

I have yet to find an article anywhere that tells us what the maximum capacity for the processors on the market are.. example

a Q6600 intel with say a gtx 280 would be a perfect fit because the video card pumps out an equivelent amount of processing power to the Q6600 thus making it a very efficeint build. maxing out both the cpu and gpu.. this is the best they can both be. where is the bottleneck? the i7 920 has tons of headroom especially if overclocked.. therefore it would probably take some serious gpu power to bottleneck it.. I would like to build a system that essentially cannot be upgraded, its peaked out at build time.

I do appreicate everyones coments, but I do not think I will really get an answer to my question until someone writes an article on this matter.

 

[rohan23]

a Q6600 intel with say a gtx 280 would be a perfect fit because the video card pumps out an equivelent amount of processing power to the Q6600 thus making it a very efficeint build. maxing out both the cpu and gpu.. this is the best they can both be. where is the bottleneck? the i7 920 has tons of headroom especially if overclocked.. therefore it would probably take some serious gpu power to bottleneck it.. I would like to build a system that essentially cannot be upgraded, its peaked out at build time.

I do appreicate everyones coments, but I do not think I will really get an answer to my question until someone writes an article on this matter.

The GTX 285 will not be phased out anytime soon. The 260 have a better chance than the 285. There is no article that can help you with your bottleneck issue. It doesn't only depend on the CPU, as much as the entire system. Sometimes even a hard drive can be holding someone back. There is no game on the market other than Crysis and Crysis: Warhead that would need so much firepower. I play Warhead liquid smooth on my non-clocked chip and a Core 216 SLI. Unless you're using an older generation and a newer generation in parts, you'll be fine. The i7 are going to be discontinued soon anyways. They are coming out with a 6 core processor.

 

[PokerDegenerate]

Another reason why you can't find an article on a processors max capacity because you can and have to factor in so many other things. If you have an incredible processor but a junk mobo then your not using the CPU to its max. Also you can over clock a cpu to make it handle more. And also no 2 chips are the same which means that one processor might be able to be overclocked to 4 ghz while the same model of processor is only stable up to 3.7 ghz. So it is really hard to just what a specific model of CPU can handle because there are so many variables involved. No game you can get right now will not be able to max out an I7 or Phenom II build with anything over the 260 or 4870. I mean unless you are running a monitor with 2560 x 1600 resolution. I think you will find it very hard to buy a system right now that does not allow you to upgrade and even if you do by next month or maybe 2 months down the road you will find that the part that you bought so you don't have to upgrade is either half the price or has something else out that is better.

That is the beauty of the computer world, today you got the best tomorrow obsolete. The main thing you should think of is not having the best of the best but instead having what hardware will fulfill your needs. IMO there isn't a need for a GTX285 for you since you said anything over 30 FPS is good enough for you. You can save yourself or your mother a ton of money by living up to that statement and just getting something that better fits your needs.

 

[Doninator]

Another reason why you can't find an article on a processors max capacity because you can and have to factor in so many other things. If you have an incredible processor but a junk mobo then your not using the CPU to its max. Also you can over clock a cpu to make it handle more. And also no 2 chips are the same which means that one processor might be able to be overclocked to 4 ghz while the same model of processor is only stable up to 3.7 ghz. So it is really hard to just what a specific model of CPU can handle because there are so many variables involved.

I think this is an excellent point, from what I have read 3.55 seems to be a sweet spot for overclocking as far as power/energy efficeincy goes.

Probably it would be safe to assume that I could clock most i7s to this clock.

I plan on getting the asus p58 mobo which is considered a overclocking board.. but like you said it may vary.

I also plan on getting a solid state drive to eliminate any possible bottlenecking in the HD department.

I suppose that IF someone were to write an article like this you would have to take the lowest common denominator for each piece of equiptment and base your assumptions on that.

I only buy systems about every 5 years or so.. so I like to make sure they are going to last and not need to be upgraded after the fact.

can anyone list all of the bottleneck possibilities..

we already have

cpu
gpu
mobo
hd
memory (I assume this is a possiblity)

anything else?

thanks, Don

 

[PokerDegenerate]

Well if you are definitely overclocking look into getting an aftermarket heatsink because it's never a good idea to be overclocking without one.

Also getting a case with good airflow is something to look into as well. Heat is one of the worst things for computer parts so having good airflow and adequate space for all your stuff will help make it last longer. The I7 line of processors are 130w processors and can put off some heat and depending on where you live and the ambient temps that could be a problem. do you have a case and heatsink picked out yet

 

[Doninator]

I am considering a watercooling system this time around.. I live in colorado so we do not really have ac here, or at least not at my house. sometimes summers get pretty hot. My current computer has 7 120 mm fans and a standard heatsink... so no overclocking here. I am currently running an e6600 with a 8800gts 320meg gpu. I am seriously considering just buying a GTX 260 and not building a new system. I am sure this would run most things well. my motherboard only supports x16x1 or x8x2 so sli is out of the question plus the 260 should be all that the e6600 should be able to handle without bottlenecking anyways. I had also considered upgrading from 2 to 4 gigs of memory. I am currently running vista 32bit.

I could have built this system a little better than I did, so I plan on not making the same mistake twice.