Whats slowing my GTX 260 down

[Knoxide]

Hey everyone I built my computer a little over 1 year ago and just upgraded to a EVGA GTX 260 Video card. My card seams like its not performing to what is should be. Any ideas on what might be choking it or slowing it down. My computer build is as follows:

EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Superclock 896MB video card

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 LGA775 4MB L2 Cache, 1333 MHz FSB, 2.33GHz Overclocked to 3GHz

Corsair XMS2 DHX TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX 2GB DDR2 2x1GB Pc2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 RAM

ASUS P5K-E WiFi-AP Edition Mobo

Zalman CNPS9700 cpu heat sink

2 250GB hard drives set to raid 0

Windows XP Home Edition

 

[Prodigy146]

Your processor is bottlenecking your GTX 260. you need atleast a quad to keep up with a 260 man


Thats a badass graphic card you got there by the way xD

 

[jarlmaster47]

You don't necessarily need a quad core processor although that would probably be smart. You could just oc your current processor to 2.8 or even 3 ghz and it would be able to run the GTX 260 fine. But I agree with Prodigy. It is smarter and better for your computer to just upgrade to a quad core processor. I would advise you get a q9550 and oc that to 3.5 ghz which you can do without changing any voltages. With the new processor you would be able to fully unleash the power of the GTX 260. Also get 2 gigs more of ram. That will improve ur computer's performance and help you with running the 260.

 

[Prodigy146]

His proc is already oc'd to 3.0ghz.. But the 260 is a beast of a graphic card, you could stop the bottlenecking if you can overclock to 3.5ghz (im not totally sure, feel free to comment) But i always thought that you need quad to match it

 

[rohan23]

The GTX 260 has a built in power saving option. When it's not in a intensive state, it lowers it's clocks to save electricity. You don't need a quad core. My Q6600 at stock speed does fine with the card. Are you comparing your card to the Core 216 version? There is quite a bit of difference.

 

[jarlmaster47]

Oh sorry I didn't realize you had already oc'ed. My advice is to get the q9550 and oc that. That will keep you on the relative cutting edge for a good couple of years. Plus your 260 will run much better. For clarification do you have the 216 core or the regular?

 

[Prodigy146]

The GTX 260 has a built in power saving option. When it's not in a intensive state, it lowers it's clocks to save electricity. You don't need a quad core. My Q6600 at stock speed does fine with the card. Are you comparing your card to the Core 216 version? There is quite a bit of difference.

Doesnt intel throttle there boards at a certain temp too? Check your temps knoxide

 

[Knoxide]

My temps are all good, I think I have the regular version of the 260 not the 216 one. Im comparing my 260 to my old 8800, sadly I have not seen to much of an improvment on my rig thus why I made this post. 3GHz is the highest I can get this CPU stable. I really cant afford a new CPU right now, any advice or tweaks I can do to make my card run better on my current build. Thanks for the quick replys to guy

 

[Prodigy146]

Hey knoxide record your avg fps' in your games right now (use fraps or something like that) and then downclock your cpu to 2.5 (downclock your fsb, ram, mobo too) Play the same games, use the same settings record the avg fps and see if you get a difference.

My brother has a core i7 and he had it clocked to 4.4ghz, it was completely stable (12 hour Orthodos bench) but his performance in almost everything was alot lower then when he had it clocked at 4.0ghz. Maybe its the same thing in your situation

 

[worshipme]

It depends on your monitor's native resolution. The lower the resolution, the more of a CPU bottleneck will be present, the GPU has to work much harder than the CPU at higher resolutions.