Worth it to risk overclocking???

[Hawkeye127]

I just got a new X800 pro gpu, and my processor is a P4 2.4 ghz, I have a fan on the top of the case, one on the side panel, and one in the back, i've heard from ppl that my processor would bottleneck my system pretty bad, is this true? And would the performance gains be worth it to overclock it, keep in mind that i've never overclocked before either. i appreciate any replies.

 

[Kadahaf]

do you want to risk 800+ dollars? If not then no

 

[U-Toast]

x800 pro isnt 800+ if somethings gona fry its the gpu, or u wana OC the cpu? Get suffiucient cooling for ur P4, i really recommend the cooler master hyper 48, then oc ur cpu and gfx if you wish

 

[Kadahaf]

It sounded as if he wanted to over his cpu and gpu which is around 600-800 dollars....

 

[Hawkeye127]

is it true though that my cpu is bottlenecking my gpu pretty badly? because if i can get good performance out of my gpu with my cpu as it is, then i wont worry about it.

 

[Kadahaf]

You mean slowing down your system thats basically impossible...unless you have like a 1 mhz cpu...its find run 3d mark and post the #

 

[Nubius]

Ok, whoever you've been talking to hasn't at all looked at your sig.

Your RAM is SEVERELY bottlenecking both your CPU and GPU, I'd get that straightened out before worrying about your CPU bottlenecking the GPU, which in a sense makes absolutely no damn sense.

You mean slowing down your system thats basically impossible...unless you have like a 1 mhz cpu...its find run 3d mark and post the #

That's basically true, there's no way your 2.4GHz CPU is bottlenecking that card, games are more GPU Intensive now-a-days and even the ones that aren't, are the older games, which means your CPU would work perfect for those conditions, so I wouldn't worry about a CPU bottlenecking your GPU as I would your RAM bottlenecking your CPU and GPU both...

 

[Hawkeye127]

ok ty for the clarification, i have a pc2100 stick along with a pc2700 stick in right now, i could upgrade to pc2700 with out a problem, would it be worth it to shell out the extra bucks for pc3200 or would the pc2700 be enough?

 

[Nubius]

well your PC2700 is still running at PC2100 speeds because the PC2100 isn't going to OC itself up to PC2700 speeds. I'd say if you can try to sell those sticks or atleast one, you really need to get at the very least PC3200 ValueRAM if there's absolutely no way you could get high performance (which don't worry most of us can't cause it's $$$$$$$$$$$$$ )

But for the most part, yeah you really need to look into PC3200 RAM as even PC2700 would still create a bottleneck on the GPU and CPU...

But it really also depends on what FSB your Processor is. You can get the same speed as your stock CPU at 2.4GHz by changing your FSB and multiplier so that you have a 400FSB system if it isn't already.

But you have to be able to lock the AGP bus to do so

 

[Hawkeye127]

ok, i'll definitely look into it, but my parents are being stubborn and wont let me spend any more on it as i have spent $600 already this weekend. What kind of performance kind i expect once the X800 arrives even with the pc2100 in games, will i still be able to run high graphics??

PS, i am upgrading from a radeon 9200 and from 512mb ram, so i will probably still be amazed by the performance i assume, and btw, my mobo supports ddr400 memory if thats what you mean.