GTX 670 with a Phenom II X4 965 BE - Will CPU bottleneck?

[Leprekaun]

Hi all. After doing some careful consideration, I've decided to go for a GTX 670 over my current GTX 660. The main reason being is that I was considering going GTX 660s in 2-way SLI in future but then added up all the figures (Selling my current motherboard for an SLI-capable one, another GTX 660 in future) so the money I'd spend, although it would be nice to split it up over time, would eventually equate to the cost of a single GTX 670. I know GTX 660s in SLI will likely outperform a GTX 670 but micro stutter is an issue I'm afraid of, as well as increased temperatures so I figured to go with a slightly more expensive, more powerful single card setup than to take a gamble with an SLI setup and find out that I've got micro stuttering and increased GPU temperatures.

Anyway, so yeah, I got a buyer for my GTX 660 who will hopefully be paying me tomorrow and I'll be going ahead with a EVGA GTX 670 FTW. Something I wanted to know though, with my Phenom II X4 965 BE, will I run into bottleneck issues with running a GTX 670 with it? I am currently only running a single monitor setup and have no intention of going for multi-monitor and I'll be playing at 1080p so extra VRAM etc. isn't needed. The reason I'm asking is that I know there are only a few games utilising four cores like BF3 and I'm quite happy with my Phenom II so I don't see the point in upgrading the CPU. I know that I could always consider selling my Phenom II and consider an FX-8320 but that means having to spend more money. I'd already have to spend a little more money after selling my motherboard for an AM3+ capable motherboard for the FX CPU and also having to spend a little more money to get an FX Vishera after selling the Phenom II which could all add up to £100 which is a lot of money.

Ultimately, what I'm trying to get at here is it worth spending money on a GTX 670 if it'll run at full capacity or I should just go for a cheaper GTX 660ti and will get the same exact performance because of my CPU bottleneck?

[Silver]

According to this site it's about 33% theoretical difference between GTX 660 Ti and GTX 670.

If your CPU is a bottleneck or not I don't know.. im guessing it isn't.. but could be wrong.. there is always the AMD 6-core to upgrade to later if it is.. riight

There will probably be new cards in June or something.. but thats life with tech always new stuff around the corner.

[DIREWOLF75]

Will CPU bottleneck?

In some games the cpu is always a bottleneck, but in the meaning that your cpu and gpu will be mismatched? No, it wont be a bottleneck.

[Hammer_Time]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gef ... 17-16.html

All-Around Best GeForce GTX 670: Gigabyte N670OC-2GD

Gigabyte's card is quiet at idle and not too loud under load. Its cooling performance at idle, during normal desktop work, and during gaming is even better than Asus' card. It ties Zotac's effort for the lowest temperature at idle, but achieves its goal at a mere 20% fan duty cycle. When we configured it to cool our card down to 70°C, its sound level was still acceptable.

This is the slimmest card in our test, it weighs the least, and is even suitable for SLI configurations on motherboards with a just a single-slot gap between 16-lane interfaces. Unfortunately, that's pretty common. Although the N670OC-2GD doesn't include the highest overclock, it's currently selling online at the same $400 price point as completely stock reference cards. And that's with the Windforce 3X cooler. That combination cannot be beat.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?o ... mitstart=3



I know you are not running SLi, but the single card performance is also shown in that review... the 660 Ti is so close the 670...

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphi ... html#sect0

X-bit labs liked the Asus 660 Ti over the Gigabyte 660 Ti since the Asus card is quieter... but both are great cards imho...

An overclocked 660 Ti easily keeps up with a stock 670:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphi ... html#sect1

You say you want to buy EVGA 670 but be warned, its little brother the EVGA 660 Ti placed last in the shootout competiton ( single fan design ) :

EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti Superclocked is a copy of the reference card with a slightly overclocked GPU. We have a lot of respect for EVGA, but, unfortunately, the company loses this round by taking the last place in our competition. Noisy and relatively inefficient cooler, simple reference PCB and mediocre results in our overclocking and performance tests determined our decision. Maybe this is the reason why EVGA has already discontinued this product, replacing it with a more interesting FTW modification.

STRONGLY recommend you buy either Asus or Gigabyte brand video card ( whether you go 660 Ti or 670 ) over EVGA , if that is possible from where you are buying from... much better cooled cards, will overclock better, and are quieter as well...

If you have lots of money then go for the 670, else save some and overclock a 660 Ti, same results in the end for the most part...

And as Dire says, no, your cpu will not bottleneck with a single graphics card like the ones above...

BTW, here is Skyrim performance of these cards ( your fav game ) :

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphi ... xtreme-r/5

Yes, the 670 is 8 fps ( average fps score ) than the 660 Ti, but a little overclocking would even that up in no time!! Save your money...660 Ti rocks for the price!

[Leprekaun]

Thanks Hammer_Time for the detailed stats! Wow, really!? EVGA placed last!? I'm hesitant to go with Gigabyte due to my motherboard experiences and the Asus Direct CU II TOP is out of my price range (£370). For that money, I could get a 4GB GTX 670 or even 2GB 680.

Gigabyte Windforce 3X seems like a good option for OCing with it's efficient cooling system. It also has higher stock clocks over the similarly priced Asus DirectCU II Base model. It's unlikely that I would consider overclocking to be honest since I'd like to keep the card going for as long as possible. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and go with Gigabyte.

[Leprekaun]

Oh and Skyrim isn't my fav game . It's hard for me to decide. Visually, for me, I'd say Batman: AC or Mafia II, although BF3 still looks incredible for me but Skyrim is one of those games that all my friends rave about, well before it was released so I thought I'd pick it up and see what it's like. It is a beautiful game at full detail though.

[Hammer_Time]

Thanks Hammer_Time for the detailed stats! Wow, really!? EVGA placed last!? I'm hesitant to go with Gigabyte due to my motherboard experiences and the Asus Direct CU II TOP is out of my price range (£370). For that money, I could get a 4GB GTX 670 or even 2GB 680.

Gigabyte Windforce 3X seems like a good option for OCing with it's efficient cooling system. It also has higher stock clocks over the similarly priced Asus DirectCU II Base model. It's unlikely that I would consider overclocking to be honest since I'd like to keep the card going for as long as possible. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and go with Gigabyte.

You are welcome, just trying to make sure you get the most bang for your buck here...

EVGA is not "bad" , just noiser than the rest with single fan cooler... but if you don't intend to overclock the card to the "max" then it would suffice if is much cheaper than the others in your region.

Gigabyte make excellent cards in general, no higher failure rates than Asus imho... If you can afford the Gigabyte 660 Ti Windforce 3x card then definitely go with that one, if budget very tight then eVGA but it won't clock as high and is much noisier... happy shopping!

[Sauron_Daz]

Is there a large price difference between a 660Ti and a 670? Here there is a difference of about 75 Euro's between the cheapest models, so if I had to choose I would get the 660 Ti.