I’m sure many of you still remember the article I did late last year on bottleneck. Today, we have an updated version of this article, featuring the GTX280 and a host of other advancement.

What Is A Bottleneck?

No, it’s not part of a bottle. It’s a term to describe something being unable to cope with another, thus holding back performance. A choke-point if you would like another word for it.

The users who are concerned over this bottleneck matter are gamers. The thought of what a waste it would be to own a good graphic card yet having it under-perform due to lack of processing power.

Test Setup

Here’s the test setup used.

Processor	Intel Core™2 Duo E7200
Graphic Card	ASUS ENGTX280 TOP 1GB
RAM	2x 2GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Edition
Motherboard	Albatron PXP35
Cooler	Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer Heatsink
Monitor	20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD
Operating System	Windows Vista Home Basic 32bit
Driver Version	GeForce 177.41

The Intel Core2Duo E7200 is a great processor to use for this setup, simply because of it can be easily overclocked and downclocked.

Configurations for Intel Core™2 Duo E7200
	Downclocked	Stock	Overclocked
Speed	1.6 Ghz	2.53 Ghz	3.62 Ghz
Bus	266 Mhz	266 Mhz	426 Mhz
Rated FSB	1066 FSB	1066 FSB	1704 FSB
Multiplier	6	9.5	8.5
FSB : RAM	1:1	1:1	1:1
RAM Speed	266Mhz (DDR2 533)	266Mhz (DDR2 533)	426 Mhz (DDR2 852)

The stock speed of the E7200 is 2.53 Ghz. To understand how processor affects gaming experience, I’ve overclocked it to 3.62Ghz and downclocked it to 1.6 Ghz as well.

At 3.62 Ghz overclocked speed, I would estimate the E7200 to be performing better than the Core™2 Duo E8600 processor while the downclocked speed is similar to that of an Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140 - E2180 range processor. So basically the processing power used in this article covers from anything that’s a notch or 2 faster than the E2140 and up to even more than the E8600 range (FYI - the E8600 is the most powerful dual-core processor available), which is more than enough to find out how processors work with the graphic card and how bad could the bottleneck be.

Test Results

F.E.A.R.

Graphic Detail : Maximum, 4x AA used.

Processor Mode	Resolution	Average
Overclocked	1680 x 1050	144
Stock	1680 x 1050	120
Downclocked	1680 x 1050	76

Thoughts : Looks like the game is playable with any processor used BUT notice how the framerates vary according to processor speed.

World In Conflict

Graphic Detail : Maximum, 4x AA used.

Processor Mode	Resolution	Average
Overclocked	1680 x 1050	43
Stock	1680 x 1050	29
Downclocked	1680 x 1050	20

Thoughts : Clearly a GTX280 paired with a low-end processor isn’t the way to go for this game. The E7200 even if paired with lesser graphic cards like GTX260 would probably outrun any GTX280 paired with low-end processor.

Company Of Heroes : Opposing Fronts

Graphic Detail : Maximum, 4x AA used.

Processor Mode	Resolution	Average
Overclocked	1680 x 1050	56.7
Stock	1680 x 1050	55.6
Downclocked	1680 x 1050	48.9

Thoughts : The processor boost only gained about additional 8 frames extra on average.

Lost Planet : Extreme Condition

Graphic Detail : Maximum, 4x AA used.

Processor Mode	Resolution	Average (Snow)	Average (Cave)
Overclocked	1680 x 946	83.6	71.9
Stock	1680 x 946	82.5	45.4
Downclocked	1680 x 946	53.2	31.5

Thoughts : The game seems to be playable on all range of available processing power as long as you have a good card but look at the degree of separation between the results.

The graphic card seems to be heavily under-powered. So does it make sense to spend RM 2,000 or so to acquire the cheapest processor and pair it with the highest range graphic card? I don’t think so, striking a balance would produce the same or better result. Plus a better processor would be great when it comes to processing data.

Just look at the test for Cave, notice how much framerates gained from the boost in processing power?

Crysis

Demo Version - Graphic Detail : Maximum, 4x AA used.

Processor Mode	Resolution	Average
Overclocked	1680 x 1050	23.91
Stock	1680 x 1050	21.25
Downclocked	1680 x 1050	19.47

Thoughts : Very minimal difference, looks like Crysis has greater dependency on the graphic card.

Conclusion

While using the best graphic card in the market with the lowest end processor seem to be fine when it comes to gaming, there’s no denying that by going this path means you’re really under-utilizing your gear. It’s like driving a Ferrari on KL’s Federal Highway during peak hour, so much fire-power and fuel guzzling but going no better than cars that cost less and drain less fuel.

Pair your graphic card and processor wisely, framerates are great with a high-end card but pair it with a low-end processor and their potential will not be harnessed.

Consider this - E2180 and GTX280 combo @ RM 1800 vs E7200 and GTX260 combo @ RM 1450, it’s not surprising that the RM 1450 combo would perform similar or better than the RM 1800 combo.

Now if only I have a GTX260.  

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Computing & The Internet, PC Hardware Related. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.