Bottlenecks (V2)- How Bad Could It Be?

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.

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

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 Coreâ„¢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.

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.

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.

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

Lost Planet : Extreme Condition

Graphic Detail : Maximum, 4x AA used.

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.

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. 🙂