Buying New Card, Bottleneck Check?

Flax Seed · 11 Sep 2014

Hi all,

Long time lurker here. I'm about to soonly (is that even a word lol) buy a new graphics card since my old one black screen reboots when I play intensive games. I'd like to ask the wise if my cpu or mobo would bottleneck my purchase? Also if you could recommend a good reliable PSU and what wattage I should go for.

Cpu - Intel i7 960 3.20ghz
Mobo - p6X58D-E
8 Gig ram

I was planning on getting a GeForce GTX 780 Ti however the last time I upgraded my card my cpu bottlenecked it and ended up having to pretty much buy a whole new pc, will my current cpu be ok with the 780? and as I mentioned before what's a good psu?

Thanks in advance

Ps. I live in the UK.

essenbe · 11 Sep 2014

Corsair, Seasonic, Antec and XFX are good PSU's. You should do well with most any of those brands. As far as bottlenecking, perhaps it may, but only a little. You don't list what card you have now, but I suspect it will out perform whatever it is. Bottlenecking will just keep it from performing at it's maximum potential, but if you get a 780 TI and only get 90% of it's maximum potential, you won't be disappointed.

Genesis4455 · 12 Sep 2014

To be on the safe side pick about 600-1000W PSU to make our PC upgrade proof and you won't bottle neck the system, this many watts is a bit overkill for what you do and have but "just in case" and like what was said above 90% will do better than what you have assuming thats why you are upgrading =]

Flax Seed · 12 Sep 2014

Hi, sorry for late reply.

Thanks for info. and brands guys, my current card is an Asus GTX 580. Genesis4455 my current PSU is 650W but think I'll do like you said and probably go for something like 1000W while I have the money to splurge.

Thanks again :)

essenbe · 12 Sep 2014

I ran an EVGA 780 Classified on a Corsair HX 750 just fine, it didn't even strain. I think 1000W is a little overkill. The only reason I have an AX1200i is because I sort of came by it free.

Flax Seed · 16 Sep 2014

Thanks again for reply essenbe, I bought this card...

MSI GTX 780Ti Gaming 3G PCIe Graphics Card (DDR5,DVI,HDMI,DP, 2S): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

I hope it's not reduced in price so much for a reason. Also bought a Corsair 1000w. I understand what you're saying but the prices were only 20 quid (£) of difference between 750-1k

essenbe · 16 Sep 2014

Sounds good. I have heard good things about that card. I hope it works well for you. let us know how things work out. that seems like a good price on the PSU. Now you have enough power to buy you a second card.

essenbe · 16 Sep 2014

Flax Seed, When you get it and get it installed, let us know how you like it. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Flax Seed · 17 Sep 2014

Will do , delivery date is between Fri-Mon. Usually with Amazon that means Thursday but I bet they'll make me wait till Monday for those

essenbe · 17 Sep 2014

1000 Watts is overkill, but I like overkill. That's what I would have done. Good job on the card too. I've heard the MSI Gaming series is pretty good. I haven't heard much about the 780 TI, but the 770 and 780 get pretty good comments from what I've heard.

Something you may be interested in. Benchmarks - Windows 7 Help Forums Join in, we have fun. All the scores you see, don't worry about. They are all heavily overclocked by some great rigs. but join the leader boards if you are so inclined. We have fun with it, no matter what hardware you have. Some are top notch hardware and some are just average hardware. You would fit right in and be congratulated for joining the crew.