E5200 + 5850 = bottleneck?

[anonemus]

Hello folks! I still can't believe that I won the 5850 contest! Thank you again TweakTown and Gigabyte!

As usual, the entry of a new hardware triggers a chain of upgrades. Currently I have a Pentium Dual Core E5200 that I overclock from 2.5Ghz to 3.5Ghz when I game on my Palit 4850 Sonic and 23" 1080p monitor. I like FPS while my son likes RTS (the wife likes Popcap games).

Is my current processor a bottleneck when gaming at my resolution? Should I upgrade? Budget is really, really tight right now. My priority is to upgrade my PSU by selling my 4850 and Corsair 400W PSU.

I have read that in 23" 1080p gaming, its the GPU that matters the most anyway. And any dual-core at 3.5Ghz is good enough.

Any thoughts?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: E5200 + 5850 = bottleneck?

Congrats on the win!

I would think it probably is. I'd be looking at a cheap used 8400 on ebay or from a forum, maybe 7xxx series would be ok but you can likely get a used 8400 for the same price.

I am not a gamer though, so my advice may not be correct and you may want to wait for others to chime in as well.

[anonemus]

Re: E5200 + 5850 = bottleneck?

I'm thinking along the same line. I should at least get a 7xxx CPU. I guess I'll try OCing my E5200 up to 3.9Ghz again and see if games speed up more, especially since I noticed a huge difference while playing STALKER Pripyat by OCing from 2.5 to 3.5Ghz.

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Re: E5200 + 5850 = bottleneck?

It would be a bottleneck especially when it comes to CPU-intensive games such as GTA IV, NBA 2k9/2k10, The Saboteur, etc. I am not that sure though as I've only experienced it with an AMD Athlon II x2 250 at stock 3.0ghz. I felt a huge difference when I switched to an AMD Phenom II x2 550 and unlocked it to x4 and overclocked it to 3.5ghz.

If I were you go save up for a quaddie. It would really be worth it since you'll be receiving a very good gaming video card. But then, you will also have to upgrade your PSU. Good luck and happy gaming!