CPU bottleneck

[crisis uk]

I was recently thinking about purchasing a new GPU, more specifically, a GTX 980. I checked out the upgrade page on the website and found that I could upgrade it through pc specialist. However, there was no option available for my CPU.

I was wondering if you guys think that I would run into bottleneck problems with this new GPU running with a 3570K at stock speeds.

I currently have a 670 sli setup and don't have any problems

Cheers

 

[keynes]

You shouldn't get any bottlenecks. There is no option for the cpu since PCS doesn't sell them anymore but only the latest Intel release.

 

[crisis uk]

Thanks for clearing that up Keynes, now I can purchase a 980 in confidence

On a side note, if I wanted to install an extra 8Gb or RAM to take me up to 16, would I have to change any settings in the bios or could I just insert the extra stick and not worry about anything?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for clearing that up Keynes, now I can purchase a 980 in confidence

On a side note, if I wanted to install an extra 8Gb or RAM to take me up to 16, would I have to change any settings in the bios or could I just insert the extra stick and not worry about anything?

You should be able to just put in the new stick and reboot, the bios will take care of it itself.

 

[crisis uk]

Thanks again.

Just out of curiosity, do i have to get another stick of RAM that matches its speed (1333MHz) or can i just grab any? Also, is it worth me forking out for 2 brand new sticks of some higher speed RAM?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks again.

Just out of curiosity, do i have to get another stick of RAM that matches its speed (1333MHz) or can i just grab any? Also, is it worth me forking out for 2 brand new sticks of some higher speed RAM?

You need to check what the max speed your motherboard supports. If you were to add a second stick which was faster speeds, then both sticks would clock down to the slowest stick.

There are compatibility issues occasionally with motherboards also, most manufacturers release a compatibility list with the motherboard drivers, may be worth having a look at that to make sure it's compatible.

Personally, I would shell out the extra and get 2 new sticks as they'll be fully compatible, and can run at the same speeds.

 

[Spuff]

As I understand it, it's better to have identical sticks of RAM, you know you won't have issues that way and it's the ideal.
When I added more RAM the CPU overclock I had been using without any issues now made my PC crash almost immediately. I backed the overclock off a bit and everything was fine again. The moral there is adding RAM won't always have no affect (beyond having more RAM).
The other thing was that I found it much harder to put the RAM in than I was expecting (I had two sticks already in which made it harder). One of the new sticks clicked into place with the catch clipping back on, but in fact it wasn't in properly, I had to go back in and shove it right.
But if you haven't fiddled with your BIOS, then you can put in any compatible RAM and it will all just work.

 

[crisis uk]

Thanks for the help guys.

Got talking to a friend and he mentioned the possibility of purchasing 2 970's instead to run in SLI. Would cost a little but more but would see a much better performance boost than I would get from a single 980, thus giving me a better price to performance ratio.

What do you guys think?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for the help guys.

Got talking to a friend and he mentioned the possibility of purchasing 2 970's instead to run in SLI. Would cost a little but more but would see a much better performance boost than I would get from a single 980, thus giving me a better price to performance ratio.

What do you guys think?

I think 2 x 970's will certainly outperform a single 980, but sli does bring drawback as well as improvements. If you're outputting to a single 1080p or 1440p screen, there's just no need for SLI, the performance increase wouldn't be noticeable.

SLI only works on games optimised for SLI so there will be many that won't be able to use it. Plus it bring issues of cooling to the table, you need a pretty good case to be able to deal with the airflow, but I see you have the HAF X, so absolutely no worries there. Plus obviously, you're going to need a PSU powerful enough to run the cards, say 800W, so again you should be fine there.

Personally I'd stick with a single 980 because of the hurdles with SLI.

 

[samcol]

What Spyder said ^^.