Good GPU bottlenecked by normal CPU?

Can someone tell me what GPU would be too good for a normal cpu like i7 720QM (in notebook world of course)? For instance if somehow poeple can take out the old 5870 from G73 and put a new 485M in it, will it be bottlenecked by the 720QM? I see in reviews that a desktop 2600K will not match the power of the new 590/6990s.

 

The first question would be whether the new GPU would work at all... I recently put a 6970m in a G73JW and it didn't work, see here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/576937-6970m-g73jw-fail.html

Anyway, I'm using a 920xm and a 6970m and don't have any issues at stock clocks. Though the power can become an issue with overclocking. But with a non-extreme CPU you have some more headroom.

 

Not true. CPU intense games will profit a lot from a 920/40xm or a quad SB processor. Also it will help. You won't necessarily gain fps, but the game becomes smoother, the A.I. moves differently, they don't just stand around. At least that's what I experienced. It's not all about fps...

 

Yeah, a good one. Check it out yourself... e.g. the latest AC... a lot of enemys just stand around when you're not next to them... with a better CPU they're moving around... FYI the GPU isn't doing all calculations.

 

It's not impossible the A.I. would be different if it detects a different amount of CPU power, but I've NEVER heard of a game doing that, and ANY remotely modern CPU would be overkill for Assassin's Creed 2, since it (and its A.I.) was designed around the console CPUs.

Almost certain what you think you saw with it was just a coincidence, or selection bias.

 

Not going to say this is true or not without some evidence which is very hard to produce because the exact same scene in games like SCII are hard to repeat although im sure you would see a great benefit when using the CPU intensive settings in the game and the overall responsivness. I would doubt very much that the CPU effects the actual AI because you cannot prove its not just the game mechanics causing it to happen.

CPU's do make a difference in games and even show a difference in games that use little CPU processing power for instance Dragon Age 2 uses multi threading very effectively over the 4 cores and as I have overclocked my 720QM comparing the exact same scene against the stock clocks I see 1-4FPS difference in places.

The extremes are good CPU's to have though the C2D extreme showed that and the fact you can have 3.2Ghz+ running over 4 cores against the 720QM's 1.6Ghz over 4 cores when at full pelt. You would notice the difference but you would only make the most of the mighty cost of one if you are doing 3D work, programming or CAD etc etc.

 

Yeah, I know it may sound stupid, but it really makes a difference in a lot of games, though usually not fps wise.
I don't have time to make some nice vids atm and I guess you guys wouldn't take it as "proof" anyway. I don't blame you, but in case you have access to a system with a 920/40xm use throttlestop and set the CPU to 720QM levels. Then push it to 24-25x across all cores (3.2-3.3GHz) and see whether you can notice a difference.

But of course in most cases the GPU is the bottleneck, not the CPU. Anyway, an extreme processor will help a lot with encoding and similar stuff, for gaming it makes a difference imo, though it's not that big and hard to measure.

 

IMO your setup is very nice having the 6970M in my eyes is going to be one of the best single GPU's to last the longest because of its massive performance 256bit bus and 2GB Vram it is definetely a future proofing card.

Its a sad day for me when I look at your setup and deem your only real bottleneck is probably your RAM amount

 

Yes, indeed... it's a fantastic system. I don't have any performance problems so far, the card is fantastic.

You should try getting a 6970m working in your JH. Contact mxm-upgrade... they have a nice beta agreement. In case it won't work you can still return the card. But you have to contact them and ask whether they're willing to do it for you.

 

There isnt any way of overclocking the i7 2630QM is there?

 

Well, they overclock themselves...personally I'd never do more than what it does on its own.

 

Not at the moment because of the way the Sandy works. It is more than powerful enough anyway tbh. Normal I7 overclock very well as long as you sort out the timing issues in W7.

 

Im thinking about just getting the i7 2920XM @ 2.5 and 3.5 with turbo..

 

The 2920xm is not worth the money ($1000) as long as the BIOS locks the multi, TPD/TDC values.
In case the BIOS allows you to adjust these values it's an outstanding processor, really expensive but immensely powerful!

 

AC2 was made on a base spec, then ported over, there are no gains from having a better CPU, ALL AI is based on achieving objectives, and path finding. Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or better is the spec for the game. That said interesting that you've managed to cram a 6970m into you m15x, if it came stock with the settings you have above with 8gb of ram, id jump on it, in a heart beat. btw how much does your M15x weigh?

 

I was talking about AB brotherhood... you have to try it yourself, kinda hard to describe.

The M15x weighs about the same as the G73. It doesn't get produced anymore but you can get some really good deals on it atm, on the NBR marketplace as well as in Dell outlets. Especially on the models with the lower end GPUs...