May AMD CPUs bottleneck the most powerful GPUs?

Some days ago I asked to some of you their opinions about Intel and AMD CPUs performances when paired with high end GPUs (GTX980/970, R290X/R290).



Our well known co-forumer -The_Mask- told me that discussing via PMs was so largely inefficient here, that in case he'd rather to better discuss the argument in a thread (you know, he's amusing and knowledgeable, but maybe a bit lazy, and intolerant to politics :D ).



Frankly I don't think he's right, because in my experience non-PSU related threads are mostly ignored here, but here we go.



Well, I'm rebuilding a low cost FullHD gaming rig, mainly replacing the current GPU (ASUS GTX-660 OC 2Gb): games used are mainly FPS, along with some competitive gaming (clan) with similar online multi-player games (so, in the end we're dealing with Battlefield, Crysis and the likes, but played with different settings online/offline).



The new GPU (which may require a new PSU also) should be an XFX R290 DD (or less probably a Zotac GTX-970, which doesn't require a PSU upgrade).

Current CPU is a stock clock AMD FX-6300: money-wise I wouldn't like to upgrade the AMD CPU/mobo, but on the other hand there are chances the new GPU would be severely bottlenecked by this CPU, and in the end that's what I already asked privately to five of you.



According to our well-known co-forumer rafal-iB-PL, no Bulldozers/Visheras can handle the most powerful GPUs, and pointed me out this chart/article:



http://ift.tt/1zZGP8c



so that, summarizing, according to him no high-end GPUs can do actually better than any mid-end GPUs (when paired with such CPUs).



OTOH, some other co-forumers are less draconians than him about AMD CPUs.

BTW, digging the net I also found an article about multiplayer FPS (BF4) on a eastern-european (serbian? romanian?) website:



http://ift.tt/1Fze6Qj



which points out that apparently there's no frame rate improvement when using a GTX-770 / HD7970(R9 280X) over a more modest GTX-660 / HD7870 (R9 270X), but that issue happens just when the CPU is an AMD FX-series one.



If their methodologies were correct, then rafal_iB_PL should be quite right, (and, to be honest, currently I lean towards agreeing with him).



Another blog points out that increasing the load over the GPU (i.e. increasing resolutions and bells'n'whistles) may help to improve frame rate through a better re-balancing of the game load (along with some OC on the CPU side, to be fair):



http://ift.tt/1Fze8Yr



Apparently that contraddicts both the polish and the other eastern-european websites, but on the other hand some of you find that advice as sound, at least for GTX660/R9 270-class of performance, while being a tad more dubious when GPU powerhouses (R9 290 and better) are involved.



What can I say about the BF4 test is that online multiplayer game experience should be different from single player gaming, particularly if you're used to clan gaming: as our co-forumer PhilipusII told me, CPU power is important for competitive gaming, so that you usually use max resolution, max FSAA but lowest detail settings because with these selected settings the CPU load scales far less than any other way (so the last linked advice should not apply to clan gaming). On the other hand, it's just one factor in the multi player equation: like our co-forumer mdk777 cleverly said, other things may usually matter more in that specific gameplay experience; according to him, #1 the gamer's internet speed, as if you are lagging you will be spawned continuously (despite your fastest rig, experience and skills); then #2 memory and memory cached ram drives, because those eliminate the lag of buses and read/write delays, so that gaming will seem times faster.



That's why I'm wondering now whether HardwarePal methodologies were correct (even if, as I said, I lean towards agreeing with them and with rafal_IB_PL).



Well, I hope our friend -The_Mask- will be glad to answer now (crmaris, the same apply to you, if you have some spare time): but above all, I hope JG community want to prove my expectations about the low usefulness of such a public thread on this forum as wrong. ;)



Thanks in advance for your understandings in the matter and for any useful help/hint.

May AMD CPUs bottleneck the most powerful GPUs?