AMD Athlon X2 5000+ BE (OC'd to 3.2GHz)
MSI K9A2 Platinum 790FX
Corsair HX520W
4GB OCZ SLI-Edition DDR2 800

I've already seen a post where someone commented that an AMD Athlon X2 5400+ would be a bottleneck. So I was like..."Oh snap!"

1) How can you tell if a processor will be the bottleneck?
2) Will my OC'd 5000+ bottleneck?
3) If my 5000+ bottlenecks, there aren't many options to upgrade to. I mean, the X4 only OC's to 3.2-3.4. The only other option would be a 6000+ or a 6400+, but I've already OC'd past their stock settings. So where would I go without having to turn to the Evil Empire?

Simple answer: For a single 4850, no. For 2 in cf, yes.

Okay, so then lets talk CF for a moment then. What are my AMD options to avoid a bottleneck in CF?

And how do you tell if the processor will bottleneck or not?

On typical games, that cpu wouldn't be a major bottleneck. CPU intensive or quad optimized games, such as Supreme Commander, would be among the only handful of exceptions. X2 5000+ is still quite fast.

Your motherboard pcie bandwidth in cf mode may be more of a problem. Performance comparsion between p45(PCIE2.0x8 each) and X38/48(PCIE2.0x16 each):
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/ [...] index.html

Buy a phenom BE if your worried, and don't want to run Intel.

Interesting point. So if I end up getting a second for CF, an upgrade to an X4 may be a good decision.

That was very interesting news about the differences between the P45 and X48, but I have a 790FX. No benchies of that lying around anywhere. Although I do know this, my motherboard has 2.0. I can either go 16x+16x or quad-8x. So hopefully my motherboard will not be as much of an issue as with the P45.

If you're going to get a new CPU, you might as well spend the few extra bucks for a new board and get an Intel platform. Anything AMD has will bottleneck 4850 crossfire.

Not an option, currently. I prefer AMD and I have been really happy with them for years. If I do get a new CPU, I'll just get an X4 9850BE. The goal, however, was to wait it out until the new Phenom FX processor get released.

I doubt your CPU would be a bottleneck, especially OC'd to 3.2Ghz. And your 790FX board does dual 16x CF anyway so your PCI-E bus won't be a problem. I mean, if you're running a game with 2 4850's cf'ed and your CPU is 100% while you're running the game, then obviously your CPU might be bottlenecking... Except for the few games that are quad core optimized, I don't think you'll have to worry. Also, I don't think you'll need to CF two 4850's if you're still playing on a 17" monitor. If you upgrade to 24" or so, then CF'ed 4850's will be in your interest.

The one thing you could think about doing is if you OC'd your 5000+ by just raising the multiplier, then lower your multiplier and OC by raising your FSB as high as your CPU or RAM will let you. With a faster FSB, you'll get better performance than just OC'ing your CPU with the multiplier.

Either way you overclock, I say you get a bigger monitor and then 2 4850's and crossfire the living $h!t out of them and you enjoy every damn bit of it.

if you only have a 17" monitor, why even bother with crossfire? at lower resolutions you're more cpu bottlenecked anyway.

I don't plan to CF as of today. I was asking the question to try and figure out what it would even take. Obviously, at some point a monitor upgrade is in order. I'd love me some 30"!

jt001 you do realize that the phenomx4 9850BE is right there with the Q6600 from intel in many benchmarks and is only slightly behind in all others.It actually even beats it in a couple of benchmarks.To say everything AMD has to offer would bottleneck that card is ludicrous.I happen to have said phenom with 2 hd3870's in crossfire with the same board as the OP and this system flies through anything that can be thrown at it.the chip runs perfectly OC'd to 2.9ghz on air and i've hit 15212 in 3DMark06 without breaking a sweat.

BTW.I run at 1920x1200 on a 24" Acer.

You my friend are a god amongst men...may I please have your home address to send you a thank you card for placing my mind at ease? J/K

Good show, old man...good show.