I would say one thing about newer CPUs for Gaming anyway: comparing my 6700K (@4.6) to my 2600k (@4.6) the increase in FPS was negligible – I think in most games I benched it was actually the same! Maybe a few FPS higher but basically similar Average FPS, five years later, which was very disappointing. Until I played the games. Actually playing the game, the difference is night and day in games like Deus Ex-MD and Hitman because all stuttering is now gone. I was blaming my poor old Fury for just not having enough grunt on my 2600K system but when I moved the card to my 6700K system (in sig) it is so much smoother I would have sworn FPS must be about 50% higher if I hadn’t been measuring them. Now I can see I don’t need a gpu upgrade at all, which is handy considering there’s nothing worth buying.
I have found that AMD drivers do get faster in games over time so it is possible that the drivers and dev patches are responsible for some of the improvement alright but it was still stuttering on the 2600K at Christmas and playing Hitman last night on the 6700K it is so beautiful and smooth compared to previously that I am genuinely very surprised. I had to stop playing it on my 2600K system as the game felt broken due to the stuttering. I had stopped playing it to wait until I’d upgraded gpu to finish the game as the occasional stuttering ruined the experience. Average FPS were fine but stuttering destroys the immersion for me. I can see now that it is not all down to the gpu and average FPS can be misleading – my average FPS on my 2600K are fine but when it does stutter, the whole spell is broken.
And just to be clear, I am not talking about a minor difference here, the difference is so significant that nobody with eyes could fail to notice it. It feels like getting a much faster gpu – but it’s the same card! Night and day.
Hitman’s so good I haven’t checked other games yet but I want to check GTA V next as it also had the occasional stutter on the 2600K.
