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Any point to upgrading from 4Ghz Core 2 for games?

Jimbo Mahoney

Jimbo Mahoney

Jimbo Mahoney

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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I've already made my mind up, but I'm intrigued to hear OcUK's views on whether they would upgrade the CPU (hence mobo and RAM too) if gaming at 1920 x 1200.

System is in sig - CPU is running at 4Ghz.

My opinion is that there will be almost zero benefit from upgrading both the CPU and GPU as opposed to just the GPU. The only reason I can see is to have a new CPU to overclock (which is always fun!) :D

Does anyone disagree, and if so do they have benchmarks to show? Remember that this is purely about gaming at high resolution.
 
BF Bad Company is best run on quad, Probably the standard to come in games from now on.

wu2las.jpg


Thats a E8400 run @ 4.2GHz, CPU limited. I am planning to go i5 next month for this very reason.
 
Cesar67, what is it in your screenie that leads you to conclude the system is "CPU limited" . . . sorry if thats a silly question but the task manager/performance tab doesn't appear to be maxed? :confused:
 
Wayne, you're kiddin', right? The first two charts show you how both cores are used in 100% whilst the second chart of the second picture clearly gives you an idea that GPU isn't overloaded with work.
 
Depends on the game. Games that max out dual cores and make use of quad are becoming more common. I see huge gains in Ghostbusters from unlocking my dual core Athlon X2 5000 to quad Phenom FX-5000. It does unlock l3 cache too though, which will help.
 
No I'm not "kidding"? . . . the CPU is getting a lot of usage I can see that much but I thought "Maxed Out" was when it was a flatline across the top? . . . core #0 looks about 90% to me? :confused:

I wouldn't imagine that is causing a problem? . . . or am I missing something? :D

Cesar67 said:
wu2las.jpg
Click to expand...
 
If either core hits 100% at all it could be maxing out and limiting framerate, depending on how the threads are handled.

There are a few games that flatline, but not that many.
 
Big.Wayne said:
This one? . . . when I first looked at it I thought it was framerate! :D . . . so why isn't the GPU in 100% usage . . . when the CPU isn't flatlined?
Click to expand...

Don't quote me on this (despite me quoting you :p) but I think it's due to the type of workload placed on a CPU during a game. If you're encoding/folding it's a pretty regular stream of numbers for your CPU to crunch so flat lining is possible. When gaming I'd imagine it's a far less uniform workload which would be dynamically changing with the pace of the game, this would probably explain the peaks and troughs.
 
The CPU usage frequently hits 100% and drops to 90% (or whatever it is) whereas GPU is mostly utilized in 60%. How does it not show the game is CPU limited?
 
It could be bandwidth between the CPU/GPU etc? Going to a Quad core I'd bet you won't see a substantial of any increase of the GPU usage. But would be nice to see :p
 
Cheers Geckovich for your polite post . . . I was looking at the task manager as the other chart is something bespoke I've not seen before! . . .hence my question:

Big.Wayne said:
what is it in your screenie that leads you to conclude the system is "CPU limited" . . . sorry if thats a silly question but the task manager/performance tab doesn't appear to be maxed? :confused:
Click to expand...

Looking at the GPU graph something does seem amiss? . . . . I would be interested to see someone else who owns a meaton system run the same test to see if the GPU graph "flatlined" or came close? :cool:
 
Big.Wayne said:
Cheers Geckovich for your polite post . . . I was looking at the task manager as the other chart is something bespoke I've not seen before! . . .hence my question:



Looking at the GPU graph something does seem amiss? . . . . I would be interested to see someone else who owns a meaton system run the same test to see if the GPU graph "flatlined" or came close? :cool:
Click to expand...

Just firing up bad company myself now, should have an i7 to test against soon.
 
I had an E8500 @ 4ghz and I upgraded to i5. I think it's worth it but if you already have a fast dual-core then it's upto you if you think it's worth the money really. One thing I'll mention is you asking about benchmarks. Benchmarks don't always show the benefits of quads because dips in frame rates here and there don't have a huge effect on average frame rates. I think you would be better off buying a 5770 to make your games run better overall.
 
Capture-7.png


Ok, slightly lower clocks on my 5850 of 950/1200 due to my room being like a sauna at the moment. Also, ignore fan speed, I was tring out a rather elaborate custom fan profile that didn't work out too well :p

i7 860 running at 3.5ghz (up to 4.3 with turbo).

Of the 2 dips in GPU usage the first was a cutscene, the second was me tabbing out to cancel my antivirus scheduled scan.

It would appear that GPU usage was 100% nearly all the time. Also of note is that it seems hyperthreads are worth diddly squat in games (well, this game at least).
 
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Nice one Geckovich . . . . is there any chance you could do a "proper" test! :p

Shoot dem up good . . . would be nice to see a full chart! :)

[edit] lob a few CPU-z screenies in there as well showing CPU/Mem tabs please! ;)
 
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