"Can I have more FPS please Bob"

[Orcvader]

Marine's right, the smaller the resolution, the more chance of the problem being a CPU bottleneck. The higher the resolution, it will be a GPU bottleneck.

@OP,

I wouldn't go with the 945. I was going to suggest grabbing a cheap second hand 955 then overclocking that to ~4ghz, but I'm unsure if your board could handle that. The PIIs is pretty much a tweaked PI, so you won't notice any significant performance difference.

The Pentium G840 is only dual core but because of the higher IPC, it will perform better in games, since games usually only use two cores. From your current Phenom you should see quite a jump in performance. You can't overclock the Pentium, but you can always drop in an i5 later on if you want even more performance.

If you look here you can see the 6850 outperforms your 7800 SLi, and at that resolution it should be able to handle most things on max. Your board can't do Crossfire but it still can do single AMD cards with no problem.

With both the G840 + 6850 you'll see an overall improvement in gaming.

 

[Martini1991]

Marine's right, the smaller the resolution, the more chance of the problem being a CPU bottleneck. The higher the resolution, it will be a GPU bottleneck.

@OP,

I wouldn't go with the 945. I was going to suggest grabbing a cheap second hand 955 then overclocking that to ~4ghz, but I'm unsure if your board could handle that. The PIIs is pretty much a tweaked PI, so you won't notice any significant performance difference.

The Pentium G840 is only dual core but because of the higher IPC, it will perform better in games, since games usually only use two cores. From your current Phenom you should see quite a jump in performance. You can't overclock the Pentium, but you can always drop in an i5 later on if you want even more performance.

If you look here you can see the 6850 outperforms your 7800 SLi, and at that resolution it should be able to handle most things on max. Your board can't do Crossfire but it still can do single AMD cards with no problem.

With both the G840 + 6850 you'll see an overall improvement in gaming.

At 4GHZ he'd notice a stonking difference, like 70% improvement.

I'm going to say a 4GHZ Phenom II with a 7850 he'd notice higher average frames than a Sandy Pentium and a 6850.
Maybe not more consistent performance, but whatever.

 

[Marine-RX179]

At 4GHZ he'd notice a stonking difference, like 70% improvement.

I'm going to say a 4GHZ Phenom II with a 7850 he'd notice higher average frames than a Sandy Pentium and a 6850.
Maybe not more consistent performance, but whatever.

1. OP got a Phenom ONE not Phenom II
2. In the games the OP mentioned (which only uses 1 to 2 cores), even the Phenom II X4 at 4GHz wouldn't have higher frame rate than the Sandy dual-core at 2.80GHz.

 

[Orcvader]

It would be the cheapest route though, however, as I said before, I'm unsure if his board can handle a 4ghz PII. A stock 945 yes, but overclocked? I don't know. The 955 is not on the support list anyway.

 

[Martini1991]

1. OP got a Phenom ONE not Phenom II
2. In the games the OP mentioned (which only uses 1 to 2 cores), even the Phenom II X4 at 4GHz wouldn't have higher frame rate than the Sandy dual-core at 2.80GHz.

That has what to do with me quoting Orc mentioning a Phenom II?
I'm well aware what the OP has, I'm pretty literate with reading.

And on the Intel/AMD front you go way over the top.

But for the budget he has available, the Sandy/6850 is the logical way as you spec'ed, doesn't detract that you go over the top.

It would be the cheapest route though, however, as I said before, I'm unsure if his board can handle a 4ghz PII. A stock 945 yes, but overclocked? I don't know. The 955 is not on the support list anyway.

His board was a pretty decent one at the time, no reason at all why it can't clock a Phenom II, perhaps not as far as 4GHZ, more like 3.4-3.6 due to limited bus clocking.

At that point it'd be more like a 40-50% improvement over what the OP has now.

 

[Orcvader]

Ah, then maybe getting the 945 will be a good idea then.

Looking at second hand prices, OP could squeeze in a 7850 with it! Would be a massive upgrade in that case!

 

[Marine-RX179]

That has what to do with me quoting Orc mentioning a Phenom II?
I'm well aware what the OP has, I'm pretty literate with reading.

And on the Intel/AMD front you go way over the top.

But for the budget he has available, the Sandy/6850 is the logical way as you spec'ed, doesn't detract that you go over the top.

The fact is his board would only support up to a PII X4 945 which wouldn't clock that high...and I'm not wrong about Phenom II X4 at 4.0GHz can't match the G840 on those games. You are starting to sound like those ridiculous individuals who "witch-hunted" you and "singled you out" for saying the Intel CPU performance as it is...you are now doing the same to me as those people did to you.

If it's just general FPS games that are not too hard on the CPU, then the Phenom II X4 would mostly be good enough; but for games that are actually demanding on CPU side (strategies, mmo), the performance difference on the CPU would be far more noticable...and quite frankly for the I doubt there's much benefit (if any) for 7850 over 6850 in those games, since even the 6850 should do 60fps IF it is not holdback by the CPU.

Take DCUO for example (which is a mmo which only use two cores), even my 9800GTX+ has the GPU usage bottleneck down to 40%-60% on the E5200 overclocked to 3.75GHz. World of Tanks which the OP is single-threaded...

 

[JonSmith]

Go with the SB chip and a 6850, it'll be fine and you can drop in SB chips when they become outdated in a few years time.

 

[TALON1973]

common guys .. recommending a 7850 at his res and on the ganmes he's listing is crazy .. ive just gone up to 1080p tv gaming an think a 6850 is enough ( i need to update my sig ).

 

[Martini1991]

You are starting to sound like those ridiculous individuals who "witch-hunted" you and "singled you out" for saying the Intel CPU performance as it is...you are now doing the same to me as those people did to you.

No.
Just no.

I said I even agreed, but you do take it a little over the top, that's nothing like the load of crock I was given by idiots over speaking the truth regarding poor FX performance.

You take a rocket launcher to a fist fight.

 

[dogbert]

Thank you everyone, this has been a very helpfull discussion.

I've been investigating an Phenom II 945 and found this CPU Comparision Chart http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X4+945
And installed Core Temp & AMD System Monitor

During my all my searching and pondering my lovely wife said... "Listen dear I know you're itching to do something with your machine and I've been thinking its about time we upgraded our machines so why don't you spend £500 and get something you really want."

Now when she says upgrade; her PC is listed just below

BOARD - ASRock K10N750SLI-WiFi
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5Ghz)
RAM - 4GB DDR2 (800Mhz)
DRIVE - WD5000AACS-00G8B1 (500GB)
GRAPHICS - GeForce 210

Software : XP sp3
- Wolfenstien 3D (DOS)
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein
- Quake Enemy Territory
- Quake III Arena & Team Arena
- Plus Facebook, Bejeweled etc etc

...why take 2 PC's to the great online sale in the sky when you can rebuild both in to one better PC. She's getting the best bits of both machines while I get all new parts - including buying a 24" monitor - But that is second priority to a decent PC!

Mrs Dogbert will get : Win7Pro & DOSbox
8GB DDR2 (800Mhz)
2x500GB HDD (No Raid)
Phenom (ONE) 9850 @ 2.5Ghz

Which would be the best motherboard our two?
ASRock K10N750SLI-WiFi
Or
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe

Should I keep the GeForce 210?
Or is there good card @ £40-60 with any better performance?

Finally, similar question as before, what can I get for my money (now £500! ) that will give me great FPS in CoH (Not forgetting CoH II is comming in 2013!!)

BOARD / CPU / RAM / (SSD?!!? )
40+ Average FPS @ 1920 X 1080 in Company of Hero's / WoT / STOnline ?

 

[Orcvader]

What a nice wife .

6670 will be better than the 210: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-258-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

As for board I'm unsure.



Now for you... what parts do you have already? What PSU do you have and what brand is it? I'm assuming you won't need Windows?

 

[Marine-RX179]

No.
Just no.

I said I even agreed, but you do take it a little over the top, that's nothing like the load of crock I was given by idiots over speaking the truth regarding poor FX performance.

You take a rocket launcher to a fist fight.

I have no idea what you mean by then. I have used Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz...and I believe the Phenom II X4 945 at around 3.5GHz would be around the same performance. When I was still on my Q6600 at 3.6GHz, I was really sick of games not optimised for using all 4 cores, and my 5850 was constantly getting bottlenecked (mmos, Starcraft II etc) due to one or more cores not being used for the games. Gaming performance wise the Phenom II X4 980BE 3.7GHz is on par with i3 2100 3.1GHz when all four cores are used (i.e. BF games), so for the G840 which is 2.80GHz and without HT it would probably be around Phenom II X4 955BE 3.2GHz, but with the different of having all that performance over two threads, where as the Phenom II X4 955BE 3.2GHz in games that use only two cores would lose close to 50% of the performance.

BOARD / CPU / RAM / (SSD?!!? )
40+ Average FPS @ 1920 X 1080 in Company of Hero's / WoT / STOnline ?

Now that you got a £500 budget...
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/816/i53570k.jpg
You COULD take out the SSD and add that budget to graphic card and get a 7850, but for the current games you listed the 7850 ain't gonna offer better performance than the 6850 (if at all), so IMO the SSD would be more benefitual. You could always sell the 6850 in the future when you actually NEED to get something with more graphic grunt.

 

[dogbert]

.....What PSU do you have and what brand is it? I'm assuming you won't need Windows?

- Don't need Windows, just hardware.

This little RED monster is my PSU (2.5 Years into its 5 Year warranty)

The Silencer® 750 Quad power : S75CF-UK

- 750W Continuous @ 40C (825W Peak)
- Up to 90% (10dB) Less Noise per Watt
- NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX)
- ATI CrossFire Certified (HD 2900XT)
- 80+ Certified (83%); .99 Active PFC
- +12VDC @ 60A (Powerful Single Rail)
- Rock-Solid, Super-Clean DC Output
- 24-pin, 8-pin*, 4-pin M/B Connectors
- Quad PCI-E and 15 Drive Connectors
- Automatic Fan Speed Control Circuit
- 5-Year Warranty and Tech Support

POWER PROVIDED750W
OUTPUT CONNECTORS20/24-pin

8-pin / 4-pin
Two 6-pin PCI-E
Two 6/8-pin PCI-E
Drive connectors: 15 (6 SATA, 8 Molex, 1 mini)

VOLTAGE PROVIDED+5V @ 30A
+12V @ 60A
-12V @ 0.8A
+3.3V @ 24A
+5VSB @ 3A
Continuous Power = 750W
Peak Power = 825W

FANS1 fan, 22-55 CFM ball-bearing

 

[gurusan]

Honestly marine's setup above is pretty awesome. The only problem I see is that with the new rig you may want to be trying out some newer games...in which case I'd swap the samsung 830 out with a 7850.

 

[The Running Man]

For coh i wouldn't buy an ati card .. Patchy drivers mean weird performance especially on maps with burning carcasses. Some drivers the fps would drop by a significant amount another driver and there would be no fire just a black part on the map...

 

[Marine-RX179]

Honestly marine's setup above is pretty awesome. The only problem I see is that with the new rig you may want to be trying out some newer games...in which case I'd swap the samsung 830 out with a 7850.

I think it would be down to what sort of "new games". If he thinks he's gonna try some latest FPS games etc, then it would be 7850 over the SSD; but if the new games he's gonna play are still mmo or strategy games, having a SSD would be better (as those games usually are not graphic demanding to the point of 6850 can't handle and are usually CPU limited).

For coh i wouldn't buy an ati card .. Patchy drivers mean weird performance especially on maps with burning carcasses. Some drivers the fps would drop by a significant amount another driver and there would be no fire just a black part on the map...

But the thing is Nvidia got nothing to offer in both 6850 and 7850 price range that offer compariable performance...

 

[dogbert]

I'm out today, last post for the next ~8+ hours....

But, Thanks once more the feedback guys, and as to games I will play and want to play here are the main titles.

Company of Heroes TWO (2013)
Does't anyone still play
JOINT OPERATIONS? - What would be an equivalent title today?

Company of Heros
Supreme Commander & Forged Alliance
Anything from TOTAL WAR Series
Anything from COMMAND & CONQUER Series
Anything from DAWN of WAR Series
Anything from XCom Series
EVE Online (Maybe, Just Maybe!)

 

[psychodil]

Get the CPU upgrade then

 

[Martini1991]

Marines build at 500 is pretty good.