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CPU to pair with Radeon 5970....

TerminatorUK

TerminatorUK

TerminatorUK

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Joined
19 Feb 2007
Posts
284
So I was lucky to nab a Radeon 5970 at release selling my soul to OcUK get one and have a merry old christmas but work has been so busy I've only just got around to actually using it properly!

Amazing card and getting some great results, however, I'm quickly getting the impression that my E8500 dual-core even @ 4GHz is holding it back from reaching it's true potential so it might be worth an upgrade.

After taking a look at the Dirt 2 CPU-core scaling benchmarks, I was suprised to see how much games are starting to take advantage of multi-core setups.

I'm thinking of the following.....

1) Wait for Core i9 to be released early next year - ideal but I can't afford to buy soul back from OcUK only to re-sell it (wife would murder me....again if I did too)

2) Go with a 4-core Core i5 processor/mobo combo - I believe the new stepping of the Lynnfield 45nm is due out Q1 next year....could be a good option

3) Go with a 2-core/4-thread Core i5 "Clarksdale" 32nm processor - massive potential for overclocking....getting 4.7GHz on air with early samples; could be an awesome choice for gaming I'm thinking. Not sure if 2 logical cores can compete with 2 physical cores as far as gaming is concerned?

4) Return my AMD roots =) - haven't had an AMD proccy since my Skt 939 Athlon 64 3800+ but I am tempted with the current Phenom II lineup. Whilst not the best CPUs, they have a great price/performance ratio and it has already been announced that the AM3 will be compatible with "Bulldozer" when it eventually appears in Q4 2010 for Q1 2011

5) Hunt out a Skt 775-based 45nm Core2Quad CPU (e.g. Q9550) - 2 cores of the same generation worth it?

Thanks for any help/advice :)
 
Well if it was me it would have to be a 920 or 860/870. I would never go back to AMD .Those two cards clock the best for the buck. well not the 870 but still.

With this 860 and the 5870 i get over 20k on vantage. Beating loads of duel GPUs
 
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go for a amd phenom II 965 C3. it offers great performance/price. also overclocks very well.

mine does 3.7ghz on stock voltage. i haven't tryed higher yet.
 
an i7 920 all the way, when the i9's appear they wont be cheap so you can wait for the prices to drop and also the board you have/buy 'should' be i9 compatable.
 
If you want to save some money now maybe consider getting a s775 quad for now and then doing the full upgrade when things like the i9 and what not are released.
 
Have a hunt around for some 5970 scaling benchmarks. I just can't remember what site I saw them on! However what was interesting, was that even with that card combined with the high resolutions you'll be playing with that CPU demand was satisfied on average by a 2.8GHz i7 or a 3.6GHz PII.

The difference in some games between a 4GHz i7 and a 2.4GHz i7 were often negligible.
 
I'm amazed that a Core i7 920 wasn't in the original list of options. It seems like the obvious answer to me. It's not ridiculously expensive but it's fast enough to avoid holding back the graphics card and has some headroom for overclocking if necessary.
 
CBJ said:
I'm amazed that a Core i7 920 wasn't in the original list of options. It seems like the obvious answer to me. It's not ridiculously expensive but it's fast enough to avoid holding back the graphics card and has some headroom for overclocking if necessary.
Click to expand...

Very true but isn't the lifespan of LGA1366 going to be fairly limited?

I heard rumours that the Sandy Bridge (due for release somewhere between Q4 2010 - Q1 2011) architecture would be a different socket, limiting it's life-span somewhat.

I guess nothing is really 'future proof' as such in the high-end pc market ;)
 
As far as i know 1366 is always going to be there high end socket ie i9s and they will be keeping for a while however knowing intel they will bring a new socket out.
 
Of course upgrading in itself is fun and entertaining hobby, but I too must question whether your rationale is backed up by data. So by all means, upgrade and enjoy your new hardware.

However, I think you may wish to investigate your 'cpu bottleneck' if you actually care to see if this truely the case.

Perhaps you could try and downclock your current cpu to 3.8Ghz and see if that makes any difference. If it doesn't, then surely at 4ghz it won't be a bottleneck.

Of course this doesn't take into consideration the benefit of having more than 2 cores. I suppose you must rely on published benchmarks to give you and idea if having more cores will significantly benefit your 5970 in the current crop of games.

edit: check this one out: http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=869&p=0
from the conclusion:
"For the most part the games were still very much GPU limited despite using the Radeon HD 5970, which is currently the world's fastest single graphics card. Games such as BattleForge, Crysis Warhead, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X, Wolfenstein and Far Cry 2 showed little to no difference in performance when clocking our Core i7 processor anywhere from 2.0GHz to 4.0GHz."
 
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I'd say either a q9550@ 4Ghz and hold out untill Sandy Bridge or sell what you've got now and go i7 with a possible upgrade path to i9 and possibly skip the next gen of cpus? Of course theres always AM3 which has a six core route, but intel seems to be the best performer from what i've seen so far and you'll want the best if you're getting a 5970.
 
TerminatorUK said:
Mmm interesting...thanks for your answer.

You wouldn't consider a Lynnfield CPU then?

Does your i7 have hyperthreading enabled?
Click to expand...

I would get a 920 if i was to do it all again. But only for the socket.
My mate has a hosting company and has loads of xeons knocking about the place.

All my BM are done with hyperthreading enabled

under 9 secs 1M superPi
27k Vantage CPU

975 is a killer CPU but its a killer price. I would spend the cash on some 2ghz ram.(and did)
 
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