Crysis Trouble (Will Not Allow Enthusiest Settings)

[forest4]

What you mean this is a game? I thought it was just a benchmark!!

Hahahaha! Good one! So true.

Would it be a big graphical jump if I did not overclock my CPU, keeping it at 2.6 GHz, but I bought a second XFX 5870? Or would I be bottlenecked?

 

[MeMeMeMe]

It's fair to say that if you are already running at Very High quality, you aren't going to see a great boost in quality as by definition you're already at the top. But you will get substantially higher frame rates.

The i7 will not be bottlenecked by those two cards - or at least, not significantly. I remember a review from the time the 5870 was released showing how the i7 920 really needs two high powered graphic cards to show off its muscle.

That said, with that setup, why wouldn't you overclock it?

That's one gaming situation where you will likely see a decent benefit from overclocking your CPU - but even if you don't, you'll still be able to crank up the settings even mor.

 

[Legionaire68]

The shop won't overclock it because officially you would invalidate the warranty on the overclocked parts cpu,mobo,ram etc unless you buy an overclocked bundle or P.C like from OCUK that is supported by warranty but would add a premium to the price. Imagine you got the store to overclock and then had to take it back because it was unstable or burnt out who would pay for replacements.
That said overclocking an i7 or C2D is so simple its rude not to, why they ever sold them with such low stock speeds is a mystery to me.

 

[Bizarre]

Overclocking the CPU for gaming is rarely worth it.

Reviews of processors make it look like they are worth it, because they don't use the highest gaming settings the graphic card is capable of (as you pointed out, that X3 benchmark uses no AFF, no AA).

Once you start cranking up the graphics settings, as everyone with 5870 will, the differences between the processors, and processor speeds, tend to vanish.

Some games see some benefit, but most of the time it's negligible. Most of the games that you'll see an advbantage with the 5870, are games where you are already getting 60 or a 100+ frames anyway.

So overclocking the CPU is fine for someone who likes to do it because they can, and because they want to feel satisfied they are getting everything they can from their hardware. But if you aren't sure about it, you aren't missing out on anything.

For non-gaming applications, it's easier to make the argument that it's worth it, but most people who don't use cpu-intensive apps frequently won't need the extra power there either.

When you start cranking up the AA etc the card will, in many cases, be happy to suck up all the cpu cycles available to avoid being bottlenecked.

Overclocking is definitely worth it as long as you know what you're doing, if you don't, then it's not hard to learn.

It's free performance whichever way you cut it.

 

[rounddodger]

"The uninstallation of the previous version of the Natural Mod is not mandatory, but cleaner"

I have Crysis updated to version 1.3 I believe. Would I need to uninstall or something to get this to work?
Also, I am not hardcore enough to try to overclock the CPU myself. The risk to gain ratio does not look good. Plus I read that Core i7 processors have a turbo mode built in when running demanding applications. This is more or less an auto-overclock. It would have been nice to have it done though. Too bad, since I already bought this big cooler.

Wow you have an i7 at stock? It's simple enough and the reward far outweighs the risk as long as you do your homework. ie. not too many volts and watch your temps.

 

[Rapido!]

A stock i7 920 would strangle the life out of 5870 Crossfire. Bad enough for one 5870, running two with the CPU stuck at 2.6 is just a urine extraction.

Back in t'day, taking my i7 from stock to 3.2 with 2x260 SLI saw more than 20% performance gain in the Crysis GPU benchmark. Recently, upping the processor from 3.2 to 3.8ghz with my 5870 Crossfire raised Crysis minimum frames by roughly 33%; what were mid-thirties are now mid-forties in the worst-case, most intense scenes.

That's a real appreciable difference where it really appreciably matters. 33% percent min fps gain from a less than 20% increase, which shows how badly even a 3.2 i7 holds back 2x5870. I can only imagine how horrific the bottleneck would be at stock; honestly, it'd strip away most of the worth of even going Crossfire at all.

Those who dismiss the merits of CPU clocking are really just rationalising their own cowardice. Knowing the yellow hue with which their words are imbued, no-one should ever listen to these people. Whom does fortune favour? IT IS NOT THE MEEK.

Anyway, original poster, there's very little risk involved. Your BIOS will have clearly demarcated safety margins (hint: red=danger), all you have to do is be thorough, observe thermals and most importantly of all, not panic if something odd happens. Which it shouldn't, if you are thorough. I'd suggest you read overclocking reviews of your mobo and/or Google for BIOS templates if ya want to start things moving.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Thought I would do some comparisons of a stock i7 920 v an i7 920 at 4Ghz, all games IQ maxed out, GPU 5870 @ 1000 core 1250 mem.

Stock i7 920 on left, overclocked on right

 

[MeMeMeMe]

Those who dismiss the merits of CPU clocking are really just rationalising their own cowardice. Knowing the yellow hue with which their words are imbued, no-one should ever listen to these people. Whom does fortune favour? IT IS NOT THE MEEK.

LMAO, that's had me giggling for a few minutes now.

Raven's benchmarks show you can gain some benefit - but he has increased his CPU by over 50%, and has gained 12% performance increase in Crysis (a mere 6 fps). Dirt 2 doesn't even give 10%.
The game he gains substantial increases in, is one which he already had over 100fps - which is in line with what I said earlier.

Overclocking is a good thing to do, but it's not essential, and to repeat what I said earlier, if you aren't comfortable about doing it, you really don't lose much for games. The odd game may see a jump, but most will see little benefit for a lot of effort.