Do i need a faster CPU to play modern games at a good resolution?

dubcat

dubcat

dubcat

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My PC has a 2.66Ghz i7 processor. It is a Nehelam (i920 socket) and so upgrading the CPU would also mean upgrading the motherboard and also the RAM.

My graphics card is very old (GTX 9800+). I'm going to upgrade to a GTX1070.

Will this set-up allow me to play modern games at a high resolution or will my CPU be a bottleneck?

FYI this CPU is meant to overclock to 4Ghz but I'm unable to keep it stable when overclocked so please just assume i can't make it go faster for the purpose of this question.

Thanks in advance,
Dub
 
Doubt you'll see a big improvement. You need a decent vid card to push higher resolutions.

Edit: Just saw your vid card comment. If you get a new cpu, ram, and change the gpu to a 1070 you'll be all set for 1440p.
 
adam98150 said:
Doubt you'll see a big improvement. You need a decent vid card to push higher resolutions.
Click to expand...

so based on the above setup I can just upgrade to a GTX1070 and the CPU won't really be a bottleneck for gaming? If that is the case I'm really happy :)
 
Depends heavily on the game. Most games will run like butter, some really like newer CPU architecture and their extensions.

I'm sure with a bit of coaxing near 4GHz won't be an issue for the i7 with a good cooler, you can post a thread in the CPU section here for help, loads of people are happy to help

Really at it's age, I would clocking the nuts off it
 
It depends on which games you'll be playing. CPU-intensive games like Ashes of the Singularity will see a considerable boost in performance if you upgrade the CPU.

There's an easy way forward: buy the GPU and run your game while running Task Manager on a separate monitor. If Task Manager shows 100% CPU usage, you need a better CPU.
 
Quartz said:
It depends on which games you'll be playing. CPU-intensive games like Ashes of the Singularity will see a considerable boost in performance if you upgrade the CPU.

There's an easy way forward: buy the GPU and run your game while running Task Manager on a separate monitor. If Task Manager shows 100% CPU usage, you need a better CPU.
Click to expand...

Got a better idea use MSI Afterburner with Rivatuner and then see what usage you are getting, at 1440p on BF4 I get around 75% average on my 3570k.
 
as said by others depends on the game.

I have played games that barely touch 10% cpu usage so would run well probably on 10 year old cpus, but other games push my overclock haswell hard.

e.g. gta5 is cpu hungry in city areas and in city areas my cpu is a bottleneck, some games also dont use a lot of total cpu but are locked to one core only so will hit that one core hard, these games are usually jrpg's in my experience. The 920 was before the large gains made with sandy bridge so personally I would consider an upgrade yes.
 
dubcat said:
My PC has a 2.66Ghz i7 processor. It is a Nehelam (i920 socket) and so upgrading the CPU would also mean upgrading the motherboard and also the RAM.
Click to expand...

I have that CPU and a GTX970. No problems here with performance. Its overclocked a bit, 3.6Ghz I think. It was at 3.8 but there were some issues.
 
The games I'm likely to play are Guild Wars 2, maybe World of Warcraft, and then Overwatch and Battlefield 1.. as examples.
 
You need to learn how to overclock it. Every 920 should easily handle a BCLK of 166 which is 3.3 Ghz. Two of the games you mention will scale much better with a CPU overclock.
 
I thought all 920 could push 4ghz depending on the mobo.

dubcat, post your full hardware setup, someone might be able to share some overclock settings
 
I've got

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)

My CPU hovers at 40-50c and running prime95 at 4ghz it never went over 75c (i think) before it crashed.

Do you need to know any other components to help?
 
dubcat said:
I've got

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK)

My CPU hovers at 40-50c and running prime95 at 4ghz it never went over 75c (i think) before it crashed.

Do you need to know any other components to help?
Click to expand...

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet. Buy an X5650 for £50, overclock to 4+Ghz.

Done. You now have a six core, twelve threaded monster of a CPU for peanuts.

Check my sig. Exact same mobo.

Check out the 5650 thread in the CPU forum.
 
Thanks for the X5650 recommendation. Will check it out.

Re upping RAM, I can't find that same memory any more. I'd have to get something for the remaining the RAM slots. Would that be a problem? Any recommendation to go with my current RAM if it is ok to mix and match? (Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK) )
 
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