single core 939 to dual core 939 for Supreme Commander - worth it?

[RaMDOM]

Hi Guys,

My current system spec is AMD Skt939 3800 64bit, HISX1900XT, 2gig Corsair 400Mhz RAM, Asrock DualSATA2 Mobo. I also have a MEC MultiSync 20" widescreen so run all my games at 1050 x 1680.

Just bought Supreme Commander and it really runs likes a dog and there is not much improvement even when I turn the graphics down. This has lead me to believe that the performance is CPU related and not video related.

I understand that Supreme Commander is dual core optimised, and therefore figure that a dual core CPU would help.

I would love to get a Core2 Duo, however this would mean significant outlay on a new mobo and ram as well. So I was thinking - a reasonable stop gap could be to upgrade to a 939 X2 - namely the 4600. Does anyone know whether this would increase the performance on this game? and significantly so?

I would also like to know as to whether this upgrade would see my performance drop in games that do not use two cores. I know that the X2's are simply the single core 64bit processors doubled up - i.e: the 3800 X2 is just two 64bit 3000's for example. Does anyone know what the cores are for the 4600 X2? If they are lower than the 3800 I currently have I figure it may not be worth it as I would get a drop in performance in single apps over what I currently get. Is my thinking right on this?

Cheers in advance for the help.

 

[saffyre]

You would get a big performance difference. The reason is doesnt run so well is that the game calculates all the weapon trajectories for each individual unit which is a lot of processing with a large number of units. This kind of computation is easily sped up with multi core processing as individual trajectories can be calculated on seperate cores.

You will see a performance decrease with single core apps if you are swapping for a dual core cpu with less cache or a lower clock speed.

 

[Indy500]

That would be compensated for by the load sharing ability of two cores in Windows. Two applications, each a bit slower than single core is still much faster than one at once.

 

[Byron5184]

I'm doing the same for the very same reason hehe. My only problem is that i have never replaced a CPU in a pc before. What do i do and how easy is it? Can anyone point me towards any guides on how to do it or say how to do it.

Thanks

 

[Indy500]

I'm doing the same for the very same reason hehe. My only problem is that i have never replaced a CPU in a pc before. What do i do and how easy is it? Can anyone point me towards any guides on how to do it or say how to do it.

Thanks

Just be careful when unclipping the heatsink. A retail CPU comes with instructions. So do motherboards (in the manual).

 

[Combat squirrel]

it will help a lot, but when u start playing for ages and get TONS of units on the battlefield, it runs like a dog (on my opteron dual core 2.75ghz), well not -that- bad but its def a 'new generation' of games , i reckon C taylor programmed it with future future cpu's in mind if that makes sense. Must say though it runs MILES better on vista than xp for me, but vista always hangs the game after 15mins so im forced to play on xp. Im due my cpu/board/ram upgrade in march/may im def going for a 4 core cpu with 4gb ram, should play nice then...........speaking of which when is AMD's k10 quad core coming out ? want to see how it competes to Intels quad core, which evers fastest ill be getting

 

[jaykay]

amds k10 will be mid july for opteron then august/sept for desktop

 

[Combat squirrel]

amds k10 will be mid july for opteron then august/sept for desktop

Jokin that long a ? whats time line for intels quad core refresh ? other wise looks like ill have to get qx6700

 

[d123pw]

Just picked up a 939 X2 3800, now running at 2.5Ghz (250x10), replacing my Winchester @ 2.35, runs Supreme commander a lot better later in the game against a cpu, especially when using large numbers of units in an attack.

Well worth the ~£70 quid upgrade to get me by untill I can afford a whole new cpu/mobo/mem/pci gfx.

Current playing the game at 1280x1024, medium settings, no aa, 8af, 1gig TCCD DDR, 2.5 X2, X800XTPE, game is more than playable.

Im sure I can get more out of this chip with a better cooler and more case airflow....

Yes the X2 is worth it for Supreme Commander

 

[drunkenmaster]

from what i've read, single to dual core nets a pretty decent performance increase, dual to quad core is a much smaller leap in performance as there is a limit to how much more power you can use and keeping the whole cpu fed with data at once. feeding one core, easy, feeding 4 cores and everything is spread thinner so its a more and more limited increase in performance.

memory, seems that even 1 gig is enough to play the game, 2 and 4 gigs nets 1fps increase on a quad core system, honestly think 4gigs is still overkill. add an extra 2 gigs in a year or two when games may use it, prices will likely come down so you'll save money, or you may by that point be on a new mobo with ddr3 and not have to lose so much selling 4gigs older mem. there was a link to the benchmarks in another thread, will see if i can find which site the benchies were on.

 

[Nocky666]

I'm doing the same for the very same reason hehe. My only problem is that i have never replaced a CPU in a pc before. What do i do and how easy is it? Can anyone point me towards any guides on how to do it or say how to do it.

Thanks

I was in the same situation as you about 2 weeks ago. My original cpu was a 3700+ and wanted to upgrade to dual core namely for future proofing and supcom, but didnt want to change my 939 mobo due to costs. So i was searching around online stores for a while and found a used 4600x2 for £130 inc. HSF on ebay It installed fine and runs great windows performs much better, single cpu apps are more stable and supcom runs great.

I also didnt have a clue how to install a cpu, but you can find loads of videos and guides to help you. Heres a few i used:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2amdas5.html -applying thermal paste

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_869_4348^6678,00.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Q04eDNi8E

I found the videos helped me a lot. Hope this helps.