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Spec me a CPU

Gas Panic!

Gas Panic!

Gas Panic!

Associate
Joined
22 Jan 2006
Posts
924
Hi guys,

Currently running an E6600 @ 3.2Ghz and I'm looking at buying one of the new ATi cards once they're out. Now, I assume that my E6600 is going to bottleneck the GPU somewhat, but to what degree?

I'm currently running an 8800GTS 512, and my performance in TF2 is a little sub-par. At 1680x1050 with everything med/low, I'm getting around 40-50fps with drops down to 20. Having a look at the CPU chart on my keyboard, it's showing that one core is at 100% while playing.

Now I assume that my fps is being limited by the CPU and not the GPU, so I wanted to know what CPU I should buy in order to get the best performance out of the newer ATi card once it's out? I can't be bothered with overclocking at this point (I only use my PC for games, and I'd rather just drop the new CPU in and get on with it!).

I have a 965P-DS3P motherboard and 2GB RAM.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.
 
Surprised your fps are so low specially for mid settings, you have a faster cpu (mines at stock at the mo 2.4 )
and the newer gts, i thought consumed less power and outperformed the 640mb cards ? (though my card is slightly overclocked)

My fps is capped at 75 and drops to low 40's in big fights, thats gaming at 1680x1050 windowed on a 1920x1200 screen in vista with aero on & game settings pretty much maxxed oO

 
Weird. I've got a Q6600@ 3GHz and a 8800GTS 512 and I can run TF2 at all highest and AA at 1920x1200 at a solid capped 60fps. In fact I could do that before I got my raid disks and 4gb more RAM. In answer to your question you may want to consider whats making your current system perform as it is before you consider upgrading as you'll likely be disappointed. Personally I wouldn't bother upgrading your cpu for a new gpu now that the i5/i7 are out and for your next upgrade you'd be looking at new mobo/cpu anyway.
 
At 3.2Ghz it shouldn't be a cpu bottleneck to be honest. On the other hand those 2gb's of ram seem to be suspicious, wouldn’t you be much better with 4gb’s?

About those Q9550/Q9650 comments, don't even bother mate, too late now, complete waste of money! :p
 
I second the Q9550. Its Raaaaapido.

When I bought mine I did as much research as I could on both the Q9550 and the Q9650, and came to the conclusion for a very minimal performance step, couldn't justify the leap in price.

...especially when you OC it to 3.4 :)
 
Cheers for the answers guys!

I'm currently running Windows 7 RC2... so perhaps that has something to do with it. I might install XP on a secondary drive and give that a go. I'm really not sure why my FPS is as low as it is - I mean, TF2 isn't the most demanding of games.

This current build has (so far) lasted me for 2 years, so if I'm to be spending money I'd want to make sure it's got a long life in it - which I guess would mean new mobo + RAM in addition to the new GPU and CPU.

I'll see what XP gives me before I upgrade. Failing that, pay day is next week so we'll see.

Cheers :)
 
Shikyo said:
On the other hand those 2gb's of ram seem to be suspicious, wouldn’t you be much better with 4gb’s?
Click to expand...

this is the problem. trying to game on vista/7 with only 2gb of ram is not too clever. get yourself a new 4gb (2x2gb) kit to replace the stuff you have. that should give a healthy boost for relative peanuts. :)
 
D'oh! I was away in Canada for 9months and I've just noticed that my overclock had reset itself, so my CPU was running at 2.13GHz and not the 3.2GHz that it was before I left.

That'll probably be the reason, then. :D

As for the RAM, I think I'll leave that for when I do a full upgrade later this year.

I'll see what results I get now. I feel like such a 'tard.
 
Glad you got it sorted, but an E6600 runs at 2.4Ghz stock, not 2.13 ..sounds like the multiplier was set to 8 rather than 9.
 
Glad to hear you got it sorted. I was going to say it wasn't windows 7 since I'm running the final release version (MSDN for the win, and no I won't give anyone a key :P).
 
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