How is your Nehalem or Westmere processor holding up in modern gaming?

[cbn]

Nehalem should not be massively slower than sandy bridge in games, think a 4GHz Nehalem i7 should still handle most games pretty OK, more or less like a stock 2600K?

Yes, that sounds like a good estimate considering a Core i7 2600K has a 3.5 Ghz clockspeed when all cores are loaded.

3.5 Ghz x 1.15= 4.025 Ghz <-----This based on Sandy Bridge having a 15% IPC advantage over Nehalem.

With that pointed out I wonder how both Bloomfield (Nehalem on LGA 1366) and Gulftown (Westmere on LGA 1366) would do with their triple channel memory controllers?

-Nehalem on LGA 1366 = triple channel DDR3 1066 memory controller (though some of the Nehalem Xeons like this one had triple channel controllers rated at DDR3 1333)
-Nehalem on LGA 1156 = dual channel DDR 1333 memory controler
-Westmere on LGA 1366 = triple channel DDR3 1333 memory controller
-Sandy Bridge on LGA 1155 = dual channel DDR3 1333 memory controller

In games that benefit from higher memory bandwidth like the ones in this video could we see much of LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge's IPC advantage erased when using a LGA 1366 processor with memory in triple channel?

 

[Lepton87]

What's interesting is i7 870 is dead even against Q9650 at in 2009 when both are similarly clocked back in 2009, and now Nehalem is burying C2Q alive.

And also, a 20% win for SB against 870 isn't really that impressive when its also clocked 20% higher.

Lynnfield has HT while SB does not. That's why the difference is not so big that i7 870 would be 40% slower than 2600K at the same 4.8GHz. 4c/8t became much better than 4c/4t even for games.

 

[bigboxes]

Are those pics when the parts are brand new? My PC stuff will never be that shiny after 5 years living in a godawful 90%+ humidity climate.

Yes, that was as I built it in 2009. The copper does tarnish. The parts are in great shape, but not so new and shiny. Today, the guts lie in my HTPC. Here's how they look today. Notice the TRUE wouldn't fit in the full size ATX HTPC case. Went with an new Thermalright AXP-200R.

 

[Shellls]

x5650@4Ghz is still a beast, haven't had any problems with games. Not too much of a power hog either, the system uses 240 watts in a gaming load with an rx 470

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Just recently replaced my i7-860 OCed to 3.8ghz with HT off to an i7-7700k OCed to 4.8ghz with HT on. Running a 1070GTX with it.

Based on my experience with Overwatch at 1440p, it gave me a good 40-60fps increase. My 860 was more than good enough on a 60hz monitor but it definitely wasn't enough to drive my new 144hz monitor. Plus I was able to sell my 860 on ebay for $50 so that helped.

 

[MajinCry]

What's interesting is i7 870 is dead even against Q9650 at in 2009 when both are similarly clocked back in 2009, and now Nehalem is burying C2Q alive.

Isn't that due to the C2Qs being two separate C2D chips fused together, resulting in hardcore performance drops in heavily threaded and/or parallel code? Nehalem's main benefits in lightly threaded software (e.g, Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3), is that it has lower power consumption, higher clocks, and no cross-die performance sinks.

At least, that's what I've gathered on 'em.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Isn't that due to the C2Qs being two separate C2D chips fused together, resulting in hardcore performance drops in heavily threaded and/or parallel code? Nehalem's main benefits in lightly threaded software (e.g, Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3), is that it has lower power consumption, higher clocks, and no cross-die performance sinks.

At least, that's what I've gathered on 'em.

i5 760 scales a bit better than the Q9650 normalized to 3GHz in Cinebench R10, so I don't think it's the thread scaling. I think the Nehalem uarch is so ahead of its time that it need a GPU 5 years later to properly stretch its legs against Penryn.

 

[Yakk]

My good old 920@4.2 is still going strong 7 years later. If I do build a Ryzen rig it'll be for fun more than anything else.

 

[legcramp]

Still rocking 1366... runs super quiet and cool but I am on a custom loop. I have to try really really hard to break 60c with GPU and CPU loaded. I'll probably upgrade to second-gen Zen or what Intel has to compete with Zen.

What other games do you guys play that makes these chips struggle? I want to test them out for fun. I mainly play Overwatch nowadays and that doesn't really stress my X5650 @ 4ghz / 1600 DDR3 much at all.

I am getting 150-200 fps most of the time when I put the system in CPU limited situations.. (on low video settings). My R9 290 struggles more at 1440p on EPIC settings. And when I say struggle it really is 60 fps + but the difference between 60 and 90 fps is huge for me so it's struggling when the R9 290 can't do 90+ all the time.

Edit: Oh and pix XD

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's a real thing of (tech) beauty, Rifleman.

 

[MajinCry]

Still rocking 1366... runs super quiet and cool but I am on a custom loop. I have to try really really hard to break 60c with GPU and CPU loaded. I'll probably upgrade to second-gen Zen or what Intel has to compete with Zen.

What other games do you guys play that makes these chips struggle? I want to test them out for fun. I mainly play Overwatch nowadays and that doesn't really stress my X5650 @ 4ghz / 1600 DDR3 much at all.

Any of Bethesda's games. To measure single threaded prowess, get Oblivion and install Open Cities & Martigen's Monster Mod. Bonus points if you take out a torch, when it's raining, with reflections maxed out.

 

[cbn]

One reason I am asking this question is because I found my stock speed LGA 771 E5440 Xeon (equivalent to a stock speed Q9550) absolutely unplayable on certain parts of the Crysis 3 Welcome to the Jungle level (specifically after the point in the level where the alien sniper rifle is used to destroy the weaponized tower). At this point of the game I was getting a steady 17 FPS most of the time even with resolution lowered to 800 x 600.

Update:

W3530* (Stock CPU that came with my workstation) with triple channel DDR3 1066 got 60 FPS with a R7 250X on 1280 x 1024 low on that same scene.

Pretty amazing difference in performance.

*Xeon version of Core i7 930.

 

[palladium]

Running GTX 1080 on my i7 920 @ 3.6 GHz (7970 died). Mostly playing dota 2 @ 5k - don't see any reason to upgrade CPU as GPU utilisation is contantly > 90% at that res.

 

[Dave2150]

My i7 920 and x5650 struggle greatly when coupled with a 1070. I compared performance to my 6700K @ 4.7Ghz system and it's a night and day difference.

In several games I saw minimum FPS increase by 30-40, which is absolutely huge.

Additionally all my X58 systems pumped out massive amounts of heat, especially when overclocked. They really are obsolete parts now, best recycled or kept for nostalgic reasons. They were fantastic chips in their time.

 

[Yakk]

LoL...

 

[lopri]

It looks like the 4.8 Ghz Core i5 2500K (with dual chanel DDR3 2133) is around 15% to 20% faster (on average) than the 4.0 Ghz Core i7 860 with dual channel DDR3 2000.

I wonder how much effect triple channel (via LGA 1366 Nehalem or 4C/8T Westmere) would have had?

It looks to me the GTX 970 is running out of steam and not able to fully take advantage of 4.8 GHz SNB cores. What is telling are the tests with AA, in which the difference between Sandy Bridge and Lynnfield is much smaller than 20%. A faster GPU should allow the 2500K to stretch its legs further. That in turn means a 4.0 GHz Lynnfield is still a decent match for a performance GPU like GTX 970 on 1080p/4AA.

P.S. Triple channel helps, but as it is today what really matters for games is the absolute latency.

 

[Paratus]

Still rocking the rig in the sig

I7 920 @ 3.6 and 1.19v
12GB of 1333 tripple channel RAM

I''m still using a mid tower case so the largest cooler I could fit was a coolermastet hyper N520 with 2x offset 92mm fans.

I'm also using the P6T Deluxe V2 MOBO with the PCI E 4X USB3.0 SATA 3 add in card. It's been a rock solid machine but I think I'm going to build a new one this year.

There hasn't been a game I couldn't play comfortably until this year. My 7970 GHZ is getting long in the tooth and my old 19x12 monitor died and I'm running 25x14 now.

 

[cbn]

There hasn't been a game I couldn't play comfortably until this year. My 7970 GHZ is getting long in the tooth and my old 19x12 monitor died and I'm running 25x14 now.

Which game was giving you trouble?

 

[Shmee]

Rifleman, is that the original Gigabyte X58-UD5? I have one of those running an x5660 @ 4.25GHz atm.

 

[Paratus]

Which game was giving you trouble?

I recently got Watch Dogs 2 with an SSD upgrade and XCOM 2 when it was on sale. Each feels like they are running a bit rough. I haven't had time tweak settings and see what's going on however.

Previously I was still playing through older games like Skyrim, Alien Isolation, and Starcraft 2. Those were all running fine.

 

[bigboxes]

My i7 920 and x5650 struggle greatly when coupled with a 1070. I compared performance to my 6700K @ 4.7Ghz system and it's a night and day difference.

In several games I saw minimum FPS increase by 30-40, which is absolutely huge.

Additionally all my X58 systems pumped out massive amounts of heat, especially when overclocked. They really are obsolete parts now, best recycled or kept for nostalgic reasons. They were fantastic chips in their time.

I don't know about obsolete. If you need max performance at max rez then yeah, it's showing its age. I don't miss the heat for sure! I don't sit next to my HTPC and it's running stock. LOL

 

[Paratus]

Anyone remember what's a good maximum voltage for 24/7 ops for an i7 9XX?

I

 

[Shmee]

Depends if 32 or 45nm. I would honestly say for either, keep 1.375v or less. For the 32nm, a bit less even.

 

[Paratus]

Depends if 32 or 45nm. I would honestly say for either, keep 1.375v or less. For the 32nm, a bit less even.

So I could probably use a bit more voltage coming from 1.19v if I wanted to bump up towards 4.0ghz. (I'm 45nm)

 

[laamanaator]

I'd say everything under 1.5V is safe if your temps are under control.