Intel i7 920

[Nahsavtoo]

So I am building two new computers for the wife and myself and we both play WoW. I am not up to speed on many technical aspects regarding the game and hardware so I have a few questions.

I am building an i7 920 gaming rig :thumbsup:

How WoW will utilize the CPU at default settings? Not sure if this question comes across as I intend. Basically will it use the CPU to it's full potential (with the understanding the CPU is likely way more than the game needs) or will it use no more than the dual core CPU I am using now?

Is anything I can do or need to do to make it utilize more of the potential of the i7 920? Someone mentioned that there is a setting in the game to make it use more of the processing capabilities.

The build I am considering is located at this AnandTech thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2326583&enterthread=y


Any advice or observations are appreciated. Please keep in mind I am somewhat new to building computers. These next two computers will only be my second build.

 

[SunnyD]

So what are you more concerned with here? WoW or the CPU's potential in general?

Anyway, to answer your question as best as possible - no, WoW in no way/shape/form will fully take advantage of what an i7 will have to offer. That being said, WoW is low-enough-tech that the CPU does make a difference. But don't expect it to use 100% of all 4 cores plus 100% of the hyperthreading virtual cores, that's ridiculous and not to mention you DON'T want that. The point of a fast CPU isn't to use the CPU at its "full potential", but rather to run the game at its full potential with as much headroom left over as possible (in order to efficiently run things like the OS and other background tasks so that they don't interfere with the game's performance).

 

[Cheesetogo]

You'll need to modify a line in Config.wtf to allow WoW to take advantage of more than 2 cores. As an i7 owner, I noticed a substantial improvement in Dalaran framerates after doing this.

WoW will rarely bring my CPU usage past 25%. Outside of video encoding/stability testing, I have never seen my CPU usage above 35%. The i7 is ALOT of power.

 

[Bateluer]

I bet your could save a great deal of money and go with a cheaper CPU. No need to spend the money on an i7, motherboard, and RAM when a cheaper Phenom II X3 or X4, sub 100 dollar 785G board, and a 100 dollar video card will still blast through WoW easily.

 

[Maligx]

yes but if you want max fps in dalaran i7 is the way to go

 

[GaryJohnson]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
I noticed a substantial improvement in Dalaran framerates after.

So you went from like 500 fps to 700 fps, or?

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I bet your could save a great deal of money and go with a cheaper CPU. No need to spend the money on an i7, motherboard, and RAM when a cheaper Phenom II X3 or X4, sub 100 dollar 785G board, and a 100 dollar video card will still blast through WoW easily.

As an i7 owner, I agree with the above.

 

[lupi]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
I bet your could save a great deal of money and go with a cheaper CPU. No need to spend the money on an i7, motherboard, and RAM when a cheaper Phenom II X3 or X4, sub 100 dollar 785G board, and a 100 dollar video card will still blast through WoW easily.

as one with a quad 9000 series, 8 gig ram and a g280 I disagree.

 

[Anubis]

buy the I7 even with an 8800GT you will see upwards of 150FPS in raids with it and at least 6 gigs of ram (every graphic setting maxed)
wow is so massivily CPU bound its not even funny, Download the Tweak WoWaddon http://www.wowinterface.com/do...nfo13562-TweakWoW.html and set it to use all 8 cores and just profit

GFX card does almost nothing in terms of WoW FPS. i went from a 8800GT to a GTX285 and saw little to no difference, wow just uses less Ram because the videocard has 2x as much as the 8800 GT did. running an OCed C2D E8400 @ 4GHz with 4 gigs of ram

 

[gizbug]

WOW is like 5 years old. You don't need an i7 to play that game (laughs)

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: gizbug
WOW is like 5 years old. You don't need an i7 to play that game (laughs)

no you dont, however
you need one to play at max graphicial setting at any resoloution over 1024x768

yes its 5 years old and its also coded poorly and when its trying to display what 100 other people are doing all at the same time it destroys your CPU

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: gizbug
WOW is like 5 years old. You don't need an i7 to play that game (laughs)

no you dont, however
you need one to play at max graphicial setting at any resoloution over 1024x768

yes its 5 years old and its also coded poorly and when its trying to display what 100 other people are doing all at the same time it destroys your CPU

Yep. The improvement from my E6600 to my i7-920 was huge. Huge. Even my friend with a Phenom X4 said it ran smoother than on his system.

 

[Nahsavtoo]

SunnyD: I hope that WoW will not overpower the CPU that much LOL. No my intent was to see if it would utilize enough of the CPU with the quadcores to make it worthwhile to purchase. I will also be using the computer for work related issues and that is the main intent for the i7. Just wondered how WoW would use it. Cheesetogo touched on what I was looking for.

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
You'll need to modify a line in Config.wtf to allow WoW to take advantage of more than 2 cores. As an i7 owner, I noticed a substantial improvement in Dalaran framerates after doing this.

WoW will rarely bring my CPU usage past 25%. Outside of video encoding/stability testing, I have never seen my CPU usage above 35%. The i7 is ALOT of power.

Got the line that needs to go in there? I have no clue. But my wife is at home and she can maybe modify the file and tell me what improvements she sees since she is running on a dual core. Or does the config change only apply to quadcore?

Bateluer: I currently have 4GB RAM, 2x 512MB video cards running SLI, a 1.86GHz intel duo core CPU (forget the actual name of the processor) and I still can not turn WoW up to anywhere near full settings. Granted much of this is due to my ignorance I am sure. But by buying a new RIG it will serve multiple purposes.

Anubis: Thanks for the tip on the tweak, anything for a dual core proc?. When I get my RIGs up and running I will definitely look into it. Meanwhile the link is in an e-mail to myself. Additionally I play at about 50% settings with 1680x1050 setting (I think. It has been almost a year since I was able to sit in front of my computer).

Between Alt-Tabbing out of WoW to look at e-mails, listen to music, research on the web, and any work I bring home I figure the i7 will work just fine for what I want it for. The added RAM and SSD I plan to use should substantially increase my productivity thus allowing me to give more time to other pursuits.

I used the components out of the Maximum PC magazine Feb 2007 edition. The MB, CPU and RAM if anyone is interested in looking at it. Like I said I am new to this stuff and basically took what they had listed and used it.


Thanks much for all the input guys. Keep it coming. I am learning various stuff (like I didn't know you could edit some program files to force the program to take advantage of the CPU, now that I know it is a possibility I will look for it in the future)

 

[Nahsavtoo]

Originally posted by: Anubis
buy the I7 even with an 8800GT you will see upwards of 150FPS in raids with it and at least 6 gigs of ram (every graphic setting maxed)
wow is so massivily CPU bound its not even funny, Download the Tweak WoWaddon http://www.wowinterface.com/do...nfo13562-TweakWoW.html and set it to use all 8 cores and just profit

GFX card does almost nothing in terms of WoW FPS. i went from a 8800GT to a GTX285 and saw little to no difference, wow just uses less Ram because the videocard has 2x as much as the 8800 GT did. running an OCed C2D E8400 @ 4GHz with 4 gigs of ram

So the rig I have will be more than sufficient to run WoW at max settings, that is good to go.

The main reason for incorporating all of these seemingly overpowered (for the intended use) components is my wife does little else except play WoW on her computer. But She is going to be starting a new job in a year when we move and the majority of her work will be from home (consulting and such). I want to make sure the computers are up to the task and then some as well as be able to provide for our entertainment.

 

[Anubis]

tweakwow has settings for everythingm you can set it to 2 cores as well, ill see if i can dig up the post on changing the config files to tweak it with 8 cores to see more benefit, it has a varying degree of success for peopl, basicially you are just telling what cores for it to use, slightly different then what tweakwow does, but you dont need to do it running tweakwow will be fine, actually prob be fine without it but it does some cool stuff

 

[Nahsavtoo]

Originally posted by: Anubis
tweakwow has settings for everythingm you can set it to 2 cores as well, ill see if i can dig up the post on changing the config files to tweak it with 8 cores to see more benefit, it has a varying degree of success for peopl, basicially you are just telling what cores for it to use, slightly different then what tweakwow does, but you dont need to do it running tweakwow will be fine, actually prob be fine without it but it does some cool stuff

The help will be much appreciated.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Nahsavtoo

Originally posted by: Anubis
buy the I7 even with an 8800GT you will see upwards of 150FPS in raids with it and at least 6 gigs of ram (every graphic setting maxed)
wow is so massivily CPU bound its not even funny, Download the Tweak WoWaddon http://www.wowinterface.com/do...nfo13562-TweakWoW.html and set it to use all 8 cores and just profit

GFX card does almost nothing in terms of WoW FPS. i went from a 8800GT to a GTX285 and saw little to no difference, wow just uses less Ram because the videocard has 2x as much as the 8800 GT did. running an OCed C2D E8400 @ 4GHz with 4 gigs of ram

So the rig I have will be more than sufficient to run WoW at max settings, that is good to go.

The main reason for incorporating all of these seemingly overpowered (for the intended use) components is my wife does little else except play WoW on her computer. But She is going to be starting a new job in a year when we move and the majority of her work will be from home (consulting and such). I want to make sure the computers are up to the task and then some as well as be able to provide for our entertainment.

Then just get a quad Core 2. Why spend the extra money on an i7 when you're going to be playing WoW?

 

[Nahsavtoo]

Because I do not intend to upgrade again until I re-eniust (2014) as well as plan on using Win7. This will keep me going for a good long while with no need for updates or anything for most new games in the coming years as well. Not to mention as posted above the wife will be doing more work at home on her omputer and I will be doing work at home on my computer when I need to bring it home, in addition to work I do for my Dad.

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: Anubis
you need one to play at max graphicial setting at any resoloution over 1024x768

I've never played WoW myself, but if changing the resolution actually has an effect on the CPU demand the game is doing something really weird.

 

[Denithor]

I love it when people who have never played the game comment on how it performs.

Anubis is dead on.

WoW (and most other MMOs I believe) are FAR more dependent on CPU/RAM than on GPU. Unlike most games the graphics are not that intense - rather there is just a shitload of individual stuff going on onscreen simultaneously. When you get into a heavy 25 man raid with lots of enemies and AoE spells going off right and left your CPU has to be strong enough to crunch through TONS of calculations to keep everything running smoothly.

I play WoW regularly on both computers in my sig and see very little difference between them (note the e8400 is stock and the e7200 is clocked to 3.16GHz). Both are able to handle 1920x1200 with max detail in raids. I get some slowdowns in Dal in the busy times of the evening and everything turns into a slideshow in WG with several hundred people trying to kill each other (but that is most likely network lag not my PC).

An i7 is not needed for WoW but it would certainly be nice. As an alternative though I suggest that you wait a month or so until the new i5 is released - those are going to be cheaper than i7 and from all the hints dropped around the forums & main AT site will rival the i7 920 in performance.

 

[Anubis]

this is the thread i eluded to earlier

http://forums.worldofwarcraft....tml?topicId=1778017311

 

[Dravic]

Then just get a quad Core 2. Why spend the extra money on an i7 when you're going to be playing WoW?

The core 2 arch is at the end of its product life line. There are no upgrades planned for it. buying it now is just a bad idea.. Go AMD PHII x4 (or even x3) am3 or Intel i7 920.


I get the best out of wow only using 3 cores. wow is only coded for dual core (3 core support rumored to be coming), and it looks like splitting up the threading too much in windows actually begins to cause performance decreases.


I get 25-40 fps in dalaran (bad design idea putting both faction in such a small area) everything maxed @ 1920x1200, and 100+ fps in the world, 70+ fps in raids.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Dravic

Then just get a quad Core 2. Why spend the extra money on an i7 when you're going to be playing WoW?

The core 2 arch is at the end of its product life line. There are no upgrades planned for it. buying it now is just a bad idea.. Go AMD PHII x4 (or even x3) am3 or Intel i7 920.


I get the best out of wow only using 3 cores. wow is only coded for dual core (3 core support rumored to be coming), and it looks like splitting up the threading too much in windows actually begins to cause performance decreases.


I get 25-40 fps in dalaran (bad design idea putting both faction in such a small area) everything maxed @ 1920x1200, and 100+ fps in the world, 70+ fps in raids.

The OP's next upgrade is going to happen when there's a different architecture so him upgrading the system he's buying doesn't mean anything anyways but yes, AMD is his best bet right now. He doesn't need to spend the money on an i7 when he'll never be taking advantage of it's power. A Core 2 or Phenom 2 would be perfect for him.

 

[OCGuy]

Q9550 and call it a day. You wont need to upgrade for a while, and by then, both companies will be on new sockets. The upgrade path argument doesnt hold water for people who only upgrade every couple years anyway.

 

[Nahsavtoo]

Originally posted by: OCguy
Q9550 and call it a day. You wont need to upgrade for a while, and by then, both companies will be on new sockets. The upgrade path argument doesnt hold water for people who only upgrade every couple years anyway.

Correct. I only upgrade every 2-4 years so by the time I am ready to upgrade again there will be all new stuff out there to look at and agonize over.

I also will be using the computers for work at home stuff in addition to an older CAD program as mentioned in previous posts.

Additionally I just looked at and started some of the folding@home stuff and I will continue to do so as I only use my computer about 6-8 hours a day at the extreme most. The rest of the time it is sitting there idle doing nothing. That is 16-18 hours a day I can do the folding stuff...and the quadcore will work great for that from what I hear.