Switching to i7 920 from E8400. E8400 bottlenecks the 5970/BFBC2, benchmarking...

[Apocalypse23]

I've been going on an insanity PC spending free since February. I bought a 5870 for rig 2 in my sig. Then I bought a 4350 for Rig1, then realized I needed to game on it, so I bought a 5850 for Rig1. My Acer x193w 19" was boring me and now I went ahead and bought a BenQ BenQ E2420HD 24".....

I bought two copies of BC2, one for my brother....too add to the amount of cash I spent..

Anyways, the performance of BC2 in my rig1 was somewhat acceptable at 1440x900, I could play with max settings and 2xAA,8xAF and still get about 45 fps on average in BC2...until I switched to the 1920x1080 resolution and now I get a low of 25 fps at times...This games hammers my CPU so much that my fps drops to 10-12 for a fraction of a second rarely in BC2....I can feel that this game is not for dual cores.....The horrible performance has forced me to play at LOW settings and I still get a low of 40fps at times....

So I am deciding to upgrade...Rig 2 fares a bit better and it has faster memory, 5870 ocd, and a newer e8400 stepping....I've done some research and since I live in Canada, I can't get any Fry's or Microcenter pricing... shopbot.ca is my only source of pricing...I've decided to sell my rig1's 8gb ddr2 RAM, asus p5ke/wifi ap mobo/E8400 chip and the OCZ Vendetta 2 heatsink all together and upgrade to a Core i7 930 setup. My concern is if I should wait for Thuban (AMD's 6 core) to show up as it is around the corner, or bite the bullet soon and upgrade to the core i7 930...I need some recommendation on 6GB ram that can help me smoothly overclock the proc to 4.3ghz on air. I've selected the following, but want to add that I need something for budget, so cost is critical, please feel free to advise:

Prices are Canadian:
Proc: Core i7 930 $299.79 Link

RAM: OCZ XTC Platinum OCZ3P1333LV6GK DDR3-1333 6GB 3X2GB CL7-7-7-20 Triple Channel Memory Kit $153.60 after $20 MIR Link
or
Patriot Viper Series Tri-Channel DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz 6GB (3x2GB) CL 8-8-8-24 Low Latency DIMM Triple Channel Kit (PVT36G1600LLK) $159.99 after $20 MIR Link

Mobo:
ASRock X58 Extreme ATX Intel Motherboard $169.99 Link --this board had mixed reviews at newegg, about DOAs...(only 1 year warranty)
or
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 4PCI-E SATA3 USB3.0 Sound GLAN CrossFireX SLI Motherboard $214.16 Link --this comes with USB 3.0/Sata 3.0/4 PCIE slots(3 year warranty, this board is pretty new)
or
MSI X58 PRO-E LGA1366 Intel X58 ATX Motherboard $187.77 Link --(3 year warranty)
or
ASUS Rampage II Gene mATX LGA1366 DDR3 X58 2PCI-E16 PCI-E4 PCI GBLAN CrossFire SLI Motherboard -- $217.21 on sale Link --3 year warranty


Heatsink: Scythe Mugen 2 REV.B. HeatPipes CPU Heatsink LGA1366 1156 775 AM3 AM2+ AM2 754 939 940 120MM Fan $36.97Link

If I select the more bang for buck option, then I am looking at a total of $666.74, that includes the Asrock board, i7930, Patriot ram and the scythe heatsink....Suggestions welcome, price and performance is critical as I am looking for bang for the buck. I won't be buying a i7 860 nor a i5 750 as the i7 930 seems to be the best bang for buck here. Also, the i7 920 costs exactly the same as the i7 930 here in CAN.

**EDIT**- Alright, well I restarted my computer and the fps is better now, 60-90, with a low of 40 fps, the CPU usage is 99% while gaming for both cores however. It turned out that i had my pc running for the whole day yesterday, also had it on sleep, and then continued gaming....right now i can hear my 5850 fan spinning like crazy while gaming, so that's a positive.

I still feel the need to upgrade, so any suggestions about the items I listed would be welcomed.

**NEW UPDATE** I decided to go with an i7 setup, my parts are coming in next week before I can run some benchmarks for comparison. I have bought an Asus 5970 to complement with my Asus 5870 and also my Asus 5870 to test tri-Crossfire, single crossfire (5970) and dual crossfire scaling. The benchmarks will also test PCI-E 1.0 vs PCI-E 2.0 comparisons, stay tuned and thanks for reading!

New updates: added 5850 and 5970+5850+5870 benches:


3d Mark Vantage

Unigine Heaven 2.0

Metro 2033

Just Cause 2 Demo- Benchmark

Dirt 2 and Crysis Warhead

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Scaling graphs based on Average FPS:

3D Mark Vantage GPU Score scaling

Unigine Heaven 2.0, Just Cause 2.0

Dirt 2, Crysis Warhead, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Metro 2033

 

[JAG87]

Anyways, the performance of BC2 in my rig1 was somewhat acceptable at 1440x900, I could play with max settings and 2xAA,8xAF and still get about 45 fps on average in BC2...until I switched to the 1920x1080 resolution and now I get a low of 25 fps at times...This games hammers my CPU so much that my fps drops to 10-12 for a fraction of a second rarely in BC2....I can feel that this game is not for dual cores.....The horrible performance has forced me to play at LOW settings and I still get a low of 40fps at times....

If setting graphic settings down to low improves your performance then you aren't cpu bottlenecked. The fact that your performance turned to crap once you moved to 1920x1080 is proof of this as well.

Try disabling bloom and HBAO, you should get much better performance. You can also force the game to run in dx9 if worse comes to worst, but you lose AA.

 

[Apocalypse23]

If setting graphic settings down to low improves your performance then you aren't cpu bottlenecked. The fact that your performance turned to crap once you moved to 1920x1080 is proof of this as well.

Try disabling bloom and HBAO, you should get much better performance. You can also force the game to run in dx9 if worse comes to worst, but you lose AA.

The thing is those were already off....using only 1xMSAA and 1x AF, I still got an average of 45 fps at 1920x1080 in Low settings....Multiplayer..Upgrading to a i7 setup at 4.3 ghz should boost my fps by about 15-20 at least.

 

[crazylegs]

Umm... I'm happily playing this game using the rig in my sig. All detail @ high, 1920x1200, 4xAA, 16xAF, HBAO and V-Sync = OFF. Runs around 55 FPS. Low of 40-45. Using FRAPS during online play (tend to only play 32 player rush maps).

I'm sure your performance would increas, but not entirely sure if its 'worth it'

EDIT: Think there is still some life left in our fast dualies My next upgrade will certainly be 4+ core, but i'm not in such a hurry to upgrade. Waiting to see how AMDs future release pan out and also to judge which socket will give me most lifespan - similar to your concerns regarding AM3 etc.

 

[jtisgeek]

Am getting around 50 fps on my 2 system in Sig I think you may have something else going on shouldn't be that bad since you have a 5850 and 5870.

My 5770 runs better in direct x 10 than 11 and I can't really tell the different.

 

[JAG87]

The thing is those were already off....using only 1xMSAA and 1x AF, I still got an average of 45 fps at 1920x1080 in Low settings....Multiplayer..Upgrading to a i7 setup at 4.3 ghz should boost my fps by about 15-20 at least.

Go into settings.ini and turn everything down to low, and even lower the resolution.

If your fps goes up, then your need more gpu power.

If your fps stays crap, then I agree with you, get an i7.

It's just a simple test before you go out and spend money.

 

[Insomniator]

Just lower the settings, its not like you'd ever notice a difference when you are getting shot the F up constantly.

oh no that grenade didn't cast a dynamic shadow on the car it blew up! I need i7!!

 

[Axon]

Just lower the settings, its not like you'd ever notice a difference when you are getting shot the F up constantly.

oh no that grenade didn't cast a dynamic shadow on the car it blew up! I need i7!!

I came, I saw, I rofled

 

[Apocalypse23]

Alright, well I restarted my computer and the fps is better now, 60-90, with a low of 40 fps, the CPU usage is 99% while gaming for both cores however. It turned out that i had my pc running for the whole day yesterday, also had it on sleep, and then continued gaming....right now i can hear my 5850 fan spinning like crazy while gaming, so that's a positive.


I still feel the need to upgrade, so any suggestions about the items I listed would be welcomed.

 

[suntox]

i'm on the same mission atm. according to anandtechs buyers guide, the ram should be faster then 1600er. they suggest a kingston 1866 to oc to 4ghz. cl 9-9-9 if its the same as the one i see at shop.

 

[jtisgeek]

Alright, well I restarted my computer and the fps is better now, 60-90, with a low of 40 fps, the CPU usage is 99% while gaming for both cores however. It turned out that i had my pc running for the whole day yesterday, also had it on sleep, and then continued gaming....right now i can hear my 5850 fan spinning like crazy while gaming, so that's a positive.


I still feel the need to upgrade, so any suggestions about the items I listed would be welcomed.

I have noticed it act that way to bad company does not like anything else running. So fresh reboot going stight to the game runs the best.

 

[deimos3428]

If rebooting fixed the problem, it's not your hardware. Something else in your system is slowing it down. If you don't want to take the time to troubleshoot it, reinstalling windows is still a lot cheaper than buying more hardware.

There's nothing wrong with upgrading stuff for the fun of it, mind you.

 

[peonyu]

About how much more performance would a equally overclocked I7 have over a E8500 cpu [at 4.5ghz] ? I have a E8500 cpu at that speed and ive been wondering the same for certain games if its a worthwhile upgrade [online forged alliance = cpu bottleneck].

 

[Zoeff]

I was in the exact same position, had 20-30 FPS in bc2 with slowdowns towards 15. This was with a Q6600 (stock speed), 2GB of DDR2 RAM and an 8800GTX. Everything set as low as possible in the settings.ini file.

I got myself a new motherboard, i7 920 (stock speed) and 6GB of DDR3 RAM. Still the exact same 8800GTX. Even thought the bios settings are far from ideal right now (heck, one DIMM isn't even detected) I now get 80 to 120 FPS. Loading times have gone down to about a third of what it used to be. Quite an improvement...

According to some this game has very nice audio quality which drains quite a lot out of your CPU.

 

[Udgnim]

I've also had BC2 performance degradation due to keeping PC on / PC sleep.

 

[peonyu]

I was in the exact same position, had 20-30 FPS in bc2 with slowdowns towards 15. This was with a Q6600 (stock speed), 2GB of DDR2 RAM and an 8800GTX. Everything set as low as possible in the settings.ini file.

I got myself a new motherboard, i7 920 (stock speed) and 6GB of DDR3 RAM. Still the exact same 8800GTX. Even thought the bios settings are far from ideal right now (heck, one DIMM isn't even detected) I now get 80 to 120 FPS. Loading times have gone down to about a third of what it used to be. Quite an improvement...

According to some this game has very nice audio quality which drains quite a lot out of your CPU.

Id say it was your ram or some other settings before believing a I7 quadrupled your framerate by itself. At most with equal clock speed Id expect 15% improvement..

 

[TridenT]

Id say it was your ram or some other settings before believing a I7 quadrupled your framerate by itself. At most with equal clock speed Id expect 15% improvement..

This.

I don't believe a Core i7 will improve your framerate much if at all.

It's a game that is heavily influenced by GRAPHICS CARDS! You know why my FPS goes way up when I lower the graphic settings? BECAUSE THE GAME IS GPU LIMITED!

I have an E7200 @ 3.6Ghz and when I crank down or up the settings, the FPS goes up or down... >_>

It isn't a very CPU intensive game, bro.

You're just looking for a reason to waste money.

 

[dark0anima]

This.

I don't believe a Core i7 will improve your framerate much if at all.

It's a game that is heavily influenced by GRAPHICS CARDS! You know why my FPS goes way up when I lower the graphic settings? BECAUSE THE GAME IS GPU LIMITED!

I have an E7200 @ 3.6Ghz and when I crank down or up the settings, the FPS goes up or down... >_>

It isn't a very CPU intensive game, bro.

You're just looking for a reason to waste money.

agreed

 

[lobbyone]

This.

I don't believe a Core i7 will improve your framerate much if at all.

It's a game that is heavily influenced by GRAPHICS CARDS! You know why my FPS goes way up when I lower the graphic settings? BECAUSE THE GAME IS GPU LIMITED!

I have an E7200 @ 3.6Ghz and when I crank down or up the settings, the FPS goes up or down... >_>

It isn't a very CPU intensive game, bro.

You're just looking for a reason to waste money.

this

 

[OCGuy]

Really no need to upgrade your processor there. My e8600 @4.3 runs that game no problem.

 

[Apocalypse23]

i'm on the same mission atm. according to anandtechs buyers guide, the ram should be faster then 1600er. they suggest a kingston 1866 to oc to 4ghz. cl 9-9-9 if its the same as the one i see at shop.

Can anyone back this claim up? I'm looking for a set of 6GB RAM that will work with the ASrock mobo, or even the Asus or Gigabyte board that I have posted on top...The lower timings would help won't you think?

Also, about my motherboards, anyone have suggestions about Asrock performance and quality, the Gigabyte board, and also the Asus board I mentioned? Which would you choose?

 

[Zoeff]

How can more RAM increase FPS? I can see how that is responsable for the decreased load times and possibly removing stuttering caused by the game caching in real time but increased FPS..?

If I set the graphics to high it runs about 5 to 10 FPS lower on average on my old system.

 

[aigomorla]

Just lower the settings, its not like you'd ever notice a difference when you are getting shot the F up constantly.

oh no that grenade didn't cast a dynamic shadow on the car it blew up! I need i7!!

LOL.... this is when i would be throwing my gpu's out the window.

 

[BD231]

Don't let the dual core supporters around here sway you, they're an arrogant bunch. When you're running an OS with background applications you soon realize how effective more cores really are.

Not sure why you'd pay top dollar for performance you can get elsewhere, but, to each his own.

 

[aigomorla]

Not sure why you'd pay top dollar for performance you can get elsewhere, but, to each his own.

What if you already took care of the elsewhere? :X

Me however i think im just addicted to the premium stuff.
And im responsible for getting others addicted to it as well.