CPU / system bound, from a upgraded perspective.

[Valset]

First off I loved my old machine, it was just time to do something. 939 based system. First I upgraded to dual core. That let me play some newer games. Then I installed a 8800GTX. Let me play the games with lots of eye candy. Bioshock ran in the 30 to 50 range. COD4 ran wildly, anywhere from 20 to 75 frames a second. All this at 1280 by 1024.

Wednesday I finally got my phenom 9600 black editon. Installed my new motherboard, cpu, cleaned out all of the old drivers (that took some work but I didn't want to do a new install. I also upgraded to an brand new Hannspree 28 inch 1920 by 1200 monitor. (god this thing is pretty)

Results. (these are playing @ 1920 by 1200)

Had to enable v-sync for bioshock. Keeps right at 60 FPS, A very few drops. COD4 shows a huge improvement. I am now running an insane frame rate in COD4 (I am having trouble believing that fraps is right. Claiming around 100 to 150FPS depending on what part of the game your in)

Now all of this can not just be the cpu by itself, rather I am thinking that it is a combination of the new RAM (2gb DDR2 800 vs DDR 400) and a modern CPU. This has really changed the way I think about upgrading. If I had to do it again I would have made a new motherboard my first upgrade, before the 8800GTX.

Now I just need to get a faster hard drive (the last big bottleneck in my computer.)

 

[FlyinBrian]

Yeh congratulations you have just become a wiser builder. You always look at the over-all system and your processor and a ram are big key peices in the total performance of your machine. So yeh just those two peices can give you that kind of performance. You have to weigh everything in balance.. ask yourself will another new video card benefit me more than a cpu upgrade and vise versa.

Now before someone comments on my own system I know I am bottlenecked but I am working on a intel/crossfire build. I am just buying sometime with my current 4870 which will be joined by another in my intel system for crossfire.

 

[Valset]

well I should have been clearer; if I had to do one or the other the card would have been it. as I was planning both I think I should have done the system first and forgone getting the dual core (was damn hard to get too). It was a wasted step.

The only thing is that I was planning on putting a couple of 4850 (the 1gb versions) in crossfire but right now I can't see it. I don't play crysis, The games I have run insanely well. If I get some of the newer games that might change but I am thinking that I will stay with the 8800GTX

 

[Cheffy]

Getting a dual core isn't the issue. There are few applications that take advantage of more than two cores. Getting a good dual core is. My e8400 is definitely not a limiting factor and will not be for some time to come.

 

[Valset]

Getting a dual core isn't the issue. There are few applications that take advantage of more than two cores. Getting a good dual core is. My e8400 is definitely not a limiting factor and will not be for some time to come.

it is when you playing certain game, boishock for one