Intel Core i7 and Gaming @ [H]

This thread reminded me of the below article a few months ago, Borderlands 2 CPU scaling. At probably the most common resolution 1080P BL2 does seem to benefit from above 4Ghz.

http://www.techspot.com/review/577-borderlands-2-performance/page6.html


Having said that my old trusty 920 @4.0 still maxes the GTX580 when monitoring the GPU load. The actual frame rate sits between mostly 75 to 110FPS (can't compare my FPS with article, prob different areas).

Once again even though BL2 is a massive CPU hog I would not benefit from a CPU upgrade. Fixing Vsync at 72FPS looks the best and it just sits on that solid.

Still waiting for a reason to upgrade :p
 
Battleneter2 said:
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/far_cry_3_graphics_performance_review_benchmark,7.html

Probably the most demanding game of recent times, certainly uses all the cores which is nice to see. The original I7's more than holding there own.
Click to expand...

And on that note, interesting to see that the Core i3 competes well with Piledriver :D

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-3-performance-benchmark,3379-7.html

Impressive to see games that actually make use of Hyperthreading!
 
So confused personally, i have a, X58 platform,, I7 970 OC at 4.0 and have 18 gigs of memory, 580GTX, asus rog formula. Should i upgrade to 2011. The issue is that i already own a I7 3930k brand new in a box. but i feel like iam going to be wasting my money on an expensive side grade vs. selling it and buying Nvidia's or AMD's Upcoming GPUS. What would you do?
 
Having a 980X based system and a 3930K based system I can tell you that the latter is faster, but I don't know that it's worth the upgrade by itself. Well not if you already have a hex core LGA1366 CPU. In your case you've got a 3930K already which is most of the cost associated with going to LGA2011. I'd probably go ahead and build it out since you have the most expensive part right there.

Then again I'm not sure exactly when the next generation GPUs are dropping so that would factor in for me in your shoes. In a multiGPU situation like I'm in you need the CPU power to allow the cards to really stretch their legs.
 
i only do single GPU, fastest possible card on market, i dont want to bother with sli or crossfire. Thats why i havent upgraded to a 680, its almost like my upgrade to the new cpu. small increase for lots of money.
 
On paper you get a lot going from a Core i7 970 to a Core i7 3930K and jumping from X58 to X79. More memory, PCIe 3.0, native USB 3.0 support, SSD caching, a more powerful CPU, and lastly better overclocking. Well sort of, the 980X and 990X were pretty stout in that regard.

In truth I don't think the difference is all that impressive for most people. All of that sounds like a lot on paper but these are incremental steps at best. It's there but it isn't earth shattering by itself for most applications. I saw the difference with dual GPUs between my X58 and X79 rigs on my 3x30" LCD setup. At 1920x1080 I doubt you would. You'd even see some at 5760x1080 I'm sure though not as much of a difference.
 
stjuart said:
So confused personally, i have a, X58 platform,, I7 970 OC at 4.0 and have 18 gigs of memory, 580GTX, asus rog formula. Should i upgrade to 2011. The issue is that i already own a I7 3930k brand new in a box. but i feel like iam going to be wasting my money on an expensive side grade vs. selling it and buying Nvidia's or AMD's Upcoming GPUS. What would you do?
Click to expand...

If your just gaming with a I7 970 @4Ghz you are better off spending the money on a hooker as you will get a lot more bang for your buck. It would really be a side grade for gaming and I would be going the GPU route.

If you have a certain APP in mind then you need to research if its worth the upgrade.
 
I notice while that I may only gain a few frames average (5 or so), it really increases stability
 
Intel Core i7 processors deliver an incredible breakthrough in six-core performance and feature the latest innovations in processor technologies
 
Guys, do you think thers is some improvement on gaming with an Intel I7 920 stock vs OC ?
Let's say, about 3, 8 GHz OC
graphic card : Gigabyte GTX 660 OC
8 GB DDR3
Thanks
 
white_dove said:
Guys, do you think thers is some improvement on gaming with an Intel I7 920 stock vs OC ?
Let's say, about 3, 8 GHz OC
graphic card : Gigabyte GTX 660 OC
8 GB DDR3
Thanks
Click to expand...

Waiting 6 months and still haven't OC'd that thing? Geez.

On most CPU's you might not notice a huge difference, but the i7 920 has a very low stock clock of 2.66ghz. You will most likely notice a serious difference, even an overclock to 3.2-3.4ghz is over a 20% difference and will gain you significant performance.

The biggest gains of overclocked CPU's come in "under the curve", as they are mostly not immediately visible when you look at a max frame rate review graph. What you will notice is the minimum fps will increase dramatically (i.e. all of the CPU bound areas) and so will your average fps, but your maximum may only go up a little. This translates into a smoother gaming experience and is well worth it though.
 
I wasnt sure if i sell the cpu and motherboard, i really dont know if its worth the upgrade vs overclock.
 
white_dove said:
I wasnt sure if i sell the cpu and motherboard, i really dont know if its worth the upgrade vs overclock.
Click to expand...

OC to see if it makes a difference in gameplay to you. If it does, you just saved yourself money. If not, then it's worthwhile to upgrade.
 
If i do as you said, i´ll have to buy a cpu cooler, to do the OC.
And if im not happy with the OC ? :)
 
white_dove said:
Guys, do you think thers is some improvement on gaming with an Intel I7 920 stock vs OC ?
Let's say, about 3, 8 GHz OC
graphic card : Gigabyte GTX 660 OC
8 GB DDR3
Thanks
Click to expand...

That's what I have my 920 at. 3.8ghz. I would say you would see some gains definitely. More so if you were in an Sli config.
 
Could i OC the CPU only from the software EasyTune6 ( motherboard software ) ?
I never did some OC.
Thanks in advance.
 
white_dove said:
Could i OC the CPU only from the software EasyTune6 ( motherboard software ) ?
I never did some OC.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Use software to OC only in small increments. I like to use the bios for big jumps and like it better. Also make sure you have adequate cooling. EVGA site has excellent tutorials but your going to have to dust off a few cob webs to find info on the 920.
 
I have an old i7 920 at stock speed and a 7970. I am wondering if the CPU is holding the card back.I am mostly playing shooters at 1920x1200. Can anyone tell me if upgrading to a modern i5 or i7 will improve performance?
 
DeeJay said:
I have an old i7 920 at stock speed and a 7970. I am wondering if the CPU is holding the card back.I am mostly playing shooters at 1920x1200. Can anyone tell me if upgrading to a modern i5 or i7 will improve performance?
Click to expand...

OC to 4ghz if you can, save moneys for other upgrades.
 
How does a 3930k that's been proven @ 5.1gHz, compare to a NIB 4930k? Is it a gamble in opening that 4930k, am I better off just staying with the 3930k, and selling off the NIB 4930k?
 
Read a lot that people say the 3930k OC's better due to being able to handle heat better.. Honestly you won't see a huge difference.. sell the 49 buy something else..
 
I've been running an i7 920 C0 @ 3.8GHz for forever now, and finally got the itch to OC the last bits out of it the other night.

I did some half assed attempts without success but I really hit it hard last time.
Out of everything I did, everything, the most stable I ever got it was everything at default (voltages, SSC, power management features, clock amplitude, deskew, DRAM derating) but just cranked up the vcore.

Depending on what knob I would turn it would usually result in a BSOD or hard reboot. I started off with a huge matrix of variables, and kept whittling them down, and it always worked out that default + higher vcore was the most stable, but not stable enough.

Didn't matter if I was running 19 x 211 or 21 x 191.
I had to set vcore above 1.35V to consistently boot to Windows.
Crashing would only happen when running games, and it would be a graceful crash to desktop. Windows event viewer wouldn't shown anything, which was strange.
Temps were always great. Max was 60C @ 1.5V.

Figured this thing wasn't going to give me anything more than 3.8GHz.
Still love this thing, just wanted a tad bit more.
Any final suggestions?
 
unfortunately, co/c1 i7 920s tend to require 1.4v or more vcore and at least and additional .3v cpu vtt for stability at 4ghz. you'll also need to hard lock your qpi frequency to 4.8g/t. i reckon a whole lot of us co/c1 owners watercooled.
 
Actually I never tried locking the qpi frequency. I'll give it a whirl when I get home.

Any idea what it could have been running if i left the multiplier or ratio to auto?
 
depends upon the board. the qpi frequency is like fsb interconnect frequency from lga 775. on that socket it was your bus speed times 4. for lga 1366 its a multiplier of 18. some boards on auto would lock it to the factory set qpi for your particular cpu. for the i7 920 its 4.8g/t (133x18x2). other boards would just allow it to scale according to your bclk.
 
Well it seems like the "Auto" setting is the best bet for the QPI frequency. The next setting seems to be double whatever the current setting is, and it was well above 4.8 Gt/s.
 
the only other setting i can think of is the uncore frequency which should be twice your memory frequency, though most boards automatically adjust the uncore for you. have you tried 190x21 bclk. some chips hit 4ghz easier with the higher multiplier.
 
rennyf77 said:
the only other setting i can think of is the uncore frequency which should be twice your memory frequency, though most boards automatically adjust the uncore for you. have you tried 190x21 bclk. some chips hit 4ghz easier with the higher multiplier.
Click to expand...
Still no go. Seems like this is all I can get out of it,
 
bummer. when i had my i7 920@4ghz. i was also using a chipset block for my evga board. using evga's monitoring software i began to realize that if the vregs breached 90'c the system would fail during stability testing. i added the chipset block to my loop and was able to have full system stability at 4ghz, though i don't think most co/c1 owners needed chipset cooling to hit 4ghz as long as the cpu was under water.
 
rennyf77 said:
bummer. when i had my i7 920@4ghz. i was also using a chipset block for my evga board. using evga's monitoring software i began to realize that if the vregs breached 90'c the system would fail during stability testing. i added the chipset block to my loop and was able to have full system stability at 4ghz, though i don't think most co/c1 owners needed chipset cooling to hit 4ghz as long as the cpu was under water.
Click to expand...

OK so the chipset cooling makes sense now, considering that the CPU temps themselves are marvelous.

I'm going to pass on adding any cooling hardware to this build since it's soo old. I'd rather use that money toward a new setup. Lets see what 2015 brings, since I don't see any need for a CPU upgrade during 2014.

Thanks for the suggestions!
 
Even though I upgraded to a 4770K w/ a GTX 680 SC to match, my old i7-950 running at stock speed and GTX 480 SC is still able to compete with gameplay set on 1920x1200 res at medium settings.
 
My first gaming rig had a Pentium III
Then a Pentium 4
Then a Phenom II x4 810
My 3770K is by far the best processor I have ever owned.
 
Hey there folks.

I've been using my 920 at 4Ghz on water for ages now. Also using a high OC GTX780 Lightning.
I am curious if anyone with the same frequency has upgraded to 4770K or 4790K and can perhaps share if they noticed any measurable performance gain in gaming?
Mostly in the MMO space, where FPS tends to be on the low side.
I'm wondering if it is time to upgrade or wait for Haswell-E.
Thanks!
 
Ashbinder said:
Hey there folks.

I've been using my 920 at 4Ghz on water for ages now. Also using a high OC GTX780 Lightning.
I am curious if anyone with the same frequency has upgraded to 4770K or 4790K and can perhaps share if they noticed any measurable performance gain in gaming?
Mostly in the MMO space, where FPS tends to be on the low side.
I'm wondering if it is time to upgrade or wait for Haswell-E.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
wait it out......or you could drop a xeon hexa core ranging from $80-200 depending on how much overclock you desire.....it wold pretty much match or beat a 4770k in a lot of tasks;) depending on how many threads the game/app use
 
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