Is my Processor holding me back?

S

Shadowhaxor

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 15, 2005
Messages
311
So I recently got a deal on a BFG GTX285OCX and pulled the trigger (Sold my 4870 512MB for $135 and paid 270 for the GXT285). So I gleefully installed the card into my computer and had expected to see some higher frames and for the most part I did. However it was limited to a handful of games, and the rest was about the same FPS that I had with the 4870. That said, I'm wondering if my trusty E8400 C2D is holding me back (I suspect that it is).

I am thinking about upgrading to either a C2Q since I wouldn't have to upgrade my motherboard of memory, but at the same time I still wonder about the Phenom X4 965 / 940 and the Core i7 920 (I'll pass on the i5). Sure the C2Q is quad cored but at the same time it's outdated / will be, where the Phenom X4 or i7 would give me alittle more future proofing (Yes, I know that doesn't really exist in the PC world) but at the same time it would cost me $450-550.00 to upgrade both the board, processor and memory. I could probably get some money from selling the current setup (how much would a E8400/Neo2-FR P35 and 4GB fetch anyway) and get away with a lower cost..... Of course assuming the Processor is my botttle neck. PS, my spec's are in my sig!

Thoughts?
 
Now-a-days most new games tend to use more than 2 cores. Quad-cores it the way to go :cool:. Before i upgraded to my old q6600 i had an e8400 and with an 8800gt i got around ~35 FPS on high settings, but when i went quad, i got around 45-50. I figured out that GTA iv uses to cores and i also tried that on crysis and ran better. I would say GO-QUAD!!! :D
 
ganesh21 said:
OC your processor. Try to hit ~3.8.
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this
and atleast try to hit 3.8, also make sure your card is in the slot ( I would assume the top one) that is getting the full x16 bandwidth not the x4 bandwidth.
o/cing your cpu should net you some substantial gains in fps. Also more and more games are being coded for quads so an upgrade wouldnt hurt if you have the money to do it.
 
I can't imagine your e8400 is holding you back substantially. Weren't there some recent benchmarks indicating it performed almost as well as the new quad-cores in gaming still?
 
3.6 @ stock volts should be quite easy....unless your cpu is a dud!
 
Removing your 3ghz dual core for a slower clocked quad would not raise your FPS, especially if the games are not quad core optimized.

You have a meaty card now, you should be able to run the games at higher settings than before. As long as your getting 30-60 FPS, there really isn't a reason for more so raising the settings and being able to maintain that now with a better card is the sweet spot.
 
The E8400 is a monster gaming CPU and if you OC it up past 3.5, I dont really think there is any game out today that would bottleneck in that!
 
Shadowhaxor said:
So I recently got a deal on a BFG GTX285OCX and pulled the trigger (Sold my 4870 512MB for $135 and paid 270 for the GXT285). So I gleefully installed the card into my computer and had expected to see some higher frames and for the most part I did. However it was limited to a handful of games, and the rest was about the same FPS that I had with the 4870. That said, I'm wondering if my trusty E8400 C2D is holding me back (I suspect that it is).

I am thinking about upgrading to either a C2Q since I wouldn't have to upgrade my motherboard of memory, but at the same time I still wonder about the Phenom X4 965 / 940 and the Core i7 920 (I'll pass on the i5). Sure the C2Q is quad cored but at the same time it's outdated / will be, where the Phenom X4 or i7 would give me alittle more future proofing (Yes, I know that doesn't really exist in the PC world) but at the same time it would cost me $450-550.00 to upgrade both the board, processor and memory. I could probably get some money from selling the current setup (how much would a E8400/Neo2-FR P35 and 4GB fetch anyway) and get away with a lower cost..... Of course assuming the Processor is my botttle neck. PS, my spec's are in my sig!

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

cpu is not really holding you back, 512mb 4870 to 285 is not really much of an upgrade, maybe 15-20% difference in most games unless you use very high AA.
 
The best benchmark out there is actually Team Fortress 2. On my E6600 & 3.3 with GTX275 Team Fortress 2 would absolutely max out one Core and part of the other thread. The result was dips in minimum frame rates when things got really hairy on screen.

Switching to Core i7 with DDR3 1600, CPU utilization is only about 30 percent and there is just not even a HINT of slowdown in TF2.

Just ask yourself this question--is there any part of your system's performance in games (TF2 if you play it) that you don't like? If so, the answer is upgrade.
 
isn't TF2 only single threaded?
your e6600 isn't even comparable to the e8400 you were lacking the full l2 cache, and that makes an impact on games. I had e8400 at 4.1g with my gtx280 and never noticed a hiccup, also had q9650 @ 4.3 not a difference in that game...
 
Thanks all, I really didn't think my processor was holding me back. I did have it OC'd at one point but my mobo is so crappy (MSI Neo2-FR P35) I'd need to upgrade the motherboard for a decent OC. Any recommended boards for OC'ng the 8400? Highest I had it was 3.5 before I started having issues.

As for frames, I did a fresh install of Win7 and the newest drivers and while some games are still the same, others are blazing. I get 60+ at 1900x1200 in COD4 with all the settings up, same with UT3/TF2. WoW is the only game that seems to still suffer (but that also could be the processor as WoW uses multithreading now).
 
Shadowhaxor said:
Thanks all, I really didn't think my processor was holding me back. I did have it OC'd at one point but my mobo is so crappy (MSI Neo2-FR P35) I'd need to upgrade the motherboard for a decent OC. Any recommended boards for OC'ng the 8400? Highest I had it was 3.5 before I started having issues.
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How did you conclude that the motherboard's to blame? Just trying to get a feel for how much you know about overclocking. Just because things are going wrong at 3.5 doesn't necessarily mean you can exclude the memory or the CPU itself as the limiting factor.
 
Shadowhaxor said:
Thanks all, I really didn't think my processor was holding me back. I did have it OC'd at one point but my mobo is so crappy (MSI Neo2-FR P35) I'd need to upgrade the motherboard for a decent OC. Any recommended boards for OC'ng the 8400? Highest I had it was 3.5 before I started having issues.

As for frames, I did a fresh install of Win7 and the newest drivers and while some games are still the same, others are blazing. I get 60+ at 1900x1200 in COD4 with all the settings up, same with UT3/TF2. WoW is the only game that seems to still suffer (but that also could be the processor as WoW uses multithreading now).
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I would NOT buy a new motherboard to OC outdated technology. Just save your money up and when you feel you need to upgrade, get a new platform. Otherwise drop in like a Q9550 (if your mobo supports it) and it should give you the top end of life performance for the LGA775 platform.
 
0m3g4 said:
isn't TF2 only single threaded?
your e6600 isn't even comparable to the e8400 you were lacking the full l2 cache, and that makes an impact on games. I had e8400 at 4.1g with my gtx280 and never noticed a hiccup, also had q9650 @ 4.3 not a difference in that game...
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Nope they added multi core threading.
 
Anyone have a good run down on overclocking a Proc. I know very little and am looking at OC'ing my Phenom II Quad. Thanks in advance.
 
LuminaryJanitor said:
And even if it is (like mine...) you can still get a decent OC out of it if you crank the voltage a bit (been happily running 4GHz @ 1.4v for a year or so).
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Well, the mobo was open box for starters. I've been OC'ng P4's and Athlon's and Duron's for a while. When I did OC the 8400, it was never truely stable. It ran, but every so often the board would default me back to 3ghz, for no reason. The PC could be off for a few days and refuse to boot unless I put it back to default settings. When it was at 3.5, it took a few starts to power up, and that was when I got the new power supply. And I know you're trying to help, so I hope it's not taken the wrong way.

Hell, when I put the GTX285, it default back as I had it at 3.3 then ;(

I spoke to some people who told me that I should be able to hit 3.9-4 easy with a multiple of 9, FSB 445 and voltage at 1.2-1.3 and mem at 4-4-4-12/ 1:1. I'll try that when I get back in, hopefully that will be the sweet spot.
 
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Blackstone said:
The best benchmark out there is actually Team Fortress 2. On my E6600 & 3.3 with GTX275 Team Fortress 2 would absolutely max out one Core and part of the other thread. The result was dips in minimum frame rates when things got really hairy on screen.

Switching to Core i7 with DDR3 1600, CPU utilization is only about 30 percent and there is just not even a HINT of slowdown in TF2.

Just ask yourself this question--is there any part of your system's performance in games (TF2 if you play it) that you don't like? If so, the answer is upgrade.
Click to expand...

Yeah, TF2 is very CPU dependent. I used to get frequent dips down to 20FPS on my old X2 5000+ on fully loaded servers, even with all graphic settings on minimum. With the i7 I always stay above 60FPS.
 
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