Best cpu for Radeon hd 3850 ? trying to avoid bottlenecking

[neonfire1981]

I have a Radeon HD 3850. I want to know what is the best Core 2 duo / Core 2 quad to pair it up with ? I don't want to just pair up the fastest cpu I can afford, I'd like to pair it up with a cpu that will ensure that neither the cpu nor the 3850 is bottlenecking the other. Any idea's ?

 

[yh125d]

Don't cross-post

 

[happy medium]

e6300 wolfdale 45nm @ 2.8 for 82$ shipped

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819116091

 

[MrK6]

What's your current CPU? What do you plan to do with the CPU/computer?

 

[lyssword]

Originally posted by: happy medium
e6300 wolfdale 45nm @ 2.8 for 82$ shipped

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819116091

:thumbsup:

 

[neonfire1981]

Maxing out WOW & Fallout 3. I really don't think i'll be able to do much of anything on Crisis or Farcry with a 3850 Imo.

 

[MrK6]

Originally posted by: neonfire1981
Maxing out WOW & Fallout 3. I really don't think i'll be able to do much of anything on Crisis or Farcry with a 3850 Imo.

Well, there's always the thought that do you want to upgrade your CPU again the next time you upgrade your graphics card? There's nothing wrong with buying better, and sometimes it ends up cheaper in the long run. However, that E6300 Wolfdale that happy medium linked to will complement your 3850 fine.

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: happy medium
e6300 wolfdale 45nm @ 2.8 for 82$ shipped

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819116091

Another vote for the E6300

 

[MagickMan]

Originally posted by: neonfire1981
Maxing out WOW & Fallout 3. I really don't think i'll be able to do much of anything on Crisis or Farcry with a 3850 Imo.

I think you may be disappointed in WoW. With settings on Ultra, the fastest machines (4+GHz i7 rigs with cutting edge GPUs) still bog down in Dalaran. With any Core2 Duo you can get some decent frame rates if you're willing to sacrifice shadow quality and view distance, but don't expect jaw-dropping performance without compromises.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Originally posted by: neonfire1981
Maxing out WOW & Fallout 3. I really don't think i'll be able to do much of anything on Crisis or Farcry with a 3850 Imo.

I think you may be disappointed in WoW. With settings on Ultra, the fastest machines (4+GHz i7 rigs with cutting edge GPUs) still bog down in Dalaran. With any Core2 Duo you can get some decent frame rates if you're willing to sacrifice shadow quality and view distance, but don't expect jaw-dropping performance without compromises.

Go read this thread. There's apparently a real reason for poor performance with an i7 in WoW.

You really want balance between CPU & GPU. As long as your motherboard will support it, I'll third the suggestion for an e6300 (the 2.8GHz version). Just make sure your motherboard will support it before buying. And update the BIOS if needed before swapping chips.

^Assumes you are upgrading just the chip. If this is not the case & you're buying a new motherboard also - go with an X3 720 instead. Extra core will help and your gaming should be smoother.

 

[MagickMan]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Go read this thread. There's apparently a real reason for poor performance with an i7 in WoW.

You really want balance between CPU & GPU. As long as your motherboard will support it, I'll third the suggestion for an e6300 (the 2.8GHz version). Just make sure your motherboard will support it before buying. And update the BIOS if needed before swapping chips.

^Assumes you are upgrading just the chip. If this is not the case & you're buying a new motherboard also - go with an X3 720 instead. Extra core will help and your gaming should be smoother.

That doesn't change the fact that the shadow quality code in WoW is poorly optimized. A c2d with a decent GPU doesn't do very well with settings on Ultra (aka, "maxing out" WoW). I should know, I play it with the machine in my sig and I have to turn that setting down a notch or my frame rates get cut in half while in Northrend (40-80fps down to 20-40). Dalaran is even worse, but in all fairness, who really cares what you get while sitting outside the bank?

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Originally posted by: Denithor
Go read this thread. There's apparently a real reason for poor performance with an i7 in WoW.

You really want balance between CPU & GPU. As long as your motherboard will support it, I'll third the suggestion for an e6300 (the 2.8GHz version). Just make sure your motherboard will support it before buying. And update the BIOS if needed before swapping chips.

^Assumes you are upgrading just the chip. If this is not the case & you're buying a new motherboard also - go with an X3 720 instead. Extra core will help and your gaming should be smoother.

That doesn't change the fact that the shadow quality code in WoW is poorly optimized. A c2d with a decent GPU doesn't do very well with settings on Ultra (aka, "maxing out" WoW). I should know, I play it with the machine in my sig and I have to turn that setting down a notch or my frame rates get cut in half while in Northrend (40-80fps down to 20-40). Dalaran is even worse, but in all fairness, who really cares what you get while sitting outside the bank?

That's odd, because I get 80+fps in northrend (not dal) on the rig in my sig at ultra settings (1920x1080)

 

[AstroManLuca]

No way you'll be able to max out Fallout 3 on a 3850, regardless of which CPU you use. Your graphics card will be the bottleneck in the system unless you have something like a Core Solo or early Core (1) Duo.

But I agree with the others. Get a decent Core 2 Duo and you'll be fine. The graphics should be a higher priority once you have a decent CPU.

 

[MagickMan]

Originally posted by: yh125d

That's odd, because I get 80+fps in northrend (not dal) on the rig in my sig at ultra settings (1920x1080)

I can't see how that's possible. I've watched an i7 w/ a GTX 285 choke in Northrend with max shadow quality, you must be mistaken.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Intel E6xxx or E7xxx

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Originally posted by: yh125d

That's odd, because I get 80+fps in northrend (not dal) on the rig in my sig at ultra settings (1920x1080)

I can't see how that's possible. I've watched an i7 w/ a GTX 285 choke in Northrend with max shadow quality, you must be mistaken.

If you have access to the i7 system - try setting the CPU affinity to 15 or 255. If the system has HT enabled - meaning 4 physical cores & 4 virtual cores - the default affinity of 3 places WoW firmly on physical core 1 and virtual core 1 (cores 1 & 2). Which means the game is actually running on a single physical core. Not optimal to say the least. Affinity 15 tells it to spread over the first four cores (2 physical/2 virtual) and 255 will spread it over all eight cores. Quite a few people in that thread at the official forum had pretty spectacular improvements when they changed affinity to enable more cores for use.

And from personal experience - WoW runs great (40+ fps) in Dal on my e8400/GTX 260. Heck, it even runs good (solid 30 fps) in Dal on my e7200/8800GTS with a F@H GPU client running! The only thing that bogs down either is WG during a major PvP fest.

Oh yeah - 1920x1200 on my Dell 2709W - WoW looks fantastic on this screen!

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Originally posted by: yh125d

That's odd, because I get 80+fps in northrend (not dal) on the rig in my sig at ultra settings (1920x1080)

I can't see how that's possible. I've watched an i7 w/ a GTX 285 choke in Northrend with max shadow quality, you must be mistaken.

This must have been shortly after the release of the shadows engine. When it was in v1.0 it did bog down GPU's pretty bad, but since then it has been updated to be easier on the GPU and yes a 9800GT can now max out the shadows without dropping too low

 

[MagickMan]

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Originally posted by: yh125d

That's odd, because I get 80+fps in northrend (not dal) on the rig in my sig at ultra settings (1920x1080)

I can't see how that's possible. I've watched an i7 w/ a GTX 285 choke in Northrend with max shadow quality, you must be mistaken.

This must have been shortly after the release of the shadows engine. When it was in v1.0 it did bog down GPU's pretty bad, but since then it has been updated to be easier on the GPU and yes a 9800GT can now max out the shadows without dropping too low

No, it was 10 minutes ago with a fresh install. Enabling that last notch in shadow quality cuts frame rates in half for everyone, even the developers will tell you that. Put your settings on Ultra, don't adjust anything else, and sit outside the south bank in Dalaran and report your FPS.

 

[neonfire1981]

Thanks for the advice everyone ! I'll probably swing for an e6300 wolfdale, and accept that I can't balance it perfectly, but this should be alright for the money !

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: MagickMan

Originally posted by: yh125d

That's odd, because I get 80+fps in northrend (not dal) on the rig in my sig at ultra settings (1920x1080)

I can't see how that's possible. I've watched an i7 w/ a GTX 285 choke in Northrend with max shadow quality, you must be mistaken.

This must have been shortly after the release of the shadows engine. When it was in v1.0 it did bog down GPU's pretty bad, but since then it has been updated to be easier on the GPU and yes a 9800GT can now max out the shadows without dropping too low

No, it was 10 minutes ago with a fresh install. Enabling that last notch in shadow quality cuts frame rates in half for everyone, even the developers will tell you that. Put your settings on Ultra, don't adjust anything else, and sit outside the south bank in Dalaran and report your FPS.

If you notice in my first post, I said 80+ NOT in dal. I'll get 80-100 romping around in fjord or zul drak. Comparing FPS in dalaran is meaningless anyway, everyone has similarly abysmal FPS. When I drop the shadows down one notch FPS shoots to round 120-160, depending on the area

 

[neonfire1981]

I must say, this is a very interesting discussion on wow performance with different setups. Bonus

 

[MagickMan]

Originally posted by: yh125d

If you notice in my first post, I said 80+ NOT in dal. I'll get 80-100 romping around in fjord or zul drak. Comparing FPS in dalaran is meaningless anyway, everyone has similarly abysmal FPS. When I drop the shadows down one notch FPS shoots to round 120-160, depending on the area

That's still much too high for that setup. You're getting substantially higher frame rates than people with systems that are 2-3x faster than yours. Quite frankly, something is off.

 

[yh125d]

No, nothing is off. even with shadows northrend still isn't that bad. I'll notice slowdowns if I zoom twice as far out using the camera distance script or if i'm facing dalaran or something but most people get really high FPS outside of the cities