Can i7 860 still cut it for gaming?

[clarkey01]

Hi Guys,

I've had it three years and usually run at 3.4 with some slight voltage increases.

I've currently got it running at stock but I was thinking of upgrading my 5850 to a 660 Ti but I didn't want to be held back by my CPU.

I game alot with BF3 and Flight Sim, only have a 22 inch monitor so I dont game at too high a res.

 

[beginner99]

I have a 870 and a 5850 on 1680x1050 display.

I'm currently thinking about getting a bigger and higher res display + a new graphics card. However I don't play BF3 and AFAIK 64-player maps can be very CPU intense and better CPU could help.

If you upgrade GPU I would choose a 7950 or 7970 as they are very cheap now but again in BF3 multiplayer you will in certain situations be CPU limited.

see

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2249262

So if BF3 is your main game and you will buy BF4 a CPU (and MB) upgrade will sure be noticeable if you also upgrade your GPU. With current GPU, I don't think there will be much of a difference.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Can i7 860 still cut it for gaming?

I think yes, but it depends on how you game. Take a look at some of the reviews on your favorite games. They often test a range of CPU's. Your CPU at that OC should fall somewhere between current i3 and i5 processors. A 660ti is a good upgrade. I don't think there is a big mis-match there as I've seen plenty of 1st gen i7's with 580's and 6970 gpu's. The 660ti could carry forward to a new build too.

 

[tweakboy]

If the CPU is as fast as a Core 2 Quad ... then you can play any game you like. gl

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Should be decent, but I would try ratcheting up the clockspeed. Since you have a 21x multiplier, it shouldn't be overly difficult to hit 3.8GHz - 4GHz.

 

[Termie]

You won't have any issues running a 660Ti with that processor. Don't worry about upgrading unless you're going with something like an HD 7970 or above.

These benchmarks will give you an idea of the performance gap versus a 4670K:

http://www.techbuyersguru.com/i5CPUshootout.php

 

[seitur]

For GTX 660 Ti i7 860 is enough. Agreed with Termie.

 

[Leyawiin]

If my Phenom II X4 @ 3.8 Ghz can handle being paired with a GTX 670 2GB you'll be fine with your i7 860, especially with a solid OC effort.

 

[dmoney1980]

I found an interesting article that compares a i5 760 cpu (at stock and OC) to a i5 4670k. They compared the 2 CPU's using some sythentic benchmarks and some games (including BF3 multiplayer). The only omission I see here is the fact that they did not overclock the 4670k. Some interesting results nonetheless

http://www.techbuyersguru.com/i5CPUshootout.php

 

[tweakboy]

Any quad core and hes good. But youll bottleneck big time. Unles its a recent quad cpu. gl

 

[SPBHM]

flight simulator result
http://pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/focus/cpu2013/def/fsx_1920.png

and BF
http://pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/focus/cpu2013/def/bf3_1920.png

you would definitely see good gains with a new i5 or some OC... but I think overall the 860 achieves a good level of performance, and you shouldn't keep yourself from buying a good card like a 7950 because of this CPU (for most games).

 

[Mondozei]

You won't have any issues running a 660Ti with that processor. Don't worry about upgrading unless you're going with something like an HD 7970 or above.

These benchmarks will give you an idea of the performance gap versus a 4670K:

http://www.techbuyersguru.com/i5CPUshootout.php

That's pretty shocking. I'd thought that you'd see a 40-50% increase in performance on the GPU side but it's barely 10%.

I have the i5-750K. Maybe I should just get a 760 and forget about upgrading my CPU for a long time.

 

[SPBHM]

That's pretty shocking. I'd thought that you'd see a 40-50% increase in performance on the GPU side but it's barely 10%.

I have the i5-750K. Maybe I should just get a 760 and forget about upgrading my CPU for a long time.

it's game/settings dependent...

http://pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/focus/cpu2013/def/bf3_1920.png

i7 860 = 21.9FPS
4670K = 34.5FPS

and it looks like flight simulator is more relevant for the OP than the games tested by techbuyersguru

 

[Ieat]

Get it up to 3.7-3.8ghz and you should be fine.

 

[Concillian]

There are a select few games that require significant CPU horsepower (you'll see a LOT of BF3 and Crysis benches in CPU comparison threads). If you don't play the few games that are so CPU dependent, then you can get by with a *really* old CPU. If you do play the games that are CPU dependent, it most often impacts specific scenarios within that game, so you'll get decent performance for most of the time, with brief choppy periods. Sometimes this is okay, but sometimes it's the most noticeable and frustrating thing ever.

The end result is that it depends a lot on the games you play and your personal tolerance level for a spurt of low FPS.

I don't really play cutting edge FPS games anymore, and I've had no real issue playing with even a i3-530 (OC'ed to 4GHz). I have a haswell machine that I still haven't transferred over to my main case, and I don't feel I really need to be in a hurry, because even though the Haswell cores are close to +50% faster per clock, and there are 4 real cores instead of 2 cores + HT... I just don't run into CPU limitations often at all. If I played BF3 a dozen or two hours a week, I'd probably feel different, so it really does depend on what you're playing.