Originally posted by: Idontcare
Originally posted by: jaredpace
quad complete waste of money. Unless you're building folding/encoding machine. 4.3ghz dual rapes < 4.0g QC in games.
I've never owned a dual-core but is there really enough performance gap from that 300MHz to cause one to CPU to
commit non-consensual sex acts on the other processor?
I've never bothered to look at the data that closely in the reviews, always assumed you are splitting hairs once your CPU is >3GHz and the GPU mattered more at that point.
hahahahaha:laugh:
okay I should explain this a bit. Currently, It all has to do with cpu bottlenecks & limitations in games. And it's applicable only to super high-end gpu solutions, cf, & sli.
a graph of cod4 showing various graphics cards limited above ~80FPS by a 3.0ghz cpu:
http://techreport.com/r.x/rade...-4870-x2/cod4-1680.gif
In this situation, a single HD4870 is performing almost identical to a R700 CFX & GTX 280 TRI-SLI rig because of a ~3ghz cpu.
GTX280:
72
HD4870:
79
R700 CFX:
89
280 TRISLI:
87
Now, take a game where there is no difficult tasks for the cpu & 3.0g is sufficient(same review):
http://techreport.com/r.x/rade...d-4870-x2/hl2-2560.gif
Notice the nice generalized slope of gpu performance in this graph. It is clearly letting each gpu solution stretch it's legs and therefore showing a nice comparison & the true power behind each individual setup. A single HD4870 clearly trails the CFX & TRI-SLI rigs now.
GTX280:
65
HD4870:
50
R700 CFX:
128
280 TRISLI:
108
Does anyone want to risk a cpu's speed limiting the performance of their $500 - $1300 SLI/CF rig? crysis, WIC, Assassin's creed, COJ, & any newer games on the horizon?
3Ghz is fine for quake4, doomIII, & HL2. But as the programming becomes more complex, the need for speed becomes quite prevalent. For example: 4.25Ghz cpu in chiphell's R700 review in cod4:
http://www7.babidou.com/pic/20...4870x2/4870x2-cod4.jpg
Edit: Notice the difference here. There is a lot to be said about a 4.2ghz cpu vs. a 3.0ghz cpu. In the first techreport review, the SS of Cod4 1680x1050 4xAA, the R700 got about 89FPS on a 3ghz quad. However, when you look at the last SS from the chiphell review, they are using a 4.25ghz quad and running Cod4 at 2560x1600 8xAA. Amazingly the R700 is getting 94FPS. You basically doubled resolution, doubled AA, and got more performance when going to the overclocked cpu.
You might say, "Well above 50 FPS, none of this matters anyway. Who cares if I'm getting 60 FPS, or 160 FPS?" Well it matters when you get into hairy situations where all cards are getting 35 FPS. A boost of 4-6 FPS
is noticeable.