i7 really worth it?

[cbn]

well those are all fast cpus so what did you expect? the lone dual core cpu in there is giving up nearly 50% compared to the quad core cpus.

"You see where all of our quadcore CPUs record nearly identical frame rates while the 3.16GHz Core 2 dual core CPU falls behind. It is obvious that even at this high resolution there are CPU multithreading benefits to this game. Our quadcore CPUs are GPU-limited. They have hit the wall in what they can accomplish as the GeForce GTX 280 is standing in their way."

Well a 161% advantage shrinks to only 41% when we compare the two CPUs at what I believe is close to mainstream resolution.

At the moment I use two monitors for multi-tasking (but game on only one of them). Eventually I would like to use triple monitors for multi-tasking as well as gaming. This is why I don't really concern myself with CPUs as much as GPUs. I don't do any video encoding either.

EDIT: At higher resolutions like 5760 x1080 limited VRAM/memory bandwidth is probably a more important consideration than how well a quad core scales over a dual core right? *****Someone correct me if I am wrong about this*****

 

[Munky]

At that resolution you'll need not just a lot of vram, but a lot of gpu horsepower in every aspect. Even so, if I'm not limited by budget, I would never pair a high end video card with a dual core cpu.

 

[Necrosaro420]

I have a dual core and it runs anygame out there, with no problem.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

That 32nm quad core (based on Gulftown) won't compete with Clarkdale on the same socket.

Hopefully it will be out April 2009.

/facepalm.

 

[toyota]

I have a dual core and it runs anygame out there, with no problem.

ok then its end of discussion. lol

 

[cbn]

Even so, if I'm not limited by budget, I would never pair a high end video card with a dual core cpu.

Yes I understand the reasoning.....expensive GPU....expensive CPU....putting them together appears to be common sense from the perspective of balancing value.

However, these days it seems there are more variables involved. This is why I want to see more high resolution testing.