Is An Upgrade Necessary? Any Real Performance Increase?

mulsiphix

Junior Member
Apr 17, 2007
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I currently have a E4300 at 3.15Ghz. I want to start playing Unreal Tournament III and Warhammer Online. I'm upgrading my video card to a Geforce GTX 260 but was wondering if I should upgrade my CPU as well? Not sure how much the CPU speed would affect gaming? If I upgraded I would probably be running a E8500 at 4GHz. Any info would be most appreciated.
 
Nov 26, 2005
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I'm into UTIII and built my Quad core machine around it. I've heard the Unreal III engine will take advantage of all 4 cores. I'm gonna have to say though a really good vid card will smooth things over more. I play at 1280x1024 with settings all on low and its running better now. For some reason, I can sense the lag under 100fps so thats why i keep the settings on low. The higher the L2 cache the better for UT3. I've seen reviews on how well the game scales with more cache and from 3mb to 6mb you gain about 14fps ... You can also tell the difference between 3Ghz and 3.6Ghz. I also have UT3 on my 8400 machine (see sig) with a 3870 and its is noticably faster in UT3 than my quad at 3.4 with a 4870. So the best you could make out of my experience is to fit whats within your budget and see what happens

529th
 

faxon

Platinum Member
May 23, 2008
2,109
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my athlon 64 4000+ paired with only a 2900PRO 1GB actually plays UT3 rather well at 1600x1200 with gfx around medium and AA/AS x4 set in the driver. still, the game is quad threaded, and if you want the best performance in games for the next couple years even an e8500 will hold you for a long time since it overclocks so well
 
Nov 26, 2005
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I'm waiting to get my old AMD system up and running - paired up with either my 4870 or 3870 just to see how it runs UT3
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
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Your right at the borderline. I would say you'll be fine. Try it with the new card and see how it goes. Personally I don't think the difference you would see is worth $200 but that is in the eye of the beholder.
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
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if you decide to upgrade, go for an e7200 instead. it's ~ $120 at newegg right now, and you should be able to sell your old cpu for a significant fraction of that, say $40-$50. I agree that you should try out the gtx 260 first before going through the hassle, however.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
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Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
I'm into UTIII and built my Quad core machine around it. I've heard the Unreal III engine will take advantage of all 4 cores. I'm gonna have to say though a really good vid card will smooth things over more. I play at 1280x1024 with settings all on low and its running better now. For some reason, I can sense the lag under 100fps so thats why i keep the settings on low. The higher the L2 cache the better for UT3. I've seen reviews on how well the game scales with more cache and from 3mb to 6mb you gain about 14fps ... You can also tell the difference between 3Ghz and 3.6Ghz. I also have UT3 on my 8400 machine (see sig) with a 3870 and its is noticably faster in UT3 than my quad at 3.4 with a 4870. So the best you could make out of my experience is to fit whats within your budget and see what happens

529th

That doesn't make sense. If UT3 takes advantage of quads, then you would think the quad-core would outshine the fual, even if the E8400 was at 3.6. Is the quad overclocked too?
 

harpoon84

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2006
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An E4300 @ 3.15GHz is still a reasonably fast CPU for gaming, an E8500 @ 4GHz will be even faster of course, whether it will be noticeable is another story...

I think you should just stick with what you have for now, and see how the game runs before making a decision. The E8500 will still be there should you decide to upgrade. ;)
 
Nov 26, 2005
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Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
I'm into UTIII and built my Quad core machine around it. I've heard the Unreal III engine will take advantage of all 4 cores. I'm gonna have to say though a really good vid card will smooth things over more. I play at 1280x1024 with settings all on low and its running better now. For some reason, I can sense the lag under 100fps so thats why i keep the settings on low. The higher the L2 cache the better for UT3. I've seen reviews on how well the game scales with more cache and from 3mb to 6mb you gain about 14fps ... You can also tell the difference between 3Ghz and 3.6Ghz. I also have UT3 on my 8400 machine (see sig) with a 3870 and its is noticably faster in UT3 than my quad at 3.4 with a 4870. So the best you could make out of my experience is to fit whats within your budget and see what happens

529th

That doesn't make sense. If UT3 takes advantage of quads, then you would think the quad-core would outshine the fual, even if the E8400 was at 3.6. Is the quad overclocked too?

I know it doesn't make any sense. I wrote what is true even though it doesn't give any idea of what is better. The quad is at 3.375 and has 6mb L2 cache... I am soon installing my Q9650 I bougt 2 weeks ago. I haven't installed it because I am putting it under water. Its my first water cooling build so I am taking it easy and slow. I might be able to give a better review cause both the 9650 and 8400 have 9 multis and I'll be running the DDR3 machine at 1:1 or 800Mhz as the 8400 with the DDR2 800 will run at 1:1 also; 800Mhz. Though the 9650 will have a larger L2 cache, hopefully I'll still be able to notice the delta. I could run the 8400 at 3.375 or close and compare but the Quad machine still has a 4870, hence my first statement of a fast Vid card will smooth things out.