need a new processor

[polarbear6]

i use a e8400 and it is under performing in many of games i play like assassins creed, gears of war and surprisingly age of empires and crisis and MY FAVORITE gta4 and sometimes sims2 !!
i never got a fps of above 40 for mostly at all settings (EVEN AT 3.6 GHZ!!)

i just dont have the energy to type the settings and stuff iam just satisfied that it is under performing but what i can say is i have tried a wide range of settings ranging from 1280 x 1024 to 1680 x 1050 and from 0 anti aliasing to max anti aliasing. It almost performs same with some marginally increment

now my question is i want to put this e8400 on a dg33 mobo and i will use it wid my old pc

and i wanna buy a quad and over clocking is the essence of my life
so just temme which would be better(or should i say 'will be better than my E8400')
a 2.5 ghz quad intel some q9400 i think

i am keen about 9550 but i dont have that much money right now

and core i7 is totally ruled out as i the ram and board it self cost more than the processor

AND I EVEN WANT TO KNOW ABOUT DITCHING MY GPU
and yes all my parts are getting enough power and they are all properly cooled

i have a budget for about 200 ~ 300 $ and the q9550 is selling for something around 400$ in India
and the Ati 4870 is selling for nearly 450$ and the 4850 for about 225$ (its cause of the bloody export dept in India we pay more taxes for IT goods then for our houses ) )

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

The problem is not your CPU.

Plenty of folks play those games with the e8400 - and lesser CPUs - and get over 40 fps.

 

[polarbear6]

ahh there is little material available over the net about the benchmarks of these processors and games and even if it is available it is for games like
call of duty and unreal tournament ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

so what should i do to get some descent fps on 1680 X 1050 resolution and another question i want to ask is

IS ANY OF MY PARTS UNDER PERFORMING cause it will be useless if i buy new parts and i find the same condition
if processor is down my next suspect will be the memory or my GPU

and CAN ANY ONE TELL ME WHAT FPS CAN I EXPECT IN GTA 4 on this rig iam getting like around 12 ~ 25 fps ( its one of my most favorite games (

FLIPPED GAZELLE WHAT SORT OF CONFIGURATIONS AND Oc are the "Plenty of folks" using !!

 

[polarbear6]

hey i also personally feel that this might not be my cpu problem SO PLEASE MODERATORS HOW TO CLOSE THIS TOPIC SO THAT I CAN OPEN A NEW ONE IN THE GPU SECTION OR THE MEMORY SECTION

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Check out the Bench (beta) here on AT and the CPU Performance Chart at Toms Hardware, and you'll see that the e8400 scores very well.

Have you run 3dmark 06? What score are you getting?

 

[polarbear6]

well the 3d mark score arnd 12000 to 12.5 k to 12.6k i dont exactly remember
but i got something around 1fps for the cpu in the test but then i suppose it must be the standard for that

 

[Markfw]

Well, for one, a bigger OC should be possible with good cooling. I have seen many at 3.8, line is at 3.97 right now. An 8800 GT is a decent card, but a 4870 would be much better I think.

 

[polarbear6]

well i know that this is not the forum but what sort of cooling would go gud i mean mark fw what cooling are u using

to me only the thermaltake is available as the guys who deal artic and cooler master dont have any dealers in my city
(
so what would be the cheapest thermaltake cooler

the thermal take 120i is selling for 4600 ruppes the last time i checked (1$ = 48 ruppes the last time i checked)
so its selling well over a 100 bucks (

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

I think a higher O/C would be nice, but it is not the source of the "underperformance".

As Markfw900 points out, the 8800gt is getting a little long in the tooth, and is definitely holding back the CPU.

12000 3dmarks for the e8400/8800gt combo is appropriate, I think.

If all the games you mentioned are getting under 40 fps, even at 1280x1024 and no AA, then there is an issue that is most likely not related specifically to a malfunctioning CPU or GPU.

Do you have vertical sync disabled? AA is disabled?

Just as a reference point, my Phenom 9850 @ 2.75 ghz and 8800gt at 700/1800/1000 scored about 39 fps in Crysis, at 1280x1024 res, high settings, both CPU and GPU benchmarks. And the e8400 is a better gaming CPU than the Phenom.

HardOCP ran Assassin's Creed on a 2.9ghz C2D, 8800gt, with 1920x1200 res, near-max settings and got 40 fps.

 

[polarbear6]

well i have the vertical sync disabled where ever possible but some games just dont have that setting

well the specs seem to be jaw dropping for me
i too some time get above 40 fps in low graphic zone but in high graphic zones it just freezing

and another thing i want to know is
for frame rates should we use fraps i mean i use it !!
or are there any thing better than that

well all in all i feel i need to burn the processor and get rma for the processor
well i post again after i see a change in the scenario but any ways thanks flipped gazelle for the fast reply
i know i can always expect some fast replies from a platinum member in AT

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: ganesh1
well all in all i feel i need to burn the processor and get rma for the processor

FRAUD is definately NOT condoned on this web site.

 

[polarbear6]

WELL THATS A JOKE
AND BESIDES MY DEALER FIRST SNIFFS IT THEN SENDS FOR RMA IF HE FINDS THAT I BURNT IT HE WILL DEFINITELY NOT ACCEPT IT

 

[Smoove910]

Might be a dumb question, but didn't see it mentioned,

Possibly a driver issue with your v-card?

 

[polarbear6]

well i updated my driver just yesterday to 180.xx nvidia
and then these guys just released 185
so i will download it again but there is no significant change

 

[Denithor]

Since you specifically mentioned GTA 4 take a look over here. Note they tested with a GTX 280 (about twice the GPU power as your 8800GT) at 1280x1024 no AA/AF.

QX6850 @ 3.6GHz 38fps
QX6850 @ 3.0GHz 37fps
e8500 @ 4.0GHz 32fps
e8400 @ 3.0GHz 27fps

This is a clear case of being CPU bound, at least on the dual-core side of the fence. As CPU speed increased from 3-4GHz (33%) the fps went from 27-32fps (18%), compared to a 3% increase in fps from a 20% clockspeed increase for the quad.

GTA 4 is apparently one of the toughest games to run right now. Unless you've got a quadcore processor and a GTX SLI rig you simply are not going to see >40fps in this game, even at low resolution like tested here.

We average one game per year like this that taunts hardware enthusiasts. Two years ago (2006) it was Oblivion. Last year (2007) the title was Crysis. For 2008 it looks like GTA 4, although I don't think there's as much stir about this one.

 

[polarbear6]

well i occasionally get something abovbe 40 fps when iam not driving a vehicle so that means that my chip is not under performing but above performing
hahahahahaha

and that also was in 1680
there seems to be a inherent frame limiter which is dynamic or some sort in this game )

well lately today i did my benchmarks for my pc again and it turns out that every thing is in order
but iam not satisfied

so thanks guys for the spot replies

and i have learned a lot