phenom 2 to sandy bridge ipc difference

[Bman123]

Playing MW3 my most played game at 1366x768 with max settings I got the highest gpu usage at 92% and my cpu was damn near pegged. The task manager showed all (4) cores at over 80% it was pretty close to the top of the graph. Frame rate stayed above 40 at all times mainly in the 50+ range

I notice the dips when I play this game and when I check the task manager it shows high cpu usage. Is it because the cpu is a dual core? I know the hyper threading shares the core with a virtual one and would the dips disappear if I changed to a 960t as it is 4 real cores and not 2 real and 2 virtual ones with my i3 2100?

I notice hiccups in all my games when I play but when I check the cpu usage it is always the same thing, damn near pegged to the top and the gpu averages around 90% usage.

 

[Bman123]

Anyone

 

[Icecold]

Well what about this.
Sell i3 and board get a 960t and 970 gigabyte board for $20 out of pocket
Sell i3 and board get a 1045t and 970 gigabyte board for $40
Sell i3 keep the board and get a i5 2400 for $60
Sell i3 and board get a 2500k and z68 or z77 board for $120

For ME, I would sell the i3 and board and get a 1045t and 970 board for $40, BUT I primarily do heavily multithreaded tasks such as video encoding, and only occasionally play games. I run 2 4890's in crossfire along with a Phenom II x6 1090t, and even at stock CPU speeds my video cards always end up being the bottleneck(even in large multiplayer BF3 maps).

For most games your I3 2100 is not much of a bottleneck to a 4870(but you're running at a very low resolution, so I guess it might be in some cases). You shouldn't really notice much of a difference in gaming between the I3 and a 960t. In multithreaded games(which is the vast minority) the 960t will perform better than the I3 if the 960t is overclocked. Look here for a comparison of how a 2100 matches up to an overlocked quad core Phenom II(picked a 980 which is 3.7GHz which should be a fairly easily achievable overclock on a 960t)

So basically it comes down to this: if you're going to be doing multithreaded tasks(such as encoding video), the 960t will be a decent upgrade especially if overclocked, and even more if it unlocks to 6 cores. For gaming you shouldn't notice much difference either way, the i3 will do better in some games, the 960t will do better in others, but your 4870 is the bottleneck in almost all cases.

 

[Hatisherrif]

For ME, I would sell the i3 and board and get a 1045t and 970 board for $40, BUT I primarily do heavily multithreaded tasks such as video encoding, and only occasionally play games. I run 2 4890's in crossfire along with a Phenom II x6 1090t, and even at stock CPU speeds my video cards always end up being the bottleneck(even in large multiplayer BF3 maps).

For most games your I3 2100 is not much of a bottleneck to a 4870(but you're running at a very low resolution, so I guess it might be in some cases). You shouldn't really notice much of a difference in gaming between the I3 and a 960t. In multithreaded games(which is the vast minority) the 960t will perform better than the I3 if the 960t is overclocked. Look here for a comparison of how a 2100 matches up to an overlocked quad core Phenom II(picked a 980 which is 3.7GHz which should be a fairly easily achievable overclock on a 960t)

So basically it comes down to this: if you're going to be doing multithreaded tasks(such as encoding video), the 960t will be a decent upgrade especially if overclocked, and even more if it unlocks to 6 cores. For gaming you shouldn't notice much difference either way, the i3 will do better in some games, the 960t will do better in others, but your 4870 is the bottleneck in almost all cases.

The OP had confirmed that the 960T he was to get could in fact unlock the two extra cores. For $20, it's a freaking steal. Go for it, I say.