*** Update 9/15/2009 - See post after my post on what I bought for what I discovered last night. ***
Let me start off by saying I've been an avid computer enthusiast / system builder since 1995. I've been reading Anandtech and Tom's Hardware articles since about 1997. However, since about 2006, my interest in the CPU/motherboard arena dropped off since it seemed that a faster CPUs and more cores was quickly returning diminishing returns.
So, with that being said, I'm still running a stock-clocked Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - the original that started it all - running @ 1.86 GHz. I can't overclock since I'm on an Intel DG965WH motherboard (prefer stability to crazy clocks). I have 6 GB DDR2-800 Corsair XMS memory. This setup has been with me since roughly December of 2006.
From everything I've read over the years, your video card seems to play an 80/20 game with your CPU in terms of performance with gaming when running at high resolutions and AA/AF settings (80% comes from GPU, 20% CPU). With that being said, I recently upgraded my nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB to the nVidia GeForce GTX 275 1 GB. All of the benchmarks showed this card as basically doubling the performance of my 8800 GTS (or better).
However - for the first time in a long time - I've discovered I'm now very CPU-performance-limited. I got about a 7,600 3DMark06 score with the C2D 6300 / 8800 GTS setup; moving to the GTX 275 yielded a score of only 8,700. Ouch. I know this test is run in only 1280x1024 w/o AA/AF, but still, this is bad and I think illustrates why I have such poor performance in my new favorite game/simulation: WWII Battle Tanks, T-34 vs. Tiger.
TvT has absolutely stunning graphics from a tank simulator developed in Russia. If you have the patience for simulations and like WWII-era battle tanks - GET THIS GAME. Worth its weight in gold. Sad that the developer went bust recently as this is a true gem (3 year development time). But this brings me to my point (finally!) - running this game @ 1920 x 1080 with max settings returns 12 - 25 FPS, averaging about 16 FPS. More CPU-controlled vehicles greatly reduces average FPS (< 15 in most missions). Turing off all eye candy makes no performance difference (no AF/AA is same as 16xQ AA / 16x AF) which further proves my CPU is to blame.
SOOOOO. I need to upgrade my CPU/Motherboard. Here are my current options:
1. Keep motherboard and RAM. Replace E6300 with Q6700 (2.66 GHz Quad-Core) and *hope* TvT is multi-threaded. Cost: $200.
2. Keep DDR2 800 memory. Replace CPU/Motherboard with C2D E8400 (3 GHz) and Asus P5Q Turbo (Intel P45/ICH10R chip set). Cool with Zalman CNPS7700-CU and clock between 3.4 and 4 GHz. Cost: $320.
3. Ditch CPU/Mobo/Memory. Replace with Core i5 750 / Intel BOXDP55WG / 4 GB DDR3. Don't overclock (let turbo mode handle it). Cost: $430.
As you can see, I'm ruling core i7 920 out of the question. The CPU alone is $300 and good motherboards are pricey. Pair this with the fact that it won't be much faster than option 3 above and you can see why I'm not considering this.
And here's the kicker: I need to decide this TODAY. I can't stand to play such a wonderful simulation with jerky frame rates for another day!!
THANK YOU for taking the time to read this. Let me know what you would do and why. Also consider that not having to re-install my OS and re-setup my RAID config is worth-while to me.
Side question - if I have a mirror RAID setup on Intel ICH8R and just plug the same drives into the ICH10R, can I setup the same array without losing my data? Or do you have to re-format when you switch controllers?
Thanks again!
Let me start off by saying I've been an avid computer enthusiast / system builder since 1995. I've been reading Anandtech and Tom's Hardware articles since about 1997. However, since about 2006, my interest in the CPU/motherboard arena dropped off since it seemed that a faster CPUs and more cores was quickly returning diminishing returns.
So, with that being said, I'm still running a stock-clocked Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - the original that started it all - running @ 1.86 GHz. I can't overclock since I'm on an Intel DG965WH motherboard (prefer stability to crazy clocks). I have 6 GB DDR2-800 Corsair XMS memory. This setup has been with me since roughly December of 2006.
From everything I've read over the years, your video card seems to play an 80/20 game with your CPU in terms of performance with gaming when running at high resolutions and AA/AF settings (80% comes from GPU, 20% CPU). With that being said, I recently upgraded my nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB to the nVidia GeForce GTX 275 1 GB. All of the benchmarks showed this card as basically doubling the performance of my 8800 GTS (or better).
However - for the first time in a long time - I've discovered I'm now very CPU-performance-limited. I got about a 7,600 3DMark06 score with the C2D 6300 / 8800 GTS setup; moving to the GTX 275 yielded a score of only 8,700. Ouch. I know this test is run in only 1280x1024 w/o AA/AF, but still, this is bad and I think illustrates why I have such poor performance in my new favorite game/simulation: WWII Battle Tanks, T-34 vs. Tiger.
TvT has absolutely stunning graphics from a tank simulator developed in Russia. If you have the patience for simulations and like WWII-era battle tanks - GET THIS GAME. Worth its weight in gold. Sad that the developer went bust recently as this is a true gem (3 year development time). But this brings me to my point (finally!) - running this game @ 1920 x 1080 with max settings returns 12 - 25 FPS, averaging about 16 FPS. More CPU-controlled vehicles greatly reduces average FPS (< 15 in most missions). Turing off all eye candy makes no performance difference (no AF/AA is same as 16xQ AA / 16x AF) which further proves my CPU is to blame.
SOOOOO. I need to upgrade my CPU/Motherboard. Here are my current options:
1. Keep motherboard and RAM. Replace E6300 with Q6700 (2.66 GHz Quad-Core) and *hope* TvT is multi-threaded. Cost: $200.
2. Keep DDR2 800 memory. Replace CPU/Motherboard with C2D E8400 (3 GHz) and Asus P5Q Turbo (Intel P45/ICH10R chip set). Cool with Zalman CNPS7700-CU and clock between 3.4 and 4 GHz. Cost: $320.
3. Ditch CPU/Mobo/Memory. Replace with Core i5 750 / Intel BOXDP55WG / 4 GB DDR3. Don't overclock (let turbo mode handle it). Cost: $430.
As you can see, I'm ruling core i7 920 out of the question. The CPU alone is $300 and good motherboards are pricey. Pair this with the fact that it won't be much faster than option 3 above and you can see why I'm not considering this.
And here's the kicker: I need to decide this TODAY. I can't stand to play such a wonderful simulation with jerky frame rates for another day!!
THANK YOU for taking the time to read this. Let me know what you would do and why. Also consider that not having to re-install my OS and re-setup my RAID config is worth-while to me.
Side question - if I have a mirror RAID setup on Intel ICH8R and just plug the same drives into the ICH10R, can I setup the same array without losing my data? Or do you have to re-format when you switch controllers?
Thanks again!
Facebook
Twitter