[Toms] CPU bottlenecking in games - the <$200 CPUs

[Pia]

starcraft2 needs to die as a benchmark. They might as well have coded it in a single thread given how poorly it performs.

How much competing GPUs overkill a well performing game is hardly interesting. Badly performing games' benchmarks are the most valuable because the game's ability to run smoothly is in question.

 

[myocardia]

xx

 

[Puppies04]

I got to page 2 before I closed the link.

"Our FX-4100 is actually an FX-8120 with two of its Bulldozer modules turned off. We've run exhaustive testing against an actual FX-4100 to confirm that the performance is similar."

What is the point of even doing the test if you can't get an actual sample of the chip you are supposed to be comparing. Also "similar" can mean a lot and as you have to read what basically amounts to the small print (I know a lot of people will just skip straight to the benchmarks) you have to wonder if the author has some sort of agenda. Either way as far as I am concerned this test goes straight in the bin.

 

[AtenRa]

@Puppiest04

What's the difference between FX8120 and FX4100 ??

 

[Infraction Jack]

I love these types of articles too bad the graphs are hard to read.

 

[Puppies04]

@Puppiest04

What's the difference between FX8120 and FX4100 ??

Well lets see, the letters are the same so it must be the numbers.

 

[pelov]

Well lets see, the letters are the same so it must be the numbers.

They disabled the modules so the cache is the same. The clock speed, too, is the same. They didn't bench the power consumption, efficiency, nor overclocking. I don't understand what your beef is with the fact that they used a disabled 4-module part rather than an actual FX-4100. In fact, would there have been any difference if we compared a real FX-4100 to a halved 4-module part at the same speed with turbo off? or even with matching turbo speeds? Other than power consumption related benchmarks, I highly doubt there's anything eschew here

 

[Absolute0]

Wow heated thread. I got back into hardware recently to get my hands on the recent goods, and I was pretty disappointed to see how poorly AMD has been doing.

I was a total AMD fanatic for a few years, the glorious years, if anyone remembers AXP 2500+-Mobile "barton" cores that clocked like mad. AMD64 "venice" overclocking past 3 Ghz in 2005, and then AMD X2 and Opteron Dual cores, I had a 2.0 Ghz dual core Opty that could prime at 3.15 Ghz. Pentium 4's even under phase change couldn't really compare. Intel was so out of it at the moment.

Sad to see that though the AMD's are now hitting much higher clocks, it doesn't seem like the IPC has increased much at all from the AMD64 days.

Once I got my hands on an Core 2 Duo engineering sample that did 3.6 Ghz @ STOCK volts back in 2006 I've been a major Intel fanboy. But it's pretty painful to see AMD dragging ass in performance so much. I miss the AMD chips! They also didn't run 70+ degrees C the way Intel's new ones do.

Im using an E8500 and it runs bf3 like a champ. i run around 50fps steady with a 5870. little lag at the start of a match but thats it. that is on high 64p maps.

Dunno what settings you're using but I upgraded from an E8500 @ 4.2 Ghz to a 2500K @ 4.8 and my FPS in BF3 increased TREMENDOUSLY. With a 7970 paired with an E8500 I was very CPU bottlenecked. It didn't matter if I put the graphics on medium or ultra, my FPS were about the same, which was playable but punctuated with noticable lag spurts and low FPS moments.

With the 2500K @ 4.8 it just kills BF3, maxed out in every way possible around 70fps.

 

[Termie]

Tom's has now done the ultimate low-cost showdown - Pentium 620/HD6670 versus 3870K: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g620-amd-a8-3870k-radeon-hd-6670,3140.html

They answer the question of what $140 buys in CPU/GPU power, and yes, they overclock that 3870 to good effect.

This one isn't nearly the blowout the other tests were - in fact, in applications, the 3870K comes out the clear winner. In games, not so much, but part of that is the weaker GPU.

 

[AtenRa]

I was trying to find the US price of AMD Athlon II X4 651K but i cant find this CPU in Newegg, MC, Tigerdirect etc. Have anyone seen it in the US ??

 

[exar333]

Tom's has now done the ultimate low-cost showdown - Pentium 620/HD6670 versus 3870K: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g620-amd-a8-3870k-radeon-hd-6670,3140.html

They answer the question of what $140 buys in CPU/GPU power, and yes, they overclock that 3870 to good effect.

This one isn't nearly the blowout the other tests were - in fact, in applications, the 3870K comes out the clear winner. In games, not so much, but part of that is the weaker GPU.

Depends what your focus is:

-general functionality (A8 wins)
-gaming (620+6670 wins)
-power consumption (620+6670 wins HANDS down)

Buying the A8 means a crap-shoot on future upgrade options though. You can always throw a cheap IB in later on the Intel setup, or upgrade the GPU. It was really a toss-up TBH. No clear winner from the article.

The A8 power consumption was terrible in comparison. That was really disappointing to read.

 

[pelov]

Buying the A8 means a crap-shoot on future upgrade options though. You can always throw a cheap IB in later on the Intel setup, or upgrade the GPU. It was really a toss-up TBH. No clear winner from the article.

The A8 power consumption was terrible in comparison. That was really disappointing to read.

They did make a great point in stating the advantages of the APU isn't something you'd see on a desktop, especially in your typical mATX, ATX > tower/full tower style of desktop. The major selling point for those chips is the versatility in form factor and they make great laptop chips because of it. The power consumption when OC'd is very ugly, but the power consumption when undervolted is amazing

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...olting-reduce-power-consumption-by-3225!.aspx

I'm still disappointed in the crossfire performance with the Llanos. I really do hope AMD has improved upon that with Trinity

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Re-affirming the same concept once again. For budget gamers buy a cheap CPU and the most GPU you can afford. Got it.