how good is i5 for gaming?

[pkm]

Sorry if I was a bit vague on games. I did also mean wow and a few others but mostly wow. Also I'm not looking to upgrade fully just a new mobo and cpu and just swap it with what I got now. My gpu is xfx radeon 6870 (I think it was 1gb) but yeah I don't have the money to spend on a better video card.

Also want a cpu instead because I am really sick of amd been an amd user for years.

[yurano]

~lots of Phenom II buyers remorse justification~

You're missing a couple of key points:

1) desired visual quality
2) GPU used

Coupling a Phenom II with a 7970 GHz CF x4 is probably a bad idea. That said, going for a i7-3930K with a 610 GT is also a bad idea.

Trying to play WoW Ultra on a Phenom II is also a bad idea. Sure you can turn down settings, but you can play WoW on low settings on a potato.

The most important determination of what CPU you should have is what GPU you're using. Put together: tower budget, game selection and desired settings will determine what CPU performance is best suited.

Its naive to think that an old Phenom II is always good enough.

I'd like to see Raid benchmarks, enough people in 25m Guilds on Twitch streaming on Phenom II's.

A lot of people crank settings down to stream. In fact, people crank down settings when their hardware isn't good enough, streaming or not. The correct assertion would be: "enough people in 25m Guilds on Twitch streaming WoW Ultra on Phenom II's at 30+ FPS".

Sorry if I was a bit vague on games. I did also mean wow and a few others but mostly wow. Also I'm not looking to upgrade fully just a new mobo and cpu and just swap it with what I got now. My gpu is xfx radeon 6870 (I think it was 1gb) but yeah I don't have the money to spend on a better video card.

Also want a cpu instead because I am really sick of amd been an amd user for years.

Don't need to switch your CPU if you're only up at a 6870. If you're not having problems or are performance limited, why would you want to switch CPUs?

[solvexx]

Nothing wrong in what i said.
The gfx matters far more :P

Not quite sure why you think GFX matters more than CPU power.

[MMKing]

Not quite sure why you think GFX matters more than CPU power.

It may seem that way because the amount of USD spent on GPU increases drastically after an i5-3570k is purchased. I am currently pairing an MSI 7970 Lightning with an i5-2500k. The 7970 was over 2x the price compared to the i5-2500k. So before you make the leap to i7-3770k, 2011 build or build budget. The GPU will cost allot more than your CPU.

In addition, it is even true for some games that GPU is more important than CPU. Generally, the less there is of stuff on your screen the more CPU intensive the game is. This often being MMORPG and RTS games sticking out. While most games where you control a single character is mostly GPU dependent. This being primarily a WOW forum though, the obvious tip for price/performance should be to go big on CPU, preferably i5-3570k. And let the GPU fall behind, 7770/650ti being lowest.

[glo]

They aren't needed for WoW. They are better and more efficient than older CPU's no doubt, there's not even an argument to be had there. i5's are clearly and provably a better processor overall. But on the off-chance you're only playing WoW or are able to settle with medium/high graphics in BF3/PS2/SC2 and Skyrim/GW then OP's 955 is enough. Myself have an old CPU(965 BE) and I haven't had a problem maxing out any of the previously mentioned games at good or better FPS.

The only game I've seen a noticeable lack of CPU power in is Crysis 3. This is where my old CPU no longer can perform at highest and I'm forced to a mix between medium and high to get on a playable 40 fps level. Again, I'm not arguing that i5/7's power is wasted on this generations games, it's not. It's utilized to it's fullest potential in games and we can see that on comparison charts. But it's not required to run games at high or highest settings. It does it better, but not required.

To OP: Yes, i5 is a much better processor and if you intend to build for the future it's the wisest and most cost efficient processors, end of story.

They're needed if you want to nearly max the game. Again, said Phenoms have nearly half the per core performance as the 3570k.

[Deleted]

You're missing a couple of key points:

1) desired visual quality
2) GPU used

1) Desirable visual quality at 60 FPS- Check and check
2) GTX 660 OC- A bit unbalanced but... check.

My old phenom II is good enough for this generation games when it collaborate with a GTX 660 and even as low as GTX460(which I had previously). It's the next generation games such as Crysis3/Farcry3 it's not good enough for. This is where my GPU has more potential than my CPU lets it use. WoW on ultra in a raid environment is child's play for my 965 BE and 660, it's barely not even burning up (<-- Joke). I wish I could show you a print or even better up a video of WoW on ultra but I deleted everything WoW not that long ago when I decided the game sucked.

Remember, Blizzard hasn't made WoW for benchmarking. This is a game scaled (even at ultra) to work flawlessly on as many different systems as computationally feasible. How much you wish for it, your setups 150 FPS on Ultra doesn't matter when my 965 setup has 60-70 FPS in the same game, on the same settings in the same environments. I'm sorry, It's just not relevant to a normal person. I'm not saying you should run off and buy a 965 instead of i5,i7 haha, that would be an incredibly stupid move. But if you already have one of these old CPU's and you only play World of Warcraft then you have nothing to worry about. Maybe in the next expansion or two Blizzard decides to up the min requirements a bit, but until then, yes, It is good enough.

Also my potatoes can do WoW on medium. Check your potato, bro.

FYI: Yes, I do know my system overall would be more efficient using an i5 or even i7, this is not a mystery to me.

They're needed if you want to nearly max the game. Again, said Phenoms have nearly half the per core performance as the 3570k.

I am/was maxing the game 2 months ago. And the second half of your text is absolutely right. Much more efficient processor than Phenoms


Edit: Also, I'm not even sure why we're arguing. Everyone agrees on the thing that matters, that i5's are better than phenoms xD

[glo]

1) Desirable visual quality at 60 FPS- Check and check
2) GTX 660 OC- A bit unbalanced but... check.

My old phenom II is good enough for this generation games when it collaborate with a GTX 660 and even as low as GTX460(which I had previously). It's the next generation games such as Crysis3/Farcry3 it's not good enough for. This is where my GPU has more potential than my CPU lets it use. WoW on ultra in a raid environment is child's play for my 965 BE and 660, it's barely not even burning up (<-- Joke). I wish I could show you a print or even better up a video of WoW on ultra but I deleted everything WoW not that long ago when I decided the game sucked.

Remember, Blizzard hasn't made WoW for benchmarking. This is a game scaled (even at ultra) to work flawlessly on as many different systems as computationally feasible. How much you wish for it, your setups 150 FPS on Ultra doesn't matter when my 965 has 60-70 FPS in the same game, on the same settings in the same environments. I'm sorry, It's just not relevant to a normal person. I'm not saying you should run off and buy a 965 instead of i5,i7 haha, that would be an incredibly stupid move. But if you already have one of these old CPU's and you only play World of Warcraft then you have nothing to worry about. Maybe in the next expansion or two Blizzard decides to up the min requirements a bit, but until then, yes, It is good enough.

Also my potatoes can do WoW on medium. Check your potato, bro.

FYI: Yes, I do know my system overall would be more efficient using an i5 or even i7, this is not a mystery to me.


I am/was maxing the game 2 months ago. And the second half of your text is absolutely right. Much more efficient processor than Phenoms

You're not maxing the game and getting acceptable performance on your Phenom, you're not the lone exception in the sea of available benchmarks. If you still think you are though, please feel free to show us via a fraps video displaying your FPS with maxed settings in raid finder. Otherwise, stop spreading the misinformation.

[Doylez]

I'm not going to argue with you that CPU isn't important for WoW but it really doesn't require as much as it used to do. I mean, even my friend sitting on a stock clocked Phenom 9550 can easily turn up WoW to high without significant FPS loss in raids. If you want to up that to maximum a Phenom II 965 will suffice for 60+ fps even in the most intense raids.

I have a overclocked Phenom II X4 955BE and while it's true that it's good enough to play most games at high settings WoW is not one of those games.
25 man is almost unplayable at times and even in 10man there are huge frame drops.

[yurano]

1) Desirable visual quality at 60 FPS- Check and check
2) GTX 660 OC- A bit unbalanced but... check.

My old phenom II is good enough for this generation games when it collaborate with a GTX 660 and even as low as GTX460(which I had previously). It's the next generation games such as Crysis3/Farcry3 it's not good enough for. This is where my GPU has more potential than my CPU lets it use. , it's barely not even burning up (<-- Joke). I wish I could show you a print or even better up a video of WoW on ultra but I deleted everything WoW not that long ago when I decided the game sucked.

Remember, Blizzard hasn't made WoW for benchmarking. This is a game scaled (even at ultra) to work flawlessly on as many different systems as computationally feasible. How much you wish for it, your setups 150 FPS on Ultra doesn't matter when my 965 setup has 60-70 FPS in the same game, on the same settings in the same environments. I'm sorry, It's just not relevant to a normal person. I'm not saying you should run off and buy a 965 instead of i5,i7 haha, that would be an incredibly stupid move. But if you already have one of these old CPU's and you only play World of Warcraft then you have nothing to worry about. Maybe in the next expansion or two Blizzard decides to up the min requirements a bit, but until then, yes, It is good enough.

Also my potatoes can do WoW on medium. Check your potato, bro.

FYI: Yes, I do know my system overall would be more efficient using an i5 or even i7, this is not a mystery to me.


I am/was maxing the game 2 months ago. And the second half of your text is absolutely right. Much more efficient processor than Phenoms


Edit: Also, I'm not even sure why we're arguing. Everyone agrees on the thing that matters, that i5's are better than phenoms xD

You clearly missed the point. You're trying to tout the Phenom II as the second coming in all games, showing two screenshots, neither of which look like WoW without even showing which settings were used. Moreover, FPS isn't displayed in the screenshots. Hell, I can run WoW full ultra on a resolution of infinity x infinity, taking a million years to draw each frame. Clearly, the Phenom II isn't the best CPU out there as it chokes on WoW in RAIDS, not scenery images that show 0 players.

I would like you to put a screenshot to: WoW on ultra in a raid environment is child's play for my 965 BE and 660" because clearly as everyone knows, its not the case.

Clearly, there is no point in arguing with a Phenom II fan boy who reduces settings in raids yet touts that his rig can easily counquer WoW at playable FPS in 25m raids.

[pkm]

You're missing a couple of key points:

1) desired visual quality
2) GPU used

Coupling a Phenom II with a 7970 GHz CF x4 is probably a bad idea. That said, going for a i7-3930K with a 610 GT is also a bad idea.

Trying to play WoW Ultra on a Phenom II is also a bad idea. Sure you can turn down settings, but you can play WoW on low settings on a potato.

The most important determination of what CPU you should have is what GPU you're using. Put together: tower budget, game selection and desired settings will determine what CPU performance is best suited.

Its naive to think that an old Phenom II is always good enough.



A lot of people crank settings down to stream. In fact, people crank down settings when their hardware isn't good enough, streaming or not. The correct assertion would be: "enough people in 25m Guilds on Twitch streaming WoW Ultra on Phenom II's at 30+ FPS".



Don't need to switch your CPU if you're only up at a 6870. If you're not having problems or are performance limited, why would you want to switch CPUs?

I will be getting a gpu but not yet in the future.

[Deleted]

You're not maxing the game and getting acceptable performance on your Phenom, you're not the lone exception in the sea of available benchmarks. If you still think you are though, please feel free to show us via a fraps video displaying your FPS with maxed settings in raid finder. Otherwise, stop spreading the misinformation.

As I said before I have quit WoW and I don't have the game installed nor do I have gametime on my account. I'm not going to refill my account and re-install the game just to settle a disagreement on the internet. I don't have the urge to prove myself on the internet that badly, I know the facts and that's enough for me.

And please do link a contradicting benchmark showing how 965 BE drops below acceptable levels(40-50fps) on Ultra in WoW.

You clearly missed the point. You're trying to tout the Phenom II as the second coming in all games, showing two screenshots, neither of which look like WoW without even showing which settings were used. Moreover, FPS isn't displayed in the screenshots. Hell, I can run WoW full ultra on a resolution of infinity x infinity, taking a million years to draw each frame. Clearly, the Phenom II isn't the best CPU out there as it chokes on WoW in RAIDS, not scenery images that show 0 players.

I would like you to put a screenshot to: WoW on ultra in a raid environment is child's play for my 965 BE and 660" because clearly as everyone knows, its not the case.

Clearly, there is no point in arguing with a Phenom II fan boy who reduces settings in raids yet touts that his rig can easily counquer WoW at playable FPS in 25m raids.

An no. I'm simply saying that 965 perform acceptably in a raid environment on Ultra settings. That's all I said. Never said it perform better than i5 or i7, that would be a lie. 965 comes after many processors and not even close to second coming. AMD isn't even on that list as far as I'm concerned. Now what do you perceive as acceptable FPS? For me it's 40-60 FPS, that's acceptable for me. Maybe it isn't for you, that's where our disagreement comes in?

[Halifax]

Not true.

Considering you're on a WoW website, where most people play WoW. CPU is VERY important for gaming, specifically WoW.

I'm running an i5 from about a year ago, and this week I did a 200+ person Oondasta zerg. Held 60fps while recording with Bandicam on ultra. I can't think of many things in WoW that would be more CPU intensive than this, and my poor little i5 was more than fine.

[glo]

As I said before I have quit WoW and I don't have the game installed nor do I have gametime on my account. I'm not going to refill my account and re-install the game just to settle a disagreement on the internet. I don't have the urge to prove myself on the internet that badly, I know the facts and that's enough for me.

And please do link a contradicting benchmark showing how 965 BE drops below acceptable levels(40-50fps) on Ultra in WoW.

So you're basically just saying "hey I have no way to prove it, but my old processor is totally capable of maxing WoW even though I no longer play". Right. Regardless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIe4wdX9hTw

If it can't keep 60 FPS in an empty Westfall, it's not going to magically do better in 25m raiding, or anywhere else.

---------- Post added 2013-03-23 at 06:38 AM ----------

I'm running an i5 from about a year ago, and this week I did a 200+ person Oondasta zerg. Held 60fps while recording with Bandicam on ultra. I can't think of many things in WoW that would be more CPU intensive than this, and my poor little i5 was more than fine.

Go ahead and upload that video for us.

[Doylez]

So you're basically just saying "hey I have no way to prove it, but my old processor is totally capable of maxing WoW even though I no longer play". Right. Regardless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIe4wdX9hTw

If it can't keep 60 FPS in an empty Westfall, it's not going to magically do better in 25m raiding, or anywhere else.[COLOR="red"]

Pretty much, with a bunch of addons and in a 25 man raid you can pretty much cut those fps in half.

I remember getting <20 FPS on Elegon and that wasn't even with Ultra settings.

[Deleted]

So you're basically just saying "hey I have no way to prove it, but my old processor is totally capable of maxing WoW even though I no longer play". Right. Regardless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIe4wdX9hTw

If it can't keep 60 FPS in an empty Westfall, it's not going to magically do better in 25m raiding, or anywhere else.

If you're going to record your raid while playing on an 965 then yes of course it's going to drop below. That never was the argument. Would a screenshot of an overcrowded Orgrimmar while mousing over FPS meter+ showing settings suffice? Best I can do. I have 7 days trial on a old twink account with a lowbie on.

Or actually I could even fraps it. I'm gonna do that. BRB a few!

[lordjust]

You clearly missed the point. You're trying to tout the Phenom II as the second coming in all games, showing two screenshots, neither of which look like WoW without even showing which settings were used. Moreover, FPS isn't displayed in the screenshots. Hell, I can run WoW full ultra on a resolution of infinity x infinity, taking a million years to draw each frame. Clearly, the Phenom II isn't the best CPU out there as it chokes on WoW in RAIDS, not scenery images that show 0 players.

I would like you to put a screenshot to: WoW on ultra in a raid environment is child's play for my 965 BE and 660" because clearly as everyone knows, its not the case.

Clearly, there is no point in arguing with a Phenom II fan boy who reduces settings in raids yet touts that his rig can easily counquer WoW at playable FPS in 25m raids.

Increasing the resolution will probably only increase the load on the GPU instead of CPU because the GPU has to draw more pixels. In fact I'm playing at 4k (3840x2160) and CPU load is the same as with 1080p but framerate is cut in half and VRAM used and GPU load is much higher. How important the CPU is will be determined by what game you're playing and what you're doing in the game. When you don't raid in WoW even an old CPU will be good enough but in raids or other crowded areas a better CPU is the best thing you can get and from my experience when you want to get a better performance in WoW all that helps is a better CPU. In addition the i5 has a great value of performance/buck.

[glo]

If you're going to record your raid while playing on an 965 then yes of course it's going to drop below. That never was the argument. Would a screenshot of an overcrowded Orgrimmar while mousing over FPS meter+ showing settings suffice? Best I can do. I have 7 days trial on a old twink account with a lowbie on.

Or actually I could even fraps it. I'm gonna do that. BRB a few!

How are you going to "BRB in a few" if:

I don't have the game installed

Ripping someone else's youtube video comes to mind, but I digress. I have one of the strongest single GPU rigs available (minus titan rigs). Basically, if I can't do it, there's no way in hell you're going to be able to do it on any AMD processor whatsoever, especially an aging Phenom 965.

[Deleted]

How are you going to "BRB in a few" if:



Ripping someone else's youtube video comes to mind, but I digress. I have one of the strongest single GPU rigs available (minus titan rigs). Basically, if I can't do it, there's no way in hell you're going to be able to do it on any AMD processor whatsoever, especially an aging Phenom 965.

40-60 FPS in raid without recording? Sure I will. I'm installing the game as we speak and I'll upload a video to youtube. My character even has the same name as I do on the forums so...Give me an hour or so and you'll see for yourself. My rig isn't better than your, not even close in fact. If I can do 40-60 fps in a raid without recording, so can you. But you wont take my word for it so a video is coming right up.

The joy of 100Mb/s <3

[yurano]

Increasing the resolution will probably only increase the load on the GPU instead of CPU because the GPU has to draw more pixels. In fact I'm playing at 4k (3840x2160) and CPU load is the same as with 1080p but framerate is cut in half and VRAM used and GPU load is much higher. How important the CPU is will be determined by what game you're playing and what you're doing in the game. When you don't raid in WoW even an old CPU will be good enough but in raids or other crowded areas a better CPU is the best thing you can get and from my experience when you want to get a better performance in WoW all that helps is a better CPU. In addition the i5 has a great value of performance/buck.

It depends on how you increase resolution. 3840x2160 is probably lighter on CPU than 5760x1080 because of the increased FoV.

How many people play WoW without raiding? FPS is largely irrelevant in WoW except in situations where your performance is on the line: raids and PvP. You can't discount the importance of high FPS in raids by saying that FPS doesn't matter when you're rolling around doing dailies.

[lordjust]

It depends on how you increase resolution. 3840x2160 is probably lighter on CPU than 5760x1080 because of the increased FoV.

How many people play WoW without raiding? FPS is largely irrelevant in WoW except in situations where your performance is on the line: raids and PvP. You can't discount the importance of high FPS in raids by saying that FPS doesn't matter when you're rolling around doing dailies.

As said I don't discount high FPS in situation where they count like in raids but there are a lot of people who don't raid. But when you need higher FPS in WoW a CPU upgrade will be the best choice.