Budget Build Performance in WoD.

[tielknight]

If you want help with a build, it is best to make your own thread and fill out the sticky info located here so we can stick to helping one person and not confusing things with multiple builds for multiple people flying around.

[Lamb Mine]

Most G.skill Ripjaws X has some heat spreader fins which the NH-D14 won't fit under. What site are you using anyways?

pcpartpicker. Just can't post links because of low post count.

It's highly likely that I'm just going to bite the bullet and go with the $1,000ish build we've worked up here because I know I'll be pretty irritated if I spend $500-$600 and can't run smoothly on max settings with an i5 and GTX 760 when I could just spend a few hundred more and have a really strong system.

[tielknight]

A i5 and a 760 will play it about as well as a 1k+ system, getting a beefier GPU won't help as WoW is limited by the CPU more than anything. You will have frame-drops no matter how much money you throw at it, thats just something your going to have to accept until they update their engine to utilize cores better.

[Lamb Mine]

A i5 and a 760 will play it about as well as a 1k+ system, getting a beefier GPU won't help as WoW is limited by the CPU more than anything. You will have frame-drops no matter how much money you throw at it, thats just something your going to have to accept until they update their engine to utilize cores better.

Argh! You making me unsure again, lol. Wish there was a way to see how much performance per dollar is gained through the 970 vs the 760 in WoW alone.

Edit: But with EQ Next coming before too long, I suppose 970 is still a good investment.

[tielknight]

In WoW alone? Very little where it actually matters(in heavily-populated areas, BG's, Raids, etc). In a wide-open area like flying over jade forest? Yes, then it would help then as the game is relying on the GPU to render all the terrain.

When making a build for WoW you build around the CPU, as that is the most important aspect to keeping the game running as smoothly as possible. There is a certain point(usually the overclockable i5's like the 4690k) where anything past that is just throwing a large amount of money($100 more for the 4790k as a example) for a possible small performance gain that is simply not worth it.

[Lamb Mine]

For anyone following this thread, here's a video I found that uses an OC'd i5 to 4.6ghz and MSI GTX 770 2GB:

youtube.com/watch?v=R0Lri4pfaGY (Sorry, still not able to post links)

During raid encounter, his FPS maxed out at 60 due to V-sync and seemed to dip as low as 40 using ultra settings. Not sure how good of an FPS measure this particular encounter is, particularly since it is pre-WoD, but I imagine these are the results one can expect from the i5/GTX 760 combo that was discussed earlier in this thread.

However, the nagging question is still how much is gained by using the GTX 970 (which everyone seems to say is a beast) with the i5, or by using the i7 + GTX 970.

[tielknight]

In a similar raid setting with both CPU's running at the same speed and same graphic settings? Likely very little, if any noticeable difference. Now if that has changed in WoD I do not know, though it seems highly-unlikely.

[Samfisher]

In a similar raid setting with both CPU's running at the same speed and same graphic settings? Likely very little, if any noticeable difference. Now if that has changed in WoD I do not know, though it seems highly-unlikely.

I did get a major boost after 6.0.2 came out with the new CPU-optimized engine. WoW is using more CPU power than ever which is good, cos it's using it more effectively now. Which is what is causing me to think that the i7 may actually be a better choice.

[tielknight]

I did get a major boost after 6.0.2 came out with the new CPU-optimized engine. WoW is using more CPU power than ever which is good, cos it's using it more effectively now. Which is what is causing me to think that the i7 may actually be a better choice.

I can't see it using more than 4 cores even after a engine update and there has been nothing showing that it does either. The i7 would be better if you need the hyperthreading due to how much else you have running while playing WoW, but there is pretty much 0 performance difference between the two(at the same speeds and from the same type, like the 4690k&4790k), aside from a bit more l3 cache and one having a higher stock speed(which is negated when overclocked).

[Remilia]

As far as I remember, they're not really optimizing the CPU portion, more like removing a lot of shit that didn't need to be shown that was tacked onto the CPU.

[Samfisher]

As far as I remember, they're not really optimizing the CPU portion, more like removing a lot of shit that didn't need to be shown that was tacked onto the CPU.

They actually did optimize for better usage of CPU resources. You can compare it to the % used pre and post 6.0.2 Pre patch cores randomly went up and down and was never stable while post patch 1-2 cores will always be at around 70-85% usage. Which is great cos I gained 15 FPS in one heavy part of the game with only the patch changing. GPU usage remained the same pre and post patch.