Upgrading from i5 2400

[Revolutia]

Hey, I have got beta and performance seems to be kinda "meh" with my current system.

i5 2400, GTX 660, 8GB ram, SSD and W764bit.

I usually play on mix between medium and high. Textures at high and the rest of my settings are either fair or good.

In dungeons my FPS is solid 55-60, but there are abilities that would TANK my fps down to 40. I have also tried raid finder, the first boss in emerald nightmare, Ursco (I think?) and fps was mostly fine, but was dropping low during aoe.

Now to my question, will upgrading my CPU to something like i5 6500 help to solve these problems?

I would like to have rock solid 60 fps even in raids, with mix between medium and high settings, is it possible?

Thanks guys.

[Fascinate]

Your computer is fine for legion, the drops you are seeing are likely due to poor optimizations with different spell effects. Also no, you cannot maintain 60 FPS in every scenario in game no matter the money you spend.

[Revolutia]

Yeah, I know, but would it help if I upgraded to i5 6500? Would I see a HUGE improvements?

[Fascinate]

No, and the 6500 wouldn't fit in your motherboard anyways.

[Revolutia]

Yeah, I am aware of that, but I was asking in general. Thanks.

[caervek]

Now to my question, will upgrading my CPU to something like i5 6500 help to solve these problems?

I would like to have rock solid 60 fps even in raids, with mix between medium and high settings, is it possible?

You're being held back by your GPU not your CPU.

To put it in perspective my spare rig has an i5 2550K at stock speed and a GTX960 (similar performance to an overclocked GTX680). It plays the game fine high-ultra.

[Fascinate]

I wouldnt say the 660 is necessarily a bottleneck either, its a well rounded system. My 760 isnt a ton faster than a 660 and 960's are barely any faster than a 760, so there is that.

[Thunderball]

You're being held back by your GPU not your CPU.

To put it in perspective my spare rig has an i5 2550K at stock speed and a GTX960 (similar performance to an overclocked GTX680). It plays the game fine high-ultra.

WoW is a CPU dependant game. His GPU is not that bad.

[caervek]

WoW is a CPU dependant game. His GPU is not that bad.

WoW is CPU dependant yes but he already has a decent CPU yet an outdated GPU.

I.E that GPU could never max out WoW no matter what CPU it was paired with but that CPU can max out WoW when paired with a decent GPU. Thus his GPU is his weak link (from the spec given).

To further emphasise the point, AMD do not currently make a CPU that's as good as his for gaming, and yet people with AMD CPUs are still able to get great WoW performance.

[Thunderball]

WoW is CPU dependant yes but he already has a decent CPU yet an outdated GPU.

I.E that GPU could never max out WoW no matter what CPU it was paired with but that CPU can max out WoW when paired with a decent GPU. Thus his GPU is his weak link (from the spec given).

To further emphasise the point, AMD do not currently make a CPU that's as good as his for gaming, and yet people with AMD CPUs are still able to get great WoW performance.

His CPU is as much outdated as his GPU. People need to understand that the single reason why Sandy Bridge CPUs are still considered good is the fact that they have substantially higher overclocking potential than later chips due to heat dissipation thermal interface change. This however doesnt apply to this one because it's not overclockable. GTX 660 on the other hand is better than GTX 750 Ti which is considered a fine pick for WoW.

[Fascinate]

Another person who doesn't know what they're talking about. Cheers.

I own a 2500k the same architecture as the OP. When i set my bios back to default i lose very little in terms of performance, to the point of not even being noticeable unless you were staring at a FPS meter. A 2500k will turbo to 3.7ghz on one core, 300mhz higher than a 2400 this is not make or break numbers we are talking about here.

You don't need top of the line hardware for this game, OP's frame drops he is describing are completely normal (raid aoe, unoptimized spell effects). If you feel like he should spend 400+ dollars on hardware just to experience the same kind of drops thats on you mate, ill continue letting people know throwing money at their PC will not fix these issues (and be correct in doing so).

Cheers.

[caervek]

His CPU is as much outdated as his GPU.

Age isn't the relevant part as CPU performance hasn't moved on amazingly in the past 5 years whereas GPU performance has come on in leaps and bounds.

His CPU is fine for Legion with the settings he want's to play at, I can confirm this as I has the model up in my second rig and it plays legion fine with decent settings.

If he wants a boost for legion he is better off replacing his GPU, I can confirm this as I had the same model in my second rig and replaced it in MoP to play at decent settings.

It's that simple.

[Lathais]

WoW is CPU dependant yes but he already has a decent CPU yet an outdated GPU.

I.E that GPU could never max out WoW no matter what CPU it was paired with but that CPU can max out WoW when paired with a decent GPU. Thus his GPU is his weak link (from the spec given).

To further emphasise the point, AMD do not currently make a CPU that's as good as his for gaming, and yet people with AMD CPUs are still able to get great WoW performance.

Actually, his CPU is not really fine. The 2500k is still a decent CPU because it could OC so well. However, the OP has a 2400 not a 2500k. Max clock speed on that is only 3.4 GHz. Your 2550k has a stock max turbo of 3.8 GHz. Quite a bit higher. So yes, a new CPU would certainly help him get closer to achieving what he wants as it would have higher clocks, especially if he OCed. Also, seeing as the OP specifically mentions medium-high settings, the 660 is still fine,

OP, yes, if you upgrade your CPU you will be able to maintain 60 the vast majority of the time. There will still be certain fights and situations(bloodlust) that will tank your FPS to sub-60, even if you have the fastest CPU in the world. The vast majority of the time though you can maintain at or near 60 with a decent Haswell/Skylake CPU.

[caervek]

The vast majority of the time though you can maintain at or near 60 with a decent Sandy Bridge or higher CPU.

Fixed that for you >.>

[Fascinate]

First of all, a 2500K can easily be overclocked to 4.5. Secondly, I experience over 60 FPS in all situations in game. Many others do as well. You saying it's impossible at any price is just plain wrong.

What part about me resetting my bios to default did you not understand? I have a 4.2 and 4.9ghz presets saved in my bios, the 4.9 is just for benchmarking (which i havent done in years) but even if i loaded that up for WoW compared to stock settings i literally couldnt tell a difference in game unless i was looking at FPS meter.

And id love to see how your "60 fps everywhere" statement holds up on world bosses in legion, or heck even invasions. Its not about hardware mate thats what you (and sadly many) think is the limiting factor here, its the engine and network structure. We dont have a shot and seeing a pegged 60 FPS vsync in everything until we get a dx12 client that deals with draw calls better.

[Fascinate]

You were the one who said:

Secondly, I experience over 60 FPS in all situations in game.

I never said some raid bosses cant be pegged at 60 FPS my rig pulls off that feat a lot of the time, i was merely commenting on your remark.

[caervek]

What part about me resetting my bios to default did you not understand? I have a 4.2 and 4.9ghz presets saved in my bios, the 4.9 is just for benchmarking (which i havent done in years) but even if i loaded that up for WoW compared to stock settings i literally couldnt tell a difference in game unless i was looking at FPS meter.

I agree with this, I used to run my 4930K at 4.5GHz for ego but summer before last I dropped it to stock for coolness and it had no noticeable effect on WoW performance. I haven't bothered clocking it back up as I have yet to meet a game that makes it sweat.

[Fascinate]

Just going to toss this in as well:

https://us.battle.net/support/en/art...arcraft-legion

i5-2400 is only one gen behind recommended specs for legion, not even a 10% difference in IPC from sandy to ivy. Also as i said above, his GPU is well beyond even the recommended for this game which is a 750ti. (660 is at least 20% faster card)

[caervek]

Just going to toss this in as well:

https://us.battle.net/support/en/art...arcraft-legion

i5-2400 is only one gen behind recommended specs for legion, not even a 10% difference in IPC from sandy to ivy.

According to benchmarks his CPU is as near as makes no difference equal to that recommended Intel one due to the higher clock speed almost completely offsetting the IPC gain, it's also better than the recommended AMD one.

*EDIT*

Legion REQUIRES a DVD drive? :O I'm screwed then, haven't had one in the main rig since 2012 XD

[Lathais]

Fixed that for you >.>

only if it's the 2500k or better. Not the 2400 the OP has. Lower stock clocks, lower turbo clocks, no ability to OC.