Which CPU to get?

[Ailthas]

After reading the stickies and a bunch of posts, especially the ones that say "40fps in dal, 100 everywhere else, 20 in 25 man raids," I guess I have to come to the conclusion that my CPU isn't going to cut it.

I have an e5200 oced to 3.3ghz, and a gtx260 with 216sp. I thought that it would be enough, and it works great for the most part. I usually sit at 80fps right in front of a boss, but right when combat starts it drops down into the low 20s and there's a lot of stuttering and sometimes if I spam steady shot a bunch and go to hit chimera shot, I throw out 3 more steadies and the chimera never fires. Temps never go above 50c at load, though the CPU seems to be pegged at 100% a lot of the time when wow is current.

If anyone has any advice to fix the issue without spending money, that would be more than welcome since I'd really hate to throw money into another item and have it not fix the issue at hand, but I've tried the addon disabling, deleting the WTF folder, new build, clean drivers, pretty much everything.

In my budget are the e7500, e8500, and q8400. I'm not looking to build a new computer since this one is a year old, and would more than double my current budget for just a game. I just need what will keep me competitive and not frustrated/cause of wipes.

[Cilraaz]

Decent framerates up until engaging in combat usually points to a CPU chokepoint. Too much information coming in for the CPU to handle. Did you try disabling your combat log or some of the more CPU intensive addons (Recount, Omen, etc)?

[Ailthas]

Yes, I went to the combat log settings and unchecked everything. Disabled recount as well. Can't really do Omen since I'm a hunter.

[nwo]

Your CPU isn't that great, but it's still a dual core running at 3.3GHz. You shouldn't be having the problems you stated. Try lowering your resolution and video settings? What settings do you play at now? Since you mention 100% CPU usage during WoW, have you double checked that WoW is using more than 90% of it?

If you really must, I would recommend the e8500. There is no point of getting a quad core (q8400) specifically for WoW since a higher clocked dual core (e8500) will outperform it. The e8500 also OCs to 4GHz on air which is plenty for WoW.

[Cynadra]

Q8400 is the best out of all those. I would suggest getting that if you want to upgrade your CPU. Also make sure to snag a nice new tube of Arctic Silver or OCZ Freeze.

[Cilraaz]

Q8400 is the best out of all those. I would suggest getting that if you want to upgrade your CPU. Also make sure to snag a nice new tube of Arctic Silver or OCZ Freeze.

Not for WoW, it isn't. The E8500 would chew up and spit out the Q8400 in WoW performance. WoW has always inherently preferred higher clock speeds to more cores due to being very heavy on the main process thread.

For almost any other task, I agree that the Q8400 is the better chip.

Benchmark Comparison

[Cynadra]

Isn't the Q8400 more OC'able than the E? Or am I thinking the other way around? I have been messing with i3/i5/i7 the past year, rofl

EDIT: He did say his current CPU is OC'd so this is not out of the question I'm assuming.

[Cilraaz]

Isn't the Q8400 more OC'able than the E? Or am I thinking the other way around? I have been messing with i3/i5/i7 the past year, rofl

EDIT: He did say his current CPU is OC'd so this is not out of the question I'm assuming.

As far as I know, they overclock about the same percentage. Since the E8500 starts at a higher clock, it ends at a higher clock also. I know the E8500 (in the right conditions) can reach 4GHz.

The downside to the E8400/8500 is that some had faulty temperature sensors that caused them to relay insane temperatures (mine claimed to hit 113*C under load, which would have caused it to melt). Those inaccurate readings would make overclocking a pain (the whole reason I didn't OC mine).

[Cynadra]

Isn't the Q6600 the most OC'able out of the Q series? If that's the case I wouldn't see why that isn't in your budget.

[Cilraaz]

Personally, instead of spending $200 on an E-series of Q-series CPU, I'd save to $400 and upgrade my CPU/mobo/RAM to an i5 setup. Slightly more expensive, but much higher performance.

[Cynadra]

Yeah, the nice thing about the i series is that the FSB is all based on your RAM, get good RAM, get better performance. Pretty nice. <3 hyper threading. :P

EDIT : I ment the speed of your RAM. Not really the timing.

[Ailthas]

Your CPU isn't that great, but it's still a dual core running at 3.3GHz. You shouldn't be having the problems you stated. Try lowering your resolution and video settings? What settings do you play at now? Since you mention 100% CPU usage during WoW, have you double checked that WoW is using more than 90% of it?

If you really must, I would recommend the e8500. There is no point of getting a quad core (q8400) specifically for WoW since a higher clocked dual core (e8500) will outperform it. The e8500 also OCs to 4GHz on air which is plenty for WoW.

I would have to assume that WoW is using all that CPU time, as I watch the graph and it goes from almost nothing to pegged when I tab back in, stays pegged until I tab back out.

I've put all the setting down to nothing, turned off AA and AF, AO, set for performance... Pretty much anything in the NVIDIA control panel that is supposed to increase performance. My current resolution is 1680x1050, though moving it down doesn't change fps at all. Pretty much nothing I do changes my fps unless I turn everything on.

And yes, I see the point and I'm sorely tempted to do the whole saving up thing, but... my wife would kill me considering I just built this a year ago.

[Nixia]

<3 hyper threading. :P

Please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, not every program uses hyper threading.

<-----AMD fanboy

[nwo]

The fact that you get such performance with a setup like that still boggles my mind and I refuse to say that your hardware is to blame. I have ran WoW and 25 man raids on a much worse and outdated setup than that. I also run with lowest settings and fairly low resolution but I don't recall the last time when I have had FPS issues that were below my expectations considering the hardware.

You have only mentioned your CPU temps from what I have read, how are your gpu temps? Nvidia cards, especially 260s run extremely hot and are power hogs so make sure you check up on that. Also how is your gaming performance in heroics, BGs, 10 mans, and 25 mans? Is it always the same problem or does your performance differ in every situation?

[Cilraaz]

Yeah, the nice thing about the i series is that the FSB is all based on your RAM, get good RAM, get better performance. Pretty nice. <3 hyper threading. :P

EDIT : I ment the speed of your RAM. Not really the timing.

Not really. The thing about the i-series is that the memory controller is built into the CPU. The speed of both the RAM and CPU are based on the configuration of the Base Clock and a multiplier. For instance, a Core i5 750 comes default with a Base Clock of 133MHz and a 20x multiplier. The 133MHz Base Clock is also directly tied to the speed of the RAM at that point. The RAM would likely use a 2:10 multiplier (effectively Base Clock x 5, or 665MHz, which at Double Data Rate is 1330MHz). If you overclock the CPU by raising the Base Clock, it will directly increase the clock on the RAM because of the memory controller fluctuating with the Base Clock. In my instance, I bumped my Base Clock to 200MHz, lowered my CPU multiplier to 19x, and lowered my RAM multiplier to 2:8 (effectively Base Clock x 4). So my CPU went to 3800MHz, while my RAM went to 800MHz, which DDRs up to 1600MHz.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, not every program uses hyper threading.

<-----AMD fanboy

Any multi-threaded program will make use of however many threads it's programmed for. If you have a 4-thread program, then 4 threads will be used regardless of whether 8 are available. If the program uses as many threads as it can find, then hyperthreading typically wins out.

The fact that you get such performance with a setup like that still boggles my mind and I refuse to say that your hardware is to blame. I have ran WoW and 25 man raids on a much worse and outdated setup than that. I also run with lowest settings and fairly low resolution but I don't recall the last time when I have had FPS issues that were below my expectations considering the hardware.

You have only mentioned your CPU temps from what I have read, how are your gpu temps? Nvidia cards, especially 260s run extremely hot and are power hogs so make sure you check up on that. Also how is your gaming performance in heroics, BGs, 10 mans, and 25 mans? Is it always the same problem or does your performance differ in every situation?

I tend to agree that he should be getting better performance out of a 3.3GHz C2D. My wife is using my old system (E8500, default clocks (2.8GHz), 4GB DDR2 800, nVidia 8800GTS (G92) 512MB) with no problems. OP's system outdoes my wife's at both core clock and GPU levels. I don't know if there's much architecture difference between an E8500 and an E5200, but I'd doubt it.

[Ailthas]

GPU hovers around the 50c mark. I have it set up to run the fan at 100%, and recently blew out the computer for dust.

I am confused about the performance as well, considering how well other people say their setups work, and my wife has the same CPU albeit with an 8800gt and she only chokes out in Dalaran. Her FPS is much better in 25s. So maybe I was thinking that the lower card matched well enough with the lower CPU that neither get the crap kicked out of them.

I get different performance based on where I am. Right now I'm on the south bank steps and getting 35-45fps. When I fly around or do questing I get about 80-90. 109 in Ironforge. 80ish in a 5 man, 60s in a 10 man. Wintergrasp at the fortress feels like my PC is about to take a crap. And 25 mans usually hover me around the 20s. Sometimes less depending on the amount of AoE going on. I notice it the worst when there's a DK in the raid for some odd reason.

The e5200 is a dual core CPU, but it's not a c2d like the e8500. It's more of a budget dual core like the e2180 I guess?

[Cilraaz]

The e5200 is a dual core CPU, but it's not a c2d like the e8500. It's more of a budget dual core like the e2180 I guess?

I hadn't even paid attention to that. I forget whether the Pentium Dual-Cores were before or after the Pentium D's (or if one was just rebranded), but I know my old 2.8GHz Pentium D ran like crap.

[nwo]

If I recall and understand correctly, the Pentium D series were the first dual cores for desktops, then came the "e" series.

Your performance is on par with your setup for just about everything but 25 mans, and you shouldn't be getting huge lag spikes when AOE occurs. I use the following settings on my crappy laptop, and I am able to run 25 mans fine for the most part (~20+ fps), with the exception of a few fights like Lord Marrowgar which turn into a 5-10 fps slideshow for me.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/5...0310115320.jpg
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7...0310115308.jpg