Upgrading setup, would this do? i5-4670k for World of Warcraft.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I have finally decided to give up on my current cpu and upgrade, I'll be going from an i7 870 to i5-4670K Processor
(6M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz) and a new motherboard to fit it. I have a AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series GPU which I have been adviced to hold off on replacing for a while at least.

How would this handle WoW? At the moment with my i7 I can only play on fair settings in new zones with shadows turned off and High settings in pre-Pandaria zones with shadows turned off. Don't use SSAO. I can stand still with ultra settings (not shadows) in Vale of Eternal Blossoms and get steady 60 fps, but as soon as I move around it begins to stutter and I see drops of 10 to 20 fps regularly. In 25-man Heroic I can't have above low settings or fps drops to 25.

Good upgrade, or should I pursue something even stronger? AND, for when I upgrade my GPU, which card would you recommend?

[Peroxidex]

You would probably get more gains from replacing the GPU over the CPU.

There is a particular benchmark I have in mind where they tested numerous CPU along with AMD and nVidia GPU which would be of interest to you.

[chazus]

That'll do fine, and I'd agree that holding onto the 7770 is a good idea. It's not the best card in the world, but it's decent if you can't afford to upgrade that right now. Your CPU is what is holding you back in raids, largely.

- - - Updated - - -

You would probably get more gains from replacing the GPU over the CPU.

This is... incorrect. Until the 750ti came out, the 7770 was still getting recommended in -new- system builds.

Raid performance is all CPU.

[ComputerNerd]

That'll do fine, and I'd agree that holding onto the 7770 is a good idea. It's not the best card in the world, but it's decent if you can't afford to upgrade that right now. Your CPU is what is holding you back in raids, largely.

Raid performance is all CPU.

I have to second this.
WoW is more CPU bound than a lot of games, so upgrading the GPU will primarily benefit some of the eye-candy, but won't have as much of an impact on performance.
It is also barely utilising 2 cores, so better single-core performance will do more than a greater number of cores.
Which is why intel is superior to AMD, as 6 or 8 cores isn't going to do you much good when most of it is done on one.
Whether that will change in the future remains to be seen though.
I would like to see it make better use of multiple cores.

[Queen of Hamsters]

That'll do fine, and I'd agree that holding onto the 7770 is a good idea. It's not the best card in the world, but it's decent if you can't afford to upgrade that right now. Your CPU is what is holding you back in raids, largely.

- - - Updated - - -


This is... incorrect. Until the 750ti came out, the 7770 was still getting recommended in -new- system builds.

Raid performance is all CPU.

Thank you very much <3, I have also been recommended to save up and purchase a i7 4770k processor but people tend to throw Absolute Overkill at you...I'd basically be happy with having High settings stable at 60 fps in new Pandaria zones (shadows low, I don't use shadows) and good settings in raids with 45-50 fps stable. Would the i5 make that possible?

Someone else said that I won't notice a difference between this processor and my current, which I find hard to believe...this i7 has so far been the worst processor I've owned when looking at the performance nosedive it gave me after a while in use.

[ComputerNerd]

Thank you very much <3, I have also been recommended to save up and purchase a i7 4770k processor but people tend to throw Absolute Overkill at you...I'd basically be happy with having High settings stable at 60 fps in new Pandaria zones (shadows low, I don't use shadows) and good settings in raids with 45-50 fps stable.

The i7 isn't going to offer a lot over an i5, at least not in WoW.
Highly multi-threaded applications maybe, but WoW isn't that.

[Peroxidex]

This is... incorrect. Until the 750ti came out, the 7770 was still getting recommended in -new- system builds.

The benchmark I had in mind was from WOTLK before the most recent generation of cards so AMD could have picked up a lot of gumption.

Although if he's 1920x1080+ then the 7700 isn't going to work. A 7700 should be able to get 40+ on 1920x1080 on high with 8xAF and 4xAA which is not what the OP is reporting.

Who's to say it's not a RAM issue? No mention of it in his or your post. If he's rocking 2gb then that'd be a bigger upgrade than either CPU or GPU.

[Noctifer616]

I suggest you monitor your GPU load. If it's not at 100% all the time, your CPU is the bottleneck. Otherwise, it's the GPU.

[Queen of Hamsters]

The benchmark I had in mind was from WOTLK before the most recent generation of cards so AMD could have picked up a lot of gumption.

Although if he's 1920x1080+ then the 7700 isn't going to work. A 7700 should be able to get 40+ on 1920x1080 on high with 8xAF and 4xAA which is not what the OP is reporting.

Who's to say it's not a RAM issue? No mention of it in his or your post. If he's rocking 2gb then that'd be a bigger upgrade than either CPU or GPU.

8gb, and I don't use that resolution. I play at 1280x1024. I'm a rather modest gamer since I have no interest in maxing out, too much going on in that department gives me a headache. I'll be happy with high settings at View Distance, Ground Clutter, environment detail in the world, Low shadows, good water quality, 8x Texture filtering, 8x multisampling. SSAO turned off. The stuttering is what I want to get away from.

Another thing I noticed, is that in foliage and such I see a lot of "texture flickering", as in that it seems to "move" a bit as I scroll in and out or move around. Others tell me they don't see this, so would this be a sign of GPU issues? FPS doesn't drop when the flickering happens but it's damned annoying.

[glo]

It's worth noting that there's a large difference between the 7770 and 7750. Do you know which one you have? A 7750 could very well hold you back, a 7770 not so much.

[Queen of Hamsters]

It's worth noting that there's a large difference between the 7770 and 7750. Do you know which one you have? A 7750 could very well hold you back, a 7770 not so much.

I have the 7750, had to check the box to get proper info. Let's say I replace it, what GPU would you recommend?

[Deleted]

750 Ti is a decent choice for WoW.

[Noctifer616]

Don't think it's worth upgrading if you play at 1280x1024.

Also, make sure you have the latest drivers. 14.4 was recently released, give it a try in case your drivers are out of date.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Don't think it's worth upgrading if you play at 1280x1024.

Also, make sure you have the latest drivers. 14.4 was recently released, give it a try in case your drivers are out of date.

It is, since I have such massive performance issues. Drivers and stuff = the first one checks when having issues, they're all up to date and nothing is broken.

[Noctifer616]

It is, since I have such massive performance issues. Drivers and stuff = the first one checks when having issues, they're all up to date and nothing is broken.

Have you made sure you cleaned up the old drivers correctly? Not doing so can cause performance issues.

If you have and you still want to upgrade, what kind of budget are we talking about?

[Queen of Hamsters]

Have you made sure you cleaned up the old drivers correctly? Not doing so can cause performance issues.

If you have and you still want to upgrade, what kind of budget are we talking about?

Yes yes and yes for all of those posts. Spent 4 months trying to find the reason behind the performance sink. And my budget is flexible since I have rather good funds for saving up. I won't be paying 1000 euro or such prices for individual components though. 200-300 euro per component is reasonable to me.

[Noctifer616]

I won't be paying 1000 euro or such prices for individual components though. 200-300 euro per component is reasonable to me.

http://www.amazon.de/Sapphire-280X-T...&keywords=280x

I use the 7970 (same as the 280X) and I am quite happy with it.

On the NVidia side you can get a GTX 770

http://www.amazon.de/Gigabyte-NVIDIA...ywords=gtx+770

It does have less GRAM though. But, considering you don't play on 1080p or higher, it shouldn't be a problem.

[Ripox]

Rather than a 770 or 280x I'd say get a 750 Ti and a 1080p monitor...that resolution you're playing at must be terrible!

Nobody's really talked about over clocking, motherboards (Z chipset vs B), or cooling solutions - weirdly.

[Noctifer616]

Rather than a 770 or 280x I'd say get a 750 Ti and a 1080p monitor...that resolution you're playing at must be terrible!

Nobody's really talked about over clocking, motherboards (Z chipset vs B), or cooling solutions - weirdly.

An Intel CPU can run the game outside of raids at a decent frame rate without any OC. The only area where you need every last bit are 25 man heroic raids and world bosses (maybe some BG's? I don't do PvP).

[Deleted]

The only area where you need every last bit are 25 man heroic raids and world bosses (maybe some BG's? I don't do PvP).

Difficulty means f all in terms of performance.

Anyway, I reckon OP ought to upgrade to 4670k, and if FPS issues persist, then a GPU upgrade is in order.