On November 03 2010 22:51 vek wrote: Yeah I just got an i5-760 overclocked to 4ghz using the stock cooler... This CPU is seriously an overclocking powerhouse.
Is it stable?
What kind of temps are you getting? I'm surprised your house hasn't burned down.
6 Days uptime atm, only restarted because of Windows Update.
I just bought the i7 950, I currently am playing SC2 in all Ultra, while streaming the Stars NHL game, and broadcasting. All without any hiccups. 300$ for the best quad core available, is just ridiculous. I love my i7 =]
Can't give you a direct comparison, but I am currently using (iMac):
3.2GHz Intel Core i3 ATI Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB
I get about 25-30 fps playing on windows 7 (dual boot) with ultra textures, and high everything else at 1920x1080. (Comes to about 8-10fps with the same settings on the OSX side)
I can get it up to about 40-45 fps if I go go high textures, and med / high everything else.
If you just want a comp that plays SC2 decently buy a AMD one. They are much cheaper and runs SC2 at ultra. I have the Athlon II X3 3.1 GHz. Radeon 5770.
Just buy something that is a little better and you can run anything SC2 can throw at you. I dont see the need to buy the expensive Intel systems. They might give good performance but you do not need that much to play SC2.
On November 05 2010 05:33 Neivler wrote: If you just want a comp that plays SC2 decently buy a AMD one. They are much cheaper and runs SC2 at ultra. I have the Athlon II X3 3.1 GHz. Radeon 5770.
Just buy something that is a little better and you can run anything SC2 can throw at you. I dont see the need to buy the expensive Intel systems. They might give good performance but you do not need that much to play SC2.
AMD makes such nice processors, I like the Phenom X6 a lot or the Quadcores for people who dont care about OCing, but if you are interested in making OC (free performance yipiii \o/), then Intel is your choice.
Just look at the i5 750 OC power, or even the i5 760, they OC like hell and are cheap.
On November 05 2010 11:49 nalgene wrote: If you're upgrading from a core2 to i7, you'd get like 1.1x1.3 to 1.1x1.4x or like 1.43 - 1.54x faster than what you have now...
values here assume they all have the same number of cores/cache sizes/frequency/clock
Sandybridge( should release relatively soon ) is ~20-30% faster than Nehalem ( i7 ) on average + 100% if SC2 uses advanced vectors
Nehalem( i7 ) is 30-40% faster than Penryn on average
Penryn(Core2 revision+SSE4 up to 75% faster than Core2 in certain apps ) is 10% faster than Core2
>_>
Where are you pumping these numbers from?
Sandybridge isn't going to be 30-40% faster then Nahelem/Bloomfield....Sandybridge is only a refinement of nahelem/bloomfield with certain improvements like a new generation intel turbo boost, higher bandwidth on the cache and a on-die video solution BUT will go back to dual channel architecture (also new socket 1155 and chipset X68)
Sandybridge is only a opening for Ivy Bridge which is Intel's next enthusiast high-end milestone.
Honestly OP an i5 will do you fine for SC2, but it also depends on other things you do on your PC. i7 (1366) architecture is different compared to i5 (1156), 1366 includes triple channel architecture, HT, on-die memory controller (QPI), 2 PCI-E 16x lanes which will help performance with multi-GPU setups etc.
Highly recommend you overclock also. Get a decent HSF like the megahalem w/ 2 decent cfm fans and MX-3 then clock your i5 760 or i7 930 to 4GHz (which is very easy). You'll be a happy man.
My 2 cents, if you got the money, get a i7 system, you won't regret it....will only cost you around $1300-1400~ with a GTX470.
Also half of the stuff mentioned in this thread makes me laugh.
On November 05 2010 05:33 Neivler wrote: If you just want a comp that plays SC2 decently buy a AMD one. They are much cheaper and runs SC2 at ultra. I have the Athlon II X3 3.1 GHz. Radeon 5770.
Just buy something that is a little better and you can run anything SC2 can throw at you. I dont see the need to buy the expensive Intel systems. They might give good performance but you do not need that much to play SC2.
AMD makes such nice processors, I like the Phenom X6 a lot or the Quadcores for people who dont care about OCing, but if you are interested in making OC (free performance yipiii \o/), then Intel is your choice.
Just look at the i5 750 OC power, or even the i5 760, they OC like hell and are cheap.
But the thing is that you do not need that much power to play SC2. A decent/cheap processor is more than enough to play SC2 at ultra. And the Intel ones are a bit more expensive than you really need to pay to play SC2.
uh... it says 20-30%...duno where you got +10% from...
SB is a new architecture...ivybridge=die shrink.. Nehalem is an architecture...westmere=die shrink... Core2 is an architecture... penryn=die shrink
you should sand down/lap the cpu to a flat surface ( use razor test ) lap the cooler too, especially the tr-120-ex's get some san ace fans ( high static pressure ) put a dot of x23-7783 paste on the center
disable the power saving features in bios ( won't downclock at times )
Sandybridge is only a refinement of nahelem/bloomfield with certain improvements like a new generation intel turbo boost, higher bandwidth on the cache and a on-die video solution BUT will go back to dual channel architecture (also new socket 1155 and chipset X68)
Not according to David Kanter, who I put on par with Jon Stokes from Ars Technica and above Anand in terms of understanding CPU microarchitecture. Sure this is all from IDF, but it's still worth reading.
There's been a *ton* of work put on Sandy Bridge. In Intel's little tick-tock world, this represents a new architecture at the same process (32nm), not a refinement of Nehalem.
I'm of the opinion that Sandy Bridge is going to be *fast*.
But in the real world where I have bills to pay and a kid to feed, I play on a pretty "low end" system. Athlon II X2 250 (which I've OC'd to 3.6GHz) with 4GB of memory and a Radeon 4850 1GB on Win7 Pro (which I got super-cheap through work). It's quite sufficient to choose "ultra" textures and the "high" preset for detail and 1920x1080. It lags a tiny bit in SUPER DUPER 4v4 action but otherwise it's incredibly solid. And you can build a similar machine for peanuts (Get a Radeon 5770 rather than a 4850, which is old at this point).
Alot of what's been written here is flat-out wrong. Lots of H55 motherboards have been certified for SLI and nearly all of those with 2x PEG slots (the physical 16x ones) will run Crossfire no problem. I submit, however, that unless you have a 3 megapixel display (2560x1440, for example) Crossfire and SLI are a waste of money. Get a GTX460 or Radeon 6850 and enjoy.
On November 05 2010 11:49 nalgene wrote: If you're upgrading from a core2 to i7, you'd get like 1.1x1.3 to 1.1x1.4x or like 1.43 - 1.54x faster than what you have now...
values here assume they all have the same number of cores/cache sizes/frequency/clock
Sandybridge( should release relatively soon ) is ~20-30% faster than Nehalem ( i7 ) on average + 100% if SC2 uses advanced vectors
Nehalem( i7 ) is 30-40% faster than Penryn on average
Penryn(Core2 revision+SSE4 up to 75% faster than Core2 in certain apps ) is 10% faster than Core2
>_>
Where are you pumping these numbers from?
Sandybridge isn't going to be 30-40% faster then Nahelem/Bloomfield....Sandybridge is only a refinement of nahelem/bloomfield with certain improvements like a new generation intel turbo boost, higher bandwidth on the cache and a on-die video solution BUT will go back to dual channel architecture (also new socket 1155 and chipset X68)
Sandybridge is only a opening for Ivy Bridge which is Intel's next enthusiast high-end milestone.
Honestly OP an i5 will do you fine for SC2, but it also depends on other things you do on your PC. i7 (1366) architecture is different compared to i5 (1156), 1366 includes triple channel architecture, HT, on-die memory controller (QPI), 2 PCI-E 16x lanes which will help performance with multi-GPU setups etc.
Highly recommend you overclock also. Get a decent HSF like the megahalem w/ 2 decent cfm fans and MX-3 then clock your i5 760 or i7 930 to 4GHz (which is very easy). You'll be a happy man.
My 2 cents, if you got the money, get a i7 system, you won't regret it....will only cost you around $1300-1400~ with a GTX470.
Also half of the stuff mentioned in this thread makes me laugh.
Your comments make me laugh since Westmere is the refinement of Nehalem.
Sandybridge is new architecture on 32nm. Ivybridge will be the refinement of it on 22nm.
Socket 1155 is meant to replace 1156. P67 and H67 take the place of the P55 chipset.
Socket 1366 is being replaced by socket 2011. X68 will take the place of X58 chipset. It is rumored to have quad channel memory and double QPI.
On November 05 2010 22:49 doktorFunken wrote: Alot of what's been written here is flat-out wrong. Lots of H55 motherboards have been certified for SLI and nearly all of those with 2x PEG slots (the physical 16x ones) will run Crossfire no problem. I submit, however, that unless you have a 3 megapixel display (2560x1440, for example) Crossfire and SLI are a waste of money. Get a GTX460 or Radeon 6850 and enjoy.
He was talking about bandwidth. P55 and H55 do not have full x16 bandwidth when running SLI. They'll run at x8 x8 whereas the X58 chipset will run at x16 x16. But other than that, the majority of his post is indeed false.
Note: Not talking about SC2 here, but in case you might want to play some other games, you might take it under consideration...
Seriously, no. I played Mirror's Edge on an 8800gts, yeah the cloth moving around is kinda cool but it doesn't really do much, especially when its one of like 2 games that uses physx in a way that makes things look better. PhysX and CUDA are things that very few people need and Nvidia likes to market as OMG NEED CUS OTHER COMPANY DOESNT HAVE, just like Eyefinity. Don't base your purchase on such insignificant things unless you REALLY need them.
Edit: Also, who cares about x8/x8 vs x16 x16. The performance increase you get is ridiculously small, like 5% in best case scenario. I guess people who SLI/Xfire care, but those people either have a lot of money or have a high money::brains ratio. Why are you guys even talking about this, the OP is obviously not going to do anything with dual cards when he's more focused on an i3. People suggesting i7 are pretty ridiculous.
I currently own an i3 with 8 gb ram and a 460gtx. I play on ultra settings @ 1920x1080. It's all good 90% of the time. However on 4v4 maps in mid to late game i experience some lag and low frames. So my question is, will upgrading the cpu to an i7 purge the problem?
On April 16 2011 22:43 Falkirk wrote: I currently own an i3 with 8 gb ram and a 460gtx. I play on ultra settings @ 1920x1080. It's all good 90% of the time. However on 4v4 maps in mid to late game i experience some lag and low frames. So my question is, will upgrading the cpu to an i7 purge the problem?
Sure, but upgrading to an i5 will work just fine, too. i7 is pretty much useless unless you're doing heavy video editing/encoding or photo editing. It might also be your graphics card, since I'm not sure how well the 460 can handle 4v4 maxed battles at max resolution XD Actually, not many things can.