Core i5, Core i7, CrossFire, And SLI: Gaming Paradise, Redux?

[mognet]

[citation][nom]Sardaukarz[/nom]I wonder if u will ever include WOW in ur benchmark suite. Its just a MMORPG but it happens to be the most played game on the planet, thus making it interesting for a lot of us out there who are looking on information when deciding to buy one video card vs another or one processor vs another. Thnkz.[/citation]

I'd like to see that too, but it would be a litte pointless in this case since WoW doesn't utilise multiple GPU setups

 

[Shadow703793]

Wow. Some moron -1ed all the comments.

 

[Tech-Boy]

Yes! Thanks Tom's for the FSX Benchmark! Very helpful article.

 

[ItaniumX69]

I think from a cost/performance perspective looks like a good time to be a gamer. Pedro makes a good point, Why not a 4890 and then CF4890? I wonder if the scalability would have been diffrent w/CF4890? Maybe revisit a camparison when a GTX295 becomes available?

Thanks for the valuable information and great review

 

[jeffredo]

Great. Still feeling good about my PII X4 955 build from a month and a half ago. For all intents and purposes once a decent resolution and quality options are applied the difference is slim to none and all a very playable.

 

[cangelini]

Jeff,
Yeah, that's still a solid build. As you can see, once the resolutions and settings are high-enough, it's graphics that'll hold back performance.
Regards,
Chris

 

[Logan26]

What a BS review, 4 GPUs vs 2 or 2 vs 1 just because you wanted to go COST. GIVE ME A DAMN BREAK. I knew Toms had been doing its best to cater to AMD lately, but this just simply cements it. Tri-SLi and Quad SLi gets better results in Far Cry2, but none here would know that.

 

[caamsa]

I am thinking if the PII 965BE drops down to $150.00 I will certainly get one for me and the wife. I will only have to replace the mb. All the rest can stay. Upgrade two systems for about 500 bucks that aint bad. I was also worried about AMD but they will be fine. Their video card division is the shazizzle ;-) Anyway did you see the AMD stock today. I would have thought that it would have gone down but it jumped 14.57 percent!

 

[Guest]

For Flight Simulator X, the reason your frame rates are at 20 is because you haven't moved the frame lock. If you move it to the right to either 35 or unlimited, you will get different results.

 

[playerone]

Nice job Chris!

AMD is really in the soup right now, but I think one thing that should be remembered is that the I7-920 maybe still the best bargain for those that overclock at the upper end as even Intel has admited that the P55 cant compete at the upper end of the I7-900.
I7-9xx O/C better due to the fact that the onchip PCI of the p55 I7s is being overclocked along with the proc and it doesnt have seperate voltage control or any ability to seperate the frequecy (not yet), but I have the feeling Intel is going to pull them..

Was nice to see the FSX results, that game is a monster esp if you add those delicious scenery and aircraft packages like PMG or HongKong/Manhatten scenery etc. I think someone should lend you a hand on the setup however as "capped" is def not the way it is used to its max and there are ways to get a good repeatable bench out of the game. you have to turn some of the features that become random like certain weather and airtraffic settings off. It is possible to get steady FPS of low 30's in well overclocked Intel or AMD setup with many of the settings maxed out while using incredably adavnced and detailed add-ons.

BTW: Asus my be the only ones with an AMD SLI setup right now but MSI are soon to release a very nice tripple SLI AM3 board. I was setup Asus N4N82 3-way SLI board and it took a 940 up to 4ghz on air with 8gigs or ram at near 12000 levels. pretty impresive, but its a bugy board with ref clock going in steps of 2, 0.6 and then 3.4 etc...weird.

I think my next personal build is still going to be I7-920 and MSI micro @ $170 or the EVGA SLI LE @ $210. 4-4.4Ghz on air with I7-920 cant be beat and the price is just a tick over the p55 with more O/C headroom.

I do like that new MSI p55-80 board though! Chow!

Sorry for the double post I meant to post here, not the other thread.

 

[caamsa]

I was just trying to compare the i5 750 to the Q9650 which runs at 3ghz. Both processors seem to be evenly matched in gaming and that is with the turbo on for the i5 750 which makes it run at 2.93GHz. So clock for clock they are pretty close. Right? I mean the turbo can throw you off because the i5 750 base speed is 2.6GHz but when it goes into turbo it speeds up to 2.93GHz. Clock for clock they all pretty much seem the same. Of course I see no reason to turn the turbo off. So it is auto overclocking which really is not overclocking since it is built in.....am I correct in my assumption>?

 

[noob2222]

Well, it seems that the lynnfield cpus are inline with what was to be expected, as well it seems that the limitation of the PCI-E lanes is also limithing the results, as expected.

The I7-920 is a slower cpu than the 870, but pulling higher numbers in crossfire and sli when pushed hard. Not so much in single card mode because each is running at full potential.

So the remaining question is, at what point will X8 + X8 PCI-E Not keep up with the 1366 boards. Seems to me that this point is approaching now, how crippled will it be in 6 monts to 1 year.

 

[dirtmountain]

[citation][nom]mognet[/nom]I'd like to see that too, but it would be a litte pointless in this case since WoW doesn't utilise multiple GPU setups[/citation]
Here you go mognet, a post on WoW forums about how to use 4 cores and even 4 cores with HT in WoW.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1778017311&ST=US-2827325-LXWTbKxu4bk0WfXlatDdUhFvjhwnNYFhfHk&rhtml=true

 

[spearhead]

these benchmarks make more sence to me. still its hard to decide which one to go for either phenom 955 or i5 750 both have advantages and disadvantages. AMD will offer you a 6 core part however somewhere in the middle of next year which will work on every decent am3 socket board. intel will however not bring out much new stuff for lynnfield. However from the start here lynnfiels is faster and with some overclocking it breaks the record while phenom 955 is already near its limits. Also i must note there still is a reasonable price diffrence and lynnfield still is somewhat more expansive. but i expact the prices to drop a little bit over the days as those wont be preorder anymore. I hope AMD will react on this by cutting the phenom 955 a bit further too.

 

[mognet]

[citation][nom]dirtmountain[/nom]Here you go mognet, a post on WoW forums about how to use 4 cores and even 4 cores with HT in WoW.http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/ [...] rhtml=true[/citation]
I know you can use mutli core cpus

I said it doesn't support multi GPU ie SLI or Crossfire

 

[rooseveltdon]

[citation][nom]Sardaukarz[/nom]I wonder if u will ever include WOW in ur benchmark suite. Its just a MMORPG but it happens to be the most played game on the planet, thus making it interesting for a lot of us out there who are looking on information when deciding to buy one video card vs another or one processor vs another. Thnkz.[/citation]

lol WoW could be maxed out completely with a single 4770 and a dual core cpu faster than 2.5 ghz its not demanding enough to really be considered in benchmarks any half decent desktop from 2008 with decent mainstream graphics cards could play WoW maxed out

 

[mognet]

Maybe if you are just soloing. Running a 3.6 GHz OC PII X3 and a 4770 i drop can drop below 30fps in raids with alot going on. Trouble is its really difficult to create a consistant, reproducable situation to benchmark WoW given that the only time when it will stress is in a raiding environment.

 

[dragonsprayer]

good stuff toms!

 

[Guest]

Regarding WoW, it'd be a good game to use for CPU benchmarks especially as the places where you get FPS drops are for the most part very CPU-bound. Cue Dalaran, or Wintergrasp during a large battle.

WoW is however, in my experience, vastly favoring the nVidia GPU architechture. I get similar framerates using my old XFX 7950GT XXX 512Mb and my newer Sapphire 4870 1Gb with all settings but shadows maxed, and the nVidia card offers better AA in WoW to boot. *sigh*

So yeah, it's a mixed bag for review purposes but it'll probably be appreciated as it is - as several posters have already pointed out - the most played game out there.

 

[baddad]

The only 4870 x2 thats on Newegg is $499 and the cheapest 285 is $339 and that would be cheaper then what I seen the 4870 x2 sell for.

 

[eccentric909]

[citation][nom]Exodite[/nom]Regarding WoW, it'd be a good game to use for CPU benchmarks especially as the places where you get FPS drops are for the most part very CPU-bound. Cue Dalaran, or Wintergrasp during a large battle.WoW is however, in my experience, vastly favoring the nVidia GPU architechture. I get similar framerates using my old XFX 7950GT XXX 512Mb and my newer Sapphire 4870 1Gb with all settings but shadows maxed, and the nVidia card offers better AA in WoW to boot. *sigh*So yeah, it's a mixed bag for review purposes but it'll probably be appreciated as it is - as several posters have already pointed out - the most played game out there.[/citation]

Really? My 4850 (512MB) outperforms my old 8800GT (512MB) playing WoW, with the same settings enabled. But that could just be a fluke as I think WoW is or at least was optimized for Nvidia cards.

 

[eccentric909]

[citation][nom]baddad[/nom]The only 4870 x2 thats on Newegg is $499 and the cheapest 285 is $339 and that would be cheaper then what I seen the 4870 x2 sell for.[/citation]

Although out of stock at the moment, ZipZoomFly has the 4870x2 listed at $259.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10009175&prodlist=froogle

 

[baddad]

Want to bet when they get them they'll be $500.

 

[mustwarnothers]

It's so irritating to see Crysis benchmarks.

To start, the game is mediocre.

The game was released nearly 2 YEARS ago, and the current, state of the art hardware rigs still cannot squeeze out enough power to make the game run at any FPS that would be considered "Silky".

What exactly does that tell you?

It tells you that the efficiency of the coding of these new shading techniques etc in Crysis, suck giant ballsack.

 

[cinergy]

[citation][nom]baddad[/nom]The only 4870 x2 thats on Newegg is $499 and the cheapest 285 is $339 and that would be cheaper then what I seen the 4870 x2 sell for.[/citation]

They are using here some OC'd m**r FU**r geforce edition so base your estimations on that.