Intel i7 920 2.67GHz still good enough?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kerf

Honorable
Sep 20, 2012
37
0
10,530
I'm wondering if its still a good enough processor to get by playing next gen games.(Fallout 4 for example). I looked at the minimum requirements for it and mines just under it, but I'm told by some people that for the most part, system requirements for CPUs are not as strict as GPUs and that most of the time minimum requirements are just the lowest spec they had to test it with. They went on saying any 8 core should be fine for any next gen games. I just want to confirm this. I have a dell so overclocking it, while not impossible, is rather hard to do.

The rest of my specs if anyone's curious:
R9 270x
8GB DDR3
i7 920
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
The relatively slow clock speed will hold you back some. Overclocking the CPU would help. Fallout 4 has some pretty high specs especially what's recommended. In general you are correct in that CPU matters much less than the graphics card but Fallout 4 in particular recommends an i7 4790 and the minimum is an i5 2300. Games never run well on minimum spec systems.

Minimum

Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent

Recommended

Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Damn, so you don't think it would cut it? Sadly I cannot upgrade the CPU in a dell computer and overclocking a dell computer can be kind of a complicated process.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
^ Yeah you can certainly try it. You can always lower settings until it runs well. It's a decent CPU, it's not like you have an old dual core but it's really close to the minimum.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Ill believe these hilariously unbalanced and overkill requirement when the game comes out. A 550ti is much slower than a 7870, a 9590 is slower than a stock 4790 etc.

Just like mordor that recommends an i7 or a 8350 while i have an i3 and my limiting factor is my gpus 2gb of vram despite it recommending a 660, which has 2gbs of vram and is much slower than my 270x.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Alright, I'll give it a shot, I've heard a lot of people say they were running some next gen games with below min req specs and having no problems. If worse comes to worst, I can try lowering the settings or getting a better CPU cooler and going through the pain of trying to overclock a dell CPU ;P thanks for the quick responses everyone.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I went from an i7-920 to an i7-3770K and gained over 25% improvement in some games with my HD5870 though I shortly upgraded to a GTX680 after that so it's likely 40% improvements would be had.

*The i7-920 is slower than the FX-4300 and I know I get over 40% improvements in some games compared to the FX-4300 though in some like TOMB RAIDER there's minimal advantage.

So it varies, and the better the GPU the more likely the CPU is to be the bottleneck (there's always a bottleneck somewhere).

Comparison:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7+920+%40+2.67GHz
and
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-4300+Quad-Core

*They look SIMILAR at first glance however the i7-920 is hyperthreaded. Hyperthreading just means the SAME CORE has a separate thread of code waiting to start being processed while the CPU is getting more data from system memory (to avoid sitting idle) however the program must be well optimized to do this (well "threaded" which works in HANDBRAKE to convert video but not as well for games. Most modern games use over TWO CORES but rarely more than three overall but the main limitation (until DX12 comes) is the performance of a SINGLE CORE.

Passmark calls this the "single thread" rating which is a bit misleading for hyperthreaded CPU's but generally with FOUR CORES we can just look at this value to compare CPU gaming performance.

i7-920 single core - 1160
FX-4300 - 1411
i7-4790k - 2530

Summary:
When a modern game runs the "main thread" of code, this runs on a SINGLE CORE (or possibly jumps between cores but either way is limited to the speed of a single core since). When that core hits 100% usage that's known as a BOTTLENECK by the CPU. A comparatively faster GPU would sit waiting for commands at this point. So a slow GPU might be say 80% used and a really fast GPU might be 40% used.

All video games have a MINIMUM CPU requirement that basically equates to running the game on LOWEST settings to achieve 30FPS. If the CPU is too slow you'll never get to 30FPS regardless of whatever else is in your computer.

The MINIMUM hardware for one game might actually be enjoyable but for another game might be unplayable due to massive stutter or whatever.

*Finally, we never know for sure how a game will perform until it comes out though we usually run two important benchmarks:
GPU benchmarks (same high-end CPU with different GPU's), and less often

CPU benchmarks (different CPU's with the same GPU)

So again, some games like TOMB RAIDER have relatively low CPU requirements and an FX-4300 can be comparable to an i7-4790K whereas other games like Fallout 4 will have much higher CPU requirements.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Indeed. It seems incredulous that they recommend an i7.

Do you think there is any money or perks on offer here from Intel ?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I cant imagine overclocking to 4Ghz is a given or a simple process for a novice.

By all means try but only after you have tried the game. There are not many(any) games that require a 4ghz quad/dual core processor either.

Realistically, one needs to try and avoid getting into a situation where your main gaming PC is much more than 4 years or so off the newest PC tech and you do that (in developed western countries) by teaching yourself a bit about building a PC.

It isnt hard at all and with an eye on the markets for second hand parts you can often upgrade for very little and keep your PC up there.

The Ops claim that there is something especially challenging about upgrading a Dell PC is not right either - but may have its basis in the fact that OEM/shop bought pre built pcs from branded manufacturers can have bespoke motherboards and cases that are paired down versions of consumer boards and don't have the same features.

Another reason not to walk into a shop and pay $00's 000's on the advice of some ill educated chump of a shop assistant or someone on a commission for selling you crap dressed up as something cutting edge.

If you get given or can acquire old pcs and parts - great - begin your education and start tinkering with them.

Until you educate yourself how to build a desktop pc you are always going to be at the mercy of the market and people giving you bad advice and fleecing you.

You are going to be using PCs for many years so .....a few youtube vids and a screwdriver is a good investment.



 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I have the same CPU. The rest of my rig pass the "recommended" for Fallout 4.

I played the game from start to finish on maximum settings, without any problems. You should be fine as long as you have the GPU and RAM to tackle the game.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I have a intel 920 @ 2.66 Ghz with a geforce gtx 970. I have zero problems running fallout 4 at max settings while maintaining about 50 - 60fps at 1920x1080. So far I have found no game that warrants overclocking. The 920 is a ridiculously good processor that has aged exceptionally well. 7 years old and it still has no problems with current-gen AAA games.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
I have i7 920 not overclocked, 4GB RAM, 2 x GTX 780Ti in SLI.

I use it with 1440p 144Hz monitor and 4K Panasonic 65AX800 TV with displayport.

I was surprised to see:
- Quake Arena III at 140 fps
- Unreal Tournament III at around 120 fps
- Unreal Tournament (engine 4) at smooth 60 fps on 4K TV (never drops below 60)
- Star Wars Battlefront at 80-120 fps - SLI on, HT off

Some games do not use SLI. In this case higer fps will be with SLI turned off.
Games do not need Hyperthreading nor 16 cores. Best fps I get with HT turned off.

I do not need 8GB of RAM
I do not need i7 6700
I do not need SLI but it was fun to see it does not povide huge difference

I was considering dual Xeon build but after watching videos on Youtube I think it is not good idea for games. Xeon which in 2015 was $1500 now is $70-$200. Two of them have 16 cores and 32 threads in HT. Two of them are slower than i7 with 4 cores...

780Ti is faster than 970 in many benchmarks.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom