Before I begin heres the current specs
E2180 @ 3Ghz
GA-P35-DS3L rev1.0
4GB 4-4-4-12
XFX 4870 1GB @860/1000
500W TT PurePower
I'm in a little bit of dilemma...I very recently purchased the 4870...I guess I can say somewhat to my dismay, although I got it for extremely cheap.
In my particular setup my Average FPS in DoW II only increased by 10, minimum increased by about 4, and max increased by about 20. I know this is just this one particular game but I consider those "improvements" marginal at best, I was expecting more.
Now...to the topic...I believe the bottleneck here is my E2180 @ 3Ghz. Now (I know I'm gonna hear it) my 3DMark06 CPU score is about 2500. I compared this to a couple benchies on Tom's and the 8400 (course now I can't find it) but the 8400 was only around 2700~2800 and the X3 720 was I believe around 3300.
What I want to know, is my E2180 really that bad of a bottleneck, am I going to see an impressive boost to me DoW II and other games? Also I understand the X3 710/720 are highly OC'able. The idea was to pickup a mobo, a 710, and 4GB of DDR3 which I prices out at around $280.
The confusing part to me is that I'm running at 1920x1200, I figure a CPU bottleneck would be negliable at these resolutions with a 4870. Any suggestions? Should I just wait until December to see what comes out? And would I really get a WOW type improvement by moving up to a PII X3?
EDIT: Found a link that helps get my point across, for the sake of argument lets just say my 2180 @3Ghz is roughly equivalent to a slightly slower E7500 (technically my clock is faster but I'm trying to account for smaller cache etc). The differences between the 7500 and the 720 aren't very massive, they are there, but in your opinion, worth the $300 extra to upgrade?
EDIT II: Also, any suggestions as far as this CPU's and a CF 4870 setup? I plan I using a mobo to plug in another 4870 down the road.
E2180 @ 3Ghz
GA-P35-DS3L rev1.0
4GB 4-4-4-12
XFX 4870 1GB @860/1000
500W TT PurePower
I'm in a little bit of dilemma...I very recently purchased the 4870...I guess I can say somewhat to my dismay, although I got it for extremely cheap.
In my particular setup my Average FPS in DoW II only increased by 10, minimum increased by about 4, and max increased by about 20. I know this is just this one particular game but I consider those "improvements" marginal at best, I was expecting more.
Now...to the topic...I believe the bottleneck here is my E2180 @ 3Ghz. Now (I know I'm gonna hear it) my 3DMark06 CPU score is about 2500. I compared this to a couple benchies on Tom's and the 8400 (course now I can't find it) but the 8400 was only around 2700~2800 and the X3 720 was I believe around 3300.
What I want to know, is my E2180 really that bad of a bottleneck, am I going to see an impressive boost to me DoW II and other games? Also I understand the X3 710/720 are highly OC'able. The idea was to pickup a mobo, a 710, and 4GB of DDR3 which I prices out at around $280.
The confusing part to me is that I'm running at 1920x1200, I figure a CPU bottleneck would be negliable at these resolutions with a 4870. Any suggestions? Should I just wait until December to see what comes out? And would I really get a WOW type improvement by moving up to a PII X3?
EDIT: Found a link that helps get my point across, for the sake of argument lets just say my 2180 @3Ghz is roughly equivalent to a slightly slower E7500 (technically my clock is faster but I'm trying to account for smaller cache etc). The differences between the 7500 and the 720 aren't very massive, they are there, but in your opinion, worth the $300 extra to upgrade?
EDIT II: Also, any suggestions as far as this CPU's and a CF 4870 setup? I plan I using a mobo to plug in another 4870 down the road.