CPU or GPU limited?

[snoopy]

So, I experimented a bit. I need to experiment more.

My results: in SC2, changing resolution does not have an effect on framerate, but changing quality settings does.

I mean to run a few benchmarks with the unigine engine, but for now maybe it looks like I'm CPU limited?

[Krom]

Sounds like a CPU limit, probably a good idea to test out some other games. A good one for snooping out CPU limits I've found is Far Cry 2, it really kills the CPU compared to the GPU (only at some detail settings though, geometry and shadows are the settings that really hit the CPU hard).

[snoopy]

Yeah,

I'm somewhat limited in my game availability. It was interesting, though, that the CPU usage was only at 33%, across all of the cores, when I was doing the test. I'll experiment more.

[Krom]

Single threaded games won't be able to push a quad core, that is one of the nice things about Far Cry 2; its fairly well threaded and gains about 40% more performance going from dual to quad cores.

[Tunnelcat]

Single threaded games won't be able to push a quad core, that is one of the nice things about Far Cry 2; its fairly well threaded and gains about 40% more performance going from dual to quad cores.

Do you have Far Cry 2 working on Win 7 64 bit? If so, any hitches? I'd like to try it on my newer machine. It's a slug on my old XP box.

[Krom]

Actually I've never run it on any other OS other than Win7 x64, and no hitches.

[Tunnelcat]

No compatibility mode install or anything like that? Just pop in the disk and install?

[snoopy]

It seems that I'm primarily CPU-limited (maybe?)

Logic would indicate that my phenom 9950 could out-perform my 8800GT, but there's also the wine factor.

I might upgrade the video card anyways. If I wind up wanting a CPU upgrade, the video card will still be good for the next setup. I haven't looked into compatibility of my MB with newer chips... there's a chance that I can upgrade the CPU without having to change the MB.

[Krom]

No compatibility mode install or anything like that? Just pop in the disk and install?

Got mine on Steam, can't help you there.

Snoopy: most manufacturers keep a list of supported CPUs on their product pages, check that to see what newer chips your motherboard can handle (some of them may require BIOS updates for proper support, and you would want to do that BEFORE you swapped the chips).

[snoopy]

Nice.

It pretty much supports any phenom/athalon chip I throw at it.

I splurged and bought a GPU. We'll see how much the wife yells at me.