Best Processor Upgrade for Gaming Excluding Core I5/7 or AMD

Cronos18 · October 26th, 2009, 09:49 PM

Haha I'm an idiot I should have went back and read that post got too caught up with everyone elses posts. I have a tendancy to drag things on and am a basket case for computer problems apparntly lol. Thanks for all the help so far guys it's been great.

Anyways maybeee it's just the Bios I'm using. Im using ver. 1611
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-
Asus express gate is just some application that starts before OS that lets you browse internet or do other things, so its not important probably, not sure what the most current bios features though.

More to the point though, I can't find an option within my current ver 1611 bios to change ram speed to 800mhz down from 851. It seems to be directly related to my fsb (of course, cpuz showed a 1v1 ratio) and so reducing the fsb to 400, giving me 3.6ghz will give me 800mhz, 425 produces 850mhz and 450 would produce 900mhz + 4ghz proc. The ONLY other option that changed the Dram frequency at all, was the "FSB strap to northbridge option" which is defaulted to be on auto and produces 851mhz dram frequency with 425fsb. When i manually set the fsb strap to northbridge to 400mhz it sets my dram at 850 exactly, so there is a 1mhz difference between that and auto. The rest of the options dont provide many options to choose from. 200,333mhz fsb strap to northbridge only leave things that are 851mhz + like 1706 dram frequency. This leads me to believe that the auto setting is probably hitting 400 fsb on the auto setting.

So far... I haven't got any errors or problems with the 1.25 CPU voltage, and the dram set specifically to 851mhz. Maybe the auto setting slips out causes a hiccup and that results in a error terminating the program? Seems adapt in games though, wouldn't you figure it would effect other things randomly but very much so less freuquently, like msn or intunes or something? or do these programs just keep running so there is no problem anyways. Had a total of 3bsod previously though probably resulting from the OC problems ranging over a few months time.

Just a few more things I could google but might be better off just telling you guys.

The only things I really changed was:

FSB from 333 to 425 for a 3.0 to 3.8ghz increase.
CPU Voltage to manual 1.25 volts
Dram Frequency from auto to 851mhz set.
C1E support default enabled, I disabled.

The Following terms I do not really understand what they are so are all left in default state but might actually mean something.

CPU Margin enhancement: (compatible mode)
Max CPUID Value Limit (disabled)
Intel Virtualization tech (enabled)
CPU TM Function (enable)
Execute disable bit (enable)

As for the rest of the voltages,skews,spectrums,calibartions etc are all set to auto. Including Dram timings, and AI clock twister. Believe I changed the settings on each to check if it would change or let me change the value to the Dram Frequency but it wouldn't.

So if it's something I'm either missing, or maybe I just need a even more current bios, I don't know if I can change the FSB

ram ratio, or setting manually. Like I said it hasn't been a problem, yet, but I'll surely get back to you guys on it. If you'd like me to name off everything in the Setting for CPU or advanced settings I will.

Cronos18 · October 26th, 2009, 09:53 PM

Haha may as well throw in another question. I don't think my motherboard even has a listing for overclocking my GPU, is that possible? If i ever wanted to do that (dont think i really will have the need to do that atleast atm) would I have to get a application to use from within my OS like Riva tuner ntune, or maybe even the stupid bundled program that came with my GTX 275? I've skimmed over everything in the bios about 50 times over im sure i havent seen anything about GPU or shader clocks etc, Just CPU FSB Voltages etc.

Aaron_8015 · October 26th, 2009, 09:56 PM

Use EVGA precision.....

EVGA Precision 1.7.1 download from Guru3D.com

Cronos18 · October 27th, 2009, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron_8015

Use EVGA precision.....

EVGA Precision 1.7.1 download from Guru3D.com

I'll check it out just for the hell of it, I got a GTX 275 by Gigabyte, what's OCing graphics cards like, get much performance out of it at all?

On a side note, No BSOD, aion and wow running great so far : ) thought the game crashed on me once but it was just lag and dc I think from server side lol, had me in a panic though. With the ram locked at 851mhz and the voltage at 1.25 with no auto setting hopefully I don't come across any problems.

If it does, I'll once again revert to stock clock settings and mess around with that. Might opt for some new OCZ ram or something instead of the kingston valueram lol, but after seeing the price of the mobo/i5proc/ddr3 package for under 400, I don't really want to make to make purchases for the setup I have now.

Cronos18 · October 28th, 2009, 10:05 PM

Running good so far. lowest fps I've seen in a town within aion is like 25-30 fps, down from around 50-60, so it gets a bit choppy but that's alright. Running full settings + 8xAA. Even lowering the settings a bit I still get a bit of choppy frames, maybe its a bit of the lag too, though my ms is consistant between 100-200.

As for crashes, none so far except once when I tryed to open the game it wasn't responding but didnt result in a error report, and ventrilo stopped responding once, which has never happened to me before, not sure why, I was running aion, talking on vent and I think I alt tabbed and it crashed lol. Had to reset in order to reopen it but it's fine now.

I even installed crysis and updated the patches. I can run it at 1900/1200 reso with no AA and everything on very high except the shader and shadows I run on medium/high. And turn off motion blur completely lol. Getting over 60 fps without those on I'm sure, it's really smoothe, but with them any higher it gets a bit choppy, can't stand that. They were the first things I though to turn down too, considering they look so amazing set on very high. still look great a little lower too but they definitly make the game what it is, visually anyways.

ShyguyXPC · November 1st, 2009, 05:04 AM

Crysis has more to do with your Video card, not so much the CPU, as your CPU even at stock speeds can handle the single GTX 275. you should be able to turn on AA to at least 2 or 4x with that card and your current CPU speeds and still get playable framerates.

my GTX 285 (1GB)and the Core i7 (2.66GHz) Quad core, with 3GB RAM gets, a good 30fps minimum and upwards of 60fps running 1920x1080 on all high settings with 4x AA, including the motion blur, but then again I run it in DirectX 10 64bit mode as well, so helps a tad, but not a huge amount.

Aion is more CPU dependent with the Multiplayer aspect of it, especially online part, the game is based on the original Cry Engine from Far Cry, so your card you have now is many many many times more powerful than what was needed to max out that games engine back then...

CPU has to deal with a lot of the Network processing and AI aspects of games, especially online games. it can affect frame rates if most of its resources are being devoted towards that, not allowing enough to feed the video card, but even then if that wasn't the case, it can be lag related issues in the servers that can contribute to frame rate hits as well.

I remember with Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising first came out, and months prior to the games release, the demo had been out, this game is a First Person Military Shooter type game, large expansive environments, etc etc, and despite my physical Hardware at the time capable of playing the game at 3/4's of the max settings, the big thing about JO was the ability to play on 100 and 150 player servers... despite the hardware being more than enough to run the game at high settings (AA off), I remember the first time joining in on a 150 player server, it was lag city, I was lucky if I got .5 to 1 frame per second, and wasn't due to the PC's hardware, was because of the amount of Processing the CPU had to do with the data it was receiving from the server, it couldn't keep up and I got shitty framerates playing online, drop out and join a 32 player server and things were very playable. drop out of online and play an offline game via LAN server, and frame rates were fluid.

But, Crysis is more GPU dependent currently, of course you need a fast CPU to keep up with the card to get optimal performance, but its not as critical as having a faster video card to handle the work load.

Cronos18 · November 1st, 2009, 06:05 AM

Hmmmm Looking at a LGA 1366/Core i7/ DDR3 solution that seems relatively priced for an upgrade I could make in the future.

Buy the MSI X58M Motherboard at TigerDirect.ca MSI X58M Motherboard.

Buy the Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920 at TigerDirect.ca Core i7 920, Overclock it to a higher speed with better cooling.

Buy the OCZ Platinum Tri Channel 6GB PC10666 DDR3 Memory at TigerDirect.ca OCZ ram, see one other patriot brand a bit cheaper but I heard OCZ is pretty good and reliable.

Any input for this quick i7 Solution? Running the DDR3 3x2gb 1333mhz ram triple channel would be a good idea right?

ShyguyXPC · November 1st, 2009, 08:39 PM

seems to work for me, running 3GB in Triple Channel, no overclock needed for games, pair it with a good card which you already have and it should run fine.

its a Quad core, supports Hyper Threading so the OS and some software will see it as virtually an 8 Core CPU, but doesn't have the same performance as 8 physical cores.

I'm just running some Value budget crap RAM, its a good brand but low priced stuff.

running Crysis and many other games with my GTX 285 and to be honest there isn't a game out there this thing can't handle at stock speeds. though I haven't tried Aion, so can't speak for that game, but seeing as Crysis and some other games of other Genre's are top end games for graphics and other shit, it can handle them fine. 6GB would be a bit overkill for any gaming, but if you do a lot of Multitasking or other types of work, 2D/3D Graphics, Music/Audio/Video work, etc, the extra RAM can come in handy, but even today 3GB will be more than enough.

was able to run Windows 7 on a single 1GB stick of RAM fine when I first installed it, also rarely seem to use more than 20-30% of my RAM as it is for more basic uses with the PC other than games.

unless you need a smaller Micro ATX motherboard, and I'm usually a regular MSI customer, I'd grab this XFX board for cheaper Buy the XFX X58i Motherboard at TigerDirect.ca

XFX usually has a better Warranty process than MSI... that is of course if your case can accept a Full ATX board, if not, then the MSI will do fine...

also check out Newegg Canada

Newegg.ca - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

newegg canada has that MSI board for a lot cheaper: Newegg.ca - MSI X58M LGA 1366 Intel X58 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

list of Boards over at their site: Newegg.ca - Computer Hardware,Motherboards,Intel Motherboards,LGA 1366

they also have faster OCZ RAM kits for less too

Newegg.ca - Computer Hardware,Memory,Desktop Memory,OCZ Technology,240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM,6GB (3 x 2GB),DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Honestly to save some cash, unless your planning on using more than 2 Video cards, it could be better to go with a Socket 1156 Core i7 than the 1366 models. I remember reading that the base i7 on 1156 performs better than the 920 on 1366...

big advantage to Socket 1366 X58 platform is greater PCIE bandwidth for high end cards and more of them, as well as support for Triple Channel (not THAT big a deal over Dual channel really), and of course Support for the new 6 Core i9 coming out at the end of the year.

otherwise price wise, you'd be better served getting Core i5/i7 on Socket 1156 with a P55 Chipset board.

Cronos18 · November 16th, 2009, 10:45 AM

Just a few updates:

Windows 7 home prem running great.

Brought my stock 3ghz E8400 down.. to 3.6ghz 400fsb (to get 800 mhz standard for linked ram speed) from 3.8ghz 425fsb (850mhz) which was causing random crashes eventually, specifically when I would leave the computer with the display getting turned off after an hour but I turned off the option for the computer to enter sleep or hiernation mode as well as turning off the hard disks because the chances of it waking were slim to none. Doesn't result in a bsod just a freeze usually. I tryed using memtest 86 when running at 850 and 900mhz ram speeds and it passed 2 of the 3 different tests, I think it failed the most current one they have released just resetting the program. I also noticed it was freezing more often lately since the first time it did with 3.8ghz 850mhz ram setting, but games werent crashing and nor was ventrilo or anything else.

Since its been at 3.6ghz 400 fsb, standard 800mhz setting on my kingston value ram, it runs fun, its responsive, I think I actually do notice the small performance from 3.6-3.8 not even kidding, and that's why im so eager to push for 4-4.2ghz provided it isnt my processor locking up.

Newegg.ca - CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5C G - Desktop Memory Bought this ram about a week ago for 69 dollars lol, damn the price is just sky rocketing, mine even came with the 15 dollar rebate, My plan is to set the fsb to 425 450 and maybe even 475, getting 850/900/950 speeds, My guess is the next highest option will be above 1066 but I don't think I really care too much about the speed increase in ram anyways. Provided I can get my stock clock to 4ghz stable I will be impressed.

Cronos18 · November 18th, 2009, 10:30 PM

Newegg.ca - CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5C G - Desktop Memory
Got that ram listed above, seems to be working good. Found a stable overclock for my ram and e8400 processor I think. Going to wait a week or two if everything is fine try for higher, might try an intel burn test and memtest 86 run too if I want to get super srs, provided I dont get a bsod, freeze after idle or just whenever, no app crashes/ dll errors or access violations, game crashes/app crashs etc.

Find with my setup of the 8400, gtx 275, 4gb of 1066 ram, win 7 home prem 64 bit etc that when I OC my processor to a higher speed I notice a pretty big difference, I'm assuming it's probably quite the bottleneck lol. So I probably get a closer performance enhancement to the theoritcal improvement then someone would that didn't have their bottleneck be just the processor. (My guess is a lot of kool kids that own e8400's dont exactly have a gtx 275 and might still be chilling with their 8800/9800 bad boys). With that said I feel I notice the difference, it's not like I tryed a fps test and or that I feel I need it in wow (although I certainly do think even in wow I notice the improvement) but it helps a lot in aion where when big loads come in populated areas I dont get jewed with my 1900/1200 resolution. Kid with the same settings in wow as me, same reso, same OS, same HD same ram, etc but has a 9800 graphics card and amd 9850 or whatever quad core 2.5ghz stock, getting the same fps as me in wow. Nontheless I'm just looking to see what I can get out of my processor before going i7920 when I have more dispensable income to just throw around. highest I want to raise the voltage is to 1.38/1.39 and I think that is somewhat where lies my problem to get a stable clock with my current settings at 4ghz.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9479/59635548.jpg
Theres some of the settings from cpuz

E8400 Stepping A revision E0
Core voltage is reading 1.352V but I think I have it set in bios as 1.375 pretty sure it downscales it a bit from whatever it is set to.
Processor speed is 3825mhz with 9x and 425mhz, would like to go for 9x and 450mhz or 475mhz (thinking I'd have to raise the voltage a bit more and that is probably is what is stopping me from going stable?)
Think I set the FSB to northbridge strap to either 333mhz or 400mhz, probably 400, which allowed me to choose 1020mhz ram or 510x2, cpuz reports as 5:6 ratio. (I'm not entirely sure what exactly else is connected to the northbridge so I wouldn't mind any advice on this) I set the clocks manually for the ram timing to 5-6-6-18, as advertised, so far the setup im listing is the highest stable setting I could get working backwards from 4ghz proc and 1080mhz ram setting, with a lower voltage setting, I may have tryed 1.4 but my ram timings were probably out of whack in that test too. It's painful to have to reset values and keep rebooting to test for stability lol.

Anyways all I'm really looking for is some good advice on what "you" think is stopping me from going 4ghz, is it likely the voltage being too low? processor speed hitting a peak? haven't really checked temps but I'm pretty sure its below 55c max load and much lower for idle so wasn't too concerned. I tryed quite a few settings but had a lot of variables to work with so, I think the thing now is to try to keep the ram setting below 1066mhz with the same timings and 2.1V dram setting and just play with the CPU/FSB/CPU Volts. Sound legit?