E5200 + 5850 = bottleneck

[anonemus]

....well, because I won this leet GFX, I'm actually crossing my fingers to win this contest where a Phenom II X4 965 and 890 mobo are the top prizes

If I don't win these, I'll be seriously considering going to the AM3 platform as my next build by year-end

 

[moriz]

if you went from a E7200 to a PII, you pretty much upgraded everything, the change might not come from the CPU alone, not to mention most games isn't optimized for quad-core's. Modern CPU's are capable of doing way higher FPS than 60 for most of the games regardless of screen size(only for the CPU bit of working), once you are with a 1080p+ screen, the only thing might bottleneck the whole system is the GPU(unless you have very little ram), and yes faster CPU does improve overall gaming performance with faster communication for GPU to other devices required, but the improvements are minimal, in most cases only 1~2 FPS even for a quad-core compared with dual's unless the game is already running way over the 60FPS mark.

actually, i had another system built 8 months ago that featured an athlon II x2 and a motherboard with AM2+ socket. for my upgrade, i just swapped the motherboard+cpu and bought the phenom II for $200. so yes, in my situation, it was worth it. yet another reason to go with AMD: modern AMD processors are physically and electronically compatible with motherboard sockets released 5 years ago.

btw, the improvement i've been seeing is well over 1-2 fps. since minimum fps is the one that really counts, the improvements there is around 10-30.

 

[anonemus]

Well if I do move to an AM3 platform, I hope AMD will stick to it for another 3 years at least

Just out of curiousity folks, I'm seeing some low prices for Q6600 in my area, some with G0-stepping. A con for this is its 65nm and OCs to only 3-3.3Ghz. But, still, it's a quaddie...

Worth it?

 

[enaher]

Well if I do move to an AM3 platform, I hope AMD will stick to it for another 3 years at least

Just out of curiousity folks, I'm seeing some low prices for Q6600 in my area, some with G0-stepping. A con for this is its 65nm and OCs to only 3-3.3Ghz. But, still, it's a quaddie...

Worth it?

Yes if its cheaper then say a q8300, it's a great deal and still a good performer, Im still using a E6600 in my main gaming rig at 3.2 with a 4890

 

[anonemus]

^ E6600 as in a dual core, not Q6600?

 

[enaher]

^ E6600 as in a dual core, not Q6600?

Yes and a Q6600 is essentially 2 E6600 and you might get a better OC out of it my E6600 is, an older Stepping, if my E6600 can still handle a HD4890 then a Q6600 shouldn't hold back your HD5850.

 

[JrRacinFan]

Have you tried 11x333fsb yet anonemus? If yes and stable then I guess you should try out the q6600. Just be ready to pickup a good cooler also.(referencing your G31 board)

IMHO, the best upgrade you can get that is inexpensive either a brand new x2 555 Black edition, or 2nd hand x3 720 Black edition on a 785G ddr2 board. Highly suggest the black edition line so your not ram limited with an overclock.

 

[anonemus]

@ Jr -- have been trying 11x333FSB but for some reason my rig becomes unstable. I don't know why wherein in the past i could get 3.75ghz. maybe its my PSU or may my mobo or ram have degraded with all the OC experiments ive been doing.

i just realized that i will upgrade when the mobo dies on me. then i'll be forced to uprade proc, mobo and ram. most likely it will be an am3 platform.

thanks for asking!

 

[anonemus]

Folks, this has been confusing me for weeks now. My CPU-Z shows 3.5Ghz while others show 4.1Ghz. Causes?

 

[gaximodo]

Your CPU is clocked at 3.5Ghz, simple math 335x10.5, the other tools might mis-used the original multi(x12.5) as a reference to calculate the clock. or there is a power saving feature automatically reduce your multi while your CPU is not under stressed, it will go back to 335x12.5 which is 4.1gig under load if that is the case.

 

[Radical_Edward]

Check your BIOS. See what that says.

I'm willing to bet CPU-Z is right thou. Same with Everest.

 

[anonemus]

@ gaximodo -- your explanation makes sense! exactly what I was looking for. big thanks!

@ Radical -- BIOS set up mirrors what CPU-Z and Everest are reporting. Now I know which utility to trust more. Even Sandra reports my proc as 4.1Ghz that in its synthetic benchmarks my rig beats Q66xx and even QXxx procs!

 

[Radical_Edward]

Yeah. Not too big a surprise there. Alot of overclocking programs can be a bit off. With 3.5Ghz overclock, you should be fine. Although I would recommend you upgrade to a Quad soon. Or do what you were thinking about and get the AM3 board and AMD X4

 

[anonemus]

Will upgrade by year-end, Ed...that is if my mobo or proc doesn't die anytime soon

 

[Radical_Edward]

I hear ya Anonermus. I need a new Mobo+CPU as well.

 

[anonemus]

^ PM sent

 

[Mussels]

XP (and other programs) use FSB * stock multi.

 

[anonemus]

Hmmmm...I'll boot into Win7 tonight and check the results if different than under XP.

 

[Mussels]

not sure how 7 does it, but i definitely recall seeing that problem with XP.


its just how they unlock the multis on those CPU's, they trick the CPU into thinking speedstep is on, to lower the multi (not an official intel sanctioned feature) - so programs that go 'by design' think it must be on max multi.

 

[anonemus]

Thanks, Mussels. Haven't tried checking under Win 7 yet, will do so later.

Another question, how come under CPU Usage I see these red colors? Does it mean anything?

 

[r9]

Thanks, Mussels. Haven't tried checking under Win 7 yet, will do so later.

Another question, how come under CPU Usage I see these red colors? Does it mean anything?

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Tn7o9v-S7X0/S-z_W6AK1yI/AAAAAAAAL9E/5HWGFyqYkzs/s800/Clipboard01.jpg

I have newer seen red lines in task manager.

And about E5200 I want to brag a little .

 

[anonemus]

@r9 -- that's one CRAZY OC! Is the proc still alive?

 

[sapetto]

In task manager go to performance -> view -> *uncheck* show kernel times

 

[anonemus]

Thanks, sapetto! Will do so tonight

 

[r9]

@r9 -- that's one CRAZY OC! Is the proc still alive?

Yes it is still alive. I have sold it not long ago. Moth or so. It was running 4.2GHz @ 1.45V 24/7.
It would be nice if I had two phase cascade cooling for -70C .