I've just resubbed and returned to SWTOR today for the rewards and such to play the game as im in the mood, ive lately been playing GW2 and WOW but last week i upgraded to an I5 intel from an AMD 955BE and the boost i got in all my games was insane, im talking ive gone from 20 fps on low gfx in GW2 World vs World PVP to ultra gfx and 30 fps, so you can imagine the rest of the game, same with skyrim and all my other games, it was 3x better upgrade than a new GPU.

Before on SWTOR i would log into the fleet and on max gfx with shadows i would lagg, the shadows were a big cause but mainly players, dam this game engine i thought and 10 fps with 20-30 people on screen, ilum i had 5 fps in big fights lol. But today i log in max gfx and dam 107 fps on fleet at the bank! i ran around and never went below 80 fps ever, this is bloody amazing, anyone having the same issues i did you should deffo get an i5, below are my pc specs.

Also the new Virtue MVP software to basically use the processors onboard gfx to boost game fps really does work, it gave me 11 more fps on SWTOR.

Windows 7 64 bit, 12gig DDR3 ram 1600mhz, Radeon 6970 2gig, SSD agility 3, Intel i5 3570k, Asrock Extream 4 motherboard.

When I overclocked my CPU from 3GHz to 3.6GHz my FPS improved from unplayable to being able to max the game out. This is a CPU heavy game and literally the sole reason I run overclocked now. I can max out anything else from the last two years without a problem at stock speeds, including HQ textures and all the other IQ switches on in my Nvidia CP. I think it's a combination of bad optimization and the fact that MMOs tend to be CPU heavy.

To be fair, my computer is 5 years old. But this game still could use some cleanup in the CPU department. It feels like a badly developed port tends to. Like GTA IV or LA Noire. Not to single out another development company. They're just the first two to come to mind.

When I overclocked my CPU from 3GHz to 3.6GHz my FPS improved from unplayable to being able to max the game out. This is a CPU heavy game and literally the sole reason I run overclocked now. I can max out anything else from the last two years without a problem at stock speeds, including HQ textures and all the other IQ switches on in my Nvidia CP. I think it's a combination of bad optimization and the fact that MMOs tend to be CPU heavy.

 

To be fair, my computer is 5 years old. But this game still could use some cleanup in the CPU department. It feels like a badly developed port tends to. Like GTA IV or LA Noire. Not to single out another development company. They're just the first two to come to mind.

Yea online games and even some single like skyrim seem to be very CPU heavy, i never expected a cpu to make this much difference, old cpu benchmarks barely increased fps on games b 1-2 nowadays its the difference from a laggy 25 to a maxed out 90, well from now on im going intel and nvidia all the way, im still using a 6970 but im planning on upgrading to a GTX 670 at Christmas

Yea online games and even some single like skyrim seem to be very CPU heavy, i never expected a cpu to make this much difference, old cpu benchmarks barely increased fps on games b 1-2 nowadays its the difference from a laggy 25 to a maxed out 90, well from now on im going intel and nvidia all the way, im still using a 6970 but im planning on upgrading to a GTX 670 at Christmas

I'd keep the 6970 until the new line of GPUs come out. You won't get a $ worthy boost going from a 6970 to a 670. They should be out around January 2013.

I'd keep the 6970 until the new line of GPUs come out. You won't get a $ worthy boost going from a 6970 to a 670. They should be out around January 2013.

AMD's new 8000 (8870 and 8950) series is supposed to be priced around $200-300 and have the same if not better performance as the 680/7970.

Yea online games and even some single like skyrim seem to be very CPU heavy, i never expected a cpu to make this much difference, old cpu benchmarks barely increased fps on games b 1-2 nowadays its the difference from a laggy 25 to a maxed out 90, well from now on im going intel and nvidia all the way, im still using a 6970 but im planning on upgrading to a GTX 670 at Christmas

670 will give you near same output as 6970 (between 4 and 16% better due to some benchmarks) ... don't trow your money.

If you really want to remove anything AMD based from your PC ... buy at least 680... otherwise it have no sense to pay almost same price twice for similar result.

Witch came to say that CPUs of AMD are no match for Intel ones, but GPUs of ATI & Nvidia are on similar scales...

Had a guild mate say the same thing when he upgraded CPU.

Currently my CPU is what is holding me back but I don't have the cash to upgrade to anything decent

Had a guild mate say the same thing when he upgraded CPU.

 

Currently my CPU is what is holding me back but I don't have the cash to upgrade to anything decent

I have a Phenom 965 OC'd ro 4.0Ghz and it's stupid to see that a stock i5 2500k/3570k @ 3.4Ghz pulls about 20-40% more FPS.

I have a Phenom 965 OC'd ro 4.0Ghz and it's stupid to see that a stock i5 2500k/3570k @ 3.4Ghz pulls about 20-40% more FPS.

I'm only using a dual core Amd something or other -.-

I've just resubbed and returned to SWTOR today for the rewards and such to play the game as im in the mood, ive lately been playing GW2 and WOW but last week i upgraded to an I5 intel from an AMD 955BE and the boost i got in all my games was insane, im talking ive gone from 20 fps on low gfx in GW2 World vs World PVP to ultra gfx and 30 fps, so you can imagine the rest of the game, same with skyrim and all my other games, it was 3x better upgrade than a new GPU.

I don't mean this to come off as harshly condescending, but it's going to anyway:

Yes. Upgrading your CPU on a CPU-heavy game is going to improve your performance.

I don't expect everyone to automatically know these things but if you don't, now is a good time to learn:

• MMOs --in general-- are CPU heavy games. Yes, video cards help, but netcode and animations and all the synchronizations take CPU power
  
• Modern CPUs are far better than CPUs just two generations old. That 955 of yours is only as good as a Q9450... which was a great CPU... five years ago. Ivy Bridge CPUs blow them out of the water in every metric that you'd care about.
  
• It's been a long time since a CPU's performance was accurately measured by its clock speed. It worked for Pentium IIs. After that... not so much. While the upgrade to a 3570 might look like a 3.2GHz to 3.4GHz upgrade... the actual difference is a more-than-doubling of actual CPU ability... while producing less heat (and therefore needing less electricity).
  
• If you are using software that is CPU intensive, not even the most expensive video card is going to give you fantastic frame rates.
  

I have a Phenom 965 OC'd ro 4.0Ghz and it's stupid to see that a stock i5 2500k/3570k @ 3.4Ghz pulls about 20-40% more FPS.

Newsflash: CPU ability is not solely determined by clock speed.

It's been like this since the release of the Athlon. Actually, even before then, but to a lesser degree. Even if you OCed that 965 to 6GHz, I still don't think it'd be able to match an Ivy Bridge quad at 2.8GHz.

I don't mean this to come off as harshly condescending, but it's going to anyway:

 

Yes. Upgrading your CPU on a CPU-heavy game is going to improve your performance.

 

I don't expect everyone to automatically know these things but if you don't, now is a good time to learn:

 

• MMOs --in general-- are CPU heavy games. Yes, video cards help, but netcode and animations and all the synchronizations take CPU power
  
• Modern CPUs are far better than CPUs just two generations old. That 955 of yours is only as good as a Q9450... which was a great CPU... five years ago. Ivy Bridge CPUs blow them out of the water in every metric that you'd care about.
  
• It's been a long time since a CPU's performance was accurately measured by its clock speed. It worked for Pentium IIs. After that... not so much. While the upgrade to a 3570 might look like a 3.2GHz to 3.4GHz upgrade... the actual difference is a more-than-doubling of actual CPU ability... while producing less heat (and therefore needing less electricity).
  
• If you are using software that is CPU intensive, not even the most expensive video card is going to give you fantastic frame rates.
  

Core 2 duo E6600 - 3.06 GHz is how generations old?

Because my desktop with such one is pretty stable on SWTOR (some graphic details reduced due to 6750 video).

Asus p5b-e, C2Duo 3.06, 6 GB RAM, ATI 6750 1 GB RAM, 3x250 GB RAID5 HDDs

Raw CPU power (GHz) was accurate up to P4 actually ... and even until 2nd generation of Dual core in some games P4 on 3.4 was topping Dual on 2.1.

There is other thing to be considered when someone buy a CPU ... 2nd & 3rd level cache can be much more important than number of cores/treads(you get at least 2 whatever you do those days), frequency is still needed (turbo boost show it very well) for gaming, PSU would like more newest CPU due to lowest consumption but if you need raw power on old system - buy a better PSU & so on.

Edit: except some exclusion cases(last remembered was years ago), AMD CPU will never match Intel one... if you want to have good one, take Intel.

Is a CPU upgrade very technical? I'm not even sure I know where it is in my computer. herpderp

I can replace cards and I even upgraded my power supply a while back... but not too sure about putting in a new cpu...

Is a CPU upgrade very technical? I'm not even sure I know where it is in my computer. herpderp

 

I can replace cards and I even upgraded my power supply a while back... but not too sure about putting in a new cpu...

It is not, but have some specifics... if not sure better not try.

- Check careful what is your MB socket/slot and up to witch CPU is supported.

- Update your BIOS to last stable version ... or you may smash your head in nearest wall when PC doesn't start at all, because new CPU is not recognized by your BIOS.

- Get new termal paste (new CPU has to be covered with it without overdosing on it and without leave it not covered enough to have best contact with fan).

- New CPU may need a new fan (box with CPU or not), but may use old one if compatible.

- Removing/placing fan from/to MB is specific for different CPU sockets/slots... see your MB documents or YouTube clips for disassemble/assemble.

- CPU slot have marked angle as CPU have, do not try to push it in any other way... docs/clips would help.

Game runs pretty good on my AMD Thuban 1100t Black edition.

Curious though since this is a 6 core proc - if I wanted to migrate to intel, what's comperable and whats better right now?

Game runs pretty good on my AMD Thuban 1100t Black edition.

 

Curious though since this is a 6 core proc - if I wanted to migrate to intel, what's comperable and whats better right now?

i5 3570k is the best gaming processor right now, the i7 is NO better at all the i7 only has HT which is not used in games thats why all benchmarks show same fps on an i5 and i7 but you save £80 buying an i5, thats what i was told to do many many times and an i5 is only £160 and £110 for a very good gaming motherboard the Asrock extream 4 which i have.

Core 2 duo E6600 - 3.06 GHz is how generations old?

Let's see... Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Nehalem, and Penryn. I guess that's three generations. I might say four, since I always think of the Wolfdales and Yorkfields as different generations, but that's up for argument. Now, those "generations" are architecture redesigns, not just speed brackets.

Raw CPU power (GHz) was accurate up to P4 actually ... and even until 2nd generation of Dual core in some games P4 on 3.4 was topping Dual on 2.1.

Nope. It could only really be used if you only looked at Intel chips. The Athlon line already proved that a chip with a lower clock speed could outperform a chip with a higher clock speed if it had a better design. Ironically, that better design was a faster connection with the system bus and an internal memory manager... just the same things that Sandy Bridge added to clobber the previous generation of Cores.

Even ignoring that, the Pentium III already showed that it could match or beat a Pentium 4 at the same clockspeed in many real-world applications. Even then, knowledgeable people were realizing that architecture was getting more important that simple clock speed.

Game runs pretty good on my AMD Thuban 1100t Black edition.

 

Curious though since this is a 6 core proc - if I wanted to migrate to intel, what's comperable and whats better right now?

Even a last-generation i5-2500 would easily out-perform your 1100T. I'm no fanboy, and I switch CPU brands at the drop of a hat, but that's just the truth. The Thuban's six cores are only going to be a benefit over the old i5 when doing long-running video encoding. Short of that, the i5-2500 is better, but you might as well jump to the Ivy Bridge chips. Even an i5-3350 would be a speed increase. The 3450 or 3570 would be even faster.

If you're just looking for comparable from the Ivy Bridge line, I'm not really sure. The speed difference is large enough that you end up comparing a hex core CPU to a dual core, and things start getting funny. Benchmarks suggest that the i5-3330 might be a close match. That looks to be a $180 chip. But why would you pay that when you can pay $15 more and get a 3570?

Wow, that's a massive upgrade for you, OP. What GPU did you have before? Not sure if you mentioned this in your OP or not.

I wish I could get that kind of performance with my i5 2320, 8 gigs of RAM and HD Radeon 6850...I get about 30-40 FPS at the bank on Very High settings, with 60-100 FPS out in the world. Then again, my i5 is no where near as good at yours. Still, I'm happy with the performance I get. A lot better than with the i3 I had a year ago.

Wow, that's a massive upgrade for you, OP. What GPU did you have before? Not sure if you mentioned this in your OP or not.

 

I wish I could get that kind of performance with my i5 2320, 8 gigs of RAM and HD Radeon 6850...I get about 30-40 FPS at the bank on Very High settings, with 60-100 FPS out in the world. Then again, my i5 is no where near as good at yours. Still, I'm happy with the performance I get. A lot better than with the i3 I had a year ago.

same GPU 6970.

Newsflash: CPU ability is not solely determined by clock speed.

 

It's been like this since the release of the Athlon. Actually, even before then, but to a lesser degree. Even if you OCed that 965 to 6GHz, I still don't think it'd be able to match an Ivy Bridge quad at 2.8GHz.

Oh thanks for telling me that! I'm an avid overclocking and PC gaming and I had NO idea that wasn't the only factor. I wasn't trying to point out that AMD CPUs were bad or anything. I literally thought the core clock-speed meant everything.

Game runs pretty good on my AMD Thuban 1100t Black edition.

 

Curious though since this is a 6 core proc - if I wanted to migrate to intel, what's comperable and whats better right now?

You would need to upgrade/switch to the LGA 1155 socket and you'd see a performance gain with the i5 2500K which you can pick up for like $160 if you live near a micro center. I'm upgrading to an i7 3770K and if you did the same I'm sure you'd see a 35-70% increase in FPS.

Great CPU choice, OP.

Have you considered overclocking if you're willing to get an aftermarket cpu heatsink and work in the bios? 3570Ks overclock quite easily to well over 4ghz, a lot are capable of 4.5ghz on good airflow based coolers. Check your motherboard manual, you may have an easy auto-overclock option to gain some "free" extra performance. There's also TONS of guides to be found on what does what, safe voltages, safe temperatures, best coolers for the cost, etc.

And definitely keep your 6790 for now, new GPUs will be trickling out shortly. I actually run a 3570K @ 4.6ghz w/ a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 heatsink, a GTX 670 with a hefty overclock, 16gb DDR3-1600, 7200rpm HDD, Asus Sabertooth Z77, Win7 64bit, and you seem to be getting very similar frames to what I get, so save yourself the $400 and invest in a next generation video card.

You would need to upgrade/switch to the LGA 1155 socket and you'd see a performance gain with the i5 2500K which you can pick up for like $160 if you live near a micro center. I'm upgrading to an i7 3770K and if you did the same I'm sure you'd see a 35-70% increase in FPS.

If you are upgrading for just gaming an i7 will give no boost over an i5, but you will save $100 ona n i5 over an i7