CPU upgrade?

[AfterDune]

I'm quite happy with my system, but when playing the beta for quite a while, my fps is often around 20 fps, regardless of what graphics settings I use. I can put everything on high or everything on low/off, but doesn't matter much in framerate (maybe 5 fps, tops). I figure my cpu is the bottleneck of my pc.


Getting a new pc would be easiest, but my money priorities are elsewhere at the moment. So I'm looking for small things to upgrade, so my pc can last a little longer.

Motherboard: Gigabyte P35C-DS3R, S775, 4x DDR2 / 2xDDR3, ATX
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 2.20GHz, 800MHz, S775
RAM: 2xCorsair TWIN2X 2x1GB DDR2, PC2-6400, 800MHz
GPU: Club 3D Radeon 3870 512MB, 2xDVI, HDTVo, PCIe
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB, 7200rpm, 32MB, SATA (always defragged)
Power: 430W


I was looking for a CPU upgrade and found this online:

CPU: Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00Ghz Socket 775 (60 Euros)


Would that fit on my motherboard (I guess so) and would an upgrade like this improve things much you think? Not looking for 80 fps or anything, just don't want the choppy fps in PR anymore.

The CPU cooler I'm using is the one I got with my current CPU. Can I keep using that one?
Current temperatures "in action" are around 50 degrees Celsius, sometimes a bit more, but overall nothing too hot.

Can you think of other things to upgrade?


Thanks.

[Gracler]

Going through PassMark Software - CPU Benchmark Charts you get these scores

Intel core 2 duo E4500 score = 1.254

Intel core 2 duo E8400 score = 2.040

I'm using a AMD rig with a Phenom II X6 1075T 3.00GHz with a score = 5354

The thing is for me only the main core is being used in BF2 which means my score is prob not much more than a thousand. Not sure if there is a way to force it to use more cores... but however I can go down to 3 cores and boost the GHz on those instead.

My point with all this is that it looks like a good investment for you with the E8400 and the dual cores even if bf2 only uses one of them means that the other can do other stuff like mumble. Your looking at a good increase in cpu power but i'm not an expert on this so don't take my word for it 100%

The E8400 is on the chart for your MB so it should be compatible.

When buying cpu's the extra price for a bundle with a fan is in my experience not noticeable much of the time, but ofcourse you may be able to use the existing fan, but I can't say for sure. Most of those fans make a terrible noise though, so I normally buy a separate fan. Atm I'm using water-cooling though.

BF2 seems to be heavy on the cpu with all kinds of things running in the background like VOIP and punk-buster (believe it or not this tiny program has caused frame drops for me)

If you can try and see how much ram you use when running bf2 along with how stressed your gpu is that could give an idea of where the bottleneck really is.... but like you said its prob the cpu.

[LITOralis.nMd]

Here is the supported CPU list for your mobo:
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Socket 775 - Intel P35 - GA-P35C-DS3R (rev. 1.x)


Core™ 2 Duo E8600
Core™ 2 Duo E8500
Core™ 2 Duo E8400
Core™ 2 Duo E8300
Yeah, those are your options that are reasonably priced. You need to stay with the 65Watt TDP CPUs or you'll also need to upgrade your PSU.

So don't get a quad core LGA775, your system won't boot due to lack of power.

When you get upgraded CPU, you might also be able to overclock by another 5%, but not a real good use of your time trying to find a stable OC on those CPUs.

[DesmoLocke]

And the stock cooler included with the E8400 or whatever you choose will be sufficient for your cooling needs as long as you're not planning a major overclock or live on the sun.

[PricelineNegotiator]

What's your budget? Save up for a new compy?

[AfterDune]

Thanks for your support, guys. Much appreciated! I'll order this CPU then and pray it helps .

Regarding system usage (while running PR), it's a bit like this:
- GPU: 50% tops
- RAM: max 3 of 4 gigs used
- HDD: doing almost nothing during play
- CPU: far over 80%

I'll let you guys know the outcome .

[aI2seNIc]

I advise you an I7920 KIT with ddr3 to upgrade, you can find for 200€ i think.
I played a long time with an e8400 @ 3.8 ghz / 4 GB ddr2 8500 and multiple graphics cards (GTX460 , GTX285 ,..) on differents cleans Os .
Cpu was the bottleneck for me , 25 fps drop on 0.98 falludj full serv on certains spot and others maps too ...
I win 20 fps with [email protected] ghz / DDR3 on all situations .
You can try , but 20/25 fps is not very cool to play .

[Cossack]

Thanks for your support, guys. Much appreciated! I'll order this CPU then and pray it helps .

Regarding system usage (while running PR), it's a bit like this:
- GPU: 50% tops
- RAM: max 3 of 4 gigs used
- HDD: doing almost nothing during play
- CPU: far over 80%

I'll let you guys know the outcome .

I have E8200 on my PC, sure it will help. Running PR CPU load is around 50 to 60%

And FPS are good as well

Hah, same GPU what I had

[PLODDITHANLEY]

I am doing exactly this to my wife's computer upgrading from the same CPU to the same, as I am as clueless as a dog about computers I'll watch this space.

I'm mostly concerned about BIOS if it needs an update or not.

[Cossack]

I am doing exactly this to my wife's computer upgrading from the same CPU to the same, as I am as clueless as a dog about computers I'll watch this space.

I'm mostly concerned about BIOS if it needs an update or not.

If its P35 Chipset Mobo, they dont need BIOS upgrade.

[Adriaan]

If you have two open DDR3 slots, I think it'd be worth getting like 2x4GB sticks of RAM for that (if you have a 64-bit OS). Should make things quicker in general (stuff like tabbing out of the game in particular) and lessen the amount of CTDs on load. Will also help with any memory intenstive programs/processes, large images/layer counts in Photoshop, video/3D rendering etc.

[AfterDune]

I bought an E8400 now. Was quite cheap (40 euros), so trying that out for now. Played a couple of rounds, the fps has really improved a lot. Still takes a heavy beating at times though, but most of the time is decent fps, so I'm quite happy about this change so far.

I never have issues with alt-tabbing and hardly ctd on load. And I'm happy with how fast it is with Photoshop and Premiere and such. Could always do that later, if I want the system to be faster than it is now. But will look how this goes first.