i5 750 vs i7 930

I think if i had to rebuild my rig again I would most prob still go i5 because the i5 and i7 at 4GHz are basically on equal footing. and I'd just be wasting money on a setup that I wouldn't see a significant improvement from since I have no plans to SLi or xfire..
 
Archer said:
Does adding in extra GPUs give the CPU more work to do? Yes, the GPU gets fed from the CPU. Do games often run a CPU close to 100%? No they do not. Will a better CPU give you more fps in multi GPU setups? Yes.
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More GPUs don't 'give more work' to the CPU. It is removing a bottleneck, which means that the CPU does not have to wait for the GPU. It means that the CPU can pass more instructions at higher quality graphics settings, not that more work has been given to it. You can get the same increased CPU usage by turning down all your settings in a game until the GPU is no longer what is limiting things and unlocking the frame rate.
 
nakedpeanut said:
I think if i had to rebuild my rig again I would most prob still go i5 because the i5 and i7 at 4GHz are basically on equal footing. and I'd just be wasting money on a setup that I wouldn't see a significant improvement from since I have no plans to SLi or xfire..
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When i got my cpu,mb,ram the i5's wasnt out yet, but would probably have got an i5 too if i waited a bit :P
 
Rudimental said:
More GPUs don't 'give more work' to the CPU. It is removing a bottleneck, which means that the CPU does not have to wait for the GPU. It means that the CPU can pass more instructions at higher quality graphics settings, not that more work has been given to it. You can get the same increased CPU usage by turning down all your settings in a game until the GPU is no longer what is limiting things and unlocking the frame rate.
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Now you are just twisting my words. No, the GPU does not 'give' more work to the CPU, but adding in more GPUs does increase the CPU's workload. And again you miss the entire point anyway - if you are a gamer you buy a good GPU first, then worry about the CPU. And at 1920x1080 and up your CPU has VERY LITTLE to do with fps unless you are running multiple GPUs.
 
I urge all of you to go read the following article form tomsharware! It is quite lengthy so you can just reach both summaries and the conclusion.
It pertains to the 16x 16x vs 8x 8x but also delves a little into whats needed from a CPU to satisfy the cards. In their testing the used GTX 480's and an i7 920 at 4GHz

The big question today was whether or not we needed more than 16 lanes to feed multiple high-end graphics card in SLI, and the answer is a solid “perhaps not.”

OK, let’s call it a conditional "no.”

While we did see a fairly large difference between x8 and x16 slots when a single card was used, adding a second card shifted our limit to CPU performance. That is to say, for most of today’s tests, a faster CPU would be far more important than dual x16 slots in achieving the ultimate SLI performance.

That answer presents its own set of questions, since our high-flying Core i7 CPU was already pushed to 4.00 GHz. Most builders simply can’t go much higher with a daily-use gaming machine.

Another part of that conditional answer pertains to test resolution. GPU dependence increases with resolution, to the point that two cards eventually become a “bottleneck” far tighter than the CPU. Yet, that level of GPU dependence outweighs even PCIe x8 bottlenecks.

In the end, we simply needed a faster CPU to apply everything we learned about single-card bandwidth to multi-GPU configurations. This finding should come as some comfort to owners of “high-end” P55-based systems who might be considering an SLI upgrade for their GeForce GTX 480 graphics cards. If you have a high-performance processor in that motherboard, and you're overclocking to 4 GHz+, the extra CPU horsepower will have a more profound impact than an upgrade to an X58-based machine. Making X58 truly worthwhile requires an even faster processor and resolutions beyond 2560x1600.
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conclusion: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pcie-geforce-gtx-480-x16-x8-x4,2696-17.html
 
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Archer said:
Now you are just twisting my words. No, the GPU does not 'give' more work to the CPU, but adding in more GPUs does increase the CPU's workload. And again you miss the entire point anyway - if you are a gamer you buy a good GPU first, then worry about the CPU. And at 1920x1080 and up your CPU has VERY LITTLE to do with fps unless you are running multiple GPUs.
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lol I'm not twising your words. It isn't my fault if you mean something other than what you write and adding GPU's still doesn't increase the CPU's workload. As for the CPU, well that isn't entirely true. CPUs are more important than you think. Gaming at 1920+ with high settings on advanced engines can easily put you at a threshold of 30 or 60 minimum fps, where a lot of people claim smooth gaming is. Minimum framerate is in fact usually more important in smoothness of gaming than maximum or even average framerate. Differences between, say a Phenom II 965BE and a Core i3 530 might only amount to 10% in certain games at max settings (I reckon it would be higher, esp on multi-threaded games), but if that puts your min fps over a threshold at a certain quality level, then that is a good reason to get the faster CPU. Just because something's effect on fps may not look incredibly large, does not mean that it is unimportant.

If you are a gamer, then you buy components appropriate to your needs and for many people that involves building a rounded system that is able to handle both GPU and CPU intensive games. Anyone who has played a CPU intensive game like BC2 knows just how much having a dual core, for example, can hurt even when you have a decent graphics card.

OP: Sorry for kinda derailing the thread. Personally, I'm waiting for Sandy Bridge, due at the beginning of Jan, but if you're going to upgrade now, I'd take the 930. X58 is just a better chipset, and the CPU is more versatile for whatever the 'etc' may be.
 
Yup BFBC2 takes weak cpu's and stomps on them :D

Most games made for console will chow through weak cpu's. Rudi has it spot it on hey, rounded system FTW. No point having a 930 with a 5770 :D and no point have a dual core with a 480 gtx :D. Well rounded
 
killadoob said:
Yup BFBC2 takes weak cpu's and stomps on them :D

Most games made for console will chow through weak cpu's. Rudi has it spot it on hey, rounded system FTW. No point having a 930 with a 5770 :D and no point have a dual core with a 480 gtx :D. Well rounded
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I'm building that exact rig - i7 930 with a 5770. Wont be used for games, so its fine. Its all about building it for a purpose. Console ports only chew CPUs because they are so poorly coded, take Guitar Hero 3, even an i7 930 cant play it without lag. And besides, an i7 930 with a single GPU is so unbalanced. The fact that the platform gives you 2 full x16 PCIe slots should be your biggest clue.
 
I have the i7 930, it runs very well but the price of the mobo with socket 1366 is much more expensive, I'd say if you want it for gaming, get an i5 and spend extra money on perhaps a SLI/CrossFire config or better graphics card, if money is not an issue, the i7 will be the better cpu to go for.
 
Archer said:
I'm building that exact rig - i7 930 with a 5770. Wont be used for games, so its fine. Its all about building it for a purpose. Console ports only chew CPUs because they are so poorly coded, take Guitar Hero 3, even an i7 930 cant play it without lag. And besides, an i7 930 with a single GPU is so unbalanced. The fact that the platform gives you 2 full x16 PCIe slots should be your biggest clue.
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well my board supports three way SLI Gigabyte x58A UD3R
 
Archer said:
I'm building that exact rig - i7 930 with a 5770. Wont be used for games, so its fine. Its all about building it for a purpose. Console ports only chew CPUs because they are so poorly coded, take Guitar Hero 3, even an i7 930 cant play it without lag. And besides, an i7 930 with a single GPU is so unbalanced. The fact that the platform gives you 2 full x16 PCIe slots should be your biggest clue.
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well my board supports three way SLI Gigabyte x58A UD3R
 
So is it fair to say that an i5 and 5850 are well matched?
 
nakedpeanut said:
I definitely think so :D
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If I may hijack this thread for a second, how does this then look for a on the cheap BFBC2 upgrade to my current (unusable) Core2/8800 setup:

Component Details

Motherboard ASUS P7H55 lga1156 mb ; with USB3.0 Support , intel H55 chipset , 4x dual channel DDR3 2200(o.c) , 6 x s-ata2 , on-board vt1708s 7.1 audio with optical s/pdif out + gigabit lan ; 2x pci , 2 x pci-e (1x) , 2 x pci-e 2.0 (16x+4x) - with EPU + express gate + Turbo key ii + Turbo-V evo - atx

CPU Intel lga1156 i5-750 - Quad core , 2.66ghz box cpu / 3.2ghz turbo boost , VT-x , no VT-d + no TXT, no ASE , built-in dual channel DDR3-1333 memory controler , support upto 16gb , 21GB/sec memory bandwidth , 2.5GT/s - 1x DMi , 45nm - 4x64k L1 + 1mb(4 x 256kb) L2 cache + 8mb L3 cache

RAM Corsair TW3X2G1333C9A , XMS 3 , with heatsink , 2 x 1Gb/1024mb kit , ddr3-1333 ( PC3-10600 ) , CL9 , 1.6v - 240pin - lifetime warranty

Graphics Sapphire HD5850 Game edition , 40nm , HDMi ready , support Eyefinity + DirectX 11 , crossfire-X , built-in HDMi codec+7.1 audio , 1080p HDCP Compliant , pci-e 2.0 x16 , 1Gb 256bit 4 channel DDR5 , 32RoPs , 128Gb/sec memory transfer ; 1440 stream processors ( pixel shader engine + vertex pipelines ) , 72 texture unit , 2.09 TeraFLoPs , core/memory : 725/4000mhz , 2x dvi+Hdmi+DisplayPort, HDTV+HDMi tv-out - full retail pack with bundle game

Connector 2x4pin molex to 6pin ( for pci-express vga card ) converter - bulk pack


For under R7,000
 
Looks fine, but up that RAM to 4gb. Many games (+windows) will use up moer than 2gb
 
Hi all, thanks for all the replies. I think I am gonna get the i5 760 and going with the MSI P55-GD65 and 8gb Kingston HyperX Ram. Should be a good pc for gaming. Gonna keep my current Nvidia 250 for now.
 
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