Sorry I missed raid tonight. Signed up late last night anyways. Wont be on rest of the week, Im working 10-12 hour shifts all week long. Should be back to a normal type schedule next week, which should mean my making Wed and prob tuesdays again.
I'm interested in MC runs, finding the time is the hard part these days. I'm more in for the rep & the eyeball than anything -- Note if I get the eyeball I won't combine it until Cata is released so the guild gets the legendary weapon towards the achievement
Pyro (or anyone else that knows): How much of a difference for WoW is there on CPU? I'm looking at getting a new system, and the choices seem to be between an i5-750, i7-860 and i7-930 in order of price. Tom's Hardware likes the i5-750 for price/performance, and then jumps immediately to the i7-930...but they primarily test with FPS's and not WoW. I've read that WoW is more CPU-bound than other games. Is the price increase worth it?
I am running an i7-920 quad core overclocked to 3.33 GHz, Video is GTX 280 (for gaming) and GT 200 for other apps and surfing. Wow runs anywhere from 60fps to 200fps on MAX settings, depending on where i'm at obviously.
My system is about 1yr and 1/2 old and should last me a bit longer before I'm looking at any upgrades. Which is what you want, bang for your buck but also a few good years out of it before you have to pickpocket your way to a new one
I know that really doesnt answer your question, but maybe someone else can chime in.
WoW is CPU bound more from UI than anything else. Running standard, blizz ui, no addons, it's not any more CPU intensive than any other MMO, which is to say, just slightly more than your normal game that doesnt interact with hundreds of other people and their data representations through a server (or somesuch).
That said though, the more addons you run, and the more detailed those addons are, the more CPU intensive the game is going to be. One of the many things I have learned thanks to WoW, is that it's not what kind of memory an addon uses, it's not about how large the addon is... but rather, what kind of CPU pressure it requires for effective use. As far as I can remember, the more data the addon tries to stream in the in-game channels between players (and the speed in which it tries to do so) the more CPU intensive it's going to be.
So simply put, I say go for the i7-930. But since WoW is made to work well for people with computers that are "slightly" behind the times, I dont think the i5 would show you much (if any) degrade from the i7.
*Note: Take what I say with a grain of salt as well. I am no computer guru and much of my info has come from reading forums surrounding addons and other such things. Thus, not all my information may be wholly accurate. whatever shall we do if by some unforseen accident of malcontent dorkina's...
Joined: Sat Nov 05 2005, 06:56PM Location: Howard City, Michigan Posts: 640
Honestly guys, CPU wise I haven't seen much improvement from my Core2Duo 2.26ghz to my core i7-720QM then again I am running very lite on addons compared to others in the guild. Now once Cata drops that could be completely different, I hear they're working on a DirectX 11 based client to run in place of the DirectX 9 client they have now for those who can support it which will take more CPU & a lot more Video processing power. so my advice would be go with the 750 now & a good new video card if it's in reach of your budget & then get the fastest core i7 you can afford around Christmas time when the sockets for core i7/i5/i3 are put out to pasture to make room for the Intel answer to the 6+ core CPU solution. “Stand up. Face forward. Hesitate and you will die. Retreat and you will age.”-Zangetsu Not so Eternal Lowbie anymore
Yes, I try to buy systems that give me several years...my current is a core2Duo 2.4 GHz with a GTX275. It runs ok (30 fps in Dalaran and 60 everywhere else) with the ~100 addons I have, except for the recent and annoying development where it BSOD's at erratic intervals (not just in WoW). It is almost 4 years old, which I think is a reasonable life for a PC.
The i5-750 system I was looking at, even with dual graphics cards (GTX 460's) is substantially cheaper than the i7-930 system with even one graphics card. The i7 series can support 3 graphics cards, while the i5 is limited to 2...but I really don't see that being an issue for WoW. So it's hard to roll need.
Incidentally, part of the difference is that I'm looking at a different motherboard chipset for the i7. So, swapping processors later would get only some of the benefit, I'd still be limited by the chipset. But it's an interesting idea.
So I'll dither a bit more. Thanks for the comments, feel free to chime in more if you have other thoughts.
Joined: Sat Nov 05 2005, 06:56PM Location: Howard City, Michigan Posts: 640
Honesty currently the best chipset for the i7 class CPU is the X58 chip running an i7 on the 1366 socket with triple channel DDR3, it gets expensive in a hurry though. I'd say get either one of the following boards & fill it full of a TON of ram and for the best video performance go with the latest refresh of the ATI 5800 series
Thanks Pyro. I've gotten lazy in my old age and don't build my systems any more, I'll probably use Falcon NW. They're using the ASUS Rapage III rather than the II's you posted, but I don't think that's a big deal. Oh, and I'm going to stick with the GTX series, I have a friend that works there (can't get me a discount, tho) and the cards are close enough that I'd rather throw the business his way.
Joined: Sat Nov 05 2005, 06:56PM Location: Howard City, Michigan Posts: 640
Guard Open my bank box and kill that pickpocketing thief!
ahh the fun bank Macros I saw from UO way back in the day have stuck with me over the ages.
and no worries on not building the computers on your own anymore Honesty... lol I can't believe I gave you older boards oops I be tired.
Also don't go SLI, save your money & sink it into a Solid State Drive to be dedicated to only the wow install. “Stand up. Face forward. Hesitate and you will die. Retreat and you will age.”-Zangetsu Not so Eternal Lowbie anymore
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You must see Dork's mega post.
