X3 710 OC vs 8400 etc

[bildo123]

Before I begin heres the current specs

E2180 @ 3Ghz
GA-P35-DS3L rev1.0
4GB 4-4-4-12
XFX 4870 1GB @860/1000
500W TT PurePower

I'm in a little bit of dilemma...I very recently purchased the 4870...I guess I can say somewhat to my dismay, although I got it for extremely cheap.
In my particular setup my Average FPS in DoW II only increased by 10, minimum increased by about 4, and max increased by about 20. I know this is just this one particular game but I consider those "improvements" marginal at best, I was expecting more.
Now...to the topic...I believe the bottleneck here is my E2180 @ 3Ghz. Now (I know I'm gonna hear it) my 3DMark06 CPU score is about 2500. I compared this to a couple benchies on Tom's and the 8400 (course now I can't find it) but the 8400 was only around 2700~2800 and the X3 720 was I believe around 3300.

What I want to know, is my E2180 really that bad of a bottleneck, am I going to see an impressive boost to me DoW II and other games? Also I understand the X3 710/720 are highly OC'able. The idea was to pickup a mobo, a 710, and 4GB of DDR3 which I prices out at around $280.

The confusing part to me is that I'm running at 1920x1200, I figure a CPU bottleneck would be negliable at these resolutions with a 4870. Any suggestions? Should I just wait until December to see what comes out? And would I really get a WOW type improvement by moving up to a PII X3?

EDIT: Found a link that helps get my point across, for the sake of argument lets just say my 2180 @3Ghz is roughly equivalent to a slightly slower E7500 (technically my clock is faster but I'm trying to account for smaller cache etc). The differences between the 7500 and the 720 aren't very massive, they are there, but in your opinion, worth the $300 extra to upgrade?

EDIT II: Also, any suggestions as far as this CPU's and a CF 4870 setup? I plan I using a mobo to plug in another 4870 down the road.

 

[flyin15sec]

My advice is don't change the platform. Stick with the Intel setup, at the very least get yourself an E8400 E0. You're basically swapping platform to AMD to get the near identical performance with as you would with just the E8400 upgrade.

The Intel E8400 and AMD 550 BE is the best bargain dual core. The reason the 720 gets better CPU score is 3DMark06 accounts for the added thread for the tri core, this will give it a better CPU score.

Just upgrade to E8400. Wait, until Lynnfield is released. Then make a decision on a quad purchase, whether it's AMD Phenom II or i7 or Lynnfield.

 

[bildo123]

My advice is don't change the platform. Stick with the Intel setup, at the very least get yourself an E8400 E0. You're basically swapping platform to AMD to get the near identical performance with as you would with just the E8400 upgrade.

The Intel E8400 and AMD 550 BE is the best bargain dual core. The reason the 720 gets better CPU score is 3DMark06 accounts for the added thread for the tri core, this will give it a better CPU score.

Just upgrade to E8400. Wait, until Lynnfield is released. Then make a decision on a quad purchase, whether it's AMD Phenom II or i7 or Lynnfield.

Thanks for the tip (to be honost I should have just kept the 8800GT as well and waited) but would getting a 8400 put me right back in the same boat? I know its sythentics but my 2180 setup doesn't seem all that far behind at all. I'm feeling If I do actually get an 8400, I may gain another 5FPS at most.

The reason for the platform switch is I'm hoping AMD will release another "phenom III" type thing thats AM3 compatibility, also the new mobo will have crossfire which at one point I want to do with another 4870. But that talk is at the very least another year from now, basically when I can pickup a 4870 for under $100.

 

[bildo123]

Just though of something...found out my MOBO only supports PCI-E 1.1, and there is a significant difference between 2.0 and 1.1 Does anyone think this could be the issue?

 

[AKM880]

No it sohludn't be a probelm, the 4870 should run fine on PCIe 1.1

 

[the1tarheel]

The main difference in the 8400 and your 2180 is CACHE and the fact that you canget to 3.6 on the stock cooling on the 8400 easily
I would guess the difference would equate to 5-10 FPS just @ stock 3.0 due to the throughput of the chip maybe 10-15 with the OC

 

[buzznut]

I agree with the suggestions. And I understnd the limited gains, I went from an 8800GT to an HD 4850 and was definately underwhelmed. Surprisingly, the main boost I saw was in 2d performance (in benchmarks). I attribute this to the fact that I was running a amd board with an nvidia card.

I like the E8400 idea cause you can drop it in your current board and get more life outta your current rig.

I would wait to see what the next crop of video cards comes out with before upgrading. Currently I see little difference between current tech and last generation. HD 4850/4870 > 8800GT but not by much.

Hell, the GTS250=9800gt=8800gt and is pretty much the same as 8800GTX. nvidia has been selling the same performance to us for 3 years.

 

[bildo123]

I agree with the suggestions. And I understnd the limited gains, I went from an 8800GT to an HD 4850 and was definately underwhelmed. Surprisingly, the main boost I saw was in 2d performance (in benchmarks). I attribute this to the fact that I was running a amd board with an nvidia card.

I like the E8400 idea cause you can drop it in your current board and get more life outta your current rig.

I would wait to see what the next crop of video cards comes out with before upgrading. Currently I see little difference between current tech and last generation. HD 4850/4870 > 8800GT but not by much.

Hell, the GTS250=9800gt=8800gt and is pretty much the same as 8800GTX. nvidia has been selling the same performance to us for 3 years.

Ya, IMHO if I could do it over again, I would have just waited. In fact this was the first time I went out of cycle to get a new PC part in between my typical upgrade cycle...Well at least I learned something. I think it was all this talk and benchmarks vs a 9800GT with 30~50% gains that got to my head. It just feels strange dropping another $160 on a single CPU on an officially dead socket that will give me nothing spectacular. I think I might just bite the bullet and wait to the end of next year like I was supposed to and see whats going on then.