CPU Bottleneck?

[Learjet]

So I was reading about the new ATI cards that are coming out and I was looking at the benchmarks for StarCraft2.

The review linked here compares some of the latest video cards and their performance in StarCraft 2.

I was surprised to see the explanation for the results. "The StarCraft 2 results are flat, which is not a surprise considering that our in-house benchmark is quite CPU-limited."

How is the build CPU limited when the build includes this CPU.

Intel Core i7-920 (Nehalem), 2.67 GHz, QPI-4200, 8 MB Cache
Overclocked to 3.61 GHz @ 172 MHz BCLK

I am considering putting together a new build but I was going to use a Core i5 with a GTX460. Would my CPU severely bottleneck the system?

 

[hunter315]

RTS games like Star Craft 2 are very CPU dependent, unfortunately SC2 only uses 2 cores of a CPU so it tends to be CPU limited even on i7's that are OCed but RTSs look smooth even at fairly lower FPS rates because there isnt a lot of fast action going on like there is in an FPS.

 

[Learjet]

So if I want to run SC2 as fast as possible, and get a good price/performance ratio out of it, should I stick with the Core i5 750?
Should I go with a faster dual core?

 

[jasonp12]

no no no

whats hes saying is its all the games fault not ur hardware....its poor optimization by blizzard

 

[pitiko]

Yes, so true. And what I am going to say is, if you want to take advantage of 3 or 4 cores in the game + dual monitors + huge open maps + 2000 population limit per player * 8 players, and mousewheel zoom on the maps + tons of new strategies to experience every single day .... etc ... then you need to apply this expansion: "Supreme Commander"