Best SC2 CPU

[sowexly]

I've been playing quite a bit of SC2 and I currently have a well balanced RIG for it, I will be upgrading my RAM shortly and I was wondering if anyone knew why Intel CPUs run better on SC2 or any (Blizzard game really) than AMDs?

I really look forward to BD and I only hope it can meet my expectations.
Thanks in advance for any theories or facts.

Currently have a Phenom x4 965 BE and an HD 6970
With 4GBs of DDR3 @1600
Starcraft 2 is stored on my Vertex 3

 

[buzznut]

hmm Most would say better architecture makes Intel faster at everything. The hyper threading is something AMD should have adopted a couple of years ago but didn't. But even core for core, Intel wins the speed competition. I don't know of many games that AMD CPU's are faster at off hand, but I'm sure there's a few. As far as Starcraft goes, or any other game for that matter it would be silly for developers to ignore that larger user base for Intel CPUs.

However the point is that you need a CPU that can run the software you want to run, and hopefully get all the eyecandies and stuff that we like. Whether bulldozer can meet expectations or not is yet to be seen, but if you believe the rumors circulating the 8 core FX CPU's are going up against the core i5 quads pricewise. That indicates a level of performance that is competitive with SB.

To me though, it doesn't matter if you get 20 more frames per second with Intel, what matters is if you can run what you want without any problems, high resolutions and AA/AF etc. It looks to me like your rig can run anything you like. To me, that's fast enough.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

I agree with the above its just a fact that Intel has faster CPU's, not just faster at blizzard games, they are faster at everything. Saying that, a phenom 965 should play anything smoothly, and they are designed to be overclocked, so do that.

 

[sowexly]

hmm Most would say better architecture makes Intel faster at everything. The hyper threading is something AMD should have adopted a couple of years ago but didn't. But even core for core, Intel wins the speed competition. I don't know of many games that AMD CPU's are faster at off hand, but I'm sure there's a few. As far as Starcraft goes, or any other game for that matter it would be silly for developers to ignore that larger user base for Intel CPUs.

However the point is that you need a CPU that can run the software you want to run, and hopefully get all the eyecandies and stuff that we like. Whether bulldozer can meet expectations or not is yet to be seen, but if you believe the rumors circulating the 8 core FX CPU's are going up against the core i5 quads pricewise. That indicates a level of performance that is competitive with SB.

To me though, it doesn't matter if you get 20 more frames per second with Intel, what matters is if you can run what you want without any problems, high resolutions and AA/AF etc. It looks to me like your rig can run anything you like. To me, that's fast enough.

Oh I agree that my CPU runs everything fine but in reviews I see that in large battles on an i7 930 they didn't drop below 40 FPS ever! @2560x1600 makes me wonder why in the hell I can lag up during large battles @1920x1080

 

[buzznut]

Oh I agree that my CPU runs everything fine but in reviews I see that in large battles on an i7 930 they didn't drop below 40 FPS ever! @2560x1600 makes me wonder why in the hell I can lag up during large battles @1920x1080

Are you talking about online? Everybody lags online, that's completely a function of internet connection speeds. DSL sucks, but even cable can lag if its a lower 1 or 2MB connection. Plus it may not even be you, the folks you're gaming with can drag the whole game down.

Well, I'll assume you're speaking about offline play. If your 6970 isn't running perfectly, I'd ensure the latest drivers of course. I've heard the latest Vision drivers up performance in SC2 by quite a bit. Anyway I don't think your CPU is to blame, its quite a good gamer and Starcraft doesn't have super steep requirements.

Wouldn't worry about the ram either, 4 gigs is enough for anything in WIN7. It won't hurt, mind you but Starcraft doesn't require 8 gigs, nor any other game i can think of.

Also, if you are lagging offline I'd drop the eyecandies before dropping the resolution. Try turning off AA/AF or shadows or something that isn't essential.

 

[sowexly]

Are you talking about online? Everybody lags online, that's completely a function of internet connection speeds. DSL sucks, but even cable can lag if its a lower 1 or 2MB connection. Plus it may not even be you, the folks you're gaming with can drag the whole game down.

Well, I'll assume you're speaking about offline play. If your 6970 isn't running perfectly, I'd ensure the latest drivers of course. I've heard the latest Vision drivers up performance in SC2 by quite a bit. Anyway I don't think your CPU is to blame, its quite a good gamer and Starcraft doesn't have super steep requirements.

Wouldn't worry about the ram either, 4 gigs is enough for anything in WIN7. It won't hurt, mind you but Starcraft doesn't require 8 gigs, nor any other game i can think of.

Also, if you are lagging offline I'd drop the eyecandies before dropping the resolution. Try turning off AA/AF or shadows or something that isn't essential.

Never-mind this isn't going in the direction I wanted, even remotely.

When I refer to lag I meant random spikes in FPS drop, I wanted to talk about how CPUs compare for performance.
The GPU isn't the problem neither is the RAM, and the SSD sure as hell is fine.

 

[Herr_Koos]

Try keeping a CPU monitor app running in the background. I prefer to use RivaTuner (it was designed for GPU's but it draws very nice CPU graphs as well.) If you don't see the CPU spiking to 100%, that's not the cause of your lag.

 

[sowexly]

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