3 questions

[dow_phoenix]

Hello Everyone.
I have been doing so much research that I just spent 20min wiping brain matter off my screen.
Full cortex overload, I wish I had been born with a surge protector.


I am an MMORPG player. Few gams ago, age of conan irked me and I went from a 4780 card to the 6850 for Rift.
I did not get any uber loving feeling from the video card change. I have a G13 pad that showed my CPU running at 87% both cores most of the time. Not sure if the G13 speeks the truth. But I have told myself keep the faith.

I also have Pinicale 14.0 for video editing my son's hockey games and family vactions.


Also I have 2 exact machines. Built one for my son and one for me in dec of 2008. I did not expect to have these this long or I would have gotten the next level Quad core.

(For folks out there, also something i have read here and there, sometimes buy the $60 dollor higher chip, you never know if your plans on building a new pc every 2 years sticks, expecially with this lousy economy. I should have rebuilt in dec 2010. But here I sit stuck 4 years later.)


Currently using Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600, Asus p5w dh deluxe. 3gigs ram. 750Watts and Asus 6850.
I sadly am a die hard Asus person. Used to be a die hard AMD. sigh.



Question(s) #1 gaming related
Currently using Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 no OC.

I was told last summer my problems were windows XP and 3 gigs of ram?

Would buying something like a hyper 212 cooler, windows 7 and the 4 1gig ram really make a difference with FPS?

I could tweak one of these machines and try to hold out til summer and the Ivy Bridge.
I just want to try Star wars the old republic, but fear i would vomit none stop if my frame rates were down in the 20's with low graphic settings. I deserve some eye candy! Atleast I read the EAH 6850 would increase my eye candy. I really have not bought the game just because, i don't want to run low graphics. I am tired of that. I was told the 6850 would get me better graphics. it did not. however, i think the question is why not.

Not sure if it is worth it yet, to just get the I5 2500k and build new, if i could get by with what I have longer.
Thanks if you have thoughts.


Question(s) #2 Sandy bridge.
I am confused on this a bit.
I read that Sandy is built with own video card in it. Being a gamer. I like video cards, and reading on this about some Sandy's having an HD 4000 which is should not be near the 6850 i have.

I am confused as i read through mother board specs. Still not hooked on what to get there but have read about Asus z68 pro / gen 3. With something about the sandy video being enable/disable upon how much useage.

I ask - does the computer realize your just surfing the web and triggers the more economical Sandy processor. Then the computer realizes I logged into a game and want all the graphics to be top notch thus switching to my 6850 card?

I feel like its the motherboard that does this, but not sure.
Is there more cables to run? Think this is the part i am also stuck on, I have like a HD TV with cable hdmi, sony playstation, xbox, wii and some other things with all these damn wires. I believe I have developed wirephobia.

So when answering this. I am assuming the new Ivy bridge will do the same thing only better err.
Thanks if you have thoughts.


Question #3
OMG not anohter i5 vs i7. NO. i refuse.

When i go to make the jump to Ivy. I will be leaving this E6600 2.4 non OC. i will be gaming mostly tad bit of home video editing.

This is a quote about i-7.
"He estimated that enterprise users who are doing video and photo editing should be able to do their work five times faster than with the older generation of Intel chips."

I see "5 times" if it took 1.25 hours to burn a disk with my duo E6600. and this 5x i7 is going to take 20 mins ? Thats so huge! if the quote is not exagerated.
I still don't see gaming using the hyper threading as I read, along with notes about not many using 4 cores yet.


Would I really want to bang my head against the wall for getting an i-5 with a K over the i7 2600k? Just incase I upgrade one machine and wait till next (or even 2014) year to move to ivy bridge.
Thanks if you have thoughts.




On a side note, I have been visiting Tom's hardware probably since it started. I always click the ad's to help out toms for all the help toms has given me.
This is my first post in all these years. I think it is just because I am trying to absorb to much in 3 weeks.
Normally I can read and sort things out. Your all so helpful on so many topics.
Toms is a great place to go..

Thanks for any thoughts you could share.

 

[Hazbot]

#1. Yes, it would help, but your problem isn't that, it's that Rift is generally a bad test for gaming capability, it depends on your internet and CPU more than your GPU, a processor bottleneck is also likely, that 6850 would play practically everything now. The graphics card is probably internet or processor bottlenecked.

#2.No, the video chip in it is more like an Nvidia 7000 series card, it's worthless in gaming. The 6850 dominates. Some motherboards do change upon different times, but that will decrease FPS in games, it's disabled by default though.

#3. The i7 is only better at stock, once overclocked they are the same, if you are willing to overclock the i5 is perfect.

BTW, I think maybe that your motherboard doesn't support PCIe2, which would eplain lack of difference.

 

[o1die]

Only upgrade you might have with the asus board that makes economic sense is the q6600 used for under $100. Your asus board should overclock it simply by raising the fsb about 25%. Otherwise, wait for Ivy bridge. You can sell off your old board/cpu/ram as a combo package on craigslist or anandtech's for sale forum. There was a q6600 sold recently on my local craigslist for $60 which would make sense for you. But don't feel it is your only option or wait for another deal to appear. You may also get lucky and find a newegg combo shellshocker package deal, but you have to check them daily. They had one 2500K package for under $300 awhile back if you don't like ivy bridge prices.

 

[dow_phoenix]

Thanks Hazbot and O1die.

Always the hard choices.

I was just doing some more digging. Duo core people stating the E6600 is still usable. Yet I am not seeing data to back that up. I don't feel the 12-30 FPS I was getting out of my 6850 video on slightly over low settings was exciting at all.

Maybe your right about the pciE 2.0 not being on the p5w mother board. maybe thats a big snarl for thru put.

Still searching for reason to jump that E6600 from XP 32 bit to Win 7.


I should just buy star wars old republic and play anyway. Going to browse the Q6600 thought.


Sell my machine? hmm. think it will rot right next to my two AMD boxes, my pent 486, my pent 386 and the almighty Apple II GS with the whoo hooo - 2 mb memory expansion.

Might even pick up the Noctura NH D14 to see what overclockage i can play around with.
Most of all see if it fits in my Draculla II case.


going to go read more on this ivy/sandy graphics switching thing. I see where Asus states the motherboard will figure out when to use the intergrated video or the graphics card. Hoping it does not require extra wires.
The switching sounds like power saver for when my kids are playing webkins or the wife is shoe shopping.

Why do we have to wait till April for the release!!?? sigh.

 

[dow_phoenix]

Best answer selected by dow_phoenix.

 

[o1die]

Anandtech just tested an early release of Ivy bridge. It's still on their homepage last time I checked.