Best CPU for high FPS in MMO raiding / zergs?

[Lovestar]

I'm currently helping my friend design her first desktop build. She's a die-hard MMO tank / melee and loves being at the front of big raids, world-boss zergs, etc. with a bajillion characters and spell effects assaulting the screen.

She wants a build that will let her get consistent high FPS in these situations. My understanding is that this is a CPU-dependent issue, so I'm trying to base the budget around the best CPU for her needs.

We've gotten some advice from others + our own research and basically it goes in 2 directions:

• 
  ■ Overclock a 4690K and you're basically getting the best practical CPU performance you can out of any current MMO / multiplayer environment, because going over 4 cores isn't accomplishing much even in modern MMOs.
  ■ Use a Xeon instead, which is hypothetically more suited to the demands an MMO raiding environment puts on the CPU.

I'm curious what you guys think is the best realistic solution here.

 

[gustafangus]

I'm currently helping my friend design her first desktop build. She's a die-hard MMO tank / melee and loves being at the front of big raids, world-boss zergs, etc. with a bajillion characters and spell effects assaulting the screen.

She wants a build that will let her get consistent high FPS in these situations. My understanding is that this is a CPU-dependent issue, so I'm trying to base the budget around the best CPU for her needs.

We've gotten some advice from others + our own research and basically it goes in 2 directions:

• 
  ■ Overclock a 4690K and you're basically getting the best practical CPU performance you can out of any current MMO / multiplayer environment, because going over 4 cores isn't accomplishing much even in modern MMOs.
  ■ Use a Xeon instead, which is hypothetically more suited to the demands an MMO raiding environment puts on the CPU.

I'm curious what you guys think is the best realistic solution here.

Never get a Xeon. It will work very badly for any games. It's just not made for gaming. Games like that, which spawn allot of enemies, ect. needs RAM aswell, not just CPU power. And OC'd i5 would be good, or I'd get an i7 4790, maybe a K (Overclocking a 4ghz cpu won't make much difference anyway, unless running multiple GPUs.) If that's out of budget, you could look at AMD cpus. The FX 8320 should do good for these kind of things but the power consumption is quite bigger than any i5 and i7.
Cheers

 

[Lovestar]

Thanks. That's also what several other builders have recommended now, so the "not Xeon" votes are way outweighing the Xeon proponents at this point.

She's asked me to use the i5 and overclock it for her, so that's what we're going with for this build. =)

And yes I agree the i7 would be a little better ideally (that's what my own system uses), but it's out-of-budget for her build.

 

[IamTimTech]

I disagree with the xeon statement that you should never use it. If you look at a xeion E3-1225v3 right next to an i5-4440 what you see is two processors that are nearly identical, the only difference being that the xeon has 2Mb more of level 3 cache and a .1Ghz higher clock speed.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/intel-cpu-bx80646e31225v3%2Cintel-cpu-bx80646i54440/

Now comparing the two side by side, you see all you are paying that extra $45 for is .1Ghz clock speed and 2MB of cache. Not exactly worth it. I had it on hand when I started a gaming/audio and video production build and it works just fine.

Now I don't recommend either of those two processors over the 4690 or 4690k, but what I am saying is that the statement that a xeon is bad for gaming isn't necessarily true. For gaming right now I don't think the extra funds spent on an i7 are justified.

 

[IamTimTech]

I disagree with the xeon statement that you should never use it. If you look at a xeion E3-1225v3 right next to an i5-4440 what you see is two processors that are nearly identical, the only difference being that the xeon has 2Mb more of level 3 cache and a .1Ghz higher clock speed.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/intel-cpu-bx80646e31225v3%2Cintel-cpu-bx80646i54440/

Now comparing the two side by side, you see all you are paying that extra $45 for is .1Ghz clock speed and 2MB of cache. Not exactly worth it. I had it on hand when I started a gaming/audio and video production build and it works just fine.

Now I don't recommend either of those two processors over the 4690 or 4690k, but what I am saying is that the statement that a xeon is bad for gaming isn't necessarily true. For gaming right now I don't think an extra funds spent on an i7 are justified.

The Xeon is worth it and you forgot to mention that it has Hyper Threading. The Xeon is basically an i7 without the IGP and OCing for the price of an i5. Saying the Xeon is not for gaming is plain wrong.

The E3-1220, 1225 and 1226v3 do not hyperthread. The xeons 1230-1276 do hyperthread. Most often, dollar for dollar the Xeon is not better suited for gaming or an everage user, but sometimes it is worth looking at, especially in cases of an i5. If you have a Xeon with specs similar to an i5 you are looking at you may find that the extra cache is something that comes in handy for CPU heavy games and data crunching tasks. My friend (who the build was for) does a lot of Fruity Loops, Photoshop and whatever video programs he uses as well as MMO's so for him the xeon fit the bill. That is not always the case

The xeons X1220, 1225, and 1226 are most comparable to an i5. Quad cores and no hyperthreading, but with the same architecture and more cache. In fact in instances where an i5 4430 and a 4440 may be used I would consider the Xeon e3-1220v3 because it is in the same price point and has the extra cache. If you want overclocking though, and you mention that you do, then the xeon flies right out the window.

The xeon 1230-1276 all have hyperthreading and compare to the i7, the only problem is that both the i7 and higher level Xeons have 8MB of level 3 cache so moving to the xeon instead of an i7 has almost no benefits, and if you want to overclock then once more the xeon flies out the window.

 

[Lovestar]

Thanks, that's some interesting info. The answer definitely isn't as obvious as I assumed it would be.

The entire debate the last week or so led me to dig around deeper into the Xeon vs. Core thing and it seems that for many applications (both gaming and creative), the two are mostly equivocal both in benchmark and practice.

This is probably one of those situations where if you didn't know what CPU was in your case, you wouldn't really be able to tell the difference for most average gaming and casual creative uses.

I think for the average non-professional / non-hardcore user, it comes down a lot more to the specific frills and bonuses you're looking for (and marketing), rather than raw performance differences.

As for which is better for raiding in MMOs — well, that's still a little ambiguous I guess, haha. "Raiding in MMOs" isn't a very common benchmark on any sites I can find.

 

[IamTimTech]

This is probably one of those situations where if you didn't know what CPU was in your case, you wouldn't really be able to tell the difference for most average gaming and casual creative uses.

That is the case 90% of the time lol. People worry more about benchmarks and such more than they do the actual performance they can see for themselves.

The reason I say i5 or i7 is because the xeons tend to be more expensive for similar performance and on the i5 and i7 you can get the K variant which lets you overclock.

 

[cmi86]

I'm currently helping my friend design her first desktop build. She's a die-hard MMO tank / melee and loves being at the front of big raids, world-boss zergs, etc. with a bajillion characters and spell effects assaulting the screen.

She wants a build that will let her get consistent high FPS in these situations. My understanding is that this is a CPU-dependent issue, so I'm trying to base the budget around the best CPU for her needs.

We've gotten some advice from others + our own research and basically it goes in 2 directions:

• 
  ■ Overclock a 4690K and you're basically getting the best practical CPU performance you can out of any current MMO / multiplayer environment, because going over 4 cores isn't accomplishing much even in modern MMOs.
  ■ Use a Xeon instead, which is hypothetically more suited to the demands an MMO raiding environment puts on the CPU.

I'm curious what you guys think is the best realistic solution here.

Never get a Xeon. It will work very badly for any games. It's just not made for gaming. Games like that, which spawn allot of enemies, ect. needs RAM aswell, not just CPU power. And OC'd i5 would be good, or I'd get an i7 4790, maybe a K (Overclocking a 4ghz cpu won't make much difference anyway, unless running multiple GPUs.) If that's out of budget, you could look at AMD cpus. The FX 8320 should do good for these kind of things but the power consumption is quite bigger than any i5 and i7.
Cheers

I have to say I mostly agree with your advice minus the bit about the xeon being bad for games. Some TRUE xeons are not exactly practical for obvious reasons, low clock speed, cost, ECC RAM... However Xeons like the E3-1230 v3 are actually an i7 without an iGPU. This chip would be well served in a rig like the OP desires if no interest in OC.