36 replies to this topic

[Yellonet]

You'll get a bit of a boost as a better CPU will get more out of your graphics card.

[GrimRiver]

Updating your cpu will net you around 5-10fps but it mostly depends on your gpu, I've got a i5-4670k and a gtx760sc and i get around 100-60fps on maxxed settings.

But yuh from the sound of your current cpu you might wanna update since games now are making that jump for higher specs.

[Kiiyor]

Lordred, on 11 October 2015 - 04:57 PM, said:

Patently false.

MWO is VERY CPU bound.

Anecdotal, but I agree.

I have an old Q6600 (quad core), and a GTX970. My game performance is absolutely terrible. 20 FPS, all low.

I have a friend with a newer I5 and the exact same GTX970, and his performance is off the charts compared to mine.

[Brollocks]

Thanks for all the replies. Been enlightening, and also confusing with all the different opinions.

4690K and an SLI motherboard and hope it's good enough so I don't have to throw more money at another 970. How does MWO handle SLI?

Edited by Muddy Funster, 12 October 2015 - 04:55 PM.

[LordNothing]

with what i run im gonna point at the cpu as being the bottleneck.

my videocard is just a modest gtx 750ti. but im running an i7 4790k (stock, no oc). my typical frame rates are above 60 in this game. considering low end card and high end cpu my conclusion is that cpu is more important.

ive considered upgrading my video card, but i dont run any games that really need it (as ive said time and time again, rendering is cheap).

Edited by LordNothing, 12 October 2015 - 06:06 PM.

[KharnZor]

The Karl Berg quote should really have killed this thread.
Its a fact that mwo is cpu intensive. end of story.

[Jeb]

I had been playing on an E8400 right up until the new maps came out. Yes it was on low settings... when the new maps came out, I couldn't play even on low.

My video card was and still is a GTX 260,but I upgraded to an i7 4790k (I went i7 as I do some basic video editing now and then, otherwise I would have gone with the i5)

My plan is to replace the 260 but I didn't want to spend the money on the cpu/motherboard/mem upgrade and the video card upgrade at the same time.

I can now play the new maps on medium settings. (I think I have shadows and post processing turned down/off still)

I have read a lot of posts on these forums with people saying the have top of the line video cards and get crappy performance...

I am sure that with the best of both worlds, a good cpu and good video card, your going to see the best results, but I would look at replacing the cpu in an older system first based on my experience.
(oh and I just re-read the OP... his new video card is high end - gtx 970... maybe not the highest end, but it should be good enough for this game I would think so replacing an older cpu would be the next step I would look at if I was trying to get more performance...

The stupid thing is this game should not need top of the line CPU and video cards... it's an older game and the newer hardware shouldn't even be stressed by it... as others have said, the game isn't optimized well so we have to throw money at it if we want pretty and performance

Edited by Jeb, 12 October 2015 - 07:59 PM.

[Troutmonkey]

Muddy Funster, on 12 October 2015 - 04:55 PM, said:

Thanks for all the replies. Been enlightening, and also confusing with all the different opinions.

4690K and an SLI motherboard and hope it's good enough so I don't have to throw more money at another 970. How does MWO handle SLI?

By all accounts, it doesn't. SLI will just cause more issues.

[DjPush]

Had an AMD 8350 ~ got 40-60 FPS
Have an I7 4790K ~ I get 100 FPS... CPU matters

[KrazedOmega]

Muddy Funster, on 11 October 2015 - 04:31 PM, said:

Currently still using my near 5 year old i3 2100 3.2ghz and now looking at buying a new motherboard and processor. i5 4690k and will likely overclock up to whatever it can manage on air with a quality cooler. 4.5ghz?

Should I expect a considerable increase in performance in this game? I'm really only upgrading to play MWO with better FPS and looking the best it can. MWO has been the only game I've played for the last 2-3 months. Couple of days ago I bought a new psu, mastercase pro and a gtx 970 and transferred everything to the new case. Nice upgrade to MWO from my old overheating gtx 560ti, but still not really good enough, and already got an itchy wallet for a 980ti, but I'm guessing my current processor is a huge bottleneck and is limiting my performance? I'd really like to play at 1440 (DSR) with everything but AA maxed out and at 60 FPS minimum in combat. Is the i5 going to allow me to do that? The 970 is overclocked to just under 1500mhz.


Thanks for any advice.

I think it would be a worthy upgrade especially since you already have a nice GPU.

I upgraded from an i7 920 OC'd to 3.5GHz and 6GB of ram with a GTX 660Ti to an i5 4690k and 16GB of ram with the same GTX 660Ti and there was a noticeable difference. It wasn't necessarily that high of a boost of fps (it was a bit higher) but more of a smoothing out with less dips during heavy action. Then I overclocked the 4690k from 3.5Ghz to 4.8Ghz and there was even more of a jump in fps. I would assume with a better video card it would have been even higher.

Of course that's just my experience, yours may vary. I'm upgrading to a GTX 970 later this year and I'm looking forward to it.

Edited by KrazedOmega, 12 October 2015 - 08:13 PM.

[GrimRiver]

Don't bother with SLI you'll only get a 40-60% boost from it and spending $200-800 on another gfx card isn't worth it, it's best to just get a beefy gfx card and anyway a game has to be rated for SLI for it to be any use.

[Brollocks]

KrazedOmega, on 12 October 2015 - 08:11 PM, said:

It wasn't necessarily that high of a boost of fps (it was a bit higher) but more of a smoothing out with less dips during heavy action.

This is one of the problems I have at the moment. I can just about deal with 40 FPS, but it fluctuates all the time and I see a lot of frame skipping. Not the butter smooth awesome experience I was expecting with the 970, which was always reviewed as *the* 1080 card to have, with any better card being wasted on that resolution. This is with many graphics options turned right down, too. Doesn't seem to make much difference if I lower the resolution either. So it has to be the processor and to a lesser extent the 4gb 600mhz ram I'm still using. If the new processor, motherboard and 8 or 16gb faster ram don't make a significant difference, I'll kiss my 'mechs ass.


Thanks again for all the replies.

[KharnZor]

Muddy Funster, on 12 October 2015 - 09:10 PM, said:

This is one of the problems I have at the moment. I can just about deal with 40 FPS, but it fluctuates all the time and I see a lot of frame skipping. Not the butter smooth awesome experience I was expecting with the 970, which was always reviewed as *the* 1080 card to have, with any better card being wasted on that resolution. This is with many graphics options turned right down, too. Doesn't seem to make much difference if I lower the resolution either. So it has to be the processor and to a lesser extent the 4gb 600mhz ram I'm still using. If the new processor, motherboard and 8 or 16gb faster ram don't make a significant difference, I'll kiss my 'mechs ass.


Thanks again for all the replies.

That ram...is a problem..

[Dodger79]

I started playing MWO on an i7 920@2,66 GHz with a GTX 670 and overclocking the CPU to 3,4 GHz gave me huge boost both in max fps and nearly no recognizable drops. So my experience is that if you already have a somewhat potent videocard the performance mostly depends on your CPU. Now im running a Xeon with 3,3 GHz and a GTX 770 and have no problems at all with the framrates, so your already owned 970 will benefit greatly from a new 4-core-CPU with high GHz.

[Sadist Cain]

The Atlas Overlord, on 12 October 2015 - 10:52 AM, said:

No I get how it works.

The back and forth here is on how hard MWO hits a cpu.... if the CPU isn't running 100% or at least close to it.... it's not CPU bound.

A CPU running at 50% means the other half of the time it WASN'T fully used.... hence not limited by the cpu.



Believe whatever you like.

I'm just telling you what I've seen upgrading from a 6 core (3.2) CPU to an 8 core (4.7) without upgrading the GPU..... and then upgrading the GPU.

A game will always be "bound" by something in your PC..... the question of which part has to be more powerful.

You can run a 5 year old quad core "meh" cpu and get solid 60 as long as you're running a powerful GPU.

In MWO's case, the hardware it needs most to run 60fps stable... is the GPU.

aka... not CPU bound.



I was going to keep replying to this thread but then I came across this treat.

This guy is either:
A) Running some ancient dual core from 2000 and then claiming "oh guys it's totally CPU bound, my cell phone processor can't handle it even though I have a titan"

B- Running it on super low settings and claiming "Oh look guys FPS with vsync on didn't change even though I changed GPUs"

C) Lying

Assuming you actually met the recommended CPU requirements, and had the settings maxed out, you're just a liar.

And I'm not going to waste my time with that.

P.s Didn't get a performance boost upgrading from GTX480 to a TitanX... I still can't believe he actually typed those words out with a straight face.

I get that ignorance is bliss and a single percentage value from task manager makes you a hardware wizard but you're really just embarrassing yourself at this point.

[TexAce]

The Atlas Overlord, on 11 October 2015 - 04:36 PM, said:

None, MWO is not "CPU limited" despite what claims you hear.

When running it with all settings set as high as they'll go, I only hit 32.01% on all eight of my cores.... with temps at ~55C.... all the while FPS between 40-55 on the newer maps.

The game is just badly coded, nothing short of buying 10X the GPU that you would normally need to play this game is going to increase your frame rates.

i7 3770K + 32GB Ram + GTX670 and I run this game on best settings (except shadows on High) in 2560*1440 @60fps +/-10 and this since over 2 years. No complaints. Not overclocked anything.

DX11, Full Windowed mode (quick Alt-tabbing, and runs smoother for me).

Just saying.

Edited by TexAce, 13 October 2015 - 04:26 AM.

[Maver0ick]

Here is my experience:

Intel Q9450 + AMD 7770 + Windows XP getting roughly 20 to 35 fps on medium settings. Upgrading to the AMD 7870 provided maybe a 5 fps boost. Intel 4770K + AMD 7870 + Windows 8.1 gives roughly 70 to 90 fps on high.