Intel PC improvements

[EgoGimb]

X3 and the new i7 chip

Can anybody tell me about all the cool improvements that the i7 will bring me from 2600k sandy up?

[eladan]

A little more info might help.

X games always like more processing power, but it will depend on other components as well, like what video card you have and how much RAM you have.

[Geek]

X3 is not multithreaded, so it does not really benefit from multiples cores.

However, newer CPUs are still an improvement because of better output per cycle, better memory management and things like turbo boost, which increase CPU frequency. The "k" variant also allows easy overclocking if you are interested.

[matthewfarmery]

the X games are single core users only, so don't really take advantage of multi core CPUs at all, but then again, they might notice a small difference from an older single core CPU, as the chips are very good, however, the I5 systems are still very good and cheaper, the only real benefit for using an I7 over a I5, is hyper threading and faster line duel card support, however when it comes to HT, many games doesn't like it, and even when it was first introduced in the P4 CPUs, very few apps really took advantage of this, so was better for games if this was turned off, and this still holds true today,

so the only other main benefit of I7 systems is if you are looking at getting a duel Gcard setup, as having two cards in a I7 is faster then in a I5. but on the other hand, not all games really support duel cards, and those that do aren't that many, and there is sometimes for games, having a duel card setup can make games performance worse, so better to run the game on a single gcard, and having one top of the line gcard is still way better then having two midrange cards

but anyway, if you have the cash,. the I7 is a very good chip, but I still say an I5 chip is probably a better cheaper option, unless you really want a duel card setup and plan to use HT

your call

those are the only differences from the top of my head that makes a I5 and I7 different, plus price, as a I5 setup will be cheaper

[Memnoch]

Personally, I am going to sit out Ivy Bridge and wait for Haswell.

It's only just around the corner if you don't mind waiting a few months.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_%2 ... tecture%29

For those on a budget the GPU performance increase will be of interest. Thunderbolt technology is mentioned although there is an Asus Ivy Bridge motherboard that has Thunderbolt on-board already.

[CBJ]

X3 is not multithreaded, so it does not really benefit from multiples cores.

The first part of that statement is true, but the second is not entirely. The game does benefit from running on a PC with more than one core, because background tasks can run on the other core rather than hogging cycles that the game could be using. It also allows multi-threaded drivers used by the game to use other cores, thereby freeing further cycles. However there is little to be gained with X3 by going from dual- to quad-core, and raw core speed is still the limiting factor.

It's only just around the corner if you don't mind waiting a few months.

This statement is true no matter when you decide to buy. Unless you're planning to use the on-board graphics on a Haswell CPU, which still isn't really going to be the best solution for most games, then you'll be waiting 8 months or so for an estimated 10% improvement in performance. Personally I wouldn't really consider that a big enough bump in speed to justify it affecting my decision on when to buy, especially over that time period.

[EgoGimb]

Reason why I'm asking is because I got a intel core 2 duo 2.1 ghz~ locked apparently, but no matter, It runs I just hope to be able to have it at the best possible way and I heard cpu is what really bottleneck games + I plan on playing arma 2 and I notice a huge hog when it comes to that lol