processor question

[Snakeeyes]

Okay techies. I have always turned to you all for your excellent advice in the past and you have never let me down.

I’m playing ARMA 2 right now with low to mid settings and it’s time to get moving onto more power. I went to “can I run it” and had my system analyzed. The only thing that turned up low was my processor speed.

Current CPU is a simple duel core E6750 2.66GHZ. This is great for sims like DCS Black Shark but I need raw power with ARMA 2.

I have been doing some research and I was wondering what you would recommend. I am looking at the Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor. It has great reviews at new egg.com and a couple of awards. I have a motherboard ready for quad core but this thing looks to be just what the doctor ordered.

I’m asking for advice on my choice and on installation. I’ve installed CPUs before and did not find it very difficult.

Thanks for all of your help in advance.

[Arclight]

I guess that would work, but personally I moved from E6750 to Q9550 a while back.

Quad comes recommended for Arma 2 by the specifications; makes sense the game can use it effeciently, though I haven't played Arma 2 since that upgrade, so little hard to verify.

At any rate, imho a quad is more future-proof than a dual-core.

[Snakeeyes]

Originally Posted by Arclight

I guess that would work, but personally I moved from E6750 to Q9550 a while back.

Quad comes recommended for Arma 2 by the specifications; makes sense the game can use it effeciently, though I haven't played Arma 2 since that upgrade, so little hard to verify.

At any rate, imho a quad is more future-proof than a dual-core.

What settings are you running arma 2 on? Medium? High?

[Arclight]

Ugh, I don't know. Tried starting it just now, but asked for activation. Pasted my key, activated succesfully, but when I get BIS logo screen it closes claiming bad key.

Either I need to actually install it on this OS (game is on separate drive), or some pirate-pantsy-boy got lucky with his keygen.

Let you know if I get it running.

[Arclight]

Alright, average of 30 FPS during campaign intro, 25 at speech on carrier, "high" preset, 1280*960.

50-60% CPU usage on average, spikes to over 80% (up to 85%). Distributed over all 4 cores, but 1 or 2 seem to be taxed slightly more.

Q9550 (E0) @2.8GHz
4GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-15
P35 board
8800GTS 512

Can run again with CPU @ 3GHz, but it seems clear Arma 2 really needs those cores.

*Maybe a more powerfull graphics card could take away some load from the CPU, but I can't say how much good it would do you.

[Snakeeyes]

Very helpful. Thanks man!

[Snakeeyes]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Alright, average of 30 FPS during campaign intro, 25 at speech on carrier, "high" preset, 1280*960.

50-60% CPU usage on average, spikes to over 80% (up to 85%). Distributed over all 4 cores, but 1 or 2 seem to be taxed slightly more.

Q9550 (E0) @2.8GHz
4GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-15
P35 board
8800GTS 512

Can run again with CPU @ 3GHz, but it seems clear Arma 2 really needs those cores.

*Maybe a more powerfull graphics card could take away some load from the CPU, but I can't say how much good it would do you.

I have a 9800GTS card right now and like it. I'm looking at the
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor right now but I'm worried about 2 things:


1. power supply- The chip draws 120 watts and graphics card has a hell of a fan. My current power supply is 500 watts. What do you think?

2. temperature monitoring- i'd like to know she's getting too hot before it's too late you know?