Is my CPU holding me back?

[Wizrdwarts]

<--- Specs on the left.

When I play BF2142, on undense maps (like Suez in conquest), I manage to get around 50-60 fps. But then in dense maps with people close together, like Camp G and titan mode, it occasionally drops down to 20 fps.

I tried turning off dynamic shadows and light, didn't help much. I'm playing on 1152x864, no AA, 8x AF.

Or is my graphics card really that weak? It's a DDR2 version, clocks are 725/400mhz.

Edit: If I do upgrade my CPU (and mobo and RAM), could I get away with a E7200/8200, or should I go all the way for the E8400?

[=98=]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

I believe a poor card and poor CPU combined means you're struggling

[Eagle101]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

I think you could get away with a E72/82 no need for the extra cash if you dont want to spend it. Bust as for your gfx that will need a change HD4850 seems to be the talk of the town.

[AvalancheDiode]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

ATI 3850 should be good at 10x7 0xAA for BF2142. I used a 8800GS with Pentium D 3.0GHz and can achieve >60FPS 12x10 all the time on empty server. Lag came in when action gets intensified.

Pentium D is probably holding you back, since it is nothing more than two Pentium 4 stick on a chip without hyperthread. I don't know why, but Pentium D doesn't do well on BF2142, only a bit better than Pentium 4. I currently run BF2142 with 4850e/8200 (not 8200/4850) and have no lag at all low 8x6. It looks ugly though, so I am looking for new graphics card.

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

No, I was wondering if I could upgrade my CPU and that would help, since the only places I experience major lag are titans and places where everyone is bunched together.

And would you guys recommend this upgrade (no plans to do it immediately though)?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052

or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115038
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034 (but bought from Fry's, which I can get for $25-30 after rebate)

[AvalancheDiode]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

These would be nice, though I don't think it worth to buy more DDR2 RAM. You already have 4GB, and you probably don't need more. Although they are at slower speed, as long as you don't OC them too much, it'll be fine.

I bought an E8200 on eBay for <$140 shipping included. That was a few weeks back when some OEM trays were dumped in the market. Please note that OEM trays don't come with PIB HSF. If you can pull your current HSF and you can save some money. Unfortunately, there isn't any good deal on eBay now.

Wait until August if you want to buy CPU. AMD just dropped price on Phenom line, so Intel might follow. I've heard something about E7300 and E8600, and another about price drop of E8400 to what E8200 cost now.

[Sam1990]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

Don't buy RAM. Stick with the 4GB you have now, because 2GB DDR2 800 won't make much of a difference. Put the money towards a better processor instead. Also, check out the new P5Q-E motherboard. It's only $10 bucks more.

[Eagle101]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

Get the E8200 or E7200, with the Asus mobo.

Not much of a difference in the procs, except for the Nms the speed has a difference of 100mhz.

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

Okay so instead of a 65nm Presler Pentium D, after downloading CPU-Z, it seems I have a 90nm Smithfield.

Get the E8200 or E7200, with the Asus mobo.

Not much of a difference in the procs, except for the Nms the speed has a difference of 100mhz.

E8200 has 6mb cache, E7200 only has 3mb. Plus the E7200 is a bit slower, but should still smoke the Pent-D.

Don't buy RAM. Stick with the 4GB you have now, because 2GB DDR2 800 won't make much of a difference. Put the money towards a better processor instead. Also, check out the new P5Q-E motherboard. It's only $10 bucks more.

CPU-Z says the OEM RAM that came with my Dell is from Nanya Technology. That should be fine, right?

[AvalancheDiode]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

CPU-Z says the OEM RAM that came with my Dell is from Nanya Technology. That should be fine, right?

Nanya is one of the biggest DRAM foundries in Taiwan. Given the fact that most RAM either come from South Korea or Taiwan.......

A lot of DRAM are made by companies that no one knows. The packaging and retailing companies get most spotlight, but a lot of these companies buy from the same source. Nanya sometimes also do packaging for volume buyers (such as Dell or HP).

They might not be great for overclocking, but, at least, they work, right?

You will probably switching to DDR3 a year later anyway.

[Skaggy]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

E7200 is plenty fast enough for me. I haven't done any benchmarking, but an easy overclock to 3.0 will bring it up to the speed of the E8400's, and faster than the E8200's.

Obviously the bigger caches will help be they don't affect performance as much as clock speed.

[AvalancheDiode]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

E7200 is plenty fast enough for me. I haven't done any benchmarking, but an easy overclock to 3.0 will bring it up to the speed of the E8400's, and faster than the E8200's.

Obviously the bigger caches will help be they don't affect performance as much as clock speed.

You got what you pay for. E8200 and E8400 can hit 3.4 and 3.8 easily. Also, cache size does matter to some applications. That's one major reason why new Phenom still sucks at Super Pi, since each core has only 512kB, and 6MB L3 runs has awful latency that makes it almost as "fast" as memory.

[=)BiT(= Evant3k]

Re: Is my CPU holding me back?

Well i ran 2142 on a ASUS P5W Delux MB with a 3.0 Dual Core GHz CPU and a Ati MSI RX1900 and had no problems. So I think your problem is the slow CPU which is taking all the load.