processor upgrade

[Skuzzy]

Intel CPU's not only will throttle back, but they have complete thermal protection.  If the CPU gets too hot, it will simply shutdown long before damage is done.  They have had that facility since 2006, or so.

I demonstrated this phenomenon once to a friend, quite by accident.

[Bizman]

Quantify what a 'passmark' is in relation to actual performance.  The granularity is such that a .01 point difference could translate into one million ops per second difference.

We do not know what the weighting of the tests are.  We do not know how the mullti-threading tests were executed (i.e. the combination).

I give little credence to any synthetic benchmark which does not elaborate how the scoring is done and exactly what is done in each test.  The site gives very vague explanations to what it is doing and how the 'passmark' is actually calculated.

I agree the test methodology isn't described too well:

CPU tests: Mathematical operations, compression, encryption, SSE, 3DNow! instructions and more

Since their PerformanceTest program has been on the market quite long, now on version 7, I suppose that it will indicate relative differencies between products of same era, tested with the same program version. I also suppose that older versions of the test program aren't fully compatible with the newest component architecture, which will IMO give more accurate results especially for current hardware. Talking about scoring, there is apparently a base level calibrated with the slowest available component. For basic operations the base level might even be from the 8086, adding more tests when new features were put out.

My percential difference between the two processors mentioned was simply calculated from their benchmarks. It was meant to give a some perspective rather than a definitive argument.

[Drano]

I'm using a 2600-K and have it slightly overclocked at 4.4 Ghz--just because. I don't know if it's helping much if at all in AH. Reason I say this is I run Aida64 in the background and have speeds and temps, etc., displayed on my G-15 keyboard that has a little LCD screen on it. Like a little dashboard. When I'm playing AH, in all circumstances, it doesn't seem to get much past 20% load. Now my GPU (MSI R6950 2GB PE/OC) yeah, it'll get close to max'd out when things get busy with explosions and smoke and puffy but never the CPU. Not even close.

I'd say unless you're looking to use it for something other than AH that might require the extra HP save the money. Put the difference into a kickass video card that'll be more help. I'm thinking my 2600K will have me "future proofed" insofar as AH goes for at least a little while.

I'd add that some mobo's have had problems after updating the BIOS in order to accomodate the newer Ivy Bridge CPUs. My Asus P8Z68 Deluxe is one of them. I CAN run one on my board but it's apparently more trouble than it's worth. At least for now.

[guncrasher]

interesting, didn't know intel was secretly selling octa core desktop cpus, let alone marking them as quad cores...

was for lawndart he knows what I mean.


semp

[gyrene81]

was still wrong... 

[guncrasher]

was still wrong... 

was a private joke.

semp

[Skuzzy]

interesting, didn't know intel was secretly selling octa core desktop cpus, let alone marking them as quad cores...

Each core can handle two threads, simultaneously.  To the OS, a quad core has eight cores.  The entire i7 family of quad and 6 core CPU's all double the thread capability.  Yes, the six core appears as a 12 core.

The i5 and i3 families of dual core processors appear as quad core processors.

[Chalenge]

I have a water cooled system and I dont have a fan for the cpu and trying to fill the system after doing a refurb to the rig I forgot to prime the system before filling it. The CPU got extremly hot and after I got the water flowing it kept shutting down. I let it set for 24 hours and it still did the same thing. So in my best guesstimation I FRIED like an egg the CPU.

I understood what happened from the beginning. You might still try hooking up one of the case fans to the CPU fan header to see if it will boot. I have a cryo phase change cooler (evaporator) on my system and it would not boot until that header was in use.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I understood what happened from the beginning. You might still try hooking up one of the case fans to the CPU fan header to see if it will boot. I have a cryo phase change cooler (evaporator) on my system and it would not boot until that header was in use.

Huh? Not even with CPU fan guard disabled from the bios? Sounds like a flawed motherboard.

[Chalenge]

Not a feature of the motherboard in question. You can set thermal throttling only.