Ryzen, Intel 10th gen, or the upcoming zen

Off-Topic Games, Gaming and Hardware
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hey all I asked questions about CPU here a few weeks ago, but wanted to ask it again but in a different way, since my goals with the PC in question have changed.

If I have an Intel 7600k that is overlocked to 4.8 ghz, (only a 4 core 4 thread processor) Would I see any reduction in performance in WoW if I upgraded to a new board/CPU such as a Ryzen 3900xt or 3950 due to their lower clock speeds?

Should one just wait on the new zen processors this fall? or would the new intel 10900k wih 10 cores and 20 threads give me more multitasking performance than I could ever need while still getting more clock speed that WoW cares more about anyway?

Thanks again.

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Wait

You might get smoother (better 1% and 0.1% lows) on the higher core count Ryzens, but overall your performance may reduce in some areas or be unchanged.

You might get improvement if you are a heavy multitasker (WoW, streaming, videos, discord, bunch of other stuff running at once).

Zen 3 should be uplifts over Intel in every metric.

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Thank you, finally a straight answer ive been tweeting linus and all sorts of people for weeks about this lol. I will just hold off for zen 3 and the 7nm+ or whatever.

You seem to really know your stuff can I ask one more question? I am also going to finally be upgrading from a 2k to 4k monitor. Will higher resolution tax the GPU more, the CPU, or both? If this was reddit Id give you gold lol.

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Thanks haha! Well, I am just a nerd. I’m not right on everything either. But I try :slight_smile:

Regarding the resolution question: Both sort of. The concept of “increasing resolution reduces CPU requirement” is only a half-truth.

Think of framerate being a two-part game.

Extremely unscientific and simplistic explanation with made up numbers:

The CPU can process as many frames as it wants, but the GPU can only render as many as the CPU is asking for and is itself capable of.

Increasing resolution is mostly a GPU stresser, and CPU doesn’t get affected as much from the increase of resolution.

If at 1080p, your CPU is capable of processing 150 frames, but your GPU is capable of rendering 200 frames, then you will only see 150 frames because you are CPU-limited. In this case, a CPU upgrade could help you utilize more of your GPU’s capability.

If at 1440p, your CPU is capable of processing 140 frames, and your GPU is capable of rendering 150 frames, then you will only see 140 frames because you are still CPU-limited, but much less so. The GPU is able to be more fully utilized because you’re asking more of it.

If at 4k, your CPU is capable of pressing 120 frames, and your GPU is only capable of render 100 frames, then you will only see 100 frames because you are now GPU limited.

But let’s say you had a weaker processor that could only process 120 frames at 1080p, 110 frames at 1440p, and 100 frames at 4k. Let’s say your GPU could do 200, 150, and 120 respectively at those resolutions.

You could run at 1080p/1440p, but you would be stuck at 120fps/110fps while your GPU had headroom for 200/150, or you could run at 4k and get actual 100fps - 100fps from the CPU and 120 frames from the GPU. The 4k option gets most benefit out of both components. Increasing resolution didn’t actually increase FPS at all, just balanced the load and gave you more utilization.

But say you had an even weaker CPU, say that could only run 60fps. Increasing the resolution won’t give you more frames past 60, and getting a faster graphics card won’t help.

So the whole “higher resolution is less demanding on the CPU” really depends and doesn’t mean you can get a poor CPU.

There’s other nuances like 1% and 0.1% lows, scenarios where no matter what GPU or CPU you have, you will have low FPS (to varying degrees). But this is a very super basic overview. Also the idea of deliberately seeking lower GPU utilization (thermals, noise). But that’s another story.

So to answer your question, you need both, but as long as your CPU isn’t totally terrible, GPU is generally more impactful on your experience.

Cliffs: if you upgrade to a 2k or 4k display, and your GPU is very strong, your CPU will be less of a bottleneck, but you won’t get more frames than you would have if you were instead playing at 1080p. I recommend 2k with something like a 5700 XT or 2070 Super for those resolutions, and the limitations of your CPU will be less obvious, not counting the possibility you are using too many simultaneous programs

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Thank you so much again. Ive been puzzled for a solid two years now why changing my resolution does not seem to improve my FPS in WoW, or make it worse for that matter and now I think I know.

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What GPU are you currently using?

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EVGA 1080 ti overlocked to 1950mhz. I wouldn’t even upgrade it but the word on the street is Shadowlands getting ray tracing AND the 3080 is supposed to be much better at ray tracing than the 2080s.

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There’s a few things to consider when going with a higher resolution display.

  1. It takes more GPU. So looking forward, as you get new games or as the games you play become more GPU intensive, it will be more demanding on your hardware to run at higher resolutions. Getting a lower resolution display means your GPU can run at the native display longer before you need to upgrade.

  2. Running at non-native resolutions (example playing 1080p on a 1440p monitor) usually looks really, really weird. It has to scale it down to fit, and it just looks strange. 1080p non-native probably looks best on a 4k display since its exactly 1/4 the resolution. 1080p on a 1440p is a weird ratio.

You’ll really enjoy a 1440p display with a 1080ti in most games. In WoW, the 1080ti can even play 4k really well.

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I play WoW in 1440p with the 1080 ti. The UI says I typically get over 100 FPS. This sounds great but it really does not feel like 100+FPS

I see console games on TV’s running at 60 fps that look smoother than my WoW does at 100+fps. Either something is wrong, or im doing something wrong or the game is lying. Maybe I should turn G-sync off? Im at a loss. I get 500 FPS+ in Doom Eternal. What am I doing wrong?

Side note, battling the above issue and being willing to spend a grand just on a CPU and motherboard upgrade are symptoms of my frustration with PC and WoW’s smoothness to the point I am ready to give up and pre-order a PS5 for FFXIV. Insert disc. turn on console, instant great graphics. How much money do I have to spend to get WoW to run beautifully and smoothly?

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A couple of questions:

  1. Is your display adapter set to the appropriate refresh? i.e. if your display is 144hz, is it set to 144hz?

  2. Are you playing with vsync on or off? If it is on, it should sync framerate to your monitor’s refresh. If it isn’t, it will render as many frames as it can, regardless of what your display is set to.

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  1. Yes, for certain.

  2. I leave v-sync off, as I was told from various sources that if you are using G-sync that you should not turn on v-sync. The frame rate varies wildly and feel like this could be a contributing factor but it really never dips below 90 FPS. Directx 12 fullscreen borderless mode etc.

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Try turning G-sync off and see what happens?

Also, are you running multiple displays? Sometimes that messes things up. I notice with that + Logitech GHub, I get weird framrate issues sometimes. Shutting off the software helps.

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I am running an old crappy Dell 1080p monitor on the side for youtube, Netflix, etc. connected with an ancient DVI plug. I will disconnect it and try turning of G-sync when I get home in about an hour, and try v-sync instead just to be sure. Ive played dozens of games on this PC and the only issue seems to be with WoW.

Thanks again for all your time, I know this isn’t the support forums so its very appreciated lol.

Edit: Another side note, I still want to upgrade my CPU soon for more multicore stuff. The PC is going to eventually server as a multimedia server and do a lot of heavy number crunching that is going to benefit from having more than lol4 cores.

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Another thing, does this happen all the time, or just sometimes?

Because sometimes this game runs like trash no matter what, especially in places like Warfront bosses and world bosses.

Mine will say its giving me 90fps but the game feels weird af…i think its half server lag and the rest is just it being CPU bound and having bad frametimes that aren’t being registered by the FPS counter.

A faster CPU would help in that case. I also do know that the multicore enhancements they put into 8.1 (or 8.2?) DID help. I got a good 20-30% improvement in FPS low scenarios, from around 70fps to 90+fps