Best games to test out a new CPU Upgrade?

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Zuon

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#1 Zuon
Member since 2008 • 505 Posts

So, for the longest time, the Intel Core i3-3220 in my computer was bottlenecking my GTX 970, and as I play my fair share of open world games, I've noticed that both my framerate and frame pacing weren't performing up to my standards. Two days ago, however, I took the i3 out and replaced it with a Xeon E3-1240 v2 (basically the equivalent of an i7-3770). And as I have way too many games in my Steam library to accurately remember which ones were stressful or not, I was wondering if any of you would mind giving me some game recommendations that will best show me the benefits of my upgrade?

tl;dr? What CPU-intensive games would you recommend I play to test out not having a bottleneck for the first time?

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jun_aka_pekto

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#2  Edited By jun_aka_pekto
Member since 2010 • 25255 Posts

For me? GTA V and ARMA 2/Operation Arrowhead. I know my FX-8350 is bottlenecking my GTX 1060. Not too bad yet though.

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mrbojangles25

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#3 mrbojangles25
Member since 2005 • 58155 Posts

@jun_aka_pekto: yeah ArmA 2 or 3 is pretty tough on CPUs.

There are some RTSs out there that are pretty rough on CPUs as well. I recall Supreme Commander being pretty rough on even quad-core CPUs when you had a few hundred/thousand units on the screen.

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PfizersaurusRex

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#4  Edited By PfizersaurusRex
Member since 2012 • 1503 Posts

I remember when I played Far Cry 3 it was like running Prime95. I had a crappy 3 core Athlon, tho. Far Cry 4 uses the same engine.

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Zuon

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#6  Edited By Zuon
Member since 2008 • 505 Posts

@wr3ckloose_: I believe you are a little misinformed as to where the Xeon lies on the performance charts. I have done my research before the upgrade, and found that the Xeon I chose is identical in specs to the i7-3770, just without integrated graphics. I know it's a couple generations behind, but I'm sort of limited by CPU socket, and I don't currently feel ready to build a new machine from scratch yet.

All I'm asking here is for some CPU intensive games to stress test it. I do not mind playing at High details, as opposed to Ultra, the bottom line is, I want to see how much of a benefit I'm getting with the upgrade.

So far, I have tested DOOM, Dishonored 2, Watch Dogs 2, Resident Evil 7, The Witcher 3 and a few emulators (won't go into detail about those though, other than I was finally playing things at full speed.)

In Dishonored 2 with the high preset, I got 55 - 62 FPS in most areas, with occasional dips to the 40s with a lot of things on screen.

In Watch Dogs 2, with a mix of high and very high, I'm averaging around 50 - 55FPS, with dips to the 40's while traveling in fast cars. This performance can be improved if I just left everything at the high preset, and turned off the extra bells and whistles I enabled.

In Resident Evil 7, everything's a solid 60 or above with everything set to high, all the time.

DOOM, being the optimized beast that it is, gets me into the 90s in a lot of scenes on High details, and the lowest I've ever seen it go was still well above 60.

And finally, the Witcher 3 achieves 60 just fine too, on High settings, and doesn't have dips as frequently as Watch Dogs 2 or Dishonored 2.

Hopefully that gives you a little more information in what I'm looking for. ^^; I will say that so far, I've noticed the CPU upgrade has completely gotten rid of the intermittent freezes that occasionally happen, and my games that I have previously tried with my i3, I've seen a 20 - 25 FPS boost in all of them, all running with more stability too.

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urbangamez

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#7 urbangamez
Member since 2010 • 3511 Posts

metro last light redux, witcher 3, crysis 3, rise of the tomb raider, crysis

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deactivated-5cf0a2e13dbde

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#8 deactivated-5cf0a2e13dbde
Member since 2005 • 12935 Posts

GTA V is heavily cpu dependent. It was a good benchmark for me. I went from an fx6200 to an i5 6600, and it went from around 45 driving to a mostly stable 60fps all around. Witcher 3 is CPU heavy for me too. I went from like 45fps in Novigrad with stutters all over the place, with the new cpu I get 55-60fps and very little stuttering now. Try those two.

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Zuon

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#9  Edited By Zuon
Member since 2008 • 505 Posts

@hillelslovak: Thank you, I'm going to have to re-download those 70gb of GTA V again. XD And I've just tried out The Witcher 3, I just forgot to add it to my second post. I've since edited it though.

And thank you, urbangamez for those recommendations. I will be sure to try them out!

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deactivated-5cf0a2e13dbde

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#10 deactivated-5cf0a2e13dbde
Member since 2005 • 12935 Posts

@Zuon said:

@hillelslovak: Thank you, I'm going to have to re-download those 70gb of GTA V again. XD And I've just tried out The Witcher 3, I just forgot to add it to my second post. I've since edited it though.

And thank you, urbangamez for those recommendations. I will be sure to try them out!

Yeah, at least you did not get the physical version of V. It's 7 discs, and takes like 3 hrs to install haha.

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with_teeth26

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#12 with_teeth26
Member since 2007 • 11511 Posts

I recently upgraded my CPU, BF1 and Forza Horizon 3 saw the most dramatic improvements of the games I tried