CPU needs for high refresh gaming

[mackerel]

Over the weekend I decided to attempt to set up a system to play FFXIV on my 144 Hz 1080p monitor. I thought this should be easy. After much testing, I found framerates varied massively depending on where I am in game. 60fps was easy, but in more challenging areas, going above that was difficult. Do I need faster than 1070 on 6700k? Assuming I needed more GPU, I put two 980Ti in SLI on my R7 1700 system. It was slower. I checked SLI was working, and it was, but GPU loading was lower than expected. I tried full screen, prefer performance and forcing vsync off, all didn't help. Fast forward some more, I found overclocking the CPU helped increase framerates, going from 3.0 to 3.6 increased from low-mid 70's to low 80's. Looking at core usage, there seemed to be one core hit particularly hard, although more than one was used. I guess I need fewer faster cores? Can I increase it enough to get 144fps?

Since then I've moved the 980Ti SLI into a system with 6600k, and that's as far as I got due to other family matters over the weekend. I've yet to test it, but I hope it helps... 4.2 is my easy setting, and I can push further as required. The CPU and one GPU is on water loop, and I can get an additional block for the 2nd if proven to work.

 

[mackerel]

After some setbacks including total non-boot (no life whatsoever) until I reseated 2nd GPU, and then had to re-paste under the IHS as something seemed to have shifted and it was quite unbalanced in temps, I finally got some FFXIV Stormblood benchmark scores.

Old system reference:
6700k @4.2 fixed, 1070 FE, score 16187, ave fps 109.2

Test system:
6600k @ 4.2 fixed, 980Ti single, score 15112, 102.9 fps
6600k @ 4.2 fixed, 980Ti SLI, score 17641, 126.2 fps
6600k @ 4.5 fixed, 980Ti SLI, score 18105, 128.9 fps

So, more CPU clock did help it a little bit, about 7% clock giving 2% more fps. Not enough to be interesting really. I'm out of time for one day, but I'll leave the CPU OC in place and will also try OC the GPUs tomorrow. Thing is, the single 1070 does almost as well as the SLI 980Ti, so it doesn't seem worth running SLI for this particular use case.

Before anyone asks, I can't put the 980 Ti SLI in the 6700k system as it is ITX so can only take one card. I could swap CPUs but both systems are water cooled and it would be a right pain. Also both CPUs have previously been delidded.

I don't have the R7 1700 stock results to hand, but it was of the ball park 13000 with 980Ti SLI.

I'm debating if 6 intel cores would help, and after a quick look around ebay, I hopefully have a new i7-5820k on its way to me for the price of a new R5 1600. I'll put it in place of the Xeon and then will do initial testing with a single 980Ti card as the 2nd would need the water block removing again, and I'm getting rather tiered of that!

The particular seller is priced somewhat lower than most others, not insanely cheap, but there's just enough of a gap to make me question what might be happening. I'm hoping they're just some clearance reseller who needs to shift stuff fast rather than at best price. They also had a 6700k for even less, which is somewhat tempting to backfill a spare Z170 board I have... their 7700k was closer to market. They might be applying a bit more devaluation with age than others.

 

[Kenrou]

You're playing a MMORPG and you're wondering why FPS vary from place to place Like any game the 6c+ will only help if it's optimized for it, most won't and 4c8t seems to be the sweet spot, WoW is the current exception to the rule as it uses all available (but still favours higher clocks). CPU speed should always give you the most bang-for-buck.

6700k 4.7ghz with overclocked Strix 980ti Win10 1080p gave this result last time i played FFXIV :

 

[mackerel]

Any chance you can run the Stormblood bench too? I never did the Heavensward one so can't compare, and need to be forward looking also. The reason I'm looking at the 5820k is that I hope to hit still decent clocks, but it'll give those extra physical cores too. Something AMD can't do. HT is rather hit and miss so I'd rather leave it out of the equation for the short term, although I could test it separately later.

All I want is 144fps... how hard can it be? Put more GPU in, find I'm CPU limited... At least I didn't get a 1080 which I considered also.

 

[Kenrou]

Sorry sold my Intel 2 months ago, in the middle of switching for Ryzen as well as far as i remember at max settings the lowest i had was 100-ish, this was the scene where they gather before heading out to raid (lots of NPC's) and the fight with the dragon at the end with all the spell casting, so typical raid (10+ players) scenario. The rest of the bench (dungeon and flight) it was well over 150fps, so take what you want from there. I only had the original game so expansions might further optimize the game.

 

[mackerel]

I find the "old world" fps to be no problem, in a quick test in Ul'dah and just outside Costa Del Sol, I can get 144+ without much effort. The problem is in newer areas. In Idyllshire with the OC 1700 I was only getting to 70's-80's-ish fps. All at 1080p maximum. That's when I realised I was CPU limited, not GPU. I kinda switched between in game and Stormblood benchmark testing which complicates things a little.

If I look at the fps trace in Stormblood bench, for a lot of the time there isn't much difference when I have SLI or off, and even when there is a difference, it isn't remotely close to a factor of two. Low 10's of % at most. When I OC the CPU further, I could see a slight shift in the overall fps, emphasis on slight.

I'm almost certainly not going to get guaranteed 144fps with current and impending 5820k, but I'd like the 5820k anyway as I never did Haswell OC, and I have everything else on hand already (apart from possibly upgrading cooler...)

 

[Kenrou]

I don't know any MMORPG that uses SLI properly ? But no, I wouldn't expect 144fps EVERYWHERE, even a 7700k 5ghz would have issues in certain areas where you start pushing the shadows and LoS or too many NPC's. WoW is a good example, you can do 200fps+ on regular PvE questing and have hard drops (45fps+) in neutral cities and capitals full of people especially if you're using MSAA.

 

[EarthDog]

Tl:dr...

Overclock the snot out of that cpu... consider getting more cores... its an mmo.

Look at reviews amd see how it responds to cores, etc...

Due diligence.

 

[mackerel]

Couldn't find anything applicable to my needs as far as benching is concerned. I could do it myself if I had free time, which I don't. Even if the 5820k doesn't help, I do want one anyway.

 

[wingman99]

I was able to see a much better FPS increase with overclocking at 4.5GHz and setting the graphic settings on medium.