Upgrading Rig for Crysis 3

[Termie]

I think I am satisfied with the choice of the 3570k. Now I just need to find a MB with "built in OC". The first one I have found in my search is This.

Any suggestions for someone that knows nothing about OC. I do however know how to work a youtube video &/or tutorial. As long as I understand the terms they use.

Oh, you definitely don't need the AsRock OC Formula to get the benefits of automatic overclocking. That's for competitive unlocked overclocking, which is not what you're after.

I believe most of the Asus boards have "Multicore enhancement" on by default, which would set a 3570k to 3.8GHz in all load situations. That's what you want. AsRock may do the same, although from what I've seen, it might also set a default voltage that's higher than necessary.

This Asus P8Z77-V LK will work at $135AR, and comes with the added bonus of 8GB of free RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131837

Here's a review of a similar board from Asus: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-express-ivy-bridge-benchmark,3254-6.html

To assist you in understanding overclocking, I'm pasting an image of the BIOS from that review, as shown below:

Do you see the option that says "Multicore Enhancement"? It should be "enabled" by default. That is what will get you automatic overclocking. If it is not, then it's as simple as enabling that option in the BIOS and you are done. Alternatively, you can do what is shown here and manually overclock by setting the core multipler ("Turbo Ratio"). In this review, it's set to a very high 46, but you can choose something more moderate like 40, which should operate fine without any additional tweaking.

 

[Face2Face]

I think I am satisfied with the choice of the 3570k. Now I just need to find a MB with "built in OC". The first one I have found in my search is This.

Any suggestions for someone that knows nothing about OC. I do however know how to work a youtube video &/or tutorial. As long as I understand the terms they use.

EDIT: I just found this one from msi as well...

Depends on how much you want to spend. There are a lot of choices. What price range are you looking at?

The board Termi posted is a pretty good deal.

EDIT: If you go with an Asus board you can follow the tutorial in the link I sent in some posts back. It's software based and saves all of the changes you make to bios. So if the bios above looks confusing, the use the Asus Software.

 

[wand3r3r]

I have a gigabyte Z77 UD3H, it's very cheap but it overclocks easily with only a couple settings. I think you can get a budget Z77 board and a couple hundred dollar board is overkill if you don't need the features.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128544

Or an ASRock

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157293

Do you live near a microcenter? They have amazing combo deals, the 3570k is like $180 and $40/50 off of Motherboards.

Someone will offer better advice on the low/mid range boards but you don't need a $200+ board for the general use.

 

[UaVaj]

Not true for Crysis 3. The FX 8350 outperformed the 3770K but in other games the i7 would be a little faster but i wouldn't recommend it over a i5-3570K.

what you are referring to is a gpu limitation.

fx8350 oc to 4.7ghz (33fps) is still way behind a 3570k/3770k oc to 4.5ghz (45fps) when crysis demand cpu utilization. even a stock 3570k 3.4ghz (41fps) is significantly faster than a oc'ed fx8350. party over.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34667033&postcount=89

 

[2is]

I'm not the one talking in absolutes here, you are. You're the one who's implying there's no benefit, and likely none in the foreseeable future. Then you simply dismiss that there are people who would benefit from 8 cores. You are ignoring the fact that games made for the PS4 will be made to run on an 8 core processor. I'm sure they'll run fine on i7's too. It's not that far off, you know.

Not ignoring it at all, just not forgetting the fact that the CPU in the PS4 is far weaker than an i5 or i7. I think it's silly to recommend a CPU that performs worse in almost everything now, in the slim and unlikely hopes that it may perform better by the time it's obsolete.

 

[bleucharm28]

I just got this board with i5 3570k, pretty sweet deal and combination if you asked me.

$80.00 (After rebate) for the board at TD
199.99 on sale at TD

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...271&CatId=6976

 

[Face2Face]

I just got this board with i5 3570k, pretty sweet deal and combination if you asked me.

$80.00 (After rebate) for the board at TD
199.99 on sale at TD

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...271&CatId=6976

I got my 3570K @ TD when it was on sale for $189. Not bad considering I don't live near a Microcenter. Even @ $199 its a great buy. I have been impressed with TD's CPU pricing as of late.

 

[looniam]

The 1230V2 is essentially an Ivy Bridge i7 with disabled on-board graphics. It's approximately $100 cheaper than a 3770K but you get Hyperthreading, which allows 8 threads to be run. It sure looks like Crysis 3 can use more than 4 threads in many instances. Most 1155 motherboards can utilize the E3 series Xeons just as if they were an i7, but it's always best to seek explicit support from the mobo manufacturer. Lots of them list the E3 Xeon as compatible, it's not a difficult attribute to find.

while catching reading this thread, i was thinking the SAME EXACT thing!

a nice asus P8Z77 -LK is perfect!

 

[Tinsley847]

So I think I will go with the asus board that was posted earlier this

It comes with 8gb of memory this with a promo they have running. So is this memory really what I should be running?

 

[Face2Face]

The board looks good and so does the memory. Grab another of the same memory stick so you can run 16gb in dual channel.


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[Tinsley847]

Why 16? Everything I read said 8 is fine for gaming unless I run programs in the background. I do notice that alot of people run 16+ in their rigs though.

 

[2is]

its cheap

 

[Face2Face]

Because its just a single dimm that comes free with the motherboard. You need two sticks to run dual channel. 16gb is pointless now for games, so its not needed, but dual channel gains are.


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[Tinsley847]

Because its just a single dimm that comes free with the motherboard. You need two sticks to run dual channel. 16gb is pointless now for games, so its not needed, but dual channel gains are.


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

Wow, I cant believe I didn't realize that was a single stick. I was assuming 2x4. I am sorry for the stupid question in that respect.

Thank you for all the help

 

[guskline]

Tinsley847, just made a trip to MicroCenter yesterday and bought a 3770k for $243-tax included. I replaced the 2500k in my Asus P8Z68 V-Pro/Gen3 mb with the 3770k. WOW is it fast! I have it clocked at 43 x 103 for an effective rate of 4.42ghz and it is significantly faster in most benchmarks than my FX8350 at 4.6Ghz (21 x 219).

 

[tweakboy]

Not for games

Loading huge maps. Yes you will see a difference in game loading and map loading times. gl

 

[Tinsley847]

Tinsley847, just made a trip to MicroCenter yesterday and bought a 3770k for $243-tax included. I replaced the 2500k in my Asus P8Z68 V-Pro/Gen3 mb with the 3770k. WOW is it fast! I have it clocked at 43 x 103 for an effective rate of 4.42ghz and it is significantly faster in most benchmarks than my FX8350 at 4.6Ghz (21 x 219).

I can't believe you got a 3770k for the price of a 3570k. Thats amazing, congrats. I wish we had "Microcenters" I have never heard of them...

I started to receive my parts from newegg and I am preparing for my MB install. I had some questions that I posted in a thread on the motherboard section of the forums.

Here is the link in case my helping friends from this forum don't visit the MB section.

 

[Elfear]

Tinsley847, just made a trip to MicroCenter yesterday and bought a 3770k for $243-tax included. I replaced the 2500k in my Asus P8Z68 V-Pro/Gen3 mb with the 3770k. WOW is it fast! I have it clocked at 43 x 103 for an effective rate of 4.42ghz and it is significantly faster in most benchmarks than my FX8350 at 4.6Ghz (21 x 219).

How does it compare to your 2500k?

 

[Fx1]

Seriously i just finished this game in like 6 hours and your going to upgrade your PC for it?

I just ran it on a i7 950 3ghz stock clocks on High at 60 FPS mostly at 1900x1200 with FXAA.

My MSI 7970 1125/1700 ran it easy enough on High with FXAA. So many graphic bugs caused drops to 25 FPS in the early levels its not even funny.

The game took 6 hours to beat on one of the hardest difficulty settings. There are no actual real hard bosses in the game. Your basically superman for 90% of the game.

There are 60 different weapons for a game 6 hours long which means you can use each game for 0.1 of an hour. Maybe they should have spent less time on the weapons and more time on the actual game.

Im so glad i didnt pay EA's £35 for this game. i got the AMD bundle for 2 games for less than £30.

 

[MeldarthX]

Original Setup:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor 3.41 GHz
VIDEO CARD : HIS Radeon HD 6990 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready
HDD : Single Hard Drive 300GB (Not Solid State)
MOTHERBOARD : Asus M4A79T Deluxe, AMD 790FX Chipset
MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4)
MONITOR: 27” LCD – Samsung (MAX RESOLUTION = 1920x1080)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
POWER SUPPLY: 1000 WATT PSU

So my plan is to upgrade the CPU. Which of course means I need to upgrade my MB & memory as well.

Going from...
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor 3.41 GHz >>> AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Eight-Core

Will this allow me to take better advantage of my HD 6990?

Is this a pointless upgrade?

hehe was super late to the party

 

[loccothan]

Edit 2: The 3770k is $330 vs the FX-8350 @ $199.

Is it going to be $130 better?

No is not ! lol Take AMD FX 8320 or 8350 and make easily 4.5 GHz ! and pick Sabertooth 990FX MOBO is not overprized and competitive to ROG !
My RIG:
Sabertooth 990FX rev.1.2 - 2.8 GHz NB and 2.6 GHz HT ;
AMD PhenomII x6 1100 BE (4.2GHz FSB 248)
AMD XFX 7970 DD GHz ED (FX-797G-TDFC) 1250/6800 DX11.1 Full Support in Win8. nVidia don't have DX11.1 !
RAM 8GB Corsair 1660 MHz CL8 1T
HDD 2x Spinpoint F1 750GB + other HDD
SB X-Fi eXtreME Gamer 64 MB (full DTS and DD support THX 5.1 - 7.1 Ready)


And i tell you this is Super efficient and Plays Smooth on 1920:1440 ! MAxed Out in every Game ! AND i will in September buy AMD FX 8350 rev.2 !

http://xfxforce.com/de/Products/Gra...-HD-7000/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970/FX-797G-TDFC.aspx

http://computers.pricegrabber.com/m...-Motherboard-Sabertooth-990FX/m885735376.html

 

[tweakboy]

Original Setup:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor 3.41 GHz
VIDEO CARD : HIS Radeon HD 6990 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready
HDD : Single Hard Drive 300GB (Not Solid State)
MOTHERBOARD : Asus M4A79T Deluxe, AMD 790FX Chipset
MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4)
MONITOR: 27” LCD – Samsung (MAX RESOLUTION = 1920x1080)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
POWER SUPPLY: 1000 WATT PSU

So my plan is to upgrade the CPU. Which of course means I need to upgrade my MB & memory as well.

Going from...
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor 3.41 GHz >>> AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Eight-Core

Will this allow me to take better advantage of my HD 6990?

Is this a pointless upgrade?

Grab a 8150 and OC it. If you wanna work that GPU to the max and dish out high fps.

 

[Tinsley847]

Update 1 (Driver Installs)

So I received everything and put it together. My first issue was not knowing how to do an initial install process as far as drivers for the MB. So I asked for help on the MB section of these forums. I followed a specific install order that was said to be correct (Windows 7 > Chipset Driver > Intel ME 8.0 > Intel firmware upgrade> Intel ME 8.1 > LAN & Audio > USB 3/Graphics > Rapid start/Smart connect/Rapid Storage > AMD Catalyst Driver > BIOS > AI Suite II). Then when I got to Intel firmware upgrade, it would just hang up for hours.
After posting my issue and waiting for a response, I finally moved on with the rest of my installs, skipping Intel ME. After I had everything set up, it was brought to my attention that the chipset driver should be installed after ME, which is not how it was explained to me the first time. So now I am reluctant to reformat and start over based on the fact that ME is not up to date. What does ME even provide, and do I absolutely need it?

Update 2 (Memory Issues)
I’m not sure you will believe my luck on this one, but here it goes…

So if you remember, the P8Z77-V LK came with a single 8gb stick of Corsair Vengeance Ram for free as part of a Newegg promo. So I purchased another stick in order to take advantage of dual channel ram. Only to find out after hours of troubleshooting, that the Corsair Vengeance ram is only supported by my MB in (1) & (4) stick configurations. So if I wanted the $60 “Gift” from Newegg to be worth anything, I would have to buy 3 additional sticks at $60 each… Needless to say, I am returning the 2nd stick of corsair that I bought. I already bought and received replacement ram. I went with crucial ballistic sport, because it was guaranteed to work with my mb.

Update 3 (Asus Turbo V)
So when all was said and done with my ram issues, I installed Turbo V. I let it do its thing and it overclocked my 3570k from 3.4 to around 3.6 with the stock cooling. However after more blue screens & troubleshooting, I found it had under clocked my ram from the 1600 it was running at stock, down to 1372. Because of this under clock, I was getting memory dump blue screens. So in order to revert my OC settings, I cleared the CMOS. Which in case you are new to this like me. The cleared CMOS actually made my Win 7 OEM see a hardware change and un-validate. I had to sit on the phone with Microsoft for an hour to get it re-validated…

Final thoughts
I don’t think I will ever try “Auto-OC” again. I can’t imagine any gain I would have gotten being worth the trouble I went through. Also, I was far from impressed with the hoops you have to jump through in order for Intel drivers to work. Intel drivers were probably the most disappointing part of the whole experience.

Eventually I plan on posting some pictures. I lost some of my excitement from the rocky build out

 

[Face2Face]

Where did you find out about the ram configuration? 1 or 4 sticks sounds very odd.. Also, have you run a memtest on the ram? Good chance one of the sticks could be giving you the issues.. Also with the AUTO-OC, you should probably wait until you get a better cooler until you decide to overclock. Your chip should easily do 4.2Ghz just by changing the multiplier to 42X with a better cooler. Not sure why the Auto OC is downclocking your ram? Could just be defective stick? Also, you shouldn't be getting a BSOD because your memory is downclocked. What are the ram voltages?


Also with the driver headache - You should just installed the drivers off of the disc that came with the motherboard. It seems like you had a tough time with doing the updated drivers install. Sorry for the frustrations so far. But keep in mind this is how you learn.

 

[Tinsley847]

The ram config came from the approved list on the MB page. It says that the vengence ram is only approved in 1x8g (8g) and 4x8g (32g). I confirmed this because I tried the pair in both sets of recommended slots. Both resulted in blue screen dumps 5 min into the game. Then when running either of the sticks by itself, I was able to run for hours.

I put the new crucial memory in and ran for an hour fine. Then I used Turbo V and started to get blue screen again. So I cleared the CMOS and saw that the ram was running at the proper 1600 now instead of the 1372 under turbo v settings. From that point forward I have had no issues with blue screen.

The only test I used was prime 95 to rule out my CPU.

Also because of all the last minute purchases and decisions, my rigs ended up as follows...

Rig 1
CPU: Intel 3570K 3.4 ghz (3.8 turbo)
VIDEO CARD : HIS Radeon HD 6990 4GB
MOTHERBOARD : Asus P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 w/ UEFI BIOS
MEMORY: 16GB (8GBx2) Crucial Ballistix Sport - 1600Mh - 1.5V
HDD : WD VelociRaptor - 500GB - 10000 RPM - 64MB Cache
MONITOR: 27” LCD – Samsung (MAX RESOLUTION = 1920x1080)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
POWER SUPPLY: Cooler Master Silent Pro M - 850W, 80 Plus Bronze PSU
CHASIS: Thermaltake Overseer RX-I | Black Full Tower

Rig 2
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor 3.41 GHz
VIDEO CARD : Power Color Radeon HD 7950 Boost State 3GB
MOTHERBOARD : Asus M4A79T Deluxe, AMD 790FX Chipset
MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4)
HDD : WD VelociRaptor - 300GB - 10000 RPM - 32MB Cache
MONITOR: 24” LCD – Samsung (MAX RESOLUTION = 1920x1200)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
POWER SUPPLY: Thermaltake TR2 RX - 850W, 80 Plus Bronze PSU
CHASIS: Thermaltake Xaser VI | Black Full Tower

Edit:
Also you are absolutely right about the drivers. I will use the disc next time, and save myself hours of frustration.