Which CPU for the job?

[Side1Bu2Rnz9]

I'm well aware that having a higher core CPU won't benefit most gamers, but I am wanting know if it'd be beneficial to those that might run multiple game clients at the same time (i.e. EVE Online). At the moment I've got a computer that's a few years old (see computer components below). I've recently jumped back into playing EVE Online and I've noticed that when running 4 clients at the same time my CPU appears to be a bottleneck when if comes to FPS count across all 4 clients. Don't get me wrong, the FPS is still high (144 FPS on the active client, 30-50 FPS on the other clients running in the background), but if I want to run even more clients I'm sure I'll run into problems. I'm assuming more cores would facilitate higher FPS across the board when running multiple clients, but I'm wondering if others with similar situations can help clarify it's validity before I go out and spend $800+ on a i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-core, X99A LGA 2011-v3 motherboard, and DDR4 memory. 

Current PC Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K (overclocked to 4.6 Ghz on all 4 core)

Memory:  16 GB @ 1866 MHz

GPU: x2 GTX 660s in SLI

Storage: x2 500GB SSDs in RAID 0 w/ a 3 TB HDD for mass storage

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V Gene (LGA1155 socket - Z77 chipset)

[shadowbyte]

the 3770k is stil a great CPU.

Your dual 660's may actually be causing the performance issues.

[79wjd]

Of course a 5820k would handle multiple instances better as you have two extra cores/four extra threads to handle additional clients. 

 

But you should check your GPU usage as that could also be the problem. 

[Alex Taylor]

9 minutes ago, Side1Bu2Rnz9 said:

I'm well aware that having a higher core CPU won't benefit most gamers, but I am wanting know if it'd be beneficial to those that might run multiple game clients at the same time (i.e. EVE Online). At the moment I've got a computer that's a few years old (see computer components below). I've recently jumped back into playing EVE Online and I've noticed that when running 4 clients at the same time my CPU appears to be a bottleneck when if comes to FPS count across all 4 clients. Don't get me wrong, the FPS is still high (144 FPS on the active client, 30-50 FPS on the other clients running in the background), but if I want to run even more clients I'm sure I'll run into problems. I'm assuming more cores would facilitate higher FPS across the board when running multiple clients, but I'm wondering if others with similar situations can help clarify it's validity before I go out and spend $800+ on a i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-core, X99A LGA 2011-v3 motherboard, and DDR4 memory. 

Current PC Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K (overclocked to 4.6 Ghz on all 4 core)

Memory:  16 GB @ 1866 MHz

GPU: x2 GTX 660s in SLI

Storage: x2 500GB SSDs in RAID 0 w/ a 3 TB HDD for mass storage

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V Gene (LGA1155 socket - Z77 chipset)

You will also need a new copy of windows and a new boot drive.

[Side1Bu2Rnz9]

2 minutes ago, shadowbyte said:

the 3770k is stil a great CPU.

Your dual 660's may actually be causing the performance issues.

I've got the graphical setting turned down on all 4 clients to the minimum, but I've been wondering the same thing. What leads me to think it's the CPU is that with all 4 clients running my CPU utilization is 100%. I'm honestly not very sure if EVE Online is a GPU intensive game or CPU... I'd assume CPU, but I might be mistaken.

[79wjd]

3 minutes ago, Side1Bu2Rnz9 said:

I've got the graphical setting turned down on all 4 clients to the minimum, but I've been wondering the same thing. What leads me to think it's the CPU is that with all 4 clients running my CPU utilization is 100%. I'm honestly not very sure if EVE Online is a GPU intensive game or CPU... I'd assume CPU, but I might be mistaken.

check your GPU usage in afterburner. 

 

Unless I'm mistaken, I also believe it's CPU bound, not GPU bound. 

[shadowbyte]

Just now, Side1Bu2Rnz9 said:

I've got the graphical setting turned down on all 4 clients to the minimum, but I've been wondering the same thing. What leads me to think it's the CPU is that with all 4 clients running my CPU utilization is 100%. I'm honestly not very sure if EVE Online is a GPU intensive game or CPU... I'd assume CPU, but I might be mistaken.

if you have the money for it, go for a 5820k. 

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, Side1Bu2Rnz9 said:

I've got the graphical setting turned down on all 4 clients to the minimum, but I've been wondering the same thing. What leads me to think it's the CPU is that with all 4 clients running my CPU utilization is 100%. I'm honestly not very sure if EVE Online is a GPU intensive game or CPU... I'd assume CPU, but I might be mistaken.

Well , 5820k would be ideal ( you can also consider a used e5 2670) , but check cpu utilisation ( gtx 660 sli might be the problem .However , i would've thought the 3770k would still be OK for the task , it still is a good performer

[Side1Bu2Rnz9]

1 minute ago, Alex Taylor said:

You will also need a new copy of windows and a new boot drive.

Yeah... I know... that's something I'm not looking forward too... however, I did find a video on youtube made by Paul where he talks about somewhere you can buy a Windows 10 OEM key for only $20. Seems like it might be shady, but he seems to have used it before, so...

[Alex Taylor]

3 minutes ago, Side1Bu2Rnz9 said:

Yeah... I know... that's something I'm not looking forward too... however, I did find a video on youtube made by Paul where he talks about somewhere you can buy a Windows 10 OEM key for only $20. Seems like it might be shady, but he seems to have used it before, so...

Ya I saw that, good luck but I think that you should get the upgrade, worth it.

[79wjd]

3 minutes ago, Side1Bu2Rnz9 said:

Yeah... I know... that's something I'm not looking forward too... however, I did find a video on youtube made by Paul where he talks about somewhere you can buy a Windows 10 OEM key for only $20. Seems like it might be shady, but he seems to have used it before, so...

you also only need a new license if your current license is an OEM license. Although, even if it is an OEM license you can often contact microsoft and they'll allow you to transfer the license. 

[Side1Bu2Rnz9]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

you also only need a new license if your current license is an OEM license. Although, even if it is an OEM license you can often contact microsoft and they'll allow you to transfer the license. 

hmm... yeah my current license is an OEM license, but transferring the license would be more ideal.

[Side1Bu2Rnz9]

Well... You all convinced me! 5820K here I come... I am going to be sad, I loved my 3770K! It's still a beast of a CPU. I've also considered just going to full package and upgrading the GPU to a GTX 970. I've always prefered going with one GPU over 2... SLI is always meh when it comes to some games. Plus the extra 2 GB of video memory can't hurt.

[SeanAngelo]

17 minutes ago, Side1Bu2Rnz9 said:

I'm well aware that having a higher core CPU won't benefit most gamers, but I am wanting know if it'd be beneficial to those that might run multiple game clients at the same time (i.e. EVE Online). At the moment I've got a computer that's a few years old (see computer components below). I've recently jumped back into playing EVE Online and I've noticed that when running 4 clients at the same time my CPU appears to be a bottleneck when if comes to FPS count across all 4 clients. Don't get me wrong, the FPS is still high (144 FPS on the active client, 30-50 FPS on the other clients running in the background), but if I want to run even more clients I'm sure I'll run into problems. I'm assuming more cores would facilitate higher FPS across the board when running multiple clients, but I'm wondering if others with similar situations can help clarify it's validity before I go out and spend $800+ on a i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-core, X99A LGA 2011-v3 motherboard, and DDR4 memory. 

Current PC Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K (overclocked to 4.6 Ghz on all 4 core)

Memory:  16 GB @ 1866 MHz

GPU: x2 GTX 660s in SLI

Storage: x2 500GB SSDs in RAID 0 w/ a 3 TB HDD for mass storage

Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V Gene (LGA1155 socket - Z77 chipset)

if you want an upgrade then the 5820k is the ideal processor to go for.

[79wjd]

7 minutes ago, Side1Bu2Rnz9 said:

Well... You all convinced me! 5820K here I come... I am going to be sad, I loved my 3770K! It's still a beast of a CPU. I've also considered just going to full package and upgrading the GPU to a GTX 970. I've always prefered going with one GPU over 2... SLI is always meh when it comes to some games. Plus the extra 2 GB of video memory can't hurt.

I would really suggest checking out your GPU utilization before upgrading the CPU.

[Side1Bu2Rnz9]

12 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

I would really suggest checking out your GPU utilization before upgrading the CPU.

will do... Thanks for the help

[Ferensar]

Being a stout little eve player for years - i would suggest you check out an SSD provided your GPU utilization turns out as i think it will ( 60-80% most of the time and 100 sometimes. )
 

An SSD will sometimes alleviate some of the data starvation of both CPU and GPU in those heavy multi usage situations.

So lets call it what it is, a bandaid for a larger problem.
for any help to be really usefull you should really provide some more data on the utilization of your PC.

What would be beneficial to me would be - Vram (gfx ram) utilization during all this, harddisk usage and Regular ram usage.

 

As a side note, eve runs well on ubuntu, so perhaps you should consider that as a better fix then a new rig, as it has far lover CPU and RAM overhead compared to windows. And most of the times better thread utilization. especially if you are going with 5+ clients that would be the way to go on your current build. and just for kicks if you stay on windows consider some of the software solutions such as EQ2 and other "multiwindow" solutions. beware that not all games permit this in their eula due to built in macros and such. None the less it is often the best way to use multiboxing.

 

ps. i would never part with my 3570k if it wasnt because my mobo gave out. similar hardware is hard to come by, and i expect that even overclocking you will see a very small bump in performance out of the 5820k - and sometime this fall there should be a new -e platform.