970 + which CPU for medium to high settings with OR?

[Desert63]

Hello all,

Great community here.

I have read the ENTIRE HW thread in the non VR area (yes, the entire thing!), and read the HW information here. For me it is pretty obvious the 970 is the card for me. It is a little more than I want to spend, but I can budget it. It seems like it will give me medium to high settings and an acceptable OR experience.
So which CPU for about the same thing. I can't afford the highest end, but need to pair the 970 with a relative CPU. I have read lots of thoughts on CPUs in general, but what price point matches me with the 970 performance and throughput wise?

And... The general HW thread talks a lot about the benchmark 'passmark'. Several posters say that to play the game on high (non OR) you need to get a 4000. Anyone here have an idea what would be the benchmark for medium to high play in OR. I know it relative to each persons expectations, but still there should be a general range.

Don't care as much about the benchmark...but really want to know what CPU to pair a 970 with.

Thanks !!

Scott

 

[CMDR Holycow]

I would consider a single 970 bare minimum to play ED in an OR. It is what I am using, but it's only temporary till CV1 comes out. Then, it will be twin SLI or bust.

 

[Desert63]

I would consider a single 970 bare minimum to play ED in an OR. It is what I am using, but it's only temporary till CV1 comes out. Then, it will be twin SLI or bust.

Thanks Captain. The part has become pretty clear when reading the hardware discussions. But everyone is talking about the video card like it floats alone in space (haha, space reference). What CPU should I pair with it, so I am not over or under utilizing my GPU?

Thanks

Scott

 

[Pate]

I don't think the CPU performance is all that important in Elite: Dangerous. Any reasonably modern 4-core CPU should be good enough.

I use i7 4790T (the low-power 2.7GHz version) which is completely passively cooled, and it runs the game fine. I don't calculate CPU usage percentage but instead check the power use and temperatures of my CPU. Idle wattage is less than 10W, when playing ED the wattage is around 40W, while the CPU stress test brings the wattage to about 65W. So ED only takes around 60% of my CPU power.

 

[CMDR Holycow]

Thanks Captain. The part has become pretty clear when reading the hardware discussions. But everyone is talking about the video card like it floats alone in space (haha, space reference). What CPU should I pair with it, so I am not over or under utilizing my GPU?

Thanks

Scott

I am running a 5 year old i5 quadcore at 2.79ghz... and the cores are half asleep. It's all in the GPU.

 

[CMDR Saari]

Like Cpt.America, I'm running an older processor - i7 though - and I haven't seen any evidence of it bottlenecking my 970. Honestly, I would recommend and i5 over an i7. The hyperthreading capabilities of the i7 are wasted on most (if not all) games I play. The extra 4 "logical" cores on top of the 4 physical ones seems pretty redundant to me as many games don't even use 4 cores fully much less 8.

I think a GTX 970 with an i5 would get you where you want to be. Throw in as much RAM as you can afford for good measure. I have 8GB and haven't had problems but will probably upgrade to 16 in the near future - after the sticker shock of my DK2 purchase wears off perhaps...

 

[Karnath]

I have a 2yr old i7 3770k, paired with 2x 970's in sli and no issues here

 

[Desert63]

I am running a 5 year old i5 quadcore at 2.79ghz... and the cores are half asleep. It's all in the GPU.

Cpt. America,
This is part of my point, or question at least. I understand there are some very technical people telling me that this game is primarily GPU limited. But I saw you on another thread (not stalking you, just that your avatar really jumps out) and the other guy was happy with his 970 performance and you were not. Now of course there is significant variance in what everyone has to do in configuration and setup. But he asked the obvious question about your CPU and you said you were running 2.8, and he said he was running 4.4. That is no small difference. I understand that in the general game you and someone else on this thread said you CPU is under utilized, but what about during the rare spike? 2.8 vs 4.4, that must add something.
How did things work when you made the suggested config changes?

I have a 2yr old i7 3770k, paired with 2x 970's in sli and no issues here

Karnath - ah, yes...two 970s in SLI...sorry not sure how that helps me . Maybe someday, but just seeing what I can get with a 970 and CPU in the first go around.

Thanks!

 

[Miimis Maks]

Intel Core i5-4690 is a good price/quality choice.

Buy i5-4690k if youre interesting in overclocking. Overcloked i5-4690k is almost as good as overcloked i7.
Not sure about Virtual reality googles, but i played elite myself with 970 and older i5 3570k and had like ~100-180 fps on highest settings 1080p. ~120-160 fps at asteroid field training mission where you have to shoot toxic waste canisters as i remember.

 

[Desert63]

Intel Core i5-4690 is a good price/quality choice.

Buy i5-4690k if youre interesting in overclocking.

Benchmarks shows nothing. You can get better numbers with "i7", but in actual use, in games difference is minimal.

Thanks Maks. Actually not the slightest bit interested in overclocking. I mean maybe, depending on the setup time and known stability of the overclock, but generally no.
I want to buy the cheapest CPU I can that will not limit my GPU.
General consensus seems to be this game doesn't need much of a CPU...but some of the threads I see where people are unhappy with their 970 report lower end CPUs.

 

[Miimis Maks]

Price between i5-4690 and i5-4690k (the k means the chip has an unlocked multiplier. Therefore it can be easily overclocked to much higher frequencies) is just a few dollars difference.
I overclocked my i5 3570k from 3.5 ghz to 4.4 ghz without any problem by following simple youtube video. It took a hour to adjusting stable voltage to my cpu.

It is worth considering.
Even if youre not interesting in overclocking, consider buying some cooler for cpu. Like Deepcool Gammaxx 300, Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo would do the job. There is no need for fancy stuff like watercooling or something. Air cooling is enough to keep healthy cpu temperatures.

 

[Desert63]

Price between i5-4690 and i5-4690k (the k means the chip has an unlocked multiplier. Therefore it can be easily overclocked to much higher frequencies) is just a few dollars difference.
I overclocked my i5 3570k from 3.5 ghz to 4.4 ghz without any problem by following simple youtube video. It took a hour to adjusting stable voltage to my cpu.



http://i.ytimg.com/vi/N0HlPN-69ck/hqdefault.jpg

It is worth considering.
Even if youre not interesting in overclocking, consider buying some cooler for cpu. Like Deepcool Gammaxx 300, Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo would do the job. There is no need for fancy stuff like watercooling or something. Air cooling is enough to keep healthy cpu temperatures.

Wow Maks, showing the jump in framerates really helps. Amazing to get up to 24 frames with that overclock. And the difference between the K and non K is only $22! "Back in the day" , I did lots of overclocking and have smoke tested more than a few CPUs. I measure my freetime lately in minutes, and my patience for tech is dwindling. I can manage the DK2 config, and somewhat dread putting together a PC. Its been 10 years since I assembled one, but I used to do it at least monthly. Hard to deny your figures (24 more frames!) and the price is so cheap, but likely I am going with the most low end I5 I can find, which is currently 3.3, and that is good enough. No time or patience for overclocking at this point.
Great info and screenshot - hope the rest of the community sees it, because that is the cheapest fps upgrade I have seen assuming you invest in the K proc.

 

[bobslob]

Im using an I5-2500K clocked to 4.6 with my 970, its easy to clocked these chips, they love it.

 

[Desert63]

Im using an I5-2500K clocked to 4.6 with my 970, its easy to clocked these chips, they love it.View attachment 21490

Yes, it appears like they do. And the word is out on that CPU and its clearly really popular. And it costs accordingly. I am not comparing the two below CPUs but for instance, the I5-2500k costs around $340, and the AMD A10-7850K APU costs $150...for maybe (give or take) being within 20% of performance. Of course the I5 can clock into its upper end price range, but they are clearly charging for its ability to clock high.

I think its been 10 years since I put together a PC and I just remembered I hate the CPU/GPU decision process .