Best CPUs for TW

**Volound** · August 23, 2012, 01:37 PM

So I've been playing a lot of Shogun 2, and plan on playing a lot of RTW2 when it arrives. I've got a pretty decent setup at the moment which includes an i5-2500k at 4.5ghz, a 6850 (more of a stopgap), 16GB of ram (mostly for multitasking and editing), and an array of SSDs (games and windows) and HDDs (recording, mass storage). Something I like to do is have massive battles with 10k or 20k soldiers on the battlefield, here is an example in Shogun 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUJNKDGW2so (this was more of an experiment than anything else)
As well as playing a lot of Total War, I've started uploading a lot, to youtube, and it could possibly become something of a part time job (LPs and scenario battles etc.). I want my videos to be as good as they possibly can be, however, and would be willing to invest a lot in a very good setup that is as conducive as possible to extremely high performance. I understand that RTW2 isn't here yet (nor is Haswell), and we don't know how hardware intensive/well optimised it will be, but I would like to start planning as soon as possible.

So I think a good distillation of my originally intended question would be "How can I make that video look better?". As you can see, it lags horribly with 3fps at times (not that I didn't expect it to), and crashes most of the time with that many men on the battlefield. I know that the CPU is the bottleneck, and I know that GPUs are generally a case of getting what you pay for, and that 670 SLIs would more or less hit the ceiling (I think?, because I am only really interested in playing at 1080p on one monitor), but I am really not sure about the CPU. If anyone knows a lot about CPUs and total war and would be kind enough to share, I would be very, very appreciative. I know my way around a PC and all the terminology and that bulldozer sucks etc.

, just not much about the effect of different CPUs on the performance of TW. Thanks.

**Volound** · August 23, 2012, 04:25 PM

Nobody?

**irishron** · August 23, 2012, 04:31 PM

Hey, it's only three hours between posts. Real Life like a job and dinner come first. hang on.

**Volound** · August 23, 2012, 04:35 PM

Sorry. I just watched my thread descend all the way down the list without a response and thought I should bump it.

**irishron** · August 23, 2012, 04:36 PM

With Bolk and Crazyeyes, no reason to bump. They seem to find them.

**Bolkonsky** · August 23, 2012, 04:55 PM

OK, for Shogun 2 your best case scenario is a 3570k or a 3770k oc'd to greater than 5ghz. If you don't already have it and want better performance for Shogun 2, I'd recommend that you invest in some thermal cooling. Simply put your comment on the video explains that. You'd get similar performance on a Pentium IV chip (hyperbole, yes, but it really only utilizes one core.) More melee units = more dueling = more individual agents to be tracked = greater CPU usage than in any Total War game prior. When they're not dueling, they don't track as many agents so as you witnessed, performance jumps a bit.

Your GPU is definitely weak as well, I'd invest in something newer with 2+ GB of VRAM. In fact, your GPU is so weak that it can't play Shogun 2 at 1080p at 60fps. Add on video recording, and big battles, and you're looking at a medium-low setting for a smooth video.

So that could be something of a bottleneck, but the CPU bottleneck is definitely worse. If you're gonna bring up your CPU though, you will experience a GPU bottleneck, so I'd upgrade them both. Here's what you're looking at, basically any of those cards will work, but if you're looking at Rome 2 as well, I'd go for a higher tier unless you want to upgrade again.

Speaking of Rome 2, we have no idea what it will take to run at 60fps. However, we can predict to some degree. If it has proper multicore support, any higher end Ivy Bridge should be able to play it well, and if it doesn't, we're screwed anyways so it'll once again only be frequency that matters. I have no idea how Haswell will do, Intel's claiming 10% faster, Crazy might be able to shine some light on it, but even then not much.

Also, check out the bottom of this page (can't link the image, sorry.)
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...k-cpu-review/6

If you must upgrade now, you're looking at having to spend more money on higher tier parts and crazy coolers, or upgrading again for Rome II.

**ROFL Copter** · August 23, 2012, 04:59 PM

Total War is infamous for its horrible usage of CPUs. Anything with a fast core will be good. More cores aren't properly utilized by TW, and neither are a lot of modern features. An overclocked P4 might outperform a modern i7 in the right circumstance. It's a :wub:.

**Volound** · August 23, 2012, 05:13 PM

Thanks for the posts everyone, very helpful.

I have a couple of questions though:

Firstly, do the "extreme" range offer many advantages over their normal i7 counterparts? For example, does anyone know how the i7-3960X performed compared to the...25/700k in Shogun 2, for example? If they did well, is it likely that there will be an extreme Ivy Bridge/Haswell variation that could be significantly better than their counterparts for Rome 2?
I know the extreme version of the desktop sandy bridge i7 performed well in benchmarks compared to the original, but not of how well it does in total war. Would an overclocked extreme CPU still hold its edge against the normal i7, in total war, if it has any to begin with?

P.S. I think I am going to wait until Rome 2, or just before Rome 2, to upgrade. Hopefully by then Haswell will have arrived. I know Ivy Bridge was late on the scene, though. Theres no rush for me to upgrade at the moment, but upgrading in time for R2, or just before R2, is definitely something I intend to pursue. Both for CPU and GPU.

EDIT: just scrolled down on that link and saw the diagram for Shogun 2 CPUs that includes the extreme edition CPUs, silly me. The 3570k looks pretty formidable.