Choosing a Gaming CPU: Single + Multi-GPU at 1440p, April 2013
by Ian Cutress on May 8, 2013 10:00 AM ESTCivilization V
A game that has plagued my testing over the past twelve months is Civilization V. Being on the older 12.3 Catalyst drivers were somewhat of a nightmare, giving no scaling, and as a result I dropped it from my test suite after only a couple of reviews. With the later drivers used for this review, the situation has improved but only slightly, as you will see below. Civilization V seems to run into a scaling bottleneck very early on, and any additional GPU allocation only causes worse performance.
Our Civilization V testing uses Ryan’s GPU benchmark test all wrapped up in a neat batch file. We test at 1440p, and report the average frame rate of a 5 minute test.
One 7970
Civilization V is the first game where we see a gap when comparing processor families. A big part of what makes Civ5 perform at the best rates seems to be PCIe 3.0, followed by CPU performance – our PCIe 2.0 Intel processors are a little behind the PCIe 3.0 models. By virtue of not having a PCIe 3.0 AMD motherboard in for testing, the bad rap falls on AMD until PCIe 3.0 becomes part of their main game.
Two 7970s
The power of PCIe 3.0 is more apparent with two 7970 GPUs, however it is worth noting that only processors such as the i5-2500K and above have actually improved their performance with the second GPU. Everything else stays relatively similar.
Three 7970s
More cores and PCIe 3.0 are winners here, but no GPU configuration has scaled above two GPUs.
Four 7970s
Again, no scaling.
One 580
While the top end Intel processors again take the lead, an interesting point is that now we have all PCIe 2.0 values for comparison, the non-hyper threaded 2500K takes the top spot, 10% higher than the FX-8350.
Two 580s
We have another Intel/AMD split, by virtue of the fact that none of the AMD processors scaled above the first GPU. On the Intel side, you need at least an i5-2500K to see scaling, similar to what we saw with the 7970s.
Civilization V conclusion
Intel processors are the clear winner here, though not one stands out over the other. Having PCIe 3.0 seems to be the positive point for Civilization V, but in most cases scaling is still out of the window unless you have a monster machine under your belt.
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TrackSmart - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
I sympathize. I have similar hardware (Phenom II X4 processor) and I've been looking for a good reason to upgrade, but can't really find one. Regardless, those crazy motherboard + processor deals at Microcenter sure are tempting!frozen ox - Thursday, May 9, 2013 - link
This. I have an overclocked AMD Phenom X4 830 with an overclocked Asus 6850 and not much $$...dang it, honestly i'll just get in trouble with my wife for spending $$ to upgrade a PC that in her eyes works perfectly fine. I can probably get away with the GPU, as I can swap that out much quicker without her noticing.Spunjji - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Actually, you're looking at an Athlon X4 740 / 750k. That's the top end of the Trinity line-up with the GPU disabled and an accompanying price cut, but with the same cache structure and motherboard chipsets as the Trinity systems tested here.HisDivineOrder - Thursday, May 9, 2013 - link
Seems like it's up to the sale, but I'd be more tempted by the FX 6350 over the FX 4350 given the pricing on Newegg.More cores is more better, especially if you're making the sacrifice to use the 990FX chipset without PCIe 3.0 (and the FM1/2 chipsets also lack this anyway).
That said, I'd probably wait for a good sale on the FX 8350 and just go with that if I were considering AMD at all.
I wouldn't (and didn't) mostly because I'm one of those quirky desktop users who wants to use as little power and produce as little heat as possible to reduce fan noise yet after speeeeed. When I was looking (last year), AMD didn't really offer me much in the way of CPU's or GPU's.
I live in hope that AMD will pop out something Volcanic or Steamroll the competition, but sense seems to suggest they won't.
SirZ - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Celeron 300ALOL
mwildtech - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
WTF, you should dismiss this comment all of his are shit.Kabij2289 - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Great review once again Ian :)But I noticed a typo on Metro 2033 4x 7970 "16x/18x/8x/8x" :)
IanCutress - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Thanks :)kbnj123 - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
On your CPU chart you have the Intel i7 3960X and 3930k listed as Ivy Bridge architecture. These should be Sandy Bridge-E if I'm not mistaken.IanCutress - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 - link
Thanks :) Copy/paste error :facepalm: