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CPU for playing ESO PVP

BoaNoite
BoaNoite
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I currently have an i7-3630QM processor. Seems i cannot run on too high of setting and my FPS is pretty low. From what ive read before ESO is a CPU intenese game and not GPU. Question is since im on a budget would buying an i3-8100 the quad core and quad thread (new) give me better performance in ESO Cyrodill? thank you for your time.
Edited by ZOS_Icy on March 8, 2024 6:15PM

Best Answers

  • susmitds
    susmitds
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    Yes. For gaming i7 8700k and i3 8100 performs very close, as games still hardly use more than 2 cores.
    Answer ✓
  • Trancestor
    Trancestor
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    susmitds wrote: »
    Yes. For gaming i7 8700k and i3 8100 performs very close, as games still hardly use more than 2 cores.

    Depends on your GPU, with a high end GPU there would be a big difference. And yes OP the i3 8100 will give you better performance but don't expect anything too amazing since ESO and especially Cyrodil is terribly optimized.
    Answer ✓
  • Trancestor
    Trancestor
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    And i just realized this...are you planning to put that new i3 in your laptop? Because that's a desktop CPU of a way newer generation...
    Answer ✓
  • BoaNoite
    BoaNoite
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    Trancestor wrote: »
    And i just realized this...are you planning to put that new i3 in your laptop? Because that's a desktop CPU of a way newer generation...

    it would be in a desktop and i would pair it with a gpu of like GTX 1050ti 4gb or XFX rx 580 4gb, which would be better?
  • susmitds
    susmitds
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    BoaNoite wrote: »
    Trancestor wrote: »
    And i just realized this...are you planning to put that new i3 in your laptop? Because that's a desktop CPU of a way newer generation...

    it would be in a desktop and i would pair it with a gpu of like GTX 1050ti 4gb or XFX rx 580 4gb, which would be better?

    IMO GTX 1060 3gb. Slightly more expensive than 1050ti but almost 60% more clock speed, hence 60% better performance.
  • Kagukan
    Kagukan
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    You could have the worlds best computer components money can buy and you will still see performance issues in Cyrodiil. Good components will help a lot outside of those large Cyrodiil battles though.
  • Anotherone773
    Anotherone773
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    Whoever told you that ESO was not a GPU intense game but a CPU intense game does not not have a clue as to what they are talking about. They perform very different functions. CPUs, perform general calculations for programs. GPUs perform graphics calculations.

    If you are having video problems, then it is likely to be your GPU unless you have some weird setup with a high end GPU in a very lowend PC. My 10 year old i7 processor runs ESO at about 15% capacity. And a new 8th generation i i7 outperforms my processor by a decent amount while my processor outperforms most new i5s and lower.

    If you want better video, you need a better card like a nvidia 1080 or 1090 series. If your CPU isnt running at 80% plus capacity ( you can check with windows task manager) with ESO running in game then its not the problem.

    FYI, a CPU spends most of its time in "wait cycles". This is because its waiting on information it needs to perform calculations from much slower areas of the computer such as the hard drive. So with the information, it is unlikely that upgrading your CPU is going to change your performance significantly. Instead what you want to look at is:

    1) graphics card. What series/model? You want a GTX 1070 or higher. Dont spend a stupid amount on a graphics card( i usually limit myself to $200) because in 6 months that $500 card you bought will be $250. Both GPU and GRAM matter, but mostly GPU as you want high FLOPS

    2) RAM. This is the original CPU buffer. RAM stores programs and files that are needed for the CPU to perform its operations. If its not stored in the RAM, the CPU has to fetch it from the HDD. If you use a mechanical drive( As in not a solid state drive) this is what takes all the time ( and is one of the culprits behind long load screens). Ideally you want 16GB or more of RAM. Anything less than 8GB and you should be on newegg or amazon right now placing an order. FYI, ESO has a memory leak. The longer you play the more memory it consumes. If you dont have a lot of memory to begin with you will notice very poor performance early on in your game. If you have a good chunk of free memory it could take hours to reach that point.

    3) Your hard drive. This is the main culprit for slow computers. Traditional mechanical drives can store a lot but are very slow. furthermore they really slow down the higher above 50% you get. This is because the mechanical arms( the drive sort of looks like a multi disc record player inside) have to sort through the platters to find information it needs to send. You have to wait for the drive to spin up and all kinds of nonsense. You can improve performance by defragging the drive. This puts files together and puts the most used files in the easiest to access locations. You can also improve performance by clearing off your drive and keeping it below 50% of capacity. You should defrag once every month to every 3 months depending on how much you use your pc.

    So you have a couple of solutions to this:
    A) An SSD drive. This is best performance upgrade solution for older machines. SSD drives offer Flash access speeds and will greatly improve the performance of high demand programs such as games. This would be a far better investment than a CPU upgrade.
    B) Optane Drive. This is a new technology available as a card from intel. This is basically an SSD drive on a PCIE type card. But the tech used for this is much more advanced than that used for SSD. Basically an optane drive can work like the volatile memory of RAM or work like the long term storage memory of SSD, SD cards and memory. But it performs better than both. It is used with traditional mechanical drives. You will need a newer CPU/chipset to run this. So this is only an option for a new PC.

    As for the processor, in most cases an i7 will perform better than an i3. My 9 year old i7 still outperforms all i3s and almost every i5 and only very high end i7 8gens outperform by anything significant. Intel Core Ix is sore of like buying a car. your i3 is your base model. it has basic features. The i5 is the standard of that model. It has standard features. the i7 is fully loaded. You want an I7 for gaming. The processor is designed for high workloads such as gaming. An I3 is designed to check your mail, the weather, and fall down a youtube hole sometimes after you update your facebook status.
    Edited by Anotherone773 on October 31, 2018 5:34PM
  • Trancestor
    Trancestor
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    RX 580 is better than the 1050 ti but if you can then obviously get the gtx 1060
  • BoaNoite
    BoaNoite
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    Whoever told you that ESO was not a GPU intense game but a CPU intense game does not not have a clue as to what they are talking about. They perform very different functions. CPUs, perform general calculations for programs. GPUs perform graphics calculations.

    If you are having video problems, then it is likely to be your GPU unless you have some weird setup with a high end GPU in a very lowend PC. My 10 year old i7 processor runs ESO at about 15% capacity. And a new 8th generation i i7 outperforms my processor by a decent amount while my processor outperforms most new i5s and lower.

    If you want better video, you need a better card like a nvidia 1080 or 1090 series. If your CPU isnt running at 80% plus capacity ( you can check with windows task manager) with ESO running in game then its not the problem.

    FYI, a CPU spends most of its time in "wait cycles". This is because its waiting on information it needs to perform calculations from much slower areas of the computer such as the hard drive. So with the information, it is unlikely that upgrading your CPU is going to change your performance significantly. Instead what you want to look at is:

    1) graphics card. What series/model? You want a GTX 1070 or higher. Dont spend a stupid amount on a graphics card( i usually limit myself to $200) because in 6 months that $500 card you bought will be $250. Both GPU and GRAM matter, but mostly GPU as you want high FLOPS

    2) RAM. This is the original CPU buffer. RAM stores programs and files that are needed for the CPU to perform its operations. If its not stored in the RAM, the CPU has to fetch it from the HDD. If you use a mechanical drive( As in not a solid state drive) this is what takes all the time ( and is one of the culprits behind long load screens). Ideally you want 16GB or more of RAM. Anything less than 8GB and you should be on newegg or amazon right now placing an order. FYI, ESO has a memory leak. The longer you play the more memory it consumes. If you dont have a lot of memory to begin with you will notice very poor performance early on in your game. If you have a good chunk of free memory it could take hours to reach that point.

    3) Your hard drive. This is the main culprit for slow computers. Traditional mechanical drives can store a lot but are very slow. furthermore they really slow down the higher above 50% you get. This is because the mechanical arms( the drive sort of looks like a multi disc record player inside) have to sort through the platters to find information it needs to send. You have to wait for the drive to spin up and all kinds of nonsense. You can improve performance by defragging the drive. This puts files together and puts the most used files in the easiest to access locations. You can also improve performance by clearing off your drive and keeping it below 50% of capacity. You should defrag once every month to every 3 months depending on how much you use your pc.

    So you have a couple of solutions to this:
    A) An SSD drive. This is best performance upgrade solution for older machines. SSD drives offer Flash access speeds and will greatly improve the performance of high demand programs such as games. This would be a far better investment than a CPU upgrade.
    B) Optane Drive. This is a new technology available as a card from intel. This is basically an SSD drive on a PCIE type card. But the tech used for this is much more advanced than that used for SSD. Basically an optane drive can work like the volatile memory of RAM or work like the long term storage memory of SSD, SD cards and memory. But it performs better than both. It is used with traditional mechanical drives. You will need a newer CPU/chipset to run this. So this is only an option for a new PC.

    As for the processor, in most cases an i7 will perform better than an i3. My 9 year old i7 still outperforms all i3s and almost every i5 and only very high end i7 8gens outperform by anything significant. Intel Core Ix is sore of like buying a car. your i3 is your base model. it has basic features. The i5 is the standard of that model. It has standard features. the i7 is fully loaded. You want an I7 for gaming. The processor is designed for high workloads such as gaming. An I3 is designed to check your mail, the weather, and fall down a youtube hole sometimes after you update your facebook status.

    I understand what your saying. My i7 tho is 2.4 speed and new i3-8100 is 3.6. would that help at all or am i missing something?
  • Trancestor
    Trancestor
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    Yes it will help, the wall of text dude made some true points but his claims about way older gen i7's being faster than todays i5's or i3's is plain wrong, the i3 8100 is 5 years and 5 generations ahead of your current i7, which is also a mobile chip which is in itself weaker than a desktop chip, the i3 has way better IPC and better clocks = better FPS in ESO. Only thing that your i7 has better is it's hyperthreading but that doesn't really do anything for ESO.
    Edited by Trancestor on October 31, 2018 5:57PM
  • Anotherone773
    Anotherone773
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    susmitds wrote: »
    BoaNoite wrote: »
    Trancestor wrote: »
    And i just realized this...are you planning to put that new i3 in your laptop? Because that's a desktop CPU of a way newer generation...

    it would be in a desktop and i would pair it with a gpu of like GTX 1050ti 4gb or XFX rx 580 4gb, which would be better?

    IMO GTX 1060 3gb. Slightly more expensive than 1050ti but almost 60% more clock speed, hence 60% better performance.

    Mostly this. AMD chipsets are trash. But the RX 580 does perform 66% better than the 1050 ti. Nvidia 1060 3gb performs about the same as the RX 580 while the 1060 6gb performs very slightly better than the RX 580. If you want to spend about an extra $150, the GTX 1070 has 50% better performance than the GTX 1060 or the RX 580.
  • BoaNoite
    BoaNoite
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    Whoever told you that ESO was not a GPU intense game but a CPU intense game does not not have a clue as to what they are talking about. They perform very different functions. CPUs, perform general calculations for programs. GPUs perform graphics calculations.

    If you are having video problems, then it is likely to be your GPU unless you have some weird setup with a high end GPU in a very lowend PC. My 10 year old i7 processor runs ESO at about 15% capacity. And a new 8th generation i i7 outperforms my processor by a decent amount while my processor outperforms most new i5s and lower.

    If you want better video, you need a better card like a nvidia 1080 or 1090 series. If your CPU isnt running at 80% plus capacity ( you can check with windows task manager) with ESO running in game then its not the problem.

    FYI, a CPU spends most of its time in "wait cycles". This is because its waiting on information it needs to perform calculations from much slower areas of the computer such as the hard drive. So with the information, it is unlikely that upgrading your CPU is going to change your performance significantly. Instead what you want to look at is:

    1) graphics card. What series/model? You want a GTX 1070 or higher. Dont spend a stupid amount on a graphics card( i usually limit myself to $200) because in 6 months that $500 card you bought will be $250. Both GPU and GRAM matter, but mostly GPU as you want high FLOPS

    2) RAM. This is the original CPU buffer. RAM stores programs and files that are needed for the CPU to perform its operations. If its not stored in the RAM, the CPU has to fetch it from the HDD. If you use a mechanical drive( As in not a solid state drive) this is what takes all the time ( and is one of the culprits behind long load screens). Ideally you want 16GB or more of RAM. Anything less than 8GB and you should be on newegg or amazon right now placing an order. FYI, ESO has a memory leak. The longer you play the more memory it consumes. If you dont have a lot of memory to begin with you will notice very poor performance early on in your game. If you have a good chunk of free memory it could take hours to reach that point.

    3) Your hard drive. This is the main culprit for slow computers. Traditional mechanical drives can store a lot but are very slow. furthermore they really slow down the higher above 50% you get. This is because the mechanical arms( the drive sort of looks like a multi disc record player inside) have to sort through the platters to find information it needs to send. You have to wait for the drive to spin up and all kinds of nonsense. You can improve performance by defragging the drive. This puts files together and puts the most used files in the easiest to access locations. You can also improve performance by clearing off your drive and keeping it below 50% of capacity. You should defrag once every month to every 3 months depending on how much you use your pc.

    So you have a couple of solutions to this:
    A) An SSD drive. This is best performance upgrade solution for older machines. SSD drives offer Flash access speeds and will greatly improve the performance of high demand programs such as games. This would be a far better investment than a CPU upgrade.
    B) Optane Drive. This is a new technology available as a card from intel. This is basically an SSD drive on a PCIE type card. But the tech used for this is much more advanced than that used for SSD. Basically an optane drive can work like the volatile memory of RAM or work like the long term storage memory of SSD, SD cards and memory. But it performs better than both. It is used with traditional mechanical drives. You will need a newer CPU/chipset to run this. So this is only an option for a new PC.

    As for the processor, in most cases an i7 will perform better than an i3. My 9 year old i7 still outperforms all i3s and almost every i5 and only very high end i7 8gens outperform by anything significant. Intel Core Ix is sore of like buying a car. your i3 is your base model. it has basic features. The i5 is the standard of that model. It has standard features. the i7 is fully loaded. You want an I7 for gaming. The processor is designed for high workloads such as gaming. An I3 is designed to check your mail, the weather, and fall down a youtube hole sometimes after you update your facebook status.

    also when I put setting on high at 1080p my cpu usage was 97-100% via windows task manager
  • Trancestor
    Trancestor
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    Yes that's when you know that your CPU should be replaced ASAP, and probably your whole PC too.
    Edited by Trancestor on October 31, 2018 6:05PM
  • FlyingSwan
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    The real story is that ESO is largely single-threaded performance bound. i.e. clock-speed is preferable to number of cores. i.e. my Core i7 8700K has 12 logical cores but ESO does not really use them that well, despite recent improvements in this area. It does however take advantage of my 4.7GHz clock speed.

    That said, things certainly seem to be improving in terms of multi-threading in ESO, and certainly more modern games will see an advantage, so I'd not want to be constrained by 4 cores in the i3, also I don't think the 8100 has turbo boost, so you are limited to 3.6GHz instead of up to 5GHz, that will hurt ESO performance (someone please correct me if I am wrong here).
  • Trancestor
    Trancestor
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    FlyingSwan wrote: »
    The real story is that ESO is largely single-threaded performance bound. i.e. clock-speed is preferable to number of cores. i.e. my Core i7 8700K has 12 logical cores but ESO does not really use them that well, despite recent improvements in this area. It does however take advantage of my 4.7GHz clock speed.

    That said, things certainly seem to be improving in terms of multi-threading in ESO, and certainly more modern games will see an advantage, so I'd not want to be constrained by 4 cores in the i3, also I don't think the 8100 has turbo boost, so you are limited to 3.6GHz instead of up to 5GHz, that will hurt ESO performance (someone please correct me if I am wrong here).

    you're right but he's on a budget...it's easy to say just get an i9 9900k and be done with it but he obviously can't.
  • Anotherone773
    Anotherone773
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    BoaNoite wrote: »
    also when I put setting on high at 1080p my cpu usage was 97-100% via windows task manager
    Then it is your CPU in your case which is rare. If you spend more than $400 or so on upgrades you are better to get a new pc, normally. Also not all CPUs will fit all boards. You need to make sure you get the right socket for your board if you replace and that your power supply can handle it.

    Edited by Anotherone773 on October 31, 2018 6:26PM
  • FlyingSwan
    FlyingSwan
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    Trancestor wrote: »
    FlyingSwan wrote: »
    The real story is that ESO is largely single-threaded performance bound. i.e. clock-speed is preferable to number of cores. i.e. my Core i7 8700K has 12 logical cores but ESO does not really use them that well, despite recent improvements in this area. It does however take advantage of my 4.7GHz clock speed.

    That said, things certainly seem to be improving in terms of multi-threading in ESO, and certainly more modern games will see an advantage, so I'd not want to be constrained by 4 cores in the i3, also I don't think the 8100 has turbo boost, so you are limited to 3.6GHz instead of up to 5GHz, that will hurt ESO performance (someone please correct me if I am wrong here).

    you're right but he's on a budget...it's easy to say just get an i9 9900k and be done with it but he obviously can't.

    Yes OK, fair point.

    OP, if on a budget are you aware that moving to this new CPU entails new mobo RAM etc.? You can't just drop it in.
  • Trancestor
    Trancestor
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    BoaNoite wrote: »

    I understand what your saying. My i7 tho is 2.4 speed and new i3-8100 is 3.6. would that help at all or am i missing something?
    No. As i said your CPU is very unlikely to be the problem. And for the problem you described changing it out isnt going to really do anything. Your problem will lie mostly in the GPU, not the CPU. You know you could just lower your resolution a notch and greatly improve performance? CPUs are not nearly as important as people think they are for gaming, or i should say people are looking at them as the problem when the problem is the other areas i mentioned 95% of the time. GHZ does not equate performance.

    I would focus on my graphics card if i were you followed by RAM. What card do you have in now?

    Also if your going to spend more than $400 on upgrades, its usually a better idea to save up( if you need too) and get a whole new pc depending on how old yours is.



    Trancestor wrote: »
    Yes it will help, the wall of text dude made some true points but his claims about way older gen i7's being faster than todays i5's or i3's is plain wrong, the i3 8100 is 5 years and 5 generations ahead of your current i7, which is also a mobile chip which is in itself weaker than a desktop chip, the i3 has way better IPC and better clocks = better FPS in ESO. Only thing that your i7 has better is it's hyperthreading but that doesn't really do anything for ESO.

    A better CPU has only slightly better gains to framerate. the GPU is still the best bang for the buck. Also the benchmarks between the older CPU and the newer choice are not significantly different, so the framerate gain is going to be so marginal its not even noticeable.

    You clearly fail to realize that not all games are the same, some games like ESO are very dependent on single core CPU performance and do not rely much on the GPU, i for example switched from a gtx 970 to a gtx 1080 and got minimal increase in FPS in ESO, even tho the 1080 is like twice as fast than the 970. Also i'm pretty sure OP is buying a new PC all together anyway so he needs a new CPU anyway.
  • max4342
    max4342
    Soul Shriven
    Hi, I would like to reopen the discussion.
    I play on PC EU Grey Host, and I'm experiencing serious performance issues, mainly due to my CPU. During large-scale battles, my FPS drops to 0. Has anyone found a good CPU model that handles battles in this mode while maintaining at least 60 FPS? I'm wondering what the recommended configuration is and if the processor needs any extra features to ensure smooth gaming.
    I didn't budget for a full PC upgrade this year, so I'm looking for a workaround for my problem.
  • Jestir
    Jestir
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    Asking this in a new topic in the "players helping players" section would probably be better

    But to answer this question we would need a lot more info on your current PC

    Like what CPU do you have, so we know what socket it is and could recommend a drop in replacement, the video card, the system memory size+speed, the PSU max output and storage type (SSD vs hdd)

    Also when this happens in game are you running something to track your hardwares performance? That way you would really know if it is the CPU performance and make sure it's not an issue with any of the previous parts or potentially caused by thermal throttling.

    It's always best to have as much info as possible.
    Edited by Jestir on March 8, 2024 2:12PM
  • N3CR01
    N3CR01
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    max4342 wrote: »
    Hi, I would like to reopen the discussion.
    I play on PC EU Grey Host, and I'm experiencing serious performance issues, mainly due to my CPU. During large-scale battles, my FPS drops to 0. Has anyone found a good CPU model that handles battles in this mode while maintaining at least 60 FPS? I'm wondering what the recommended configuration is and if the processor needs any extra features to ensure smooth gaming.
    I didn't budget for a full PC upgrade this year, so I'm looking for a workaround for my problem.

    Never had any frame rate issues and I'm running a i5 12600k matched with a 6750xt.
  • Tandor
    Tandor
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    max4342 wrote: »
    Hi, I would like to reopen the discussion.

    You might want to do so in a new thread, this one is likely to be closed due to its age.
  • ZOS_Icy
    ZOS_Icy
    mod
    Greetings,

    We have closed this topic as it was originally created in October 2018. In many cases, it's better to create a new thread on a topic that you want to discuss as opposed to bumping one that is rather old.

    Thank you for your understanding.
    Staff Post
This discussion has been closed.