cpu-upgrade results in cpu-rating in FAF down

tabernapple

Hi all,

My old CPU-rating in FAF was 202 and my new pc-config gives me a CPU-rating of 233. So more, while I was hoping for a little less of course. (no overclocking in both cases)

Old specs:
mainboard Z68A-GD65 (G3)
CPU i7-2600
6GB DDR3 RAM
GPU HD 6950

New specs:
mainboard MSI B350 Gaming Pro (Carbon)
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 1700
2 X 8 GB DDR 4 - 3200
GPU HD 6950
(I also have an Asus Radeon R9 290 II 4GB, but I have to fix one fan first before I can use it, but I don't think that will help, since it's more about single core CPU performance, I guess?)

All specs of the CPU that I can find online are better for the Ryzen. So how is this possible that rating in FAF drops? What am I missing here?

Should I maybe go for fastest single core CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600(x) for the B350 or maybe put a better CPU on my old mainboard? Or maybe look for something else altogether? I would like some better performance in FAF late game and streaming capability.

cheers,

ZLO

CPU test is sencetive to memory latency witch is probably higher on ryzen, and ryzen 1700 is only like 10% better single core performance than i7 2600...
cpu rating of 233 is indeed lower than expected, should be more like 200 afaik. But it can show this much due to powersaving. Like when FAF tryes to mesure CPU performance your CPU might not boost to maximum ghz, cause it does not think that this is an important task for you.
Things you can try (one at a time or combine any of those options):

run test few more times... it can just give different result after few tryes
2)You can try to put forgedallaince.exe on high priority
set "maximum performance" mode instead of default "balanced" in windows settings
maybe can disable powersaving options in bios
overclocking - put lower memory timings or put higher memory speed to reduce latency (i think overclokig cores might not give any effect, but i might be wrong)
ehh yes you can upgraide, but only to increase your CPU score?
CPU score is not fully representative of ingame performance and with ryzen 1700 your ingame performance should be fine, it is just the test that gives you higher results mostly because it does so for all ryzen CPUs

Rowey

Also im pritty sure Ryzen that not 5000 Serise you want to install the AMD Power Plan Chipset driver this will help out to give you a bit more perfomance https://asapguide.com/ryzen-balanced/

TheVVheelboy

FAF cpu test is fucked for first 2 gens of Ryzen CPU's, that even when faster than intel CPU's will still show up as slower in the CPU test's. Though still, the first gen is not as fast as you might have expected.

If you really want to see how good is your CPU compared to last one you need to run a replay on +10 and see how long it takes for both cpu to finish the replay.

Also you should really look into config of your ryzen as you should be able to easily get some more out of it with some small tweaking.

Tripod

Check out this page for CPU benchmarks: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/CPU_mega_page.html

Your old CPU (Model, All, single Thread/ Power/ Socket /Type)
Intel Core i7-2600 @ 3.40GHz 4 5,325 1,736 95 LGA1155 Desktop

Your new CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 8 14,717 1,991 65 AM4 Desktop

Your new CPU is 3x faster than your old one and about 30% more efficient, but in FAF it is only 10% better (1,736 vs 1,991), as your new CPU has a lot more cores but each one is only slightly better than the old CPU. My high-spec laptop has a single thread count of 2,738 (Intel Core i7-10750H) but overall your CPU is faster (all cores). If you just want single CPU performance you should perhaps buy one of the CPUs below. Many are not as "good" as your one, but they would be better for FAF:

AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12 35,598 3,502 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 46,130 3,498 105 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8 28,495 3,494 105 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 39,552 3,492 105 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 5800 8 26,184 3,413 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5750G 8 25,562 3,395 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5750GE 8 22,536 3,379 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6 22,158 3,378 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 5700GE 8 22,566 3,371 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 8 24,108 3,343 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650G 6 21,087 3,254 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650GE 6 19,266 3,249 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 5600GE 6 18,879 3,224 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6 20,040 3,213 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5350GE 4 13,707 3,106 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5350G 4 14,025 3,105 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 5300GE 4 13,843 3,104 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 5300G 4 13,932 3,102 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT 8 23,917 2,857 105 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT 6 18,830 2,798 95 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT 12 32,924 2,792 105 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 4700G 8 19,895 2,763 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16 39,195 2,742 105 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 8 23,325 2,740 105 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 4700GE 8 20,648 2,735 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 32,873 2,732 105 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750GE 8 19,584 2,726 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4700G 8 20,848 2,700 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G 8 20,625 2,697 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 3300X 4 12,757 2,689 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8 22,788 2,687 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 3700 8 22,570 2,681 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 4600GE 6 16,377 2,676 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 6 18,316 2,675 95 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G 6 16,488 2,666 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 4600G 6 15,743 2,660 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 9 3900 12 30,878 2,650 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650GE 6 15,906 2,649 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 3900 12 31,510 2,629 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3600 6 18,037 2,611 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6 17,859 2,582 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 4350GE 4 11,420 2,578 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 4300G 4 11,102 2,566 65 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 4300GE 4 11,588 2,566 35 AM4 Desktop
AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 4350G 4 10,889 2,561 65 AM4 Desktop

If you want to have a look for yourself, go to the page: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/CPU_mega_page.html

Search for AM4 sockets and then order by thread. Find one that has the highest thread value for your price range, then have a look on ebay for used CPUs, sort by price low to high. You could then sell your old CPU, thus not losing any money.

******** DOUBLE CHECK YOUR MOTHERBOARD WORKS WITH THE NEW CPU!!!!! ********

I need to emphasis that your CPU is not bad but it is not the best for FAF. FAF mainly uses a single CPU to do the unit calculations, other games share all the calculations across multiple cores.

tabernapple

Hi Zlo, Rowey and Random, thanks for the tips. I tried all of them on the new system, but without much effect. I compared it, like Random said, by playing a replay at +10 and recording this on my phone, and then see which settings were the best. But there wasn't much of a difference. Next thing I will install my old system back and make a comparison with the same replay at 10+. And then I will know for sure what I'm gonna do. When I install scythe cooling I will also try some OC-ing with my old system. I will post the results later here for your information.

tabernapple

@youthenoob allright, thanks man, that helps me out, I will check it out and post my findings if I end up buying one of these.

Tripod

Let us know how you get on.

deletethis

Just for your reference, I'm running a Ryzen 5 3600x on an ASRock x570 with a 16 GB ddr4-2401 RAM (I'll attach my timings so you see I'm just running them at their stated speed)

Did you make sure to go into the BIOS to actually make your RAM run at its stated speed? By default, it will be much, much lower. Just thought I'd mention it since it seems kinda weird that with that much better ram you'd be that much slower on the test (i get 120-140 in faf depending on how much crap I have running in the background, and there's often a lot of it).

tabernapple

@youthenoob @RandomWheelchair @Rowey @ZLO @deletethis

Hi all,

Thanks all for advice. I've installed my old system (CPU i7-2600) back and got almost exactly the same result in my +10 speed test of same replay. When I did an overclock from 3,4Ghz to 3,9Ghz the same replay was going a little bit faster. My rating in FAF went from 202 without OC to 193 with OC. So for the moment my old system is better actually better then the new one. Because ZLO was already talking about the RAM, I checked in the new system how the RAM was doing, and I remembered it was fine, but I don't remember any figures. But because of the post of deletethis I will check it, to be absolutely sure. But for that I have to put my new system back. I will do that some time later and post update.

Cheers,

Tripod

Good luck with it. If you do go down the route of getting a new CPU, please, please, please, check that it is compatible before. If you plug it in, and it doesn't work, you might have to upgrade the firmware before it will POST.

I just want to make sure you have something that works and aren't sat there with incompatible hardware

tabernapple

@deletethis @YouTheNoob I put back the new system (*) and activated XMP in BIOS, and FAF rating became: 197. When i compare playback, the system is now actually slightly faster then my old system. Around 15 minutes game time when put on 10+, every minute game time the new system is 10 seconds game time faster. So a bit faster, but not much.

If this is the final result, I consider selling old and new system, and look for better mainboard and CPU altogether for FAF. Any suggestions what system to look for that is interesting in second hand price at the moment for optimal FAF performance?

I put my DRAM frequency to be sure. I guess this is the stated speed as should be?

26-08-2021 11-42-41.png

*Specs:
mainboard MSI B350 Gaming Pro (Carbon)
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 1700
2 X 8 GB DDR 4 - 3200
R9 290 II 4GB

deletethis

That's definitely an improvement! Up to you whether you think it's worth the time investment to find something better in the second-hand market—never mind the fact that will also require quite a lot of luck.

Personally, I believe those timings are more than adequate for playing faf.

Might be worth trying the other XMP profile to see if it's any faster? It should still be stable.

mrfabius

Get the ancient and still remarkable CoreMaximizer1.03.
16 years old and it is still optimizing CPU core balance speed.
It does not affect the "CPU Score" results, but you will have a way better experience.
I have an i7 13700k, and with CoreMaximizer1.03 on, it is way better; noticeable when you have a zillion of units on the field.
I hope it helps.
Cheers

Cyberdyne_Skynet

I was never a big fan of third party software, the game is still using only 2 cores even with a software like that...~

I think the best way to get more performance is to keep ur system clean and get the performance mode on windows, also check if u can overclock and look for them ram, is it running in xmp mode? If not u will let a good piece of performance on the table.