Upgrade Bang for Buck Advice (CPU vs. GPU)

I thought I would share my upgrade experiences and how they relate to a commonly-asked question. I think it's instructive for the "Quad Core or New Video Card?" question that we've gotten over time.

Original Setup:
E6600 Dual Core
nVidia 7600 GT
4GB Ram, Vista 64, Multi-HD setup

Test: 4 Clients at 800x600, Minimal Graphics Options, Two Monitors (one 19" 4:3, one 22" Widescreen, max resolutions on the flat panels) FPS Capped at 15fps on non-focus windows, 40 fps on active window
Baseline Performance: Definitely playable, large cities and AV can be somewhat of a problem, CPU utilization 90-95% under such conditions. 5 Clients possible, but not at all ideal.

Upgrade Path A:
E6600 Dual Core
[s] nVidia 7600 GT [/s] nVidia 8800 GT (G92 chip/process)
4GB Ram, Vista 64, Multi-HD setup

Improvement: Barely noticeable. CPU utilization still high. Was able to run slightly higher resolution or increase graphics options slightly, but almost no multibox play experience improvement. 5x Clients still not very playable-- no improvement in this regard.


Upgrade Path B:
[s]E6600 Dual Core[/s] Q6600 Quad Core
nVidia 7600 GT
4GB Ram, Vista 64, Multi-HD setup

Improvement: Significant improvement! Definitely recommend splitting workload of 4 clients across all four cores. CPU utilization dropped dramatically and larger cities and AV became much more fluid and playable. 5x Clients workable now, although graphics options need to stay as low as possible.


Upgrade Path A+B:
[s]E6600 Dual Core[/s] Q6600 Quad Core
[s] nVidia 7600 GT [/s] nVidia 8800 GT (G92 chip/process)
4GB Ram, Vista 64, Multi-HD setup

Improvement: Very significant improvement! Definitely recommend splitting workload of 5 clients across all four cores. Graphics resolution and some options can be increased without drop in performance. This is a very workable 5x Client solution.


Conclusion:
Owners of systems with a dual core and slightly older video card can 4-box reasonably well, but the best bang-for-the-buck upgrade is going to be getting a quad core processor. Once upgraded to a quad-core (like the highly recommended, inexpensive, Q6600), further improvements can be made by getting a 8800 series card. These improvements are not nearly as significant the first dual-core to quad-core jump, however. Placing a new video card in a dual-core system and hoping to see big improvement gains is not likely unless the video card is significantly out-of-date. As a note, for owners of a system similar to the baseline one presented above, the critical 4x -> 5x client upgrade is a quad-core CPU.

wow, very nice write up and good info, makes it easy to understand

Nice write-up :thumbup:

WoW is a very CPU hungry application. On a single core chip (like my old 640) a single WoW client would utilize 90% of the processor. Running 4+ WoW clients on a dual core chip would definitely see a bottleneck at the CPU.

That said, I would also endorse the Q6600 (or more expensive QX's) as the upgrade of choice for nearly any system used for multi-instancing. Just remember to set core affinity either manually via ctrl+alt+del or using an automated tool like the one found in Keyclone.