I see I'm not the only one out there nursing an older Core2Duo e8XXX series CPU so I thought I'd throw some hope out to my fellow WOFFers running lower end gear. The single threaded nature of CFS3 does in fact keep some older Core2Duo CPUs in the game if one can get their clock speed high enough to let the Video card do more work. The Intel e8XXX series overclock wonderfully, btw, but that's a separate, if necessary conversation.

I've had two rigs running WOFF, which I'll discuss below. Major difference in Rig #2 is the major upgrade to a Gigabyte GTX 760 Video Card. Relevant Specs listed below (CPU, RAM, MOBO, GPU, OS)

WOFF Rig #1 Specs

CPU - e8400 - Overclocked to 3.8ghz
RAM - 8GB DDR2 PC2-6400 (800ghz)
MOBO - Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
GPU - ATI Radeon 4890 1GB GDDR5 Ram
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Monitor 1920 x 1080

Sweet FX installed via Flight FX but disabled for these tests

Settings

5,2,3,5,5
AC Skin Res - Normal
Terrain Detail Textures - Normal
Woods/ Forest Density - Low

This rig struggled greatly in larger dogfights, especially near the lines. I developed a benchmark scenario (which I'll post in a different thread) of 22 v 22 aircraft 4000' Over the Lines during day 2 of Passchendale for purposes of apples to apples comparison Using FRAPS I got averages in the low teens.

After seeing CptRoyce getting good FPS at max settings with his e8400 and GTX 670 I took the plunge and bought a new GTX 760 video card. True, the CPU would certainly bottleneck this card but I was hopeful that increased video memory and processing power would make a big difference. It did.

WOFF Rig #2 Specs

CPU - e8400 - Overclocked to 3.8ghz
RAM - 8GB DDR2 PC2-6400 (800ghz)
MOBO - Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
GPU - Gigabyte GTX 760 OC Windforce 2GB GDDR5 Ram
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Monitor - 1920 x 1080

Sweet FX installed via Flight FX but disabled for these tests

Settings

5,5,5,5,5
AC Skin Res - Normal
Terrain Detail Textures - High
Woods/ Forest Density - High

So with fully maxed out settings in the Passchendale test scenario FRAPS average during a 2 minute furball was 24 FPS. A stutter or two but definitely playable. In less crowded conditions the FPS is pegged at 60 with an occasional drop into the 30s or 40s.

GPU-z monitoring revealed that the Graphics card was maxing out at about 40% load so, yes, my CPU is holding it back a bit. Still, the GTX 760 running at 40% is sufficient to run WOFF at acceptable FPS with fully maxed settings.

The next step (read: new Thread) is to establish a benchmarking system for WOFF, similar to the "Black Death" track on IL-2, so that we're creating like conditions for testing.

As for all my fellow e8XXX-ers, it's time to learn the dark art of proper overclocking

epower...I hear ya re: overclocking. My rig is also an e8400, but with a GTX 560 Ti 1GB GDDR5, but I'm only using 4GB PC2-6400 RAM (due to my Win7 32-bit, not 64-bit), and another real bottleneck: a factory original (=cheap) Dell (=Foxconn) motherboard, which doesn't allow overclocking. I overclocked a prior-gen PC and it worked great, but I'm stuck at 3 GHz with my e8400...bummer! I'd love to crank it up, esp. since my 560 isn't maxing out. But it runs WOFF quick combat fairly well, although it has occasional stutters (mainly just with initial loading of things). I haven't yet tried the campaign...we'll see if that will put my PC savings into high gear for a new rig!

By the way, if anyone has ever been able to overclock a Dell (=Foxconn) mobo of my vintage, please let me know! I do have the latest factory bios, which enabled the e8400 recognition, but I'm hesitant to use a custom bios for fear of bricking.

I have an old, but quite serviceable, P4 3.6 mz "dual core" - it was called "hyper threading" when it came out and I can switch from one or two cores fairly easily.

Some of the newer games need the two to run but I wonder if CFS3/WOFF would run better if I set it to one?
I have no real FR complaints till I get about 15-20 planes in the air.

Geodude,

The guys on the Tweaktown overclocking forum may be able to help you with your Dell Mobo. Alternatively, you can pick up a used Gigabyte ep45-ud3p Mobo (great overclocker) on ebay these days for $30-$50. Still, investing much money in a 5 year old system is problematic and the obsolete DDR2 memory is shockingly expensive.

I'm trying to keep my rig running while I save for an i5-4670K based system robust enough to push my new video card to it's limit.

epower...thanks. I've looked those over (and others), but it sounds like I'm fairly limited in what I can do, although there certainly *are* some potential software OC options. But what I'm really waiting on is scraping enough together to build a rig that will coincidentally be very similar to the one you are looking at building - i.e., an unlocked i5, GTX 760 2GB, hybrid drive, 12+ GB RAM, Win 7 Prof. 64-bit, etc.

For now, though, at least the e8400 may be "sufficient" to tide me over. But I bet if/when I get into the campaign, I may find I want that new rig sooner than I thought! Meanwhile, I'll look forward to your benchmarking thread!

Is anyone else out there running WOFF on Core2 Duo systems (or Core2 Quad), esp. with older DDR2 RAM (and even 32-bit Win 7)? It would be interesting to hear your performance reports.

BTW just another "thanks" to the developers for an AMAZING job! I sure hope you guys keep it up (if at all possible)...