Upgrade from T5250 to T7500 - CS Source question

Hey guys,

im new to forums, and i apologize if someone has already posted this.

Im running an Acer 5920 - with DDR2 8600m GT and pretty 4 gigs of ram etc...

I was wondering if boosting up my laptop from a T5250 to T7500 would have a noticeable difference when i play CS:source.

Currently when i get into fire fights with 20 players in a game my frames drop to around 25-30fps and i was just wondering if the extra CPU power would help here?

The upgrade would cost me $130 including a person properly installing it for me.

I'm not concerned with any warranty as this computer is already out of it.

thanks for the suggestions and any opinions!

 

welcome to nbr,

The only way to know for sure is to do one thing:
Before you open the game, open task manager, and have it set on the monitoring page. Run the game for a while, and when you get into a heat your cpu and gpu are being used more. So right after the fire fight finishes, minimize the game, and load up task manager. If task manager is reporting your cpu at 100% load during the time of the heats, than your game will benefit from the faster processor. If the cpu does not reach 90% or more, when running these fire fights, than the bottleneck in your games is the graphics card. If that is the case, a cpu upgrade will not be very noticeable at all in gaming.
If the gpu is the bottle neck, you cannot upgrade the graphics card, so you may want to drop some of the game settings down, so that you can play the game better

K-TRON

 

Yes it should help.

 

Thanks for the Tips K-Tron,

So I've been monitoring cpu usage and it goes to about 80% usage when i notice the frames drop... should i not bother with the 1.5ghz to 2.2ghz upgrade?

i thought i might as well try to upgrade my laptop if i want it to last me awhile longer as i don't jump laptop to laptop very often... but now im not even sure..

 

You might as well upgrade the cpu if its getting up to 80%. for $130 thats not really a bad deal. The upgrade should be nice for most other applications to which use cpu power. The T7500 has a lot of power. Remember to check out the undervolting guide after you install the new processor, cause that can help decrease the heat made by your cpu, thus making your laptop cun cooler.

K-TRON

 

Considering I spent $200 for a T8300 to install myself, this is a great deal.
You might even feel an overall boost, considering your front side bus will also increase.

 

If your going to go with the T7500 undervaulting is a defo. I popped one in my 5920 and did notice high temps, not dangerously high, but high all the same.

When i did the undervaulting the drops were roughly 10-15c.

 

Undervolting, you mean.
There's a guide right here on NBR that'll show you how it's done.

 

undervolting yes, thats what i meant lol!!!

 

thanks for the heads up bangert,

well i undervolted my cpu to 1.075V but under stress tests im still hitting 79-80C...

For bangert,

just wondering what temps you're getting as you have a similar setup to me (Acer 5920g with a T7500)

thanks!

 

I would recommend the upgrade. You may not get a higher FPS but will get a higher average FPS.

 

I actually have the same dilemma. Instead of CS source, I am playing cod4 with fps dipping to 20-30 in crazy gun fights. I refuse to lower my resolution\detail any lower.

I will soon be looking into OCing a bit and see. Since I have a P8600, I don't think a P9500 or something faster will improve my average fps. I may upgrade my memory from 2gb to 3gb.

 

You've got to realize - you're on a laptop. You're not going to always get flawless gameplay, nevertheless in a gunfight either.

To the OP: CS:S should run FINE on your laptop as it is.