CPU upgrade question....

[acole1]

I got some money for my birthday recently that would easily cover the $460 needed for an upgrade to a Q6600 and 4GB of ram from my 939 X2 4400+ and 2GB of ram....

I don't have much of a problem playing most games, and any games I have limitations on seem to be GPU limited (I have an 8800GTS 640), like Crysis and UT3.

Would I see a substantial difference if I upgraded to a Q6600?

I also noticed the E6850 is the same price as the Q6600 on Newegg. I assume it would be a little better for me in gaming (3.0 over 2.4), but I think the general every day use benefits of the quad might out weigh it a little - especially if I OC... I am open to persuasion though.

Here is are the items I have been looking at:
Mobo
CPU
RAM

 

[v8envy]

If you are buying a new board & cpu, go for an E8400 over an E6850. It's newer, sucks less power, has nifty multimedia decoding instructions (not widely used yet). And it's about $60 cheaper if you look for deals.

The Q6600 vs E8400 is a hotly debated topic. Which means you can't go wrong with either one, really.

The open box mboard + bling ram is a strange combo, too.

 

[Markfw]

Crysis uses all 4 cores, so in your case, I would get the Q6600 and OC to 3.4 or better.

 

[v8envy]

I've got a 'G0' Xeon 3210 that says not every quad will hit 3.4 ghz. At least not on a value motherboard like my DS3L. Otoh I've got an E2180 that'll run at 3.0 on stock voltage and 3.33 at 1.41, so I guess that averages the OC luck out.

Also, unless there's a microcenter nearby the E8400 will be about $50 cheaper than the Q6600. So like I said, can't go wrong with either choice.

 

[Tempered81]

overclocked dual core vs quad core crysis benchmarks:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...uad-q9300_9.html#sect0

 

[GEOrifle]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
overclocked dual core vs quad core crysis benchmarks:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articl...uad-q9300_9.html#sect0

XLAB SUxKS man, read something better.

It's CPU not stealed AK-74 god damn it.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Crysis uses all 4 cores, so in your case, I would get the Q6600 and OC to 3.4 or better.

For what it's worth, I can play Crysis on an AM2 X2 4400+ and it's pretty smooth with everything on medium. At higher resolutions I'm GPU limited anyway (Radeon HD 2900 XT). I didn't try raising the quality at lower resolutions. I'm skeptical that it's worth upgrading your CPU right now.

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: acole1
I got some money for my birthday recently that would easily cover the $460 needed for an upgrade to a Q6600 and 4GB of ram from my 939 X2 4400+ and 2GB of ram....

I don't have much of a problem playing most games, and any games I have limitations on seem to be GPU limited (I have an 8800GTS 640), like Crysis and UT3.

Would I see a substantial difference if I upgraded to a Q6600?

You are better off upgrading your video card and leaving the rest of your system as is. Enjoy the continued depreciation, it doesn't have to be the best to still be good enough.

You would no doubt see some improvement with a newer CPU, but that is not the bottleneck in your current system usage.

 

[acole1]

Thanks for all the info! :thumbsup:

It doesn't look like it would be a huge advantage to upgrade. I think I'll hold off a bit longer and wait atleast untill school is out.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: CTho9305

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Crysis uses all 4 cores, so in your case, I would get the Q6600 and OC to 3.4 or better.

For what it's worth, I can play Crysis on an AM2 X2 4400+ and it's pretty smooth with everything on medium. At higher resolutions I'm GPU limited anyway (Radeon HD 2900 XT). I didn't try raising the quality at lower resolutions. I'm skeptical that it's worth upgrading your CPU right now.

Sorry if I was mis-guided, as I am not as much up on video. I though 8800 GTS was right up there in speed, and the CPU could have been a factor.

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: CTho9305

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Crysis uses all 4 cores, so in your case, I would get the Q6600 and OC to 3.4 or better.

For what it's worth, I can play Crysis on an AM2 X2 4400+ and it's pretty smooth with everything on medium. At higher resolutions I'm GPU limited anyway (Radeon HD 2900 XT). I didn't try raising the quality at lower resolutions. I'm skeptical that it's worth upgrading your CPU right now.

Sorry if I was mis-guided, as I am not as much up on video. I though 8800 GTS was right up there in speed, and the CPU could have been a factor.

I might just have low standards compared to a lot of people around here. I didn't benchmark it, I just played through the first part and enjoyed it. If it's of any relevance, I can crank all the settings on Oblivion to the max (past the max, actually, by editing the INI file) and the framerate remains high enough that I find it an enjoyable game.