E4500 VS E2200?

[narreth]

Is the extra 1 MB cache worth the extra $50 in gaming?
I won't be overclocking either CPU for a couple years. Maybe 3 years or so after I'll OC it.

 

[daveybrat]

The best comparison i could find for you was on Tomshardware cpu charts.

I found this:

Supreme Commander Benchmark: (both on Intel P35 chipset)

E4300 1.8GHz 800FSB 2MB = 24.1 FPS

E2160 1.8GHz 800FSB 1MB = 16.0 FPS

Quake 4 Benchmark:

E4300 1.8GHz 800FSB 2MB = 79.0 FPS

E2160 1.8GHz 800FSB 1MB = 74.3 FPS

Serious Sam 2:

E4300 1.8GHz 800FSB 2MB = 100.4 FPS

E2160 1.8GHz 800FSB 1MB = 88.9 FPS

So as you can see, L2 cache does play a somewhat significant role in some games when comparing equal clockspeeds.

......of course the video card you buy will make the biggest difference so spend more on the GPU than the CPU!

 

[IL2SturmovikPilot]

E4500,you're gonna need all the cache you can get,1MB will likely cripple future games even worse than the SupCom benchies posted by daveybrat.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

You get diminishing returns after 2-3mb, but going from 1-2mb is fairly significant.

 

[narreth]

I don't live in the US so this would probably change some things.

I can get an E2160 for $80
an E4500 for $130
an E8400 for $240
a Q6600 for $280

Some of the prices would be slightly higher than the prices you guys pay. What I want to know is at which increment is the best price/performance ratio. I'm hoping for the CPU to last through 2 video card changed (4 years hopefully, >_>) so I assume the E4500 is the sweetspot here? Just wanted to check it with you guys.

 

[BladeVenom]

Depends on what program your running. Sometime there's no difference sometimes it can be fairly significant. I think there was about a 10% difference on average.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: narreth
so I assume the E4500 is the sweetspot here?

In price/performance, yes.

 

[Modelworks]

The intel price cut shows the e4600 dropping by 22.00.
So that might be the one to get.

 

[narreth]

I have to buy the parts this weekend
I'm buying an 8800GT and one of those CPU's.
I have a question about games being CPU bound though.
At what point (intel clock speed) would games become CPU bound at 1440 x 900 resolution? (with a 8800GT)

 

[narreth]

anyone?

 

[v8envy]

I've found the HL2 lost coast demo starts to yield lower frame rates below about 2.8 ghz on my E2180 -- it drops from about ~140 average FPS at 3 ghz to ~120 FPS at 2.66 ghz, and down to ~96 fps at 1.8 ghz. This was at 1600x1200 though, so at lower res you may be able to hit 250+ fps average with a more manly CPU.

With something like 3dmark06 and Crysis, any available CPU will affect performance. Most other cases any E2XXX chip > 2.8 ghz won't be a problem. The extra cache on the E4xxx chips is worth 150-200 mhz over an E2xxx chip.

If you can name the game you're interested in I may be able to provide more detailed answers. I'd say save the $50 and put it towards an E7300 or better upgrade once your E2xxx can't give you what you want.

 

[quadomatic]

I got the E2200 and BSEL modded it to 2.93ghz with a very cheap motherboard (the combo I bought was cheaper than the processor itself). I have no problems with games, at least not CPU related problems; I really just need to upgrade my X850 Pro.

Honestly though, at this point, I would probably recommend waiting to get an E8xxx series if you can.

 

[narreth]

I'm interested in these games:

CoD4
BioShock
FEAR
STALKER
Orange Box
Oblivion

I'm thinking about picking up a Q6600 but if I'm dropping that much on a CPU I want to know that it would last at least 4 years :/. Would it?

 

[lopri]

Q6600 is $200~250.. You'll likely upgrade your video cards multiple times (thus more money) before you have to upgrade from Q6600.

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: narreth
I'm interested in these games:

CoD4
BioShock
FEAR
STALKER
Orange Box
Oblivion

I'm thinking about picking up a Q6600 but if I'm dropping that much on a CPU I want to know that it would last at least 4 years :/. Would it?

4 years is a very long time in CPU technology, but being a quad core it should hold you in good stead for the next generation of multithreaded games. You could always overclock it once it starts getting slow, which it inevitably will if you intend to keep it that long.

 

[narreth]

bump again

 

[narreth]

yet another bump

 

[cdnbum88]

I have the e4500 and I can OC this to 3.00 with barely any voltage increases. I have had it stable at 3.125 and that has been the highest I have pushed it.

I also have the XFX 8800GT Extreme Edition and with that combination my 3dMark06 score 12584. IMHO not bad at all for a 2.2 chip.

I am sorry I can't compare to the e2200, but I don't think you will go wrong with e4500.

The games you labeled with this thing OC'd should do you fine with that videocard.

I play Crysis only at 1280x1024 at very high settings with the XP hack and it plays as good as I need it to.

Those are my two cents.

Enjoy

 

[GundamF91]

I play A LOT of games, and I can't afford a lot of money on hardware, so I am using E4500. Its 2MB is absolutely critical to get my medium range GPU to run the latest games. The 1MB L2 cache on E2xxx is not going to cut it for games. If you can get E6xxx, it's even better, but for the most part, E4xxx is a sweet spot in terms of value.

 

[narreth]

I thought the 1MB cache only makes a 200 Mhz difference or so?

 

[Build it Myself]

Originally posted by: narreth
I'm interested in these games:

CoD4
BioShock
FEAR
STALKER
Orange Box
Oblivion

I'm thinking about picking up a Q6600 but if I'm dropping that much on a CPU I want to know that it would last at least 4 years :/. Would it?

I run every one of those on a 2180 oc'ed as my sig says and I can run all on highest settings and max AA without problems. Crysis is the only game I can't turn to max and play...

 

[narreth]

So if i dont like OCing the Q6600 is my best bet?