e8500 upgrade

[Swampthing]

I went from 8400@4ghz to a i7920 at 4ghz and really noticed the difference especially in Arma 2 (which I play a lot) which really benefits from a quad core. If I were you though I'd consider a used Quad 9650 or similar which should take a decent overclock and will help you in those games that need quad core at a very good price (sub $200). Then you can do a full upgrade in a year or so and get a next generation hexacore when they've matured a bit and come down in price.

I play ARMA2 alot myself. The main problem i have with intel is that they are so much more expensive than AMD. I was hoping AMD would have an offering that was high end enough to be an upgrade. It doesn't really look like the 965 BE is really enough of an upgrade.

 

[nerp]

Unless you're using demanding multicore applications such as encoding or rendering, if you're like me -- a typical PC user -- justifying an upgrade away from an e8400 or e8500 is tough.

 

[Swampthing]

what about an i5-750, was looking at the benches here and it seems to do 10 or so FPS better when it's close but twice as better on 3dsmax and such. They are only 160 bucks as well so even cheaper than the phenom.

Any downsides on these processors?

 

[toyota]

what about an i5-750, was looking at the benches here and it seems to do 10 or so FPS better when it's close but twice as better on 3dsmax and such. They are only 160 bucks as well so even cheaper than the phenom.

Any downsides on these processors?

when going with a new platform the i5 750 is the absolute best cpu for the money when all factors are considered.

Before we go, we can't ignore the fact that our overall leader in both power efficiency and performance per system cost was the Core i5-750. If you're purely rational about these things—and you can afford to spend nearly $200 on a CPU—the i5-750 is obviously the best choice among the processors we tested.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/18448/18

 

[Swampthing]

i'm not sure on this, does win7 require a reinstall when going from 2 cores to 4?

 

[lopri]

Nope you don't have to.

 

[angry hampster]

I did a side-grade last month from an E8500 to a Phenom X2 955 BE. I noticed a small increase in performance, though I think it was mostly due to the DDR3 1600 RAM. Sold my old RAM at a profit and nearly broke even on the deal.

 

[Miramonti]

It sucks to be stuck in a single-threaded world, like me, because cores haven't gotten much faster for a while.

I've had my e8600 overclocked to 4.2ghz since '08 (originally 4.4ghz, but have had to slowly back it off over time.)

 

[peonyu]

I have the same chip @4.3 ghz, from the charts I have seen on various websites a equally clocked 'new' chip [I7+] will net you at most 10% more speed in games, provided you are not bottlenecked somewhere else. For me, thats not worth it. Especially as that 10% doesnt make the difference between playable and not playable. The C2D series are still pretty great when OCd and hold thier own.

That will change when the new chipsets come out and the cpus that follow, id hold out for a few more months until then, upgrading to one of those will be worth it.


Also, dont know if you are doing it not...but definately try and OC your chip if your not. Even the duds can do 3.7ghz easily with little change in voltage, which is a great increase over stock. And your average 8500 can do 4ghz easily, with the better chips hitting 4.4-4.5 [with high volts].

 

[toyota]

I have the same chip @4.3 ghz, from the charts I have seen on various websites a equally clocked 'new' chip [I7+] will net you at most 10% more speed in games, provided you are not bottlenecked somewhere else. For me, thats not worth it. Especially as that 10% doesnt make the difference between playable and not playable. The C2D series are still pretty great when OCd and hold thier own.

That will change when the new chipsets come out and the cpus that follow, id hold out for a few more months until then, upgrading to one of those will be worth it.

your 10% claim is really just some random number and doesnt apply to some games. GTA4, Red Faction Guerrilla, Ghostbusters, BC 2, Anno 1404 and a couple of others would be WAY more than 10% faster with an i5/i7 quad. in fact in most of those games the quad would actually make a playable difference. if somebody is running a high end gpu setup like 5850 or better then it would certainly be worth it to upgrade if they wanted the most out of all their gaming.

 

[lopri]

@Peonyu: You need an i7-980X @4.0 GHz+ to "properly" take advantage of high-end video cards, especially for "newer and upcoming" games. Oh and don't forget their "minimum" FPS. Phenom II X4/X6 will not help gaming over C2D due to its single-threaded performance yet i7 will crush C2D because of those "newer and upcoming" games will take advantage of more than 2 cores. Oh and mark my words: Fermi will wipe the floor with Cypress and will do so within "reasonable" TDP (or was it "around reasonable"? My memory is fading me.).

OOPs, strike the last one. I changed my mind on that after my GTX 470 raised my blood pressure.

Disclosure: I haven't used an i7 nor a Phenom II CPU but base my opinion on Athlon X2's vs. C2D (and some cherry-picked gaming benches). And even though I didn't take time to word this post "properly", insert the following qualifiers liberally as necessary: "properly", "reasonably", "in most cases", "likely", "almost",..

/put me on ignore list

 

[Axon]

@Peonyu: You need an i7-980X @4.0 GHz+ to "properly" take advantage of high-end video cards, especially for "newer and upcoming" games. Oh and don't forget their "minimum" FPS. Phenom II X4/X6 will not help gaming over C2D due to its single-threaded performance yet i7 will crush C2D because of those "newer and upcoming" games will take advantage of more than 2 cores. Oh and mark my words: Fermi will wipe the floor with Cypress and will do so within "reasonable" TDP (or was it "around reasonable"? My memory is fading me.).

OOPs, strike the last one. I changed my mind on that after my GTX 470 raised my blood pressure.

Disclosure: I haven't used an i7 nor a Phenom II CPU but base my opinion on Athlon X2's vs. C2D (and some cherry-picked gaming benches). And even though I didn't take time to word this post "properly", insert the following qualifiers liberally as necessary: "properly", "reasonably", "in most cases", "likely", "almost",..

/put me on ignore list

I sense some frustration here.

 

[Swampthing]

Also, dont know if you are doing it not...but definately try and OC your chip if your not. Even the duds can do 3.7ghz easily with little change in voltage, which is a great increase over stock. And your average 8500 can do 4ghz easily, with the better chips hitting 4.4-4.5 [with high volts].

I would overclock but for some reason my heatsink doesn't seem to be cooling properly. I'm getting like 44-45C at idle and spikes near 58 when under load. It's a heatpipe similar to my scythe ninja, can't remember exactly what it was off the tope of my head. I'm wondering if perhaps it didn't get seated right. The 44c at idle seems starting a tad hotter than it should be with this cooler. I'm out of heatsink compound so i haven't bothered reseating it, that and that damn cooler is such a pain since i have to take out the stupid motherboard as well.

My ram isn't the fastest ddr2 either so perhaps going to ddr3 would benefit my 5870. Been really looking at the benches of the i5 750 and it seems it'd be a decent upgrade, especially overclocked. The improvements in apps like 3dsmax and sonar are drastic with the i5, gaming not as much but it still should be an improvement and since i have to fix that other computer that failed my upgrade isn't a total waste. I guess i'd rather get something new and higher end in my machine and hand down my e8500 than but something low end to replace that other system.

 

[peonyu]

your 10% claim is really just some random number and doesnt apply to some games. GTA4, Red Faction Guerrilla, Ghostbusters, BC 2, Anno 1404 and a couple of others would be WAY more than 10% faster with an i5/i7 quad. in fact in most of those games the quad would actually make a playable difference. if somebody is running a high end gpu setup like 5850 or better then it would certainly be worth it to upgrade if they wanted the most out of all their gaming.

your claim of 'WAY more' faster than 10% is also vague...Also your talking about a quad core, obviously Quads arnt limited to only I5/I7. Any game that uses more than 2 cores will of course do better on quads as a 8500 is dual core, but a OCd 8500 is still overkill framerate wise...for anything out there atm. If its not id like to see some benchmarks to prove otherwise...but everything ive seen points to it being a waste of $ to go to recent upgrades.

 

[peonyu]

Those temps are not bad Swampthing, you can safely run your cpu @70c load, so you have 12c of room to overclock with. Once you get above 70c [for most core chips atleast] is when you will see system instability, but anything below that is nothing.

 

[toyota]

your claim of 'WAY more' faster than 10% is also vague...Also your talking about a quad core, obviously Quads arnt limited to only I5/I7. Any game that uses more than 2 cores will of course do better on quads as a 8500 is dual core, but a OCd 8500 is still overkill framerate wise...for anything out there atm. If its not id like to see some benchmarks to prove otherwise...but everything ive seen points to it being a waste of $ to go to recent upgrades.

because "way more" faster makes more sense than pulling a random percentage out of the air since we are not directly comparing benchmarks. and you are WRONG for claiming an overclocked E8500 is overkill for everything out there. just because you dont feel the need to upgrade doesnt mean that quada wont be noticeably better in some games. heck I even gave you some examples of games where the quad would be noticeably faster. I only said i5/i7 because those are the best quads and do provide more overall performance than a core 2 quad.

 

[evident]

keep your E8500 till the next socket comes out, put that money you'd use to upgrade into a savings account. NOTHING out there is compelling right now, not even an i7 could justify me upgrading from that cpu. The cost is just too high for that platform- you'd have to get a MB, CPU and RAM at the least.

 

[Swampthing]

went with the i5 750. should be here tomorrow.

Had to fix that other computer that blew anyways and the increase in performance in 3dsmax and such was enough for me to justify the upgrade.

Thanks for the input, glad i didn't get the AMD in this case.

 

[superccs]

I would overclock but for some reason my heatsink doesn't seem to be cooling properly. I'm getting like 44-45C at idle and spikes near 58 when under load. It's a heatpipe similar to my scythe ninja, can't remember exactly what it was off the tope of my head. I'm wondering if perhaps it didn't get seated right. The 44c at idle seems starting a tad hotter than it should be with this cooler. I'm out of heatsink compound so i haven't bothered reseating it, that and that damn cooler is such a pain since i have to take out the stupid motherboard as well.

My ram isn't the fastest ddr2 either so perhaps going to ddr3 would benefit my 5870. Been really looking at the benches of the i5 750 and it seems it'd be a decent upgrade, especially overclocked. The improvements in apps like 3dsmax and sonar are drastic with the i5, gaming not as much but it still should be an improvement and since i have to fix that other computer that failed my upgrade isn't a total waste. I guess i'd rather get something new and higher end in my machine and hand down my e8500 than but something low end to replace that other system.

Check that your thermal paste is still paste and hasn't turned into something else. Rapid changes in perceived temperatures means that the CPU has lost a lot of thermal inertia, suggesting that the thermal coupling with the heatsink has been lost. Remount your heatsink with some fresh Arctic Silver and see your temps drop and stablilize.