Gaming Performance from a X2 3800+ to an E6600

[DSmooth]

Will I see a significant gaming performance increase if I upgrade my rig to an E6600? I primarily play FPS games and MMOs.

Here's my current setup:
Asrock 939 Dual-Sata II
X2 3800+
2GB of Crucial Ram
ATI X1900XT 256MB on Viewsonic VX922
WinXP Pro

I'm looking at:
Gigabyte GA-P35-xxx/Asus P5K Deluxe
E6600
2GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer 800MHZ
ATI X1900XT 256MB on Viewsonic VX922
Dual Boot WinXP Pro and Vista

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: DSmooth
Will I see a significant gaming performance increase if I upgrade my rig to an E6600? I primarily play FPS games and MMOs.

Here's my current setup:
Asrock 939 Dual-Sata II
X2 3800+
2GB of Crucial Ram
ATI X1900XT 256MB on Viewsonic VX922
WinXP Pro

I'm looking at:
Gigabyte GA-P35-xxx/Asus P5K Deluxe
E6600
2GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer 800MHZ
ATI X1900XT 256MB on Viewsonic VX922
Dual Boot WinXP Pro and Vista

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

In short, no.

Right now your rig is a good match for the video card. You will see a minor improvement in games going form the X2-3800+ to the E6600, but nothing stellar. Save your money and use it later on a Quad Core

 

[harpoon84]

Actually, in online FPS and MMO games a faster CPU can make a big difference. The key here is minimum framerates, usually online multiplayer type games with tens to hundreds of players, there are times when there is a LOT of action going on in the scene, and such situations definitely benefit from a faster CPU.

I mainly play online FPS games like Battlefield 2 and Counter-Strike: Source and I recently upgraded my old but trusty XP-M @ 2.6GHz machine (was a beast back in the day ) because of constant framerate stutters on large 32/64 player servers. The GPU (X850XT) wasn't the issue as I dropped resolutions and details without much improvement in overall performance. Framerates would drop below 30fps constantly whenever there were a lot of enemies and I was getting headaches (as well as getting owned ).

So I pulled the plug and got myself a E4300, currently overclocked to 3GHz, as well as a 8800GTS 320. It's a day and night difference, at least for my situation. I now get totally smooth gameplay with details cranked to maximum and my personal gaming performance (namely kill/death ratio) has gone up too.

Disclaimer: I am NOT saying everyone will get the same benefits as I did from a CPU upgrade. It all depends on the games you play. Many single player games are predominantly GPU bound, I just happen to play multiplayer games that stress the CPU more.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

With your gaming resolution (1280x1024), especially with online games like harpoon84 said, you will see a performance boost. But you could also benefit greatly from a faster GPU too, such as the 8800GTS.

It depends on your budget and just how much you need to increase performance right now. My question is whether simply an increase in performance is worth spending the money. What is performing poorly right now? There will ALWAYS be something else you could upgrade to increase performance... and as soon as you upgrade it, there is something else to upgrade a week later. At some point, you have to look at the price/performance ratio.

 

[MarcVenice]

OC that x2 3800+ and hold out till july 22nd. If you STILL need a performance upgrade by then, by all means, go for it, a 3ghz e6600 will be quite a bit faster then a x2 at lets say 2.6ghz. If you're not going to OC anything, then I doubt it's really worth it. You would have to get a new mobo and a new cpu, for 300$ bucks or so combined. And the performance increase won't justify 300$ bucks.

 

[nyker96]

I think E6600 will giva ya a boost. if you OC you can get the 4mb E6420 or 6320 and just push it up, it's essentially the 4mb cache plus the C2D core that'll net you a lot on the gaming side. You might consider up the g-card later as well, I think a 3.2 ghz (assumming you OC that much) 4mb C2D can handle a 8800s no problem. if you don't OC then 6600 will do.

 

[Smartazz]

I've found that a faster CPU will help in multiplayer games in Battlefield Field 2 in huge servers(I tested in 64 player servers). From going from 2GHZ to 2.6GHZ, I noticed a pretty large frame rate increase, from ~45fps to ~65fps.

 

[f4phantom2500]

i think you should oc. most x2 3800's can push at least a few hundred extra MHz. And uh...don't buy Vista yet.

They just did a review on THG comparing a budget, midrange, and high end build. I can't find the article readily, but in the budget build they had an X2 3800, in the mid range some kind of C2D, and in the high end a C2 Quad. Of course the high end performed best, but at the end of the review they took the card from the high end one (8800GTX) and threw it into the low end rig, and discovered that when they turned the settings up in games, the difference in framerate was negligible because they were both too fast to matter anymore, or there was practically no difference because on a lot of the games when the settings were cranked the video card started getting taxed more.

You should be fine, maybe overclock, but you should hold out on the upgrade for now.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Originally posted by: harpoon84
Actually, in online FPS and MMO games a faster CPU can make a big difference. The key here is minimum framerates, usually online multiplayer type games with tens to hundreds of players, there are times when there is a LOT of action going on in the scene, and such situations definitely benefit from a faster CPU.

I mainly play online FPS games like Battlefield 2 and Counter-Strike: Source and I recently upgraded my old but trusty XP-M @ 2.6GHz machine (was a beast back in the day ) because of constant framerate stutters on large 32/64 player servers.

Disclaimer: I am NOT saying everyone will get the same benefits as I did from a CPU upgrade. It all depends on the games you play. Many single player games are predominantly GPU bound, I just happen to play multiplayer games that stress the CPU more.

Jesus... ur coming from an athlon XP and u tell him yes upgrade... the Op is coming from a dual core 3800 ... the difference op is gonna feel is minimal... maybe maximum 3-5 frames per sec more... U call that big difference?

If u care for 3 frames/sec Op then yes upgrade... otherwise hold ur horses... I wouldnt even upgrade for the current quadcores eother... they just dont seem that good to me... maybe Penryns or barcelona yes... but thats just me

 

[KeithTalent]

I did a similar upgrade a short time ago and noticed a massive upgrade in performance in HL2 and CS:S and somehwat decent performance improvement in LOTRO.

YMMV of course, but it was very noticeable for me.

Cheers,
KT

 

[harpoon84]

Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
Jesus... ur coming from an athlon XP and u tell him yes upgrade... the Op is coming from a dual core 3800 ... the difference op is gonna feel is minimal... maybe maximum 3-5 frames per sec more... U call that big difference?

If u care for 3 frames/sec Op then yes upgrade... otherwise hold ur horses... I wouldnt even upgrade for the current quadcores eother... they just dont seem that good to me... maybe Penryns or barcelona yes... but thats just me

Before you shoot your mouth off, some perspective...

An X2 3800+ is nothing more than a DC A64 3200+, which clocks in at 2GHz. My XP-M @ 2.6GHz benched at least as fast as a stock A64 3200+. So in single threaded games (vast majority) my old XP-M @ 2.6GHz is probably just as fast as a stock X2 3800+.

If you think there will be a 3 - 5fps boost in online multiplayer games then you are sadly mistaken. Look two posts above yours and you'll realise the difference between REAL WORLD gaming experience and looking at single player fps charts.

 

[DSmooth]

Thanks for all the great advice.

f4phantom2500: I did read that same article you were referring to a few weeks back. That's what got me thinking. BTW: Although, (IMHO) Vista is not ready for prime time, I ended up purchasing a copy of Vista to dual boot just for Shadowrun (haha). I use Vista machines at work and it's painful.

After all the input so far and the few reviews I've read on the P35 boards, I think I will hold off until the latter part of this year. In addition, the last time I had an Intel processor (486 SX20) was when Dell first sold their desktops at CompUSA (this was before they went catalog only) so I'm a little curious to see how AMD's new CPUs stack up against Intel.

Currently my games of choice are BF2, SupCom, CNC3 and LOTRO.

Thanks, again.

 

[Skott]

The 3800 is capable of 2.6.- 2.8 overclocks with the right mobo. 2.4 is usually considered a gurantee but I'm not sure how good of a OCer your current mobo is. If you can OC it I'd say do that for now until prices drop again in July. Moving up to a 8800GTS would give you a big boost too in games.