How much difference would I see?

[CJP]

I built my current system 2 years ago. It's with an Athlon 4400+ dual core and 2 7800gt's in sli and using Windows Xp

I'm thinking about buying a system with a q6600 and a single Geforce 8800gt using windows vista.

How much of a performance increase would that get me? Enough to justify the cost or should I wait for something better?

CJP

 

[heyheybooboo]

I'm thinkin' (and that's a stretch ) ....

That a single 8800gt may well double the performance of your 2 x 7800gt SLI and consume less power to boot.

Spend $200 on a new video card. If you don't like it, come back here and whomp me!

 

[JackMDS]

In trem of CPU the q6600 would provide double the Power of the 4400+.

I do not know how to factor in the different Video.

 

[sutahz]

I went from a X2 4400+/7600GT to a Q6600/8800GT setup (there were 2 or 3 steps in between, but pretty fast). A middle step was having the 4400+ w/ a 8800GTS 640MB, so going from 4400+/8800GTS to Q6600/8800GT I didnt really see any jump in performance. All I did was game and crysis and cod4 were not out yet but I'm thinking it would have played CoD4 just as good and crysis almost as well. Only reason I did the upgrade is I had the opportunity to sell my computer at its going rate, ie my computer wasn't getting any more valuable.

 

[Denithor]

Is your X2-4400+ overclocked or stock speed? How much memory do you have? Do you mostly game or what?

If you have 2GB RAM and mostly use this machine for gaming, heyheybooboo's suggestion is sound: upgrade to a better video card (8800GT for $180 or 8800GTS for $220, both after MIR).

If you have less than 2GB RAM I would lean toward upgrading the whole thing (DDR is much more expensive than DDR2, silly to spend that kind of money on an old system).

If building new:
abit IP35-E $60 after MIR
e2180 $80
2x1GB DDR2 $35

This setup should easily hit 3GHz and is well balanced for gaming use. You could also use an e8400 instead of the e2180 for higher performance. Q6600 is not really needed for most gaming today.

 

[jterrell]

This link:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/...6&model2=871&chart=421

shows right at a 100% increase in frame rates for Supreme Commander with both CPU's using 8800GTX.

Now Supreme Commander is a game that uses 4 cores so the performance is maxed out for quad core but more and more games will likely join that list. BUT the e8400 is dual core and it shows OVER a 100% increase in frame rates and that should translate to all games to some extent.