Q9550

[Pantlegz]

I don't do too much that would require the quad but what sort of difference gaming, and multitasking would notice @ 3.4Ghz vs the dual @ 4Ghz? would it be worth the upgrade to hold me over for a generation, or 2 maybe.

 

[Shortass]

With a Q9550 you could most likely clock it up to 3.6-4.0ghz depending on luck and cooling/skill. 3.6 quad vs 4.0 dual in games would be quite similar, encoding would be much faster with the quad and the dual would slightly edge out the quad on single threaded apps. In multithreaded apps, such as Folding@home, some multithreaded games (and perhaps soonish future games) and other uses the quad will dominate.

 

[ShadowFlareX]

Agreed.

E8400 @ 4GHz wins on most games vs quads at even 3.6GHz. Quads will probably win on Lost Planet that can really use 4 cores. Once you start on distributed computing like Folding@Home, Seti@Home etc. and video encoding, you'll benefit more from quads.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Originally posted by: Pantlegz1
I don't do too much that would require the quad but what sort of difference gaming, and multitasking would notice @ 3.4Ghz vs the dual @ 4Ghz? would it be worth the upgrade to hold me over for a generation, or 2 maybe.

I don't think you will notice much of a difference in games, since if you are running any sort of high-res monitor, you will be limited by video, not CPU. I doubt the quad will b ebetter, more like it will roughly be equal.

I do think that folding or the like will be faster, but I don't think it's worth it to buy a new quad when you have a 4gig dual already working fine. That should hold you for a good while, and in a 1-1.5 years time, nehalem should be out (and hopefully come down in price), and you can think about upgrading then.

 

[TC91]

your dual is fine, maybe try pushing the oc on it a little higher if you re not happy with it

 

[Drsignguy]

You have one of the beter chips out there and set at a great OC. I would be looking for updating the vid card and wait............... until nehalem.