Quick question..i7 @ ? = q9550 @ 3.6. gaming only.

[happy medium]

Thanks.... my guess is 3.3 ghz

 

[Ayah]

Should depend on the game. Some games are more GPU bound than CPU bound and vice versa.

 

[happy medium]

Should depend on the game. Some games are more GPU bound than CPU bound and vice versa.

lets say I was running a gtx 480 (no gpu bottleneck) @ 1900x1080, would they generally be comparable?

 

[Lonyo]

Minimum frame rates are going to be significantly different even when the average is comparable.

 

[happy medium]

Minimum frame rates are going to be significantly different even when the average is comparable.

Thanks, I didn't know that. By how much 10/15%?

 

[aigomorla]

uhh... the i7 platform is more scaled for modern gpu's.

And if u scale your gpu's... meaning xfire or sli.. the X58 platform is the only way to go.

lets say I was running a gtx 480 (no gpu bottleneck) @ 1900x1080, would they generally be comparable?

Your Q series on a P45 platform is already bottle necked.

What do you mean you dont have a gpu bottleneck?

A gpu that powerful has shown improvement all the way PAST 4ghz on an i7.

Minimum frame rates are going to be significantly different even when the average is comparable.

Actually rule of thumb in gaming.

GPU = Min frame rates..
CPU = MAX frame rates...

This is why his 480GTX is bottlenecked on P45 platform.

 

[konakona]

I am too lazy to look up the numbers, but Lonyo is right.
What separates i5/i7 from equivalently clocked c2d/c2q/phII is min fps, especially in a multi-GPU setup. Or so I have heard and seen several benchmarks that prove this theory.

Only in certain demanding games though, more than half of the times it looked like either platform was totally GPU bound.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Thanks.... my guess is 3.3 ghz

More like the i7 920 @ 3Ghz or less..

 

[happy medium]

This is why his 480GTX is bottlenecked on P45 platform.

wow, my system would bottleneck a single gtx 480? That hard to believe.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I'd take a stock i7 over a 4.0ghz core2 quad. I had a core2 quad at 3.75ghz and it just feels like the stock i7 does everything more smooth and chews up video encoding with the hyper threading.

Triple channel memory or qpi doesn't hurt either.

 

[happy medium]

Well this thread answered my questions...

This guy tested a i7 860 @ 4.0 vs a q9550 @ 4.0 with crossfired 5850's @ 1000core.
The i7 system did edge out the 9550 but not by much at all.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/news-arou...550-vs-core-i7-860-23-benches-all-hd-rec.html

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

the 860 is a neutered i7

 

[happy medium]

the 860 is a neutered i7

No the 860 is just as fast as a i7 975 in games. That is common nowledge.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2839/7

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

It looks from the charts the 4.0ghz core2 quad isn't even fully utilizing one 5850 and in some situations with dual 5850's it's 50% behind.

 

[ArchAngel777]

No the 860 is just as fast as a i7 975 in games. That is common nowledge.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2839/7

My opinion is that your Q9550 is just fine at 3.6Ghz and would only see a marginal increase with a Core i7 @ 4.0Ghz. Hell... My 3.6Ghz Q6600 wasn't much slower than my current rig. The nice thing about comparing both platforms on Single GPUs is that it zeros in on the CPU power within the games. If we take the Multi-GPU tests, we walk away without knowing why in the hell the X58 platform is better than the P45. Some people will claim it is CPU power, others will say it is the chipset implementation of the PCI-E lanes etc... If we leave it to 'single' GPU we can truly determine the difference in the CPU power from the Q9550 @ 4Ghz to the i7 @ 4.0Ghz and that test did that with the 5850... Shows that the i7 is not all that much faster and in some cases is slower. AT even tested this back when the i7 came out... The i7 isn't the holy grail.

 

[happy medium]

It looks from the charts the 4.0ghz core2 quad isn't even fully utilizing one 5850 and in some situations with dual 5850's it's 50% behind.

The chart gives you an average performance increase. Its only 9% better with the core i7.

The only games a single 5850 is not even with a core i7 is older games.
Look at games that use more gpu power like Modern warfare 2.

 

[Lonyo]

uhh... the i7 platform is more scaled for modern gpu's.

And if u scale your gpu's... meaning xfire or sli.. the X58 platform is the only way to go.

Your Q series on a P45 platform is already bottle necked.

What do you mean you dont have a gpu bottleneck?

A gpu that powerful has shown improvement all the way PAST 4ghz on an i7.

Actually rule of thumb in gaming.

GPU = Min frame rates..
CPU = MAX frame rates...

This is why his 480GTX is bottlenecked on P45 platform.

There was a thread in video here where a guy tested his HD5870 with a Core 2 and a Core i7. Can't remember who it was or find the thread. (found it: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2064948)
At stock the Core 2 had terrible minimums compared to the i7, at 4GHz, both had the same minimums.
The HD5800 series typically has worse minimums than the GTX480, but with the Core 2 the minimums were due to the CPU.

Metro 2033 is especially indicative. 3GHz Core 2 Duo had average of 22.5fps, 3.9GHz had an average of 22.8fps, pretty much the same. Minimum was 6 vs 11fps.

Xbitlabs also did a roundup that showed the same, but again I can't remember the link, also IIRC tested AMD and showed that to be worse than i7 in minimums as well.
When you overclock everything to 4GHz, the CPU typically no longer becomes an issue, but at stock speeds there can be a significant difference in minimums.

 

[happy medium]

Thanks guys.

 

[3DVagabond]

Just my .02, but I believe that by the time you get the core 2 to 4.0GHz any bottleneck will likely be gone, or very minimal. That's why there's not much to choose between an i7 and a core 2 @ 4.0GHz

 

[MagickMan]

Just my .02, but I believe that by the time you get the core 2 to 4.0GHz any bottleneck will likely be gone, or very minimal. That's why there's not much to choose between an i7 and a core 2 @ 4.0GHz

That's about it. For gaming, and most other things, once you get a C2Q that high (4GHz+) it's fast enough to brute-force it's way through anything. It may not be as efficient with code as an i7, but it's still really damned fast.

 

[Triglet]

My 480 hits 99% usage regularly in games (mainly BC2), and my rig scored roughly 21,700 in Vantage with the 480 at stock clocks. I believe that's up there with the 920 rigs.

 

[aigomorla]

That's about it. For gaming, and most other things, once you get a C2Q that high (4GHz+) it's fast enough to brute-force it's way through anything. It may not be as efficient with code as an i7, but it's still really damned fast.

agree'd a C2Q @ 4ghz is still a ridiculously fast machine by normal standards.