upgrade advice

[TitusTroy]

I need some advice...I'm a hardcore gamer and currently have an E8400 (non overclocked...I'm not into overclocking) along with 4 GB DDR2 and a GTX 260 ...I play current games such as Fallout 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, Crysis, Crysis Warhead etc and my system plays most of them at high resolutions just fine

but I'm tempted to upgrade to one of the new Core i7 CPU's...most likely the i7 920...would upgrading be worthwhile for my situation?...my opinion is that upgrading now would save me $$ in the long run because I read that Intel's next 32nm CPU's will also be using the same socket 1366 and upgrading now would be some sort of future proofing for at least the next 2 years or so

would upgrading benefit me in any way or would I still be limited by my GPU no matter what system I use (I'm not a fan of dual graphics card setups)?...$$$ is not an issue as I can afford to upgrade but I'm just wondering if it is worth it...any help/opinions?

 

[daveybrat]

For games, i would not consider an upgrade as an e8400 3GHz Core2Duo is still great for today's games.

That and i7 excels in video and audio rendering but is not a huge leap forward for gaming.

I'd hold onto what you have for a little while longer.

 

[TitusTroy]

Originally posted by: daveybrat
For games, i would not consider an upgrade as an e8400 3GHz Core2Duo is still great for today's games.

That and i7 excels in video and audio rendering but is not a huge leap forward for gaming.

I'd hold onto what you have for a little while longer.

would upgrading to a Core 2 Quad Q9650 make sense or is it still not worthwhile?

 

[AzN]

I would wait or at least wait until more games take advantage of Quad's... There's still only handful of games that take advantage of quad's.

Currently I7 boards are still expensive. $200 for low end board or $300+ for a good board with the goods. if you wanted to save some money Q9650 should be just as good as i920 if not faster. You still won't see much of a difference from E8400 unless games are Quad optimized.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

At this stage, I wouldn't upgrade the CPU. For games, a quad core doesn't really begin to shine until it's working with major GPU puissance, such as SLI'd GTX260.

 

[fffblackmage]

I wouldn't upgrade either, OCing is the way to go!

Actually, the gains in framerates probably isn't gonna be very dramatic (ie. worth it) if you upgrade the cpu to a Core i7 now.

 

[AstroManLuca]

It's not worth upgrading your CPU. Not only do you already have one of the better gaming CPUs available, but few games are CPU-bound these days anyway. Unless you go for a GTX 295 you'd probably still be GPU-bound.

Save your money and do a full system upgrade in a year or two.

Oh, also...

Originally posted by: TitusTroy
I play current games such as Fallout 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, Crysis, Crysis Warhead etc and my system plays most of them at high resolutions just fine

That ought to be reason enough not to upgrade. If you can play some of the most demanding games available today without a hitch, you do NOT need to upgrade.

 

[TitusTroy]

I guess my main reason for wanting to upgrade is to jump into the quad core scene now with the intention of not upgrading for another 2.5-3 years afterwards...otherwise when more games get released that are optimized for 4+ cores I'm still going to want to/have to upgrade at that time...maybe this is a way of getting a head start on the inevitable

I believe that Intel's next major 32nm release is going to be using the same socket as the current Core i7's, so in that respect upgrading now will make the current build last for a potentially long time...2+ years is not out of the question...the 32nm CPU's will not be released until probably early 2010...and I'm sure they will be considered high end for at least another year after that...so if I upgrade to a i7 920 now it could potentially last me until 2011

upgrading now will get me a quad core CPU which although might not be all that useful for current games...in the long run getting a quad now will limit my need to upgrade in the future

 

[AstroManLuca]

Nah, don't ever upgrade with the intention of it being useful for later or future-proof or anything. Prices on gear will ALWAYS go down, and the same money will ALWAYS buy you faster stuff in the future. Furthermore, if you get into the "upgrade before you need to" mentality, chances are you're going to get the itch again in a year or so and all of a sudden your "2-3 year future-proof system" is already being replaced with yet another "future-proof" system that'll only last another year.

You don't need the faster processor now, so why buy it now? Sure, you could get more than you need now and then you won't have to upgrade down the line, but you could have just waited a year and gotten something even better and then THAT would last two years from THEN, instead of from NOW. I think you're just looking for an excuse to upgrade... which is a totally understandable thing, but it doesn't actually make logical sense.

I upgraded my mobo and CPU because I was still on an Athlon X2 and I wanted a fast new graphics card. I could have just gotten a 4830 but I wanted to majorly improve my performance so I went for a 4870 1 GB. Of course, that paired with an X2 4800+ (even overclocked) would be bottlenecked, so I moved up to an X3. But an E8400 is already a great CPU and there's no reason you should buy a new CPU until you actually need it, at which point everything will be cheaper and faster.