What to do guys

[Bman123]

SO Ive been thinking non stop for like 2 days on what the hell I should do and its coming down to this.

Q9550 and afermarket cooler for $225 and new video card $125-$150 sell current cpu,and gpu for $100 to recover costs

Athlon 2 x4 620 $85 aftermarket cooler $40 mobo $75 and $125-$150 gpu sell current stuff again to recover cost

The amd setup is only about $30 cheaper but by far the slowest, the Q9550 upgrade is middle of the road and easiest in terms of what to do,. I play games at 1280x720, i mainly web surf and play a little bit of games.

Its one of those 2 or buy a 360 and quit worrying about upgrading the pc. Id like the upgrade to last me 2-3 years which I think is doable with them but when I look up x4 620 benchies it gets killed by the intel stuff.

I want to go the cheapest route as I am short on cash but the performance difference is pretty big. I think I would be fine personally with the Q9550 as it is a quad and is better then my current cpu, I will have no upgrade path but at the same time it would allow me to save up for the next 2 years for my next upgrade if I even need to upgrade my cpu I dont really know but im sure I will need to upgrade the gpu

DO you think I should go for the x4 620 or just drop in the q9550 keep my same ram and just buy a better cpu cooler and see how far I can oc it with my current ram?

Im on a tight budget guys, im really thinking about just buying a console so I can quit stressing out about what the hell to do with my pc. It would be alot easier to just buy a $300 360 and call it a day and just my current rig for web browsing as its more then capable enough to do that

 

[Bman123]

Well im going with the x4 620 now, i just wonder how hard is it to overclock those cpus?
I should have the x4 620 and mobo this weekend, hopefully on saturday by the latest check out this link I found online
http://forums.vr-zone.com/news-arou...25-game-benchmarks-all-hd-video-recorded.html

Im gonna run some benchies and some in game fraps min avg max recordings and get the avg of 3 timed runs and record them with the e6850, i will then install the x4 620 run the same benchies/tests at the stock clock speed and see what I get, when I get some spare cash I will buy a aftermarket cooler and then test it at 3.0ghz so its a equal speed to the e6850 and see what I get.

I gotta put the shoe in my mouth now for knocking the x4 620 like i did. ive searched google before and didnt find that article, i dont know how but i stumbled upon it today for sure.

I figure this was once i run all my tests and install the x4 620 and mobo ill run the test again and then sell my current mobo and cpu for cheap to help with a video card upgrade purchase.

 

[MrK6]

Clock for clock, the E6850 probably walks all over the X4 620. You might actually see less performance until you play a game that actually uses a quad core to its fullest (and there's only a few). What games were giving you trouble that you wanted to upgrade for? I would have upgraded the video card and the monitor to something with a higher resolution and called it a day. Quad core is nice, but it's only relevant for a handful of games right now. Anyway, there's usually time to RMA an unopened package, so something to think about.

 

[aigomorla]

amd x4 since ur on a tight budget.... but get a nice board.

if u see greed stading on ur shoulder.. the nice board will say "yes" to greed if ur wallet says yes to x6

 

[VirtualLarry]

Clock for clock, the E6850 probably walks all over the X4 620.

X4 630 stock scores around 12,500 on the Nuclearus benchmark. But so does an E5200 @ 3.6. Athlon IIs are weak CPUs. Fine for desktop work, but not that great for gaming.

 

[Blastman]

I'll throw in another consideration that will give you a future upgrade path.

You can get an i3-530 (2.93Ghz) + H55 MB for about $200. You will need at least 1 2GB stick of DDR3 ~ $50. Dual channel memory performance over single channel hit is minimal and you can add another stick later.

In gaming, since that is one of your priorities, the i3/i5 dual core's (with hyperthreading so 4 thread processing) are amazingly fast. In this review computerbase.de a i5-661 (3.33Ghz stock, but 3.46Ghz with turbo boost) was faster in 4/6 games when compared to a Q9550 (2.83) quad core. Take a look at the gaming performance (800x600 charts for CPU limited performance) of the i5-661 -- it's usually near the top of those gaming charts.

In Resident Evil 5 (a highly multithreaded game) the 661 was faster 172.3 vs 159.3 for the Q9550. At stock speed, the i3-530 was 154.2, almost matching the Q9550.

A mild overclock to 3.5Ghz would put the i3-530 slightly faster than the i5-661 (i3-530 is same core without turbo boost and clocked a little slower). It will run 3.5 on stock voltage easy. My i3-530 will run 3.8Ghz on stock voltage and will run 4.0Ghz with a slight bump in voltage with the stock Intel heatsink/fan (although 4.0 is really about the limit on the stock HSF, it's a pretty small HSF).

A year or two down the road you could just pop in a i5-750 or i7-860 if you want some more speed.

Since I mostly surf and do a little gaming, I currently have my i3-530 running at stock speeds, but undervolted to 1.01 (from default 1.17). It's amazing how cool and quiet this i3-530 runs. I have the stock HSF running at just over ~ 500rpm. You get pretty well the lowest power consumption on any system out there, and with a little mild overclocking, one can get excellent gaming performance.

 

[Face2Face]

Don't waste your time with the i3. Who the hecks plays games at 800X600? RE5--172 Fps vs 159 Fps! I mean really ?? Anything over 60 Fps is a waste anyway. Yes you are gaming at a low resolution @ 720. I wouldn't be surprised if the new X4 620 is going to be slower than your old C2D on most games. GTA 4, FC2 or any other game that likes quads might be a little faster. But if you buy an Am3 board you might have a decent upgrade path. time will tell. The Vr zone review is a really good read!

 

[Concillian]

Don't waste your time with the i3. Who the hecks plays games at 800X600? RE5--172 Fps vs 159 Fps! I mean really ??

/facepalm

Benchmarking 101:
When testing CPUs, create a test that will test CPUs.
If they did the test at 2560x, then there would be no difference, because the GPU would be the limiting factor. People don't game at 800x, but at 800x you create an entirely CPU limited case so you can see differences in CPUs.

The significance here is that the CPUs are able to produce framerates that are really quite high, and you're correct that frames that high don't matter. This means that in most cases, the CPU is NOT limiting his performance.

To the OP:
- Why do you need to upgrade, what games are giving you issues?
- Have you performed benchmarks to verify whether your GPU or CPU are the primary limiting factor? For example, if you lower resolution and your minimum FPS get significantly better, you are GPU limited. If you lower resolution and your minimum FPS doesn't really change, only your average / max FPS, then your CPU is the primary limitation.

I think gaming at his listed 1260x720, he doesn't really need a top end system to be running quite well.

He may only need to hit FS/FT and get 4GB, and add a modest GPU upgrade.

If you do need a CPU upgrade, what has you convinced that you need a quad?

 

[BD231]

You'd be better off with an X3 or Phenom II x4 that has 6mb of L3, the cache dose a lot for gaming.

$89 for the x3 CPU (3.7 to 3.8ghz oc), 20-30 for the cooler, $79 to $100 for a motherboard that supports ddr2. Recoup half that with your current setup, not a bad move at all IMO. An extra core and some overclocking would net you good gains.

PS: You might just want to slap a new video card in as others have suggested, your 8800 is dated.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Ehhh... I like the Q9550 for him since it's a simple CPU swap. And with a decent OC it's definitely an upgrade that would really pay off if a multithreaded app comes along that he really wants.

 

[EQTitan]

Microcenter has the X2 555 BE (unlockable quad X2 955) 3.2GHz 6mb Quad and cheap board that has ACC BIOS support. I got this combo today for $132.xx

X2 555 BE -> Phenom II X4 B55 BE
Gigabyte ma78lm-s2h

Found in Hot Deals Forum - http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2079291

 

[formulav8]

There is nothing wrong with the Athlon II's. They have no problems pushing high resolutions. Especially an overclocked one. If you can get 3.6ghz or so then you will be set for along time.

But I would highly recommend the Q9550 over the A-II since you already have that platform. Try to find a used one. I got a very nice Q9450 with 12MB cache a few days ago for only $140 shipped. I've seen some Q9550's not to far above that range. So look in the fs forum here if you want to save alot of money.

Edit: Here is a Q6600 someone is selling for $100 plus shipping. Nearly everyone should hit the 1333mhz fsb for a speed of 3ghz. This cpu would have No problems pushing high resolutions. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2078714


Jason

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Your video card needs upgrading moreso than your processor, that is if you're still running an 8800GS. Your E6850 is probably fine to last another two more years for the usage you described.

 

[alyarb]

if you're this broke you shouldn't try to buy all your parts at once. just overclock your E6850 and get a radeon 5770.

 

[Bman123]

I can play fo3 goty at 12x7 default high settings no aa no af and stay above 60fps, cod4 stays between 60-90fps with 4xaa.

I want to get a quad just to have one honestly. I did the lost planet demo at default then I lowered everything and got 20fps higher. I do think it's my gpu that needs to be upgraded.

 

[Bman123]

The only game I see myself buying coming up is rdr and cod black ops. I figure if rdr comes to pc it's gonna need a quad like gta did. I figure rdr won't happen til 2011 anyway so I'll get a gpu now.

I only have around $100-$125 to spend on a gpu shipped, I need something that's gonna last at least a year but that shouldn't be hard with my res and the games I play lol. What gpu should I get?

I figure around Jan I will get a quad so the CPU can wait for now..

 

[happy medium]

The only game I see myself buying coming up is rdr and cod black ops. I figure if rdr comes to pc it's gonna need a quad like gta did. I figure rdr won't happen til 2011 anyway so I'll get a gpu now.

I only have around $100-$125 to spend on a gpu shipped, I need something that's gonna last at least a year but that shouldn't be hard with my res and the games I play lol. What gpu should I get?

I figure around Jan I will get a quad so the CPU can wait for now..

Grab a used 5770. There is a few of them for about 120$ in the for sale/trade forums.

That should last you about a year with that cpu.