Have a HD 4850 1gb,shud i upgrade Dual core @2.8 to a Q8400?

[shohag2018]

I have Sapphire Hd 4850. Currently running with a e2160 oced @ 2.8ghz. If i upgrade my Cpu to Core two Quad q8400, about what percentage of a performance boost im gonna get? ll it be worth the money? im planning gaming @ 1440X900. and cannot OC my dual any further due to motherboard limitations.
Please answer soon. thanks a lot.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

An OCed E2160 is fairly decent. ATI drivers require less powerful cpus than Nvidia drivers.

You will notice some improvement, but it won't be significant. According to the balanced-PC review, a E6300 P2D @ 2.8GHz and 2mb of cache maxes out the 4850. This is faster than your E2160 due to faster architecture, but the difference won't be huge.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-balanced-platform,2469-16.html

 

[shohag2018]

Thanks for a precise answer buddy.i appreciate it.

 

[shubham1401]

Your Dual at 2.8Ghz is good enough for gaming.
Though Q8400 will give you some advantage with some CPU intensive games like GTA4 etc etc.

But upgrade still not recommended. Get a whole new RIG whenever budget allows.

 

[shohag2018]

Yes...i guess it wud be wiser to just keep the dual core for now. one last thing i have two gbs of rams...do i need an increment ? or just keep em where they are?

 

[shubham1401]

If you have Vista/Windows 7 then you should upgrade to 4GB.
That will certainly boost your framerates.

Cuz vista/7 takes 1GB ram themselves along with Antivirus.
So that leaves you with 1GB only and thats too low for games.

While gaming just open Task Manager and see your RAM usage...Mine goes upto 2.7GB while playing Crysis Warhead.

 

[warmon6]

Yes...i guess it wud be wiser to just keep the dual core for now. one last thing i have two gbs of rams...do i need an increment ? or just keep em where they are?

What OS bit are you running? 32 or 64 bit?

32 bits: 2GB of ram is fine.

64 bit: you should start thinking about going up to 4 GB but you should be fine for now if your running older games.

 

[shohag2018]

im with good old XP 32..and while gaming i use this soft called gamebooster....nothing serious but at least it shuts down some real time features like anti virus..so i guess im good for now ehh?

 

[shohag2018]

ohh...one thing as i ve got such helping guys like u, i cant help asking one more qus..my cpu goes as hot as 80 degrees @2.8 ghz at full load(prime 95).. im using stock cooler stock voltage...last time i used thermal gel it was 3 years ago.What i need to kno is,can the gel be an issue? i removed the heatsink a couple of weeks back to clean the fan..and gel was pretty dry n thin.i dnno nothing about this...one my frnds said its enough..just needed for the separation of the cpu and the heatsink..what do u guys think?

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Yeh, if you remove the HSF then you should reapply thermal paste...this is especially true if you're using the stock thermal paste (which is low quality and dries out quickly).

Also consider a bang-for-your-buck aftermarket cooler for ~$20, (ie. CM 212 or Artic Cool Pro 7), they come with thermal paste and should cool much better than your stock, allowing you to overclock.

 

[shohag2018]

will do.thanks a lot again.