I7 platform upgrade

[boblynn123]

Hello. My cousin from Brazil asked me on advice into whether he should upgrade to an i7 system. He is currently on a q6700 oc to 4ghz and gtx 285. All he does is game mmos all day which can't use SLI/cf (he already verified this).
Since, for his gaming-only purpose, i7 would only benefit him if he goes sli/cf (which his games won't utilize), there's really no point to the upgrade. Just wondering if anyone had something else to point out, or if there was something wrong with the advice I gave him.

 

[geofelt]

To assess the possibilities, have him try a couple of tests:

1) Run his games, but reduce the resolution and eye candy to a minimum. This will simulate what will happen if you upgrade to a stronger graphics card. If his FPS improves, it indicates that his cpu is capable of driving a stronger graphics card to higher levels of FPS.

2) Keeping his graphics resolution and settings the same, reduce the cpu power. Do this by removing the overclock, or by using windows power management to set a maximum cpu% of perhaps 70%. If his FPS drops significantly, it indicates that the current cpu is a limiting factor, and that a faster cpu would help. 4.0 is already a good overclock. A i5 or i7 cpu will be perhaps 15% faster, clock for clock. You would have to do some work to get one safely to 4.0.

 

[boblynn123]

Hi, thank you for the reply, geofelt. I told him to do your tests. Based on his vague results, when he turned all eye candies to minimum, he saw a roughly 20% fps increase. For the 2nd test, he clocked down his cpu to 3.5ghz and saw roughly a 6% fps drop.
I'm guessing a 6% fps drop wouldn't be considered significant then. So should I advise him to use the money to upgrade graphics card instead?

 

[geofelt]

I think he has a very good and balanced system.

If he does not already have 4gb of ram, that is the first thing I would upgrade.

Past that, upgrading the graphics card will be more effective than upgrading the cpu. A GTX480 would probably be a good upgrade. If he is running a 2560 x 1600 30" monitor, then going to dual cards and a X58 system is in order. At 1920 x 1600 or less A top end single card should run everything well.

A Q6700 @4.0 is very strong. Clock for clock, a i7 cpu may be only 15% faster, and you need to do some work to get a i7 safely past 4.0

 

[boblynn123]

Since his games don't support dual cards/his res is only at 1920x1600, I guess the best upgrade option at the time is graphics upgrade (yep he has 4gb ram).

 

[boblynn123]

Best answer selected by boblynn123.