Q6700 or Q8400 for gaming?

[smartz]

Well I'm going to be buying some new parts in a couple of days (mobo,cpu,ram) and I was wondering what would be better for gaming, the Q6700 or the Q8400?

I DO NOT wish to overclock.

I will be pairing one of the Processors with an Intel DP45SG.
I do not do any video processing/encoding or anything of that nature.
I just like a smooth, stable system to play games on.
I will be using Windows Seven(32-bit) if that matters.


Also, if anyone has benchmarks of the two CPUs that would be absolutely great!

Need your help fast!

Thanks in advance!!!!

 

[loneninja]

Go with the Q8400, should be slightly faster than the Q6700 while consuming less power.

 

[rooseveltdon]

Well I'm going to be buying some new parts in a couple of days (mobo,cpu,ram) and I was wondering what would be better for gaming, the Q6700 or the Q8400?

I DO NOT wish to overclock.

I will be pairing one of the Processors with an Intel DP45SG.
I do not do any video processing/encoding or anything of that nature.
I just like a smooth, stable system to play games on.
I will be using Windows Seven(32-bit) if that matters.


Also, if anyone has benchmarks of the two CPUs that would be absolutely great!

Need your help fast!

Thanks in advance!!!!

neither is a good choice for you, you do not do anything that would effectively take advantage of the quad cores,and gaming at the moment is affected more by core speed and graphics card power than the number of processor cores both chips are moderately fast and have decent cache but neither is known for good gaming performance more so if you choose to not overclock because then you won't be able to increase their slow core speed. If you want to buy an intel chip for gaming the best choice is the E8400,it is cheaper and is known as one of the best gaming processors on the market (has more cache and is much fasten than the quads you listed). Overall the best price to performance ratio as well as future proofing options are from amd at the moment,the phenom 2 x2 550,the x3 720 Be and the x4 940 all offer amazing performance and value and a better upgrade path than a 775. Anyways if you are going to stick with intel or if you already have an intel mobo then the best choice for you is the E8400 no doubt about it you can check the benchmarks here on tomshardware as well.

here is a current list of cpu's and their benchmark score (please note that the phenom 2 x2 550 is not present because it had not yet been released at the time this list was made)

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html

You will see the quads ranked higher because this test focused on multi tasking rather than gaming, gaming is not affect much by the number of cores but by grapics card power and core speed check the sped of each of the chips and their cache that tells you which ones are better for gaming.

 

[witcherx]

If you can check the alternative also..
Amd 905e.. very energy efficient CPU


http://hothardware.com/Articles/AMD-Athlon-II-and-Phenom-II-X2-Processors-Debut/?page=8

... check the charts.. its a nice cpu... low on energy .... Bing!

 

[smartz]

rooseveltdon, I completely understand what your saying and thanks for the reply
But I have one Question, will the speed of the E8400 still allow me to do minor multi-tasking on desktop like extracting two things , or installing two things at the same time? I would like my desktop to be smooth and not freeze up at times like it does with my crappy x2 5400 i have now.

 

[randomizer]

If you're extracting with Winzip you'll see no benefit. If you use the latest WinRAR then a quad will be faster then a dual core. I'm not sure about 7-Zip.

Remember that extracting and installing at the same time will send your HDD into a spaz (unless on different drives or in certain RAID configurations), so a faster CPU won't necessarily prevent "freezing."

 

[smartz]

Thanks for the info guys, i found a good deal on the E8400 and will probably buy it in a day or two. Thanks again!!

 

[flyin15sec]

I'll have to agree with the sentiments. E8400 would be an ideal choice. Multitasking is different than using a multicore application. You can switch between apps, without much problems even with an E8400.