Q9550 upgrade from E6600? Gamer

[vashek]

So, I'm looking to upgrade my CPU. I built a pretty nice system last year, but was waiting to upgrade my processor. I see alot of benchmarks, and comments stating the Wolfdales are better for gaming than quads. Also seen Q9550 outperform E8500 on the game tests. Buddy of mine who's really into computers told me that I should wait, that the E8500 wouldnt be a very signifcant upgrade over E6600 (i dont believe that)

Just curious if the Q9550 would give me a perfomance boost over the E6600. I'm currently playing Warhammer Online, which is an extremely CPU intensive game/graphic engine. Folks have been telling me that Warhammer is indeed using all 4 cores. So I'm pretty interested in a quad, reviews on them are all positive.

I've felt since I built the system that the CPU was bottlenecking me, guessing its just older tech. Actually posted here last year and someone commented "All those nice components, and yer going to put yer E6600 back in?!" Lol

My current System (minus new CPU)
Intel E6600 2.4GHZ
BFG Geforce 8800GTS 512MB (SLI...but keep it off, waste of money for record)
EVGA 750i FTW Mobo
4x 1G Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800MHZ RAM 4-4-4-12-2T
150GB WD Raptor HD

 

[Guest]

It would, but you might not notice it a whole lot

For me I noticed it a lot going from a e6420 to a q9550 but that was just me

 

[mildiner86]

have you thought of OC your E6600 atm its a 2.4 Ghz you could happily get it to 3.2Ghz with a £17 fan cooler

if i were you the only CPU worth upgrading to at the moment would be a core i7 but thats expensive now cause you need a new Motherboard.

the e6600 is still a good CPU and if you OC it it will be fine

 

[fatcat]

Since most game are still not taking advantage of multi threaded programing, a high end dual core will yield you better performance in most game. On the other hand, quad is the ''future''. Beside purchasing a new CPU, if you're up to it you could always try you hands on over clocking that Q6600. Many people have do so and attained very decent over clock. This could give you the boost you need. You'd probably get a boost from getting the Q9550 but by how much is hard to say. Check the CPU charts here and see if you think it's worth it

 

[vashek]

I had the E660 OC'd to 3.4ghz but was running at about 59 degrees at idle, I've got a really nice Zalman heatsink/fan on it. I had the voltage adjusted pretty well, nothing too low/high it appeared. Very stable.

As soon as I set it back to stock I was 41 degrees idle. I think the heat was killing me in the game where it became really cpu dependent.

Really lookin at Quad because I built a system for my friend with a Q6600, same RAM and a 7950 GT Vid card and he outperforms me in Warhammer when theres alot of players on screen. I run the game on average 60-90fps depending on the environment, but I choke horribly 5-10fps when theres 100+ people on screen, whereas he's fairly smooth sailing 20-30fps in same area. Kinda annoying being outperformed with an inferior system, hehe. Only thing I can figure is that the quad is making the difference.

 

[vashek]

Yea, it was way too hot. Got plenty of fans, and the nice cooler...but man u could feel the hot air blowing out the system.

I was following the guide for OC here and had the volts all in the green, so shouldnt have been so hot. I dunno, I'm new to OC though.

This is the voltages I had set when OC'd to 3.4ghz
CPU Core- 1.45v
CPU FSB - 1.3v
Memory - 2.1v
nForce SPP - 1.45
NF200 - Auto

 

[fatcat]

Maybe your cooler was not seated properly. You might try another cooler as well something like the Xigmatek 1283 with the bolt through kit. True it's a bit of money and might not be too tempting since you already of a cooler but it's lot less expensive than buying a new CPU.

 

[papalarge123]

that is very high on the CPU core, isnt it

my Q6600 runs at 3.5ghz @1.325 with a freexer pro, idling at 32c and max 65c.

maybe a different stepping, but still seems high.

the voltages are high which meant the temps were high.

if u were to tweek it down in to the mid 1.3's then that should help the overclocking

 

[windie]

Since most game are still not taking advantage of multi threaded programing, a high end dual core will yield you better performance in most game. On the other hand, quad is the ''future''.

Question. For sure quad is the future and so. But how much ahead are we looking at? Is it worth investing eg a 100$ or so more on a q9400 over a e8400-8500 on the current 775 socket (given that motherboard and ram are already fine)? THe i7 is pretty expensive at the moment. So would a quad serve better to last the 775 socket say a bit mroe longer htan a dual?

Also just wondering would a quad generally help smooth multiple threads opened in windows - background processes etc etc (during gaming also)? thanks

 

[papalarge123]

i have noticed a hell of a gain in Vista and multiple apps that i use in windows, including transcoding of video files.

windows is a hell of a lot more stable, making Vista a charm to work with.

Quads can benefit many apps as well as games, some apps include winrar, convertxtodvd (from 45mins to 8mins for a standard 700mb vid file), and Vista its self, games are from Supcom, crysis had a slight boost, assassins creed and others.

i don't care for what some have said about quads, they can be very beneficial in the long run. and many games can get a boost fro over clocking them also.

 

[pr2thej]

No argument that quads are better, its just are they $100 better. Personally i do not think so, i only have a quad as it was very very cheap ($70ish dollars)

 

[Pico_w]

Get a quad but not now. Wait till Phenom II releases in around 8 January and look at the price + performance before you decide. If the phenom II does what it claims to do then the prices of Intel Quads should drop.

 

[dragonsprayer]

ovclock it!

any nvidia mobo will give you 3ghz most give 3.2-3.4ghz with a little tuning. going higher then 3.4ghz usually takes an act of god or some really good oc skills. usualy its more a miriacle

nvidia mobos are the most over rated - i have said that since the first 680i mobos - it much better known. they lack voltage and proper bios tweaks.

nvidia hired an overclocker to straiten it out but it did not help - the new efva x58 even needed help

since you have a crappy nvidia mobo they are hard to tune

if you have ldt mutlplier turn it down to 4 from 5 and oveclock the q6600!

 

[dragonsprayer]

have you thought of OC your E6600 atm its a 2.4 Ghz you could happily get it to 3.2Ghz with a £17 fan cooler

if i were you the only CPU worth upgrading to at the moment would be a core i7 but thats expensive now cause you need a new Motherboard.

the e6600 is still a good CPU and if you OC it it will be fine

exactly!!!


at 3.2ghz and 1.35-1.38v (you need to manually set the voltage) your cpu might last 8-9 years at 24/7 output instead of 10-12

 

[vashek]

I stepped it down at bit, OC'd to 3.2ghz at 1.4v CPU Core, 1.3v FSB. Ran Primer 95 with no error. Was hoping to get it to 1.38v but errored each time. Cores run at about 42-45 idle. Tcase is showing its 55 degrees, but I have a feeling its not reporting correct temperature with Speedfan, messed around with calibrating and gave up. I ran a 2nd temperature program (cant remember name) and it listed cores at exact same temps, but tcase at 85 degrees....my understating is tcase can never been hotter than cores, so obviously something not reporting correct.

System runs cool, less hot air. Nice and stable.

And yes, I really think the 750i Mobo/nvidia mobos are garbage.