Upgrading from Intel C2Q Q6600 (FAST Answer)

mneonly

Honorable
Sep 11, 2013
5
0
10,510
Hi,

I have Intel C2Q Q6600 overclocked to 3.0Ghz, 4GB DDR2 at 667Mhz and Asus 7770 graphic card.

I am planing to buy new CPU/MOBO and RAM.

This are the CPU's that are available at the moment at my local PC store:

Core i5-3330 Box - 158€
Core i5-3470 Box - 167€
INT Core i7 3820 - 225€
AMD X8 FX-8350 - 154€

I am interested at i5-3470 and fx 8350.
Will my upgrade from C2Q Q6600 be notable ? What are you recommending ?
 
Yes there will be a very large difference in your CPU performance. I would probably take the FX-8350 since it is multiplier unlocked and you can overclock when/if you need a little extra CPU power. The i5-3470 is also a good choice, but is multiplier locked so no overclocking or just a very tiny amount. Maybe 100-200mhz though FSB overclocking.
 
Your Q6600 was tops in it's day. It has a passmark rating of 2975.
The i5-3470 rating is 6586.
The FX-8350 is 9102.
If that was all there was to it, the FX would be a no brainer.
The fx will perform at that level only if it has an app that will push all of it's 8 cores at the same time.
If your app is gaming, then most games will push only two cores, and the faster cores of the i5-3470 will be better.

The 7770 is only an ok gaming card, so any of the choices would be appropriate and do the job.
 
Compared to Q6600 @ 3ghz:

i5-3470 is ~ 62% faster pretty much any task.
FX 8350 is ~ 23% faster using 1~4 threads, ~ 100% faster using 8+ threads. AND when OC'd to 4.7ghz is ~ 44% faster 1~4 threads, 145% faster using 8+ threads. The only downside is the extra power consumption = higher energy bill.

I personally would choose FX 8350 over i5 3470 if you had to stay around that budget range, because you can OC it and it will be faster in pretty much any task, and it will probably last longer due to higher core count, as long as you are okay with the extra power usage.
 
I will use my PC only for gaming. I play CS:GO, battlefield 3 and I will play Battlefield 4, fifa, pes, crysis etc...

Now, with my PC in BF3 I get stable 50+ FPS on medium settings and 1680*1050 resolution and on CS:GO average 150FPS. Will FPS increase in that games with new CPU ?
 


I think you will see some increase in performance, but your gpu looks like it will bottleneck BF3 much more after cpu upgrade. You get more frame rate increase after cpu upgrade if your gpu isn't bottlenecking current framerate.
 
BF3 is not very cpu intensive in single player mode.

In multiplayer mode, it can be very cpu intensive.
You do not find benchmarks on this because of the difficulty in creating a valid multiplayer situation that is repeatable.

To help clarify your options, run these two tests:

a) Run your games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 50%.
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.


Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
set to 50% and see how you do.


If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.
 
if you paired both the i5 3470 and the fx8350 with a single high-end gpu and max the settings of the games you'll be playing then its essentially a tie same goes against the new haswell chips. if you are planning to use sli/xfire however, you will be better serve with one of intel's higher end i5/i7's.
 


When I lower resolution my FPS in CS:GO is same but it is lower in some situations ? Thats strange... What this means ?
 
If your FPS remains the same when you lower your graphics specs, it is an indicator that your cpu was already doing all it can. Either because the individual core power was at it's limit(likely) or that you had too few cores.

You test YOUR games because games do differ on how they use cpu vs graphics.
 



Ok. I tested BF3 multiplayer and same thing. Average FPS is 55 on both resolutions 1680*1050 and 1280*768
My games are really playable but with old ATI Radeon 3850 I get same FPS around 150. With 7770 it is same but in BF3 I had huge boost. My FPS with 3850 was below 30 on low settings and with 7770 on medium is 50-80!

Is CPU bottlenecking CS:GO ?
 



cs:go isn't a particularly hardware intensive game so you should mark it off your list of benchmarks to run.