E6600 to E8500 or not worth it?

matteyallen · Jul 1, 2013

Hi Guys, Ive been out of the gaming sphere for a few years, but ive been upgrading my system so i can get back into it.

I had an asrock p45ts mobo, E6600 and an ATI 3850, 2GB DDR2 and an old hyper type-r 580w power supply.

I have recently changed the power supply to a Antec Gamer 520w, and changed the gpu to a gtx 660, which has transformed it hugely. I overclocked the cpu from 2.4ghx to 3.4ghz to try and minimise the bottleneck.

I bought call of duty black ops 2 as its not particularly demanding to see how it faired, and im getting a pretty decent 60-70 fps average, but in places its dropping to 30fps, which is definately the cpu struggling (running at near 100% all the time).

My mobo support ddr3, so i might get 4gb of ddr3 as i can keep it for my next mobo, ram usage is ~90%, is that too high?

This game is ok as it is really though, but for the future, i can get an E8500 for about £25 off ebay which i can overclock probably to 4+ ghz from what ive read, is it worth it to give me a boost in the mean time (wolfdale seems to be 10% better clock for clock than conroe )or just save for a new mobo and new processor?

Any thoughs...cheers!

Kamen_BG · Jul 1, 2013

Buy a decent 8GB or 16GB kit which you can use in your next build.

As for the CPU, yes, you will get a FPS boost from upgrading to the E8500, but it won't be significant.
If you could upgrade to a Q9x5x series CPU, that'd be great, otherwise save up and get a Phenom II X4 or faster CPU.

matteyallen · Jul 1, 2013

Yeah i will probably get 4 or 8 gb of hyper-x ddr3 so i can use it in future.

I have had a look at the Q9x5x series of processors, there the best for the 775 socket, but they cant be had very cheaply, where as the E8500 can, but if its not much of a boost there isnt a lot of point.

I think then i will leave it as it is and save until i get a game that struggles, then replace the mobo and cpu to something a bit more modern, either an i5 2500k or similar or AMD (dont know much about amd stuff) Back to the reviews soon then!

phyco126 · Jul 1, 2013

Lets put it this way - I have a E8400 @ 4.0 GHz, GTX 560 Ti 448 Core (which is pretty much a FPS here and there shy of a 570) and 8 GB of DDR2 RAM. Go with DDR3 8 GB.

Crysis 1 - 28 - 34 FPS on a 1920 x 1200 screen with max graphics.
Crysis 2 - 18 - 30 FPS on a 1920 x 1200 screen with max graphics.
Crysis 3 - 7 - 24 FPS on a 1920 x 1200 screen with max graphics.
Metro 2033 - 30+ FPS on a 1920 x 1200 screen with max graphics.
Skyrim - 60 FPS on a 1920 x 1200 screen with max graphics.
Civ 5 - 60+ FPS on a 1920 x 1200 screen with max graphics.
Left 4 Dead 2 - Can't remember exact FPS, but its higher than my monitor's refresh rate. Same settings as above games.
Minecraft - 60 FPS on a 1920 x 1200 screen with max graphics (jitters here and there though)

Those are the only games I really play or have played - but I always have a FPS counter on screen. The GTX 660 performs well beyond the 560 Ti 448 cores. You can expect the same performance from a 4 GHz E8500 as a 4 GHz E8400. Hope this helps.

Personally since its cheap enough, jump on it.

matteyallen · Jul 1, 2013

Thanks for the numbers, other than crysis 2 and 3 they look ok to me. I might put some small bids in on ebay for E8400/E8500s , if i get one for under £20 then it must be worth it, and i'll overclock it as far as it will go.

If i dont get one that cheap, i'll just save for something more modern, its just hard to tell because the clock for clock comparisons accross the generations are hard to find, and cpus arent very important in games these days.

phyco126 · Jul 1, 2013

Actually CPUs are important. I'll see up to double the frames on the Crysis Games with a new processor and the same GPU. And don't worry about clock for clock - if the newer processors are faster (and they are) then that is all that matters.

This shows, at the bottom, clock for clock with a few games. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/54?vs=288

matteyallen · Jul 1, 2013

Thanks, i got the impression modern games dont require a lot of cpu power and each generation of cpu hasnt given much of a speed improvement over the last either. Hence old cpu still isnt that bad. GPU is pretty much everything, hence buying a gtx 660. Looks like its true to an extent.... i need to read more and look at loads more benchmarks, trouble is they usually dont go back as far as core 3 duos!!

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E6600 to E8500 or not worth it?

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