Difference between QX6850 and QX9650?

[Ketchup_rulez]

HI, what is the difference between these two chips and which one should I get/is better?

Also, how would you go about overclocking one of these because they have the multiplier unlocked don't they...

 

[JDocs]

The QX9650 is a better chip by any margin.

The QX6850 is a 65nm(hotter) 4 instructions per a cycle CPU.
The QX9650 is a 45nm 5 instructions per cycle CPU and has SSE4.

This means the QX9650 runs cooler and at the same speed is faster.

 

[royalcrown]

The QX9650 is a better chip by any margin.

The QX6850 is a 65nm(hotter) 4 instructions per a cycle CPU.
The QX9650 is a 45nm 5 instructions per cycle CPU and has SSE4.

This means the QX9650 runs cooler and at the same speed is faster.

that's a tough call, I like 6, but I also like 9..couldn't the op just install it upside down ?

 

[lameness]

If you are thinking of buying either then money cant be an issue....in which case get the more expensive 9650 as it is a little better.

 

[Vertigon]

Both of these chips are aimed squarely at overclockers, the QX6850 has 584 million transistors versus 820 million in the QX9650. I own a QX9650 and this is definetly the better of the two if you are going to be using air cooling as it runs much cooler the the QX6850. The unlocked multiplier makes for easy overclocking but in essence you still want to base most of your core speed on the bus. You can simply change the multi to 12 for example and get 3.996 with a standard 333Mhz bus. I have mine dynamically overclocked which I strongly recomend to save power and to save the working life of the cpu. Mine runs rock solid at 4.2Ghz on the standard cooler which might get updated anytime soon for a possible 4.5Ghz on air, rock solid, all day. Fingers crossed.

 

[Grimmy]

Gah... all that cash.

Both $1020 bucks..

Oooo.. you can get a free gas card with the QX9650

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Yorkfield 3.0GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail
Free gas card w/ purchase, while supplies last

So definitely the.. QX9650 :lol:

 

[Ketchup_rulez]

Cheers guys!

So I gather that 12 is the highest multiplier you can have, right? So if I just raised the multiplier to 12 in the bios that would give me 4GHz. Would I have to adjust memory frequency and voltage etc. or would changing the multiplier be the only thing I needed to do. This would be on the QX9650.

Thanks

 

[Vertigon]

The multiplier is unlocked, 12 isn't the limit. Your bios will determine your limit which I'm sure will be much higher than 12. If change the multiplier you will have to up the voltage to you cpu, if you increase the bus speed you will have to up other voltages, like the northbridge, ram etc. There aren't firm overclock settings for any combination, it's a black art sort of, you have to keep fiddling until you get maximum power and stability.
You will need quality ram if your going to buy a QX9650 if you want to run the ratio at 1:1, otherwise you'll have to drop the memory divider. The amazing thing about the QX9650 is that overclocking will be limited by other components and not this cpu.
There are many overclocking guides around web, I suggest you have a good read before tinkering, actually anandtech publish there bios settings and they have with the GA-x48T-DQ6 mainboard which is what I own, it's the tock cycle of the technology which means its the pinnacle overclocker in the X38-X48 lineup. Some people like the P45 boards.
One issue I have with overclocking is the speed step technology, which needs to be refined alot more. For example my cpu will jump to 4.2Ghz without having all of the 4 cores loaded first. That's why I now have it dynamically overclocked, which mean it will run at any range between 2Ghz and 4.2Ghz. I suggest you look for a feature called DES advanced (Gigabyte) in your new mainboard. Good Luck.