Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Just wondering weather it's worth it

Last response: in Systems
Share

Hi there!

I've got a little cash to spend, and I'm thinking about upgrading my rig slightly, but I have completely lost track of recent hardware developments.

From what I understand, buying a new graphics card right now doesn't make much sense, especially not considering what I have (an 8800GTS 640MB).

When it comes to CPU power, I have no idea whether it'll be worth it for me. I'm currently running on an Intel Pentium EE 955 (which is what the box and the Intel CPU ID utility say; Vista says it's a Pentium D? Weird :pt1cable: ), on the Intel D975XBX2 motherboard. My system runs fine for the most part, although I recently put in an extra 2 gigabytes of RAM (for a total of 4) to cope with the many applications I often have running for my studies (Software Engineering); several Visual Studio instances combined with my usual stuff eats up quite a lot of memory under Vista.

My goal is mainly to improve the gaming performance without losing out in other parts, and I was look at maybe buying a Q6600 or E8400.

Would this be an upgrade worthwhile? I don't know if there's some new technology on the way from Intel (not a big fan of AMD, sorry) which might be worth waiting for, or if this would even have any effect on gaming performance.

Thanks in advance :love: 

More about : wondering weather worth

Register or log in to remove

Well, picking up a new motherboard isn't that big of a deal either, I only need one PCI slot, rest can be PCI-E so that's not that big of a deal.

Would it be noticeable in some of the more recent games (like Crysis+upcoming sequels, or Far Cry 2 for example) if I bought an E8400 or Q6600 (and a new motherboard if needed) though? That's my main concern, as I had a P4 2.8 for nearly 3 years until it really became the bottleneck.
Related ressources
Ask the community

a P4 2.8 to a E8400 or Q6600, will be like night and day...scratch that, it'll be like one end of the universe to another. and i am not kidding you

before i got my quad computer. i was on was a P4 2.4gzh with a ATi 2600 Pro vid card.

honestly, my guestimate...my rig now is probably 7-8 times faster. i can't even slow it down no matter what i do

once you go E8400 or a quad setup, you'll never look back, its that amazing.

just my opinion, but i would go with the Q6600, as i've had experience with it before, and altho the E8400 is "better" in gaming as it clocks higher, i personally value the overall computing experience, such as other programs, general windows use, etc etc, i find that quad core is much more smooth. besides, Q6600 is a great OC-er, (the E8400) is too, but 3.0ghz is a common OC for the Q6600 (if not higher).

in the end, its your choice :)  good luck.

aznguy0028 said:
a P4 2.8 to a E8400 or Q6600, will be like night and day...scratch that, it'll be like one end of the universe to another. and i am not kidding you

before i got my quad computer. i was on was a P4 2.4gzh with a ATi 2600 Pro vid card.

honestly, my guestimate...my rig now is probably 7-8 times faster. i can't even slow it down no matter what i do

once you go E8400 or a quad setup, you'll never look back, its that amazing.

just my opinion, but i would go with the Q6600, as i've had experience with it before, and altho the E8400 is "better" in gaming as it clocks higher, i personally value the overall computing experience, such as other programs, general windows use, etc etc, i find that quad core is much more smooth. besides, Q6600 is a great OC-er, (the E8400) is too, but 3.0ghz is a common OC for the Q6600 (if not higher).

in the end, its your choice :)  good luck.

I'm not on a P4 2.8 at the moment though, read my original post ;) 
I had that before my current one (Pentium EE 955), and it lasted me long enough; but with this one I'm already starting to get the idea it's killing my gaming performance; even though it's only 19 months old.

I already kinda counted on having to reinstall Windows :p 

The processor matcher from Intel isn't entirely accurate by the way, doesn't even list my current CPU :( 

But to get back to my original point, the Q6600 and E8400 are the best choices at the moment? With the Q6600 being a more rounded CPU, and the E8400 performing better gaming wise. Should be easy enough to find the review for those two right here on Uncle Tom's in that case :) 

Thanks for your input so far guys!

Right, based on this article on Bit-Tech, this arcticle on Tom's here and Uncle Tom's CPU Charts, I'll be going for the Q6600.

Seems to me that gaming performance with my graphics card (XFX 8800GTS 640MB) the difference between both is negligible; only a few FPS on my native resolution (1680x1050 of course). For those few FPS difference, I do get quite a massive boost when it comes to the multitasking and occasional video rendering I do.

Anyone think I'm missing something, or am I correct in this assumption?
For the record, I probably will buy a new motherboard anyway, so my dad can take over my current CPU and motherboard, somehow his motherboard is actually starting to break down after 3 years. ASUS P4P800 SE, and one of the pins holding the Northbridge heatsink broke off yesterday :|
First time in a decade that we've seen problems with an ASUS motherboard, unlike the many issues I've had with MSI and Gigabyte :( 

Hmm, just found an article about Intel's upcoming Nehalem architecture, it just became very tempting to save my money for a while and go straight for one of those later this year (release is Q4 2008 if I'm correct?); although they probably won't be reasonably priced until the end of next year either I guess. Hrm :( 
Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Systems categories
!