E8600 v Q9550

[Julian69]

Hi guys....

I'm pretty much a novice and have a choice between E8600 and Q9550 cpu's. Which one is best for gaming (using GTX280 gpu). I hear people talking about future proofing using quad but surely by the time it's relevant to gaming new quads will have been released. How soon will dual core be irrelevant? Looking to play games like Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes, World in Conflict, Crysis etc.
The price difference is a negligible £40 so purely a speed, power issue really....what would you advise?

Appreciate your help.

 

[auscanzukus]

If you're keeping the cpu for years, then def. a quad. Most of the games you mentioned run great on a dualie.

 

[mindfields]

Hmm you might want to consider waiting for the new Core i7's. As per the previews and IDF 2008, Nehalem CPUs will be self-overclocking, and will deliver better single-threaded performance

 

[mrplow99]

correct me if im wrong but i dont belive nehlem cpus will be out till some when in 09

 

[spaztic7]

nehalem... or i7... is target to release late 2008. Yes i7 is self overclocking, but the processor is not designed for high performance gaming. Intel said so themselves. They should be as good or just better as penryn.

I would go for the quad if you will keep it for a while. I am starting to look at stepping down from the q6600 to the e8600. If i7 releases on time, I may just step up to the q9770 for the price shall fall.

 

[zenmaster]

Nehalms with the same list price as the Q9550 will be out in Late Sept to October Time Frame.

The Mobo's and Ram will be a little more costly (Requiring DDR3)
Also expect the CPUs to sell a bit above list for at least a couple months due to strong initial demand.

 

[hixy]

cant beat a good overclock on a dual core processor! E8600 wins

quad's just arent optimised for gaming...yet. I havent heard anything in the pipeline about utilising quad cores for games, anyone know of such an animal?

 

[Julian69]

There is a game being developed for quad called Alan Wake.
Does the cpu mean THAT much...I heard that the graphics card takes most of the strain....

 

[bobbknight]

Right now get the chip you feel most comfortable with, if you upgrade more than once every 2 years get the 2 core.

 

[Julian69]

I've decided to go with the Dual Core. I figure that by the time Quads have been taken full advantage of, newer processors will have been released and QX versions will have dropped in price.

Thanks guys...great forum.

 

[spaztic7]

Have fun with it and your OCing!

 

[dagger]

You need to keep in mind, that the idea "higher clocked duals outperform lower clocked quad on older non-quad optimized games" is a generalization that's only true if the difference in clock is large enough. If it's small, the quad will still outperform dual due to background processes being moved to spare cores, thus freeing up dedicated cores for the large application.

Here's benchmark for 65nm generation counterparts of your 45nm examples:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q6600_8.html

 

[dagger]

it will be another 2 years before we see all games take advantage of 4 cores, and by then 8 cores will be out and we will be wanting to know when games will take advantage of those,lol. Im going with a E8600 soon myself with a gtx280 gpu unless the 4870 x2 drops down in price in the next couple months.

Did you read last post and benchmarks? A slower quad will outperform a slightly faster dual even in old non-quad optimized games. The difference have to be big for dual to win out.

As for gtx280, the 9800gx2 outperform it now, for $275 price tag.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=14
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=16
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=17
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=18
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=19