Upgrade to q9550?

[ArmoredCavalry]

So, Newegg had this 15% cash back deal the other day (with paypal). I picked up a q9550 2.83ghz core 2 quad, which, with cash back, ran me $270. So now I can either a) sell the q9550 and make $50, or b) sell my e6750 for about $100, bringing the cost of the upgrade to $170 total (plus time/effort).

One question is, would I really notice a huge improvement in overall computing experience upgrading to this chip from my e6750? I know that a quad core would improve most video encoding times, however, that is not necessarily enough to make me want to spend this much on a cpu. :\ One thing I was interested in is the Xfire broadcast feature (don't know if anyone is familiar with it). Basically it encodes in-game video as you record it, and uploads it, so others can watch it live. It causes a huge hit on fps, and I'm wondering if, with a quad core, I would get much better results (would the video encode on 2 cores say, while the game is using the other 2).

Overall my system plays the most recent games fairly well, however, I sort of expected the 4870 to handle Fallout 3 and GTA 4 better, and can't help wondering if my CPU is the bottleneck (even clocked at 3.2ghz).

Anyhow, does anyone have experience with this chip, and can share their experience?

 

[Jim_L9]

I would upgrade the processor and overclock it and enjoy! The Q9550 is a nice CPU.

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

Yeah but, the only game I know that uses quad-core is supreme commander. :\

I keep hearing that as time goes on games will use all 4 cores, but really, how soon can we expect every game being released to support quad-cores?

 

[aevm]

I'd keep the Q9550. It will be a nice upgrade.

Besides, where are you going to find a retard to pay $320 + postage for a (possibly used, maybe even damaged) Q9550 without warranty, when Newegg sells it for $320 and guaranteed new and with free shipping and warranty? If you paid $270, don't expect to make $320 after selling it and paying postage. Expect to get $220, more likely. Even if you swear that you haven't used that Q9550, the buyer will want a discount anyway because he doesn't know you and cannot trust you.

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

You'd be surprised...

Anyhow, if I was to sell it without testing, the box would be sealed, which I would take a photo of for ebay, and since I have pretty good feedback, hopefully people would take my word on it, which is sort of what ebay is all about...

You are right about postage, but I'd say that would only cost me about $10, as for warranty, that is by intel, not newegg, so it would still have the 3 year warranty with it.

So I'd still believe, from my past experiences ebay'ing items, that I could make about $40. Is that really worth it? I dunno, considering most PC games cost more than that...

 

[aevm]

All right, then it makes a lot more sense than I thought.

The Q9550 would make a huge difference if you play Flight Simulator X. Apart from that, other games wouldn't use cores 3 and 4 much, if at all.

Here's an article comparing some CPUs in games:
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=770&p=5

At the same clock, in an application that only uses one or two cores, a Q9550 should be 5% or 10% faster than the E6750, thanks to some architectural improvements. Also, the Q9550 can reach 3.6 GHz easily, maybe more.

I tried to find about the XFire but I got lost in that forum. Try searching for yourself if you want.
http://www.xfire.com/xf/modules.php...orum&f=2&sid=112ad8c7555a108f3615c30c81c07f28

My guess is that it does work indeed as you expect, i.e. the XFire process(es) run on the extra cores and a quad would help. It's just a guess though...

 

[ArmoredCavalry]

Ah, thanks for the linkage, appreciate it.

Yeah, I mean, it seems like it would help with the gaming/video encoding at once.

I'm thinking I'll just give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks for the replies all.