Does an upgrade to i7Core make sense at this point?

[ajcroteau]

Currently, i'm running a Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz OC. I've been reviewing the i7 Core and the X58 motherboards but haven't decided whether or not the make the jump and the dilemma i have is as following:

1. Is there a sufficient performance boost to jump to the somewhat affordable i7Core 920 at this point?

2. Intel will be also be releasing the i5 at some point which will phase out the i7Core 920, does it make sense to wait to see what that will offer?

3. I've also been looking at the AM3 AMD CPU's which respond very well to the DDR3 memory however, i'm currently running 2x 8800GT(9800GT) SLI. Seeing as how AMD is in bed with ATI, it's safe to assume that I will never see an AMD based AM3 only motherboard which supports SLI. Will NVidia ever get there act together and make an AM3 only motherboard supporting DDR3 memory?

At this point, even though my Quad Core is somewhat old school, i think it still has a lot of life left in it.

Your thoughts would be appreciated, thanx
AJ

 

[j-g-faustus]

Depends on what you do, of course, and how strongly you need more performance.
Here are the Anandtech benchmarks comparing Q6600 and i7 920: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=47&p2=53

Whether a 30-50% performance gain is worth the cost is your decision

I just bought an i7 920, and I am very happy with it. But for me it was an upgrade from a Pentium 4 and a Mac mini, so it's not quite the same situation...

In your shoes, I would probably wait a little longer before upgrading - another 6-12 months will see even better performance and/or lower prices.
Or perhaps I would look for a 920 on sale when the i5 comes to market, if I really wanted that extra performance.

 

[brendano257]

I would wait until Core i5 comes out, check their performance, and then wait till a little after Christmas, then there will most likely be a newer more efficient Stepping that will be more overclock-friendly.

 

[ainarssems]

I have Q6600 @3.2 now and if I will need more power I will bump it up to 3.6. I don't see myself replacing it for another 2-3 years.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Waiting for another few months if possible could well be the best tactic if this has any credibility.

 

[geofelt]

With a sli vga configuration, I assume that your interest is in gaming performance.
If that is the case, a faster cpu will not gain you nearly as much more FPS than a vga upgrade will.

 

[Raviolissimo]

Currently, i'm running a Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz OC. I've been reviewing the i7 Core and the X58 motherboards but haven't decided whether or not the make the jump and the dilemma i have is as following:

1. Is there a sufficient performance boost to jump to the somewhat affordable i7Core 920 at this point?

2. Intel will be also be releasing the i5 at some point which will phase out the i7Core 920, does it make sense to wait to see what that will offer?

3. I've also been looking at the AM3 AMD CPU's which respond very well to the DDR3 memory however, i'm currently running 2x 8800GT(9800GT) SLI. Seeing as how AMD is in bed with ATI, it's safe to assume that I will never see an AMD based AM3 only motherboard which supports SLI. Will NVidia ever get there act together and make an AM3 only motherboard supporting DDR3 memory?

At this point, even though my Quad Core is somewhat old school, i think it still has a lot of life left in it.

Your thoughts would be appreciated, thanx
AJ

it depends on what applications you're running. this guy upgraded from a Q6600 to a 920 and he's talking about how much faster it is.
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=177660

basically, a hell of a lot faster, for CPU-intensive aps.

it doesn't look like Intel will be keeping a $280 core i7. plus the 920 core i7 is very stable with many (most ?) OC's.

it's hard to tell now what the next "classic" will be, like the 920 is now. i wasn't planning to upgrade for another year. the 920 is about 50% faster than my Q9550. but it's such a PITA to transfer software licenses that i would like a doubling of speed to make it worth the time to do the upgrade.

i wouldn't be surprised to see AMD come out with something in the next year that rivals the core i7 920, a cheap very very fast computer.

 

[ill b ben]

1. This depends on the user really, you would have to give us more info about what you actually use your pc for

2.hmm to wait or not wait hard one.. Imo if you really ''need'' a new cpu i wouldnt wait for the i5. The price/ performance is right on the 920

3. Who knows lol...

But id like to point out you alrdy pretty much made your awnser

''i think it still has a lot of life left in it'' So keep your good old q6600 its a nice cpu.

ps @ Raviolissimo how is the 920 exactly 50% faster then a q9550?

 

[ajcroteau]

Thanx everybody for the responses, I appreciate it. I think i'm definitely going to wait to see how the i5 performs and possible make an upgrade decision then... I do online gaming, I'm also a software engineer so i have apps like VS and SQL Server running on my machine and i do some multimedia. So what i'd be looking for is an all round performance boost.

With a sli vga configuration, I assume that your interest is in gaming performance.
If that is the case, a faster cpu will not gain you nearly as much more FPS than a vga upgrade will.

What I'm reading is a lot of the older Quad Cores are bottlenecking the newer NVidia cards such as the GTX295. I'm a little nervous at this point to spend that kind of money for a bad upgrade. So I would say, Motherboard, CPU, and RAM first, then go for the video card second.

 

[geofelt]

How good do you want your gaming to be today?

If you upgrade your cpu, mobo, and ram, but keep your vga configuration, you will be disappointed that you don't see much of a gaming improvement.

If you upgrade the vga to GTX295 levels, you will see a good gaming boost.

But, I don't think I would do that either. The GTX295 is today too good for anything but a 30" monitor at 2540x1600.
There are better cards on the way before the end of the year, and there are better cpu's also. I think a bit of patience is in order.

You might want to read this article, and see where you fit:
http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=vga_charts
The tests were done with a E8400 @3.0, and some of the newer cards are not included, but you can extrapolate.

 

[B-Unit]

Assuming you are gaming primarily, unless your feeling slowdowns in anything but Crysis, GTA4, or STALKER2, there is no reason for you to upgrade anything. Ride it out another 9-12 months and see what the landscape looks like then. As said, if your feeling slowdowns, your best bet is a graphics upgrade rather than a CPU upgrade.

 

[knotknut]

Will your motherboard work with a Q9650?

Just thinking!