Q9550 worth it?

[baked188]

I'm looking to upgrade my CPU, Specs:
e6400@3.2
asus p5q p45 board
4gb xms2 ram
hd4890 @1ghz

I cannot afford to change platforms to i5/i7 and im feeling a bottleneck in my system.
For example GRID runs at around 55fps but dips to 35fps at times and the benchys for the oc'd 4890 give it a min fps of roughly 75 and avg fps of 100.
So I assume its the CPU as it onlly has 2mb l2 cache and has been clocked at 3.2 for over 3 years now.

I game at 1920x1200, Theres a good lineup of games being released over the next few months id like to play at max

For purly gaming should I get a q9550 or a e8500? Both will be oc'd quite heavily, What sort of performance gain can i exspect from the upgrade?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Get the one that's cheapest.

 

[RIOTinYOURcity]

q9's historically run better than the e8's other than that i'm not sure.

 

[demonnn]

i have 1
I love mines

 

[tecmo34]

I would recommend the Q9950. It performed very well in the system I built that went to my Dad. I could tell very little difference between the Q9950 and my Core i7 920 in games like COD. I can't speak on the E8500, except I had the same debt in my mind. I finally chose the Q9550 because I felt it would provide the better overall system performance and not just gaming.

 

[orangegator]

It's a great chip for a drop in upgrade. I have mine running at 4.0Ghz on a TRUE120. Get the q9550, not the E8500.

 

[someguy7]

I would get the quad myself. But dont worry about how long you had the overclock. As long as it stable 3.2ghz is 3.2ghz. It doesnt get slower overtime.

 

[bige420]

Go for the quad man. If not, buy a big ole box of cookies.

 

[jimishtar]

q9550 totaly wort it. I plan to get soon, i just wait to see if the prices will go down a little.

 

[MMclachlan]

Get the Q! Should last you for a lot longer than an E8x00. I went from a E6320 @ 3.1Ghz to the Q9550 @ 3.4Ghz - nice upgrade! Can now encode a avi file and play Crysis at the same time!