I finally made the big move away from Windows XP and bought Windows 7 home edition.
I'm very happy with Windows 7. I've only had it for a few days and I have nothing but positive things to say about it.
However, I did notice a big hit in my performance in games. Games that ran smoothly on the highest settings in XP are a bit jittery in Windows 7, including games on the Source Engine that don't require much horsepower. These performance drops range from 25-50 FPS.
The hardware store I have access to (can't order online) sells the Intel i7 860 as it's fastest chip. They're charging $470 for it. A quick browse on the internet informed me that the retail price in the US is around $280, but since it is an import that has been taxed and tariffed here, the best I can do is just shy of $500 big ones.
Is it still worth it? Would it take care of my performance issues?
The i7 870 is a new socket, so you would need more than just the CPU. Minimum would be CPU/motherboard and maybe RAM.
I don't think this would help. It may just be game/driver specific issues that are causing the slowdown. For me, I noticed that Windows 7 was worse with AA than Vista (GTX260 and i7 920).
There is something more to this than just the OS change. Windows 7 alone should not cause a 25-50fps drop in any game. Fix that problem first. It would say it is driver related. And if you want to increase your cpu speed look into overclocking.
There is something more to this than just the OS change. Windows 7 alone should not cause a 25-50fps drop in any game. Fix that problem first. It would say it is driver related. And if you want to increase your cpu speed look into overclocking.
Hmm... I didn't bother installing my Motherboard/Onboard sound etc. drivers because I thought they wouldn't be compatible with 7 and it seemed that the generic drivers worked just fine. Maybe thats what I need to try. I'll give it a shot.
If you really feel you should upgrade, budget shouldn't be included considering the CPU you already have. You're looking at $180+ (Q9400+) to get a worth while upgrade, but I guess you were considering the hugely priced (and overpriced I might add) i7 860 you found. So you know it goes for $290 on the egg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115214 . Even then if you are gaming you will only see an increase in a few games (quad core optimized games), and even a decrease in some (non-quad core optimized games), considering how much more then E8200 will OC over the Q9400.
If you don't have one look up a good aftermarket heatsink and make sure your mobo is a decent/good overclocker (I believe its decent).
Message edited by Raidur on 11-03-2009 at 08:41:55 AM
The games are probably slower because they are running in DX10 rather than DX9. Anyway, the i7 860 would be a sizable improvement, but you would also have to buy a new motherboard and RAM. Honestly I think you should just Overclock your CPU, or you could get a quad Q9550 and a new heatsink to overclock it with. Sure would be alot cheaper than the overpriced i7 you were thinking of buying .
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