E5200 to e8500 upgrade, or i5 and motherboard with memory

[rreeder]

Currently have e5200 overclocked to 2.76 ghz. Wondering if upgrading to e8500 cpu overclocked to say 3.6 ghz or buying new motherboard and i5 cpu with memory for more than double price is worth the cost. I do mostly gaming and surfing the web. Does anyone know performance increase to expect from such upgrades. Thanks

 

[dpaul8]

You can get an idea of the relative performance between the various processors by using this handy comparison tool:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=55&p2=61

Although the tool does not have the e5200 processor, I used the E6550 instead. Ignoring overclocking for the moment, and depending on what applications you run, you should expect the E8500 processor to be about 35 percent faster than the E6650 (Sysmark Overall). By the way, if you use the E4700 processor instead of the E6550 processor the performance improvement with the E8500 is 42 percent. The E5200 should be somewhere inbetween.

If you compare the i5-750 processor to the E6550, the i5 system is about 46 percent faster than the E6550 system (SysMark Overall).

As a first approximation, I would assume that all of these processors would overclock equally well, and the percentage increase in performance would be about the same. Only you can decide if these performance improvements are worth the cost.

If you are a gamer, oftentimes the biggest performance gain can be made by upgrading your graphics card rather than your CPU.

 

[rreeder]

You can get an idea of the relative performance between the various processors by using this handy comparison tool:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=55&p2=61

Although the tool does not have the e5200 processor, I used the E6550 instead. Ignoring overclocking for the moment, and depending on what applications you run, you should expect the E8500 processor to be about 35 percent faster than the E6650 (Sysmark Overall). By the way, if you use the E4700 processor instead of the E6550 processor the performance improvement with the E8500 is 42 percent. The E5200 should be somewhere inbetween.

If you compare the i5-750 processor to the E6550, the i5 system is about 46 percent faster than the E6550 system (SysMark Overall).

As a first approximation, I would assume that all of these processors would overclock equally well, and the percentage increase in performance would be about the same. Only you can decide if these performance improvements are worth the cost.

If you are a gamer, oftentimes the biggest performance gain can be made by upgrading your graphics card rather than your CPU.

Thanks for the link, I currently have a gt8500 nvidia graphics card. Really hampers my game play. You say an upgrade here will be quite a bit more of an improvement than a processor upgrade? Think I will upgrade graphics card and wait till the i5 and i7's come down in price a little before building a new machine. Thanks again.

 

[hundredislandsboy]

Yes, get a new videocard first, a 4850, 4870, or 4750 will all be about the right match for your system.. If you get the 4870, be sire to overclock youe e 5200 to 3.3 Ghz. It's very capable of that. Keep its multiplier to the stock 12.6 and increase the bus speed to 266. It will hardly break a sweat running at 3.3 Ghz. I know this because my e5200 has been at 3.3 Ghz since the day it came in the mail about a year ago.

 

[basket687]

Yes, upgrade your graphics card, the 8500 GT is really very weak for gaming, upgrade to at least HD 4670 (or to a better card depending on your budget) and you should see a big improvement in games. So, if you are gaming, this is the first upgrade to think about.

Regarding the CPU, I won't even think about upgrading to a dual core processor, if you want to upgrade then upgrade to a quad core (like the q9400), or get a new core i5 with motherboard and DDR3 ram. Dual core processors with high clock speeds used to be the best gaming processors, but recently I saw many games that run better on quad core processors even if they have a slightly lower clock speed.

According to what is known about intel's roadmaps, I don't see that the core i5/i7 processors are going to get significantly cheaper in 2010.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

The 8500GT is a piece of crap that never should have been sold. It is the SAME as a 6600GT. That should let you know just how much that alone is hampering you.

As far as the CPU goes, can't you upgrade to a quad core on your current motherboard? Depending on how often you upgrade you may be able to skip the sockets intel has that are "current"

 

[rreeder]

Just trying to squeeze a little more out of my 775 socket motherboard until I can upgrade to i7 motherboard combo w/o killing my wallet. Sounds like a graphics card upgrade is consensus. Thanks for everyones response's.