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Upgrading from E8400

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Hi guys,

I am in need of some advice.

So basically i have an e8400 @ 3.0GHz, and unfortunately its a dual core, so it appears to be showing its age now. Sadly, it seems as though my CPU is really taking a beating from the newer games; its not that i want to play the games MAXED out, i would just like to play them overall.

Any new game i pop in, i get horrible frame rate, and notice both cores are maxed out to around 85-90%. altering graphics settings doesnt change much so i conclude its my cpu bottlenecking. BF3 wont even run beyond 20-25fps on low with my e8400.

I have my CPU overclocked to 3.6GHz, but honestly it hasnt helped much. Now i would love to upgrade to a Q9650 or even a Q9550, but im not about ready to throw $500 away at ancient tech. After some looking around i found a Q8400 for about $150.

Now my question is, is it worth going from an E8400 @ 3.6GHz to a Q8400 @ 2.66GHz? My intention is to overclock to Q8400 to around 3.0-3.5GHz.

Will this help with my gaming problems? I am sick of playing games at 20fps...

My specs:

e8400 @ 3.6ghz
radeon hd4870 1gb x2
8gb RAM
windows 7 x64

Thanks :) 



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I don't know. To me it sounds like more of a graphics issue. The fact that your CPU is not running at 100% indicates it may not be the bottleneck. And 20-25fps on low with a 4870X2 doesn't sound right either. What resolution are you running and do you have the latest drivers?

clydefrog said:
Hmm.

well for LA Noire, my CPU spikes to 100% with EVERYTHING on low, same with BF3

I'm running at 1680x1050, and i do have the latest drivers.

thanks for the reply

If thats the case then yeah, I would go for the Q8400. I'd also upgrade the graphics card sometime down the line as well.
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Quote:
BF3 will ask for a quadcore cpu.
any money for a platform upgrade?


Well i was intending to get a whole new build going by this time, but unforeseen financial difficulties have prevented me (and will for some time) from racking up too much of an expense.

So i figure if i can pay about $200 and keep my system alive for another year or 2, then that is best

gmaster456 said:
If thats the case then yeah, I would go for the Q8400. I'd also upgrade the graphics card sometime down the line as well.


you think i will see a noticeable difference going form an e8400 to a q8400 (likely overclocked)? Also do the Q series overclock easy?

Also would a Radeon 6970 be bottlenecked by either processor, should i decide to upgrade later on?

thanks for the replies guys.

Yes you will get a noticeable performance boost in games. Especially ones that like a quad core. And no, there will be no significant bottleneck with your processor and the 6970, especially if you overclock the CPU.

gmaster456 said:
Yes you will get a noticeable performance boost in games. Especially ones that like a quad core. And no, there will be no significant bottleneck with your processor and the 6970, especially if you overclock the CPU.


thank you.

Quote:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Upgrade for roughly 200 ^^


thanks for that.

however isnt the i3 a dual core? so isnt that gonna give me the same issues?

I would much rather save up my money and then build a beast computer, but that you for those parts recommendations; i will definitely keep it in mind.

Anyone else have suggestions, comments, etc?
CPUs Master

mayankleoboy1 said:
Quote:
BF3 will ask for a quadcore cpu.


from the benches at toms, BF3 makes no distinction between 2 cores and 4 cores. it performs the same on both.


Benches on toms are from a scripted single player scene. Online Beta benchmarks showed dual cores to be far slower than quad cores. The cpu has to do far more work online with an intense firefight containing 32 or more players.


To OP. The I3 is a dual core, but it runs 4 threads and can match the Phenom II and older Core2Quad processors for gaming. Would give you a modern platform capable of upgrading to a better processor down the line too. Is your current ram DDR2 or DDR3? If it's DDR3 you can reuse it to save money.

loneninja said:

To OP. The I3 is a dual core, but it runs 4 threads and can match the Phenom II and older Core2Quad processors for gaming. Would give you a modern platform capable of upgrading to a better processor down the line too. Is your current ram DDR2 or DDR3? If it's DDR3 you can reuse it to save money.


interesting. I didnt know that.

My ram is DDR2
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