future proofing my pc

shayan786

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Aug 29, 2013
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I want to ask should i stay on intel core 2 quad q6600 or should i upgrade to core i3/i5/i7 second generation i mostly use pc for gaming not that much hardcore but i play games like gta iv and call of duty..
 

Jonathan Sifleet

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Apr 25, 2013
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What's your GPU?
 
If possible, you should overclock the CPU to give you better performance for CPU dependent games. Overall, it is not a bad CPU given it's age. However, it can bottleneck you in some games.

The Radeon HD 6670 is pretty weak. When it 1st came out it was considered a mainstream graphics card in terms of performance. It now falls under "budget" graphics card performance since many more powerful graphics card have been released since then. As an example, the Radeon HD 7750 is currently considered a mainstream graphics card; it's performance is equal to the Radeon HD 6770 which is around 40% more powerful than the Radeon HD 6670; that's a "guess-timate" I am pulling from memory.

To give you an idea of the Q6600's performance level in current games with a powerful GPU below are several CPU performance charts. The Q6600 would be a marginally slower than the Athlon II X4 640 which means it will be at the bottom of the charts. In Call of Duty: Black Ops II, if paired with a Radeon HD 7970 you would get in the high 70's like 78 FPS or 79 FPS. Pretty good since most people only have a 60Hz LCD monitor which means the monitor can only display at most 60 frames per second. But the benchmark shows that more current CPUs will allows for higher FPS, even though a 60Hz monitor will not be able to display them. You would need a 120Hz monitor if you want to be able to see more than 60 FPS; up to a max of 120 FPS; assuming the graphics card is powerful enough.

BioShock Infinite represents a more demanding game, but based on the performance chart with GTX 680 a Q6600 should be able to get low 50's FPS. A more powerful CPU will give you better frame rates, but from the looks of the charts the bottleneck of the Q6600 isn't too bad.

Moving on to more demanding like Far Cry 3, you begin to see the performance gap between the Q6600 (Athon II X4 640) and more powerful CPUs with a Radeon HD 7970. The bottleneck is considered significant enough to be noticeable if the Athlon II X4 640 was played side-by-side along with i5-3470.

Hitman: Absolution further widens the performance, however, most games are not as demanding as Hitman, but this is something you should consider nevertheless. The Athlon II X4 640 get 29 FPS with the Radeon HD 7970, so the Q6600 may get 27 or 28 FPS. Notice how even the dual core i3-3220 give significantly better performance; but in general you will want more than 2 cores in the CPU for a gaming rig. In this game Intel CPUs more or less dominates.

Lastly, Crysis 3 is brutal on any system. Note that in the benchmark below with the GTX 680 the graphics quality is only set to medium, not high like all the other games. You can see how poorly your Q6600 will perform in this game. However, Crysis 3 is an exception, not the norm. The vast majority of games are not as demanding as this games. Most games will be somewhere in between BioShock Infinite and Far Cry 3; at least in my opinion.

http://www.techspot.com/review/601-black-ops-2-performance/page5.html
CPU1.png


http://www.techspot.com/review/655-bioshock-infinite-performance/page5.html
CPU_03.png


http://www.techspot.com/review/615-far-cry-3-performance/page6.html
CPU_01.png


http://www.techspot.com/review/608-hitman-absolution-performance-benchmarks/page6.html
CPU_01.png


http://www.techspot.com/review/642-crysis-3-performance/page6.html
CPU_03.png

 
Based on the above charts, you should see a general improvement in games if you upgrade the CPU to a 2nd generation i3/i5/i7 CPU.

The dual core i3 actually does pretty well in the benchmarks, but it gets brutalized in Crysis 3. If you don't plan on playing Crysis 3, then that is a different issue. But for the most part the generation recommendation is a quad core CPU. The quad core i7 CPUs are similar to the quad core i5 CPUs. However, i7 CPUs have Hyper Threading (HT) tech which is why they cost more money than i5 CPUs. But games don't really use HT, so there is not real point in buying an i7 CPU from a gaming perspective. That leaves the i5 which is not surprising. Most people who are looking to build a new PC around an Intel CPU are recommended the i5.

You should also consider upgrading the graphics card as well. It does not have to be immediate, but if you really do want to see the benefits of a more powerful CPU, then you should upgrade the graphics card whenever you have a chance. Which card? That depends on how much money you want to spend.

As stated in my prior post the Radeon HD 7750 DDR5 is currently considered to be a mainstream graphics card much like the Radeon HD 6670 when it was initially released. For approximately $80 - $85 you can get something equivalent to the Radeon HD 6770. But the general recommendation is to spend more if possible.
 

shayan786

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Aug 29, 2013
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well thanks alot your benchmark result gave me much knowledge but what if i buy a better graphic card like inno3d gtx 650 which cost around $130 would it stop my cpu to become bottleneck
 

shayan786

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Aug 29, 2013
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and one more thing my friend is selling his core i3 540 (1st gen) without harddrive for about $150 - $160 what is difference between i3 1st gen and 2nd gen and one more thing if i buy i3 1st gen from my friend it would increase my budget for a graphic card or should i go with a i3 2100

specs of system which my friend is selling
core i3 540
2gb ddr3
asus P7H55-v extreme
samsung optical drive
and a cheap case
 

Jonathan Sifleet

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Apr 25, 2013
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No, don't go with that, the problem is that, if you get a new-ish CPU your GPU will bottlneck it, and vice versa. You have very little money for both, why not consider an APU? The CPU will benefit and you may get a performance increase*. What motherboard are you using?

*I beg my ignorance, but I know very little about pre 7xxx GPU's, its more than likely you will see a decrease in the GPU.
 

shayan786

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Aug 29, 2013
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I have asus P5G41T-M LE and i've decided now that i'm gonna stick with my core 2 quad and and going to buy a inno3d gtx 650 1gb ddr5