I also switched from a q9550 (3.8ghz) to an i7 system, (stock at the minute) primary use is gaming, i wanted to have the option of sli/xfire which x58 offers, also being a newer platform i fancied giving it a try out.
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Gaming cpu- from q9550 to an i5, 965be or i7 920?
- Thread starter Nocky24
- Start date
For gaming did you find this change to be a bit of a side step or was the upgrade worth it?
I would really like to know the answer to this question as well.
No real difference in gaming yet, ill be looking to go sli with gtx 280's, (i only have one at the minute), but overall the i7 has been a good upgrade, i do a fair bit of encoding as well which the i7 shows its worth in, on my previous p45 p5q dlx board i was limited to xfire at x8 per slot, with x58 i now have the xfire or sli option at x16 per slot.
I think your money would be better spent on beefing up your Graphics card instead (Crossfire/SLI) obviously I have no idea what your running
You will not be cpu limited on a Q9550 for quite a long time yet (2 years I reckon) , I have one too but seeing as your going to need new ram proccy and mobo let this gen slip and wait for the next its going to cost more or less the same now as it is then but if it aint broke then no need to fix it.
I know its far from an ideal comparison but I went from a Prescott P4 clocked to 3.75ghz with a HD3850agp which scored 23.9fps on Crysis on DX9 and high settings to 46.57fps on the same settings with my Q9550 & HD4870 at stock I gain less that 1 fps with my Q9550 clocked to 3.4ghz.
The above shows it was a worthy upgrade can you honestly justify all that outlay for new tech when the gains to be fair will be minimal?
You will not be cpu limited on a Q9550 for quite a long time yet (2 years I reckon) , I have one too but seeing as your going to need new ram proccy and mobo let this gen slip and wait for the next its going to cost more or less the same now as it is then but if it aint broke then no need to fix it.
I know its far from an ideal comparison but I went from a Prescott P4 clocked to 3.75ghz with a HD3850agp which scored 23.9fps on Crysis on DX9 and high settings to 46.57fps on the same settings with my Q9550 & HD4870 at stock I gain less that 1 fps with my Q9550 clocked to 3.4ghz.
The above shows it was a worthy upgrade can you honestly justify all that outlay for new tech when the gains to be fair will be minimal?
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Thanks for that post, really helps put things in perspective for me
so you reckon the q9550 won't be bottlenecking newer gpus within say the next year or so?
Which tells game is GPU bottlenecked... like situation is in pretty much all heavier games with big res and high settings.
Updating to HD58x0 would give quite a few frames bigger fps increase.
As rule the higher the resolution and graphics settings the more graphics card is that bottleneck. If you're running games at 1024x768 then fps would be surely CPU limited in most games but rise that to 1920x1200 and situation is entirely different with graphically heavy games.
Sure optimal situation would be also fastest CPU but as its gain is practically counted in single percents while gain from new GPU is counted in dozens of percents it just isn't sensible...Thanks for that post, really helps put things in perspective for me
Unless you happen to have enough money to use it also as toilet paper.
Ah ok cheers for that. Might stick with the q9550 just a bit longer then. Although i have to say the i7s look very good, but thats probably just me getting caught up in the new tech hype and as everyone keeps telling me- i wont see the worthwhile gains in what i do (gaming).
I've said in another post on the ocing section.. the biggest mistake and waste of money people make is when they mismatch the level of their parts..
If you're going for an extreme system, you are going to need the best parts including cooling.
mismatching a cheap cpu with a good motherboard would be silly, as would having a cheap graphics card and a good cpu, or any combination of the 3.. you could even kick ram in there and cooling if you want.. you need to look at your system as a whole and budget yourself accordingly.
If you're going for an extreme system, you are going to need the best parts including cooling.
mismatching a cheap cpu with a good motherboard would be silly, as would having a cheap graphics card and a good cpu, or any combination of the 3.. you could even kick ram in there and cooling if you want.. you need to look at your system as a whole and budget yourself accordingly.
Hi Nocky24 ,
I mainly encode / transcode / Re-encode things. Use winrar related CPU work.
I am not a huge PC gamer to be honest. I prefer to use my Xbox360. So at this moment have not got round gaming on this new rig.
I also have seen that gaming rigs show little advantage from Q9550 - i7 really.
McT
Hi Setter ,
Its one of those choices us enthusiasts make i guess. The Q9550 was more than capable in all areas. However with funds available its always nice to move to the newest platforms. The excellent sli/xfire ( @ x16 -x16 too ) is an excellent investment for a gamer.
I admit at first i was kinda expecting more than the slight desktop advantage the i7 showed over the Q9550. Especially for the cost variation. However now , with the huge 4ghz+ clocks and encoding speeds this i7 can move at I am more than happy i made the switch now.
If the funds are available then you might as well get as much as possible for your 775 and make a new 1366 / 1156 system. My thoughts and experience anyway.
McT
I usually do a yearly upgrade (Usualy November) atm i'm on Q9550@stock, 8GB ram and a GTX280. I was looking at going with a i7 920, 6GB Ram and 5870 or possibly new Nvidia GPU and do a new install With windows 7 release.
The grunt i need from my PC is mainly for gaming as I don't do a lot of encoding etc. but I worry i'm just upgrading for upgradings sake and wasting money. I think for me it's more about having the latest kit than anything else. I love getting new stuff but it's very dissapointing when you can't see the difference.
What should i do?
The grunt i need from my PC is mainly for gaming as I don't do a lot of encoding etc. but I worry i'm just upgrading for upgradings sake and wasting money. I think for me it's more about having the latest kit than anything else. I love getting new stuff but it's very dissapointing when you can't see the difference.
What should i do?