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i7-950 or Sandy Bridge

Skilty

Skilty

Skilty

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Joined
18 Nov 2004
Posts
535
Location
Brixham, Devon
Currently running a Q9550 and wondering if it is worth the upgrade to an i7-950 but then I know Sandy Bridge is a month away.

So current rig is a Q9550 running at stock, 8gb memory and a X25-M with an ATi 5850.

Question is for gaming at 1920x1080 am I going to sleep any kind of leap in performance?
 
To be honest, for gaming a Q9550 should be more than enough. Are you finding that this chip is holding you back in any modern games?

If you feel you need more speed I would strongly suggest you overclock your current chip (your motherboard and cooler are certainly up to it).
 
You should really try and see how much you can OC that Q9550 to be honest.

Then wait a few weeks and see how the 2500K and 2600K chips compare to the existing i5 and i7 CPU's.

No one knows for certain just how good the Sandybrige CPU's are as yet.
 
Get that Q9550 clocked. With your board it should hit at least 3.8Ghz. What ram do you have?

Loads of good settings in this thread. P5Q bios are more or less the same.
 
+1

Lot's of facepalm here. Get that q9550 working like a dog - it's had an easy life.

You shouldn't be looking at Sandybridge let alone i7.... Wait to see what Bulldozer has to offer.
 
Skilty said:
Currently running a Q9550 and wondering if it is worth the upgrade to an i7-950 but then I know Sandy Bridge is a month away.

So current rig is a Q9550 running at stock, 8gb memory and a X25-M with an ATi 5850.

Question is for gaming at 1920x1080 am I going to sleep any kind of leap in performance?
Click to expand...

Nope, at 1920 x 1080 your HD 5850 is going to be a bottleneck before your processor will be.

As others have said get that Q9550 clocked it is a really good processor and will be for a while yet.
 
Skilty said:
Currently running a Q9550 and wondering if it is worth the upgrade to an i7-950 but then I know Sandy Bridge is a month away.

So current rig is a Q9550 running at stock, 8gb memory and a X25-M with an ATi 5850.

Question is for gaming at 1920x1080 am I going to sleep any kind of leap in performance?
Click to expand...

Swearing isn't allowed on these forums dude! :eek::eek::eek:
 
oc your q9550 then up upgrade your graphics with the money you were gonna spend on the proc, otherwise you wont see much difference for gaming
 
Thanks all, yeah I used to overclock, got my w/c gear up in the loft :)

So a new graphics card, guess the question is whether I go red or green :p
 
Your set up is still very good.

If you must upgrade now, I would:

1. 100% overclock that processor. I reckon you should be able to hit 3.6GHz tops with that cpu... thats the aim anyway, gains beyond 3.6GHz are there but minimal.

2. Maybe get another 5850? Or if you can sell your 5850, then upgrade to a better gpu, like a GTX 570 or a 6950/70


When I first got my 5870, I was running my cpu at stock 3GHz... was getting lag on warhead. Overclocked cpu to 3.7GHz, and lag all but dissapeared.

You might find that overclocking the cpu, will give you enough of a performance boost that you wont need to get a better gpu for a while yet.
 
Last edited:
opethdisciple said:
1. 100% overclock that processor. I reckon you should be able to hit 3.6GHz tops with that cpu... thats the aim anyway, gains beyond 3.6GHz are there but minimal.
Click to expand...


He has a P45 board so getting past 3.6Ghz is easy with a Q9550. The problem would be if it was a X38/48 board which become fsb limited with 45nm quads. When i had my DFI X48 board i could'nt even hit 3.7Ghz. Got rid of it and 4Ghz was easy and then some tweaking got me to 4.13Ghz.
 
Skilty said:
Currently running a Q9550 and wondering if it is worth the upgrade to an i7-950 but then I know Sandy Bridge is a month away.

So current rig is a Q9550 running at stock, 8gb memory and a X25-M with an ATi 5850.

Question is for gaming at 1920x1080 am I going to sleep any kind of leap in performance?
Click to expand...

The difference in 3D Mark 11, between my machine, and a machine with an identical card but I7 950 is around 30 3D Marks, I remember seeing it when the benchmark thread for 11 came out.

So no, I don't think you'll see much of a difference. Buying a new graphics card would be the best idea for you at the moment I think.
 
It doesn't struggle but at 1920x1080 it would be good to turn on all the eye candy in things like CoD:Black Ops, Lord of the Rings Online, GTA IV etc.
 
Skilty said:
It doesn't struggle but at 1920x1080 it would be good to turn on all the eye candy in things like CoD:Black Ops, Lord of the Rings Online, GTA IV etc.
Click to expand...

Overclock that CPU as above, and also overclock that 5850. I got quite lucky and get a stable 30+% out of mine. That and my CPU overclock is the difference between Crysis maxed out and having to turn off AA and crank down detail.
 
Skilty said:
It doesn't struggle but at 1920x1080 it would be good to turn on all the eye candy in things like CoD:Black Ops, Lord of the Rings Online, GTA IV etc.
Click to expand...

1680x1050 for poor people

> 1920p for rich people

You're not going to get silky smooth 1920x1080 without paying an arm n a leg for it.

BTW GTA IV is limited to 30fps anyway :mad:
 
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