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Best CPU For Gaming Upgrade?

Occooler

Occooler

Occooler

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3 Jun 2009
Posts
201
Location
London
I have a q6600 at stock atm which overclocks badly, (or rather I've overclocked badly ) so Im going to get a mobo, cpu, ram bundle.

I've seen i5 750, i7 860 and phenom II 965's for around the same price, (between £350 and £300).

But which is a better upgrade for gaming? The phenom bundles on ebay are consistently cheaper, but not by much.

I'm not keen on overclocking the processor when I get it, so with that in mind, what do you think is the best option?
 
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looking at other threads the intel i5 750 is the best option but you say you wont be overclocking so a amd rig might be better quad core if you decide you want to overclock its the i5
 
thats exactly what I wanted to know.

I think their stock performance are similiar with the i5 marginally better than the phenom II 965.

The higher stock speed of the 965 is attracting me for games like gta4, but if the i5 games better than the 965 without overclocking then my preference for the higher clock of 3.4 ghz is illogical, no?
 
i think the same theres not a lot in stock settings but like i said with the i5 if you change your mind about overclocking the i5 all day m8 they reckon the i5 is easy to overclock
 
555be +core unlocks and 4Ghz on air these days for a £80 chip is insanely easy. Latest Asus mobo will unlock it with a single bios option change and can auto overclock for you should you really want to, however you can pretty much just leave voltages on auto and whack the fsb up to whatever you want. Mobo is surprisingly good at setting the right voltages.

You quite literally will not beat that for value, with a slight risk the cores won't overclock, though a huge number of the C3 555be's are unlocking.

IN terms of price, wait for the 6 core AMD chips to launch, the lowest one will be priced around the top quad right now, which will almost certainly drop prices along the whole quad range, which will likely drop prices on tri/dual cores aswell though less so.

I'd wait a month I doubt your Q6600 will hold anything new up till then, even so after I don't think you'll find much of an upgrade. With a little advice, or maybe a better cooler/reapplying thermal paste theres very few Q6600's that can't hit 3.4Ghz, and many go higher, you won't see an increase in performance from that to a i7 at 5Ghz in games, you just won't.

Metro2033 is one of the toughest games around right now.

You get the same framerates on i7's and p2 965's from 2Ghz, all the way to 4Ghz on both chips. Actually, the P2 965 was faster at every single speed, marginally, like 0.25fps :p , neither chip saw more than a 1% increase in fps from literally doubling the core clocks.

Games aren't cpu limited in general and a Q6600 is truly a great chip.
 
The thing is I had some crashing recently and discover one of my 1gb ddr2 sticks was dead.

I figured I might as well upgrade rather than pay the high price for ddr2 when I could get ddr3.

I can't seem to run 3ghz stable, the temps are rather high and gta4 crashes.

I have noticed threads saying the 955 is amazing if you can unlock it, but a mobo-cpu bundle with one of those hasn't appeared on ebay in my price range.

I will keep an eye open for any though. will the 965 clocker higher than the 3.4 ghz, or is it a phenom II 9xx pushed to its limits and branded a 965?
 
the 965 will clock higher but there are different revisions think the latest is c1 not hundred percent sure should be able to do 3.8 with it
 
If you are not overclocking go for the AMD processor. It should be cheaper than the i5 and especially the i7. Dont spend too much on the mobo, a good 785G motherboard fits the bill, or if you want to spend more go for 890GX.

If you are overclocking/want to risk to unlock cores then the 555 dual core is the best.

If you are just overclocking the i5 750 cant be beaten in value. If you want to spend more and overclock go i7 860.

Basically:
Stock: Go AMD
Overclock\Core unlock: AMD or Intel depending on preference and chance.
Overclocking: Go intel i5 750, i7 860 or i7 930 (Latter two if you are into video encoding and other multi threaded apps)

Edit: What res are you gaming btw?

Edit 2: If you do go AMD, make sure you pay a lot less for the overall bundle, the i5 is arguably better but usually the platform cost is higher. Also, the higher res you game the less impact a CPU will have in the end as the load shifts towards the graphics card.
 
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Here are some options... The 350 build requires a cooler >_>, but goes off the budget if you buy it retail.


Best option at £350 (or a bit less if you choose cheaper mobo)
Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz (Lynnfield) (Socket LGA1156) - OEM + Assassin's Creed II Game £159.99
Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3 Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £102.99
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (GV34GB1333C9DC)£88.99

Best option at £300 (or less if you choose cheaper mobo)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £135.99
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (GV34GB1333C9DC) £88.99
Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £74.98

Betting man's build at £250 (Or less for cheaper mobo...)
Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (GV34GB1333C9DC) £88.99
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £79.99
Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £74.98
 
thanks for those suggestions.

For me its between the i5 and the quad core 965, the 965 saving a few quid or getting the i5 with better oc potential.
 
drunkenmaster said:
555be +core unlocks and 4Ghz on air these days for a £80 chip is insanely easy. Latest Asus mobo will unlock it with a single bios option change and can auto overclock for you should you really want to, however you can pretty much just leave voltages on auto and whack the fsb up to whatever you want. Mobo is surprisingly good at setting the right voltages.

You quite literally will not beat that for value, with a slight risk the cores won't overclock, though a huge number of the C3 555be's are unlocking.
Click to expand...

@drunkenmaster: With regards to your point about unlocking cores, the OP isn't looking to overclock and unlocking cores is even more risky. There was a thread on here not long ago with some guy who had tried and killed his cpu, couldn't even get it to post.

@OP: Personally I'd keep your Q6600 a little while longer. However if you are desperate to upgrade and don't plan on overclocking the AMD Quad or the i5 750 are good value for money with good performance. Personally I'd go i5, but the choice is yours really. :)
 
Occooler said:
thanks for those suggestions.

For me its between the i5 and the quad core 965, the 965 saving a few quid or getting the i5 with better oc potential.
Click to expand...

Well, if you dont mind OC'ing, definately get the I5 750.

Overclocking those things is very easy to do and gives huge performance boosts.
 
750 would be where my money would go, awesome for gaming and can overclock the nuts off them to help drive ur GFX card

Edit just seen u wont be overclocking, thats a shame...just upping the speed a little will require no other tweaking to ur bios settings. Have a think about it. Intels new CPUs are fabulous and would be a shame for u to miss out on them
 
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