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How to quantify CPUs nowadays?

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Soldato
Joined
10 May 2004
Posts
13,059
Location
Sunny Stafford
Up until early 2004, it was all about clock speed. I remember that the 3.8GHz was the fastest CPU in the OcUK shop at that time. Then they lost clock speed, became hyperthreaded, then more cache, then more cores, then hyperthreaded with cores.

I've found a web site called Passmark, which quantifies around 1200 CPUs from the Pentium III days up to the present. Is this an accurate way of comparing them? I'm fairly technical, being 1st-line tech for a few years. I know that RAM has size and speed, graphics cards have speed and size, hard drives have cache, speed and size. Just can't get my head around the CPUs.

The machines I've had (all from OcUK), and their Passmark scores were:

2003 - Hyperthreaded P4 2.8GHz - 414
2006 - Pentium D 3.4GHz (1st gen dual core) - 928
2009 - Core2 Quad Q8400 - 3685

...then I had a house fire which took out my Q8400 PC and other things. I fell back to a Phenom II X2 550 as I was recently made redundant and didn't have coin. That scored 1853.

Now it's 2½ years since the fire and I'm working again. I go by the 3-year rule, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 etc and I'm hoping to beat the score of the Q8400, seeing that Q8400 is 3 years ago. I'm thinking of the A6-3650 APU which is a 3-core processor with an onboard ATI HD 6530 which is more than my current HD 4850 and the CPU scores 4575. Is this a good option for me? Thanks.
 
Would recommend an SB i5.

Going from a quad to a dual core is a bit of downgrade rather than an upgrade.
 
Personally, I would suggest you compare CPUs in a range of tasks to get a true understanding of their relative performance - since different types of CPUs shine in different workloads (like an i3 dual core in lightly threaded tasks, while a cheap Phenom II X6 hex core does great in video encoding).

For this use, I find this Anandtech benchmark is very good (it also allows you to compare modern GPUs and SSDs).

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/2

If you are trying to beat your Q8400 then I personally wouldn't go for an A6-3650 APU. In CPU tests it is a bit slower than the Q8400 (see here) and the HD 6530D isn't nearly as fast as a HD 4850 - since that discrete graphics card has 800 stream processing units, while the HD 6530 only has 320 stream processing units.

Instead, I would look to one of the Sandy Bridge Quad cores like the i5 2500K and a Z68 motherboard. Here is how this CPU compares to the Q8400:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/89?vs=288

Also, please bear in mind that the next-generation of Intel Quad cores (called Ivy Bridge) will be coming in the next few months - so if you are happy with your CPU performance for the moment then it may be worth waiting for this new chip, since you will get even more performance for your money (here is a performance preview of the top-end i7 Ivy Bridge chip).
 
Your next update should be a 2500k or the Ivy Bridge version of a 2500k for you to see any gains in updating that will make the update worth the time and money. A quad-core CPU is what you should be looking for now and you may find a cracking deal in the members market on here for a 2500k and a decent motherboard. Some people are updating to 2011 socket setups and selling their SandyBridge setups. Give us a budget you have in mind and what hardware you currently have that maybe you can still use (Eg. PSU, Case, Cooling you have for case and CPU etc etc..) with an updated system and sell off what you have on the members market here to make some money to cover the new build too.
 
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Many thanks guys! I've read only good things about the 2500k on here, so I'm leaning towards that now plus dedicated graphics card, HD5xxx or HD6xxx series. The idea of an APU is new to me, so I'm glad I've asked about it at least and know not to get it if I'm to aim higher than 2009.

Edit: have also contemplated OcUK's gaming bundle with a Bulldozer FX-4 4100 3.60GHz @ 4.00GHz
 
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Bulldozer is a no-go.

Intel beat AMD at every price range at the moment. With a few exceptions. AMDs Llano are great for budget gaming builds, with half decent onboard graphics.

But bulldozer is just not great I'm afraid. I'm sure for some things it's great, but generally there are better alternatives for the price.

Did you have a budget? If you can afford an i5 2500k, they are easy to overclock. Stick a GPU in and you've got a great system.
 
It really is simple to overclock these, just increase the multiplier. Therefore it makes sense to get the parts separately if its cheaper?

Would it be easier to list what you have now, what you intend to keep, and a budget? Then we can select the best parts for you :)
 
Monserrat said:
Thanks.

I'm probably going for the overclocked 2500k bundle and will add a modular 750W PSU and new case to the mix. Will carry the HDD and blu-ray drive over from my existing system.
Click to expand...

That's a good bundle and a good way to go if you don't want to bother with overclocking it yourself.

However, as beejjacobs mentions, overclocking is really rather simple with these CPUs, so it is generally worth your while to buy the parts separately and overclock it yourself if you are up for it.

As for the modular 750W PSU, may I ask which one you are looking at?
 
Monserrat said:
For 750W PSUs, I'm looking at either OcUK Battle dual-rail or the OCZ ZT one.

Thanks again. I have built PCs before so I would love to give it a try again.
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Get the OCZ, never skimp on the PSU quality:)

XFX are good - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-004-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497 - but not modular.

Reviews,
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/XFX-PRO-750-W-Power-Supply-Review/1182
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=216
Click to expand...

This one is - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-000-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497
 
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