• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

I3/I5/I7

Jabbs

Jabbs

Jabbs

Soldato
Joined
6 Feb 2004
Posts
7,765
Location
Rugeley
I have in sig and i am totally out of sync of what is good, i game a bit and will be playing BC2 lots, i encode a bit also and would like to see a improvement in times on that for sure but i am in no way a heavy encoder.

I5 has my attention but does the loss of HT make that much of a difference and for my needs is a Quad really needed or should i just keep what i have for now, looking at something a bit less power hungry also.
 
Why do you want to replace what is already a decent CPU with good clocks?

I too have the Q6600 and have no plans to replace it for the foreable future. I'm going to invest in a new video card though.
 
Well, most people benchmark the i5/i7's against the Q9xxx quads, yet the older Kentsfield Q6xx quads are actually a fair step behind the Q9's clock for clock. An I7 920 @ stock 2.66Ghz will outperform a [email protected] in pretty much every benchmark, and in most real world scenarios too.

In gaming most games are GPU limited, but there are some (World of Warcraft springs to mind) that are actually CPU and GPU limited at the same time... Minimum framerates in WOW during raiding and in Dalaran are very largely CPU based, I can drop my resolution from 1920x1200x8xAA/AF all the way to 1024x768 and no eye candy, and only gain 2-3FPS, but overclocking the CPU even a little makes more difference.

If you have a CPU bottlenck the jump from a 65nm Q6600 to either an I5-750 or an i7 (anymodel) will be a considerable upgrade, especially if your overclocking the i5/i7.

My 8800GTX fried last week, and I replaced it with an ATi 5850, and in most games its in a completely different league, but in WOW there was only a very tiny difference.
 
Last edited:
Admiral Huddy said:
Why do you want to replace what is already a decent CPU with good clocks?
Click to expand...
Because Core i5 750 is much faster than Q6600, and Core i7 920 is even faster than Core i5 750?

Jabbs, I'll post some data/score for comparison here so it would be easier for you to decide:

Handbrake H.264 Video Encoding
Q6600@stock 2.4GHz: 1,305
Q6600 [email protected]: 1,915
i5 750@stock 2.66GHz: 1,937
i5 750 OC@ 4.15GHz: 2,852
i7 920@stock 2.66GHz: 2,144
i7 920 OC@ 4.08GHz: 3,248

Cinebench R10
Q6600@stock 2.4GHz: 9,817
Q6600 [email protected]: 14,735
i5 750@stock 2.66GHz: 14,114
i5 750 OC@ 4.15GHz: 20,675
i7 920@stock 2.66GHz: 15,206
i7 920 OC@ 4.08GHz: 23,283

WPRIME 32M (in seconds)
Q6600@stock 2.4GHz: 18.047sec
Q6600 [email protected]: 11.734sec
i5 750@stock 2.66GHz: 11.796sec
i5 750 OC@ 4.15GHz: 8.004sec
i7 920@stock 2.66GHz: 9.125sec
i7 920 OC@ 4.08GHz: 5.991sec

Crysis (DX10, 64-BIT, HIGH, 1,680x1,050) with HD5870
Q6600@stock 2.4GHz: 12-35fps
Q6600 [email protected]: 24-45fps
i5 750@stock 2.66GHz: 20-50fps
i5 750 OC@ 4.15GHz: 33-55fps
i7 920 and OC: don't have data, but should be little higher than i5 750

I would not recommend dual-core CPU because games are now leening toward favouring quad-core over dual-core, as you can see the test result of
a 4870x2 running with a Phenom II 550 OC to 3.8GHz at dual-core vs quad-core (unlocked cores) here:

http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/659536-contagion-review-dual-core-vs-quad.html

You can clearly see that in Battlefield Bad Company 2...the Quad-core is about 50% higher in minimum and maximum frame rate, and about 100% higher in average frame rate.

Considering you are not a heavy encoder, Core i5 750 system upgrade would probably suit you the best and it cost just around £350 (CPU £150, Gigabyte motherboard that can overclock CPU to 4GHz £85, 4GB DDR3 1,600MHz RAM £85, CPU cooler £30).

If you don't mind paying more to be may be up to 10-20% faster, a Core i7 920 system upgrade would cost around £505 (CPU £220, Gigabyte motherboard that can overclock CPU to 4GHz £135, 6GB DDR3 1,600MHz RAM £120, CPU cooler £30). If you pay another £20-30 extra for the motherboard, you would have two USB 3.0 ports as extra.

While i7 920 would obviously fastest, it does cost £150-£180 more. While it may be about 10-15% faster than i5 750 in encoding, the increase in frame rate for games comparing to a i5 750 (if we are comparing them at the same clock speed) would most likely be minimal with probably 2-5fps in difference at most.

As for power consumption, Core i5 750 is lower than a Q6600.
 
Last edited:
Admiral Huddy said:
Why do you want to replace what is already a decent CPU with good clocks?

I too have the Q6600 and have no plans to replace it for the foreable future. I'm going to invest in a new video card though.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I would rather get one of the new architecture AMD or Intel CPUs being released next year.

Also clock for clock the 6MB L2 cache Q9000 series quad core show less than 10% improvement in most cases over a 8MB L2 cache Q6000 series quad core:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q9300_4.html

This would make the Q6600 at 3.5GHZ faster than the 6MB L2 cache 2.83GHZ Q9500 and Q9505 and probably even the 12MB L2 cache Q9550.
 
if your upgrading go i7 from what you have or wait no point in any other.

yours will be a bit quicker than a i5 a stock so basically i would wait for maybe 6 months to a yr and check again.

your pc is no slouch in anything.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Because Core i5 750 is much faster than Q6600, and Core i7 920 is even faster than Core i5 750?

Jabbs, I'll post some data/score for comparison here so it would be easier for you to decide:

Handbrake H.264 Video Encoding
Q6600@stock 2.4GHz: 1,305
Q6600 [email protected]: 1,915
i5 750@stock 2.66GHz: 1,937
i5 750 OC@ 4.15GHz: 2,852
i7 920@stock 2.66GHz: 2,144
i7 920 OC@ 4.08GHz: 3,248

Cinebench R10
Q6600@stock 2.4GHz: 9,817
Q6600 [email protected]: 14,735
i5 750@stock 2.66GHz: 14,114
i5 750 OC@ 4.15GHz: 20,675
i7 920@stock 2.66GHz: 15,206
i7 920 OC@ 4.08GHz: 23,283

WPRIME 32M (in seconds)
Q6600@stock 2.4GHz: 18.047sec
Q6600 [email protected]: 11.734sec
i5 750@stock 2.66GHz: 11.796sec
i5 750 OC@ 4.15GHz: 8.004sec
i7 920@stock 2.66GHz: 9.125sec
i7 920 OC@ 4.08GHz: 5.991sec

Crysis (DX10, 64-BIT, HIGH, 1,680x1,050) with HD5870
Q6600@stock 2.4GHz: 12-35fps
Q6600 [email protected]: 24-45fps
i5 750@stock 2.66GHz: 20-50fps
i5 750 OC@ 4.15GHz: 33-55fps
i7 920 and OC: don't have data, but should be little higher than i5 750

I would not recommend dual-core CPU because games are now leening toward favouring quad-core over dual-core, as you can see the test result of
a 4870x2 running with a Phenom II 550 OC to 3.8GHz at dual-core vs quad-core (unlocked cores) here:

http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/659536-contagion-review-dual-core-vs-quad.html

You can clearly see that in Battlefield Bad Company 2...the Quad-core is about 50% higher in minimum and maximum frame rate, and about 100% higher in average frame rate.

Considering you are not a heavy encoder, Core i5 750 system upgrade would probably suit you the best and it cost just around £350 (CPU £150, Gigabyte motherboard that can overclock CPU to 4GHz £85, 4GB DDR3 1,600MHz RAM £85, CPU cooler £30).

If you don't mind paying more to be may be up to 10-20% faster, a Core i7 920 system upgrade would cost around £505 (CPU £220, Gigabyte motherboard that can overclock CPU to 4GHz £135, 6GB DDR3 1,600MHz RAM £120, CPU cooler £30). If you pay another £20-30 extra for the motherboard, you would have two USB 3.0 ports as extra.

While i7 920 would obviously fastest, it does cost £150-£180 more. While it may be about 10-15% faster than i5 750 in encoding, the increase in frame rate for games comparing to a i5 750 (if we are comparing them at the same clock speed) would most likely be minimal with probably 2-5fps in difference at most.

As for power consumption, Core i5 750 is lower than a Q6600.
Click to expand...

Great post thanks certainly shows the numbers and what a overclocked I5/I7 can do, certainly given me some thinking.
 
I don't get the opportunity to upgrade that often and when it does come i like to take advantage its all well waiting for the the new cpu's but that's a long way off atm next year.

I have £450 to spend and would prefer I7 stuff what do you guys thing as i said i am well out of touch with pc stuff just lately.
 
Trouble is i added some prices up and i don't think you can get it for that money, could do with some input on mobo/ram etc really have no clue about I7.
 
This is over your budget, but you could sell off your old parts to help fund it.

i7spec.jpg


Thats the route that i took when upgrading from s775.
 
If you really have your heart set on a Core i7 build you can fit it into your budget.

Here is a Core i7 920 based build:

Core i7 920 ~ £221

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-280-IN

Asus P6T SE ~ £151

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-332-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1283

This motherboard does symmetrical Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 16X/16X.

3GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £60

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-016-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1389

The total comes to around £432 excluding delivery.

Here is a Core i7 860 based build:

Core i7 860 ~ £232

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-298-IN

Asus P7P55D-E ~ £130

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-389-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1693

This motherboard cannot do symmetrical Crossfire but has USB3 and SATA3.

OR

Asus P7P55D ~ £119

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-360-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1495

This motherboard cannot do symmetrical Crossfire.

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £85

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-041-GS

The total comes to between £436 to £447 excluding delivery.
 
Last edited:
If any of you were building a rig now would you take the I7 920 or go for the I7 860, would the loss of Tri-Channel memory make a mega difference.
 
It would not make a huge difference but depending on what programmes you run and how many you may see some improvement. If your going for an 860 I'd recommend just bouncing down to an i5 750 though, it's very powerful and much cheaper so would stay in your budget. You'd only see a frame or 2 lost anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom