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is a move from a Q6600 to a Q9450 worth it for 3D rendering?

sambo_joseph

sambo_joseph

sambo_joseph

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Hi all, I currently have a Q6600 and was just wondering if (clock for clock) it was worth upgrading to a Q9450 for 3D work?. Does the 12mb cache of the latter actually come in as any use to render speed over the 8mb cache of the Q6600?

Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
to the Op - long and short of it:

if you plan on sticking to socket 775 for a bit and are not to fussed or cant afford i7 [or icore7] then perhaps look at getting a 45nm quad

it wont be a massive upgrade - more of a sidegrade that will benefit you in the tasks you have stated

if you plan on upgrading to i7/i5 in the next year it might be wise to start saving your cash instead

if you plan on being right ALL THE TIME AND TYPING IN CAPS

then drop easyrider a line
 
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thanks for the reply rjkoneill.

How about if I have my Q6600 overclocked to 3.2Ghz vs a Q9450 at the same clock, would there still be a big difference to justify the price would you say?
 
not for games

more for cpu workload tasks [encoding.rendering etc] shaves a bit of time off - it would be faster

i sold my q6600 for 120 at auction so my 9450 only cost £40 [2nd hand proved clocker]

hopefully will get some good results
 
rjkoneill said:
obviously it should run cooler and use less volts too

so power efficiancy trounces the 6600
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you realise both are 95W the Q6600 and the Q9450, it might be a smaller process, but its faster, has 4mb more cache which is a lot of transistors extra and lower voltage means NOTHING in terms of power. As voltage goes down with process reductions, amps used increases, power stays similar.


As to if its worth it, first how critical is the rendering, if its for work, and you make money from doing it buy the best you can afford and run at stock. If its a hobby and you're happy to overclock and find something stable, thats cool get something cheaper and whack up the speed. THe Q9450, its already higher FSB and a lower multi than the Q6600, it won't automatically overclock further and its not hugely faster clock for clock. If you can hit say 3.6Ghz on the Q6600, I'd say upgrading would be a fairly large risk. Though at this point the Q9450 is very expensive and the OEM Q9550's can be had cheaper than almost all Q9450 retails, will give you a higher multiplier, higher max overclock in most situations and would probably be the better option.


If its a work computer that generates you money, splurge on a I7, triple channel, mem controller and decent clocks will give you a pretty decent speed boost over a Q6600 and essentially the Q9XXX series is a stop gap and aren't really worth the highish cost, semi limited overclocking and very limited speed boost over your current Q6600.
 
Big.Wayne said:
Q9450 for £160 is nice! :)
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only £205 new so £160 isn't particularly cheap 2nd hand. I have no clue when/how the price went up on the Q9450 at certain retailers recently. I was half considering getting one but the limited clocking as my board seems to be losing its stability at higher voltage and not wanting to buy a new S775 board when its dead, when I saw the increase in prices it didn't seem great value.
 
sambo_joseph said:
Hi all, I currently have a Q6600 and was just wondering if (clock for clock) it was worth upgrading to a Q9450 for 3D work?. Does the 12mb cache of the latter actually come in as any use to render speed over the 8mb cache of the Q6600?

Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Not really.

The Q9450 is around 200MHZ faster than the Q6600 clock for clock.

So a 3.2ghz Q6600 will perform around the same as a 3ghz Q9450.

What people have failed to mention is the application you will be using for 3D rendering and encoding.

If the app uses the SS4 instruction sets then the increse in speed will be more evident if you were to use an app that didn't use the new instructions sets.

The cache will hardly make any difference.

I for one would not be upgrading to a Q9450 if I already had a Q6600 as the gains would be to small to notice in real terms.

The only real upgrade path from a Q6600 is icore7 now.

That will see massive gains in encoding and video editing and rendering.

The encoding test with icore7 at 2.6ghz and a Quad C2D @ 2.6ghz in Adobe premier CS3 is astonishing!!!

The icore 7 destroys the Q C2D by a massive ammount when encoding HD video.
 
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Big.Wayne said:
Hehe, I been thinking the same thing about you for the last two years! :p

Seriously though, didn't you just say you *wouldn't* upgrade a 65nm QUad for a 45nm Quad?

That would be such an easyshuffle how could u resist! :)
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Maybe at the start when the first 45nm Quads cam out.

Not when they are now more expensive than icore7.

100 quid for his quad if he's lucky...

then another 120 on top for a 200mhz speed gain :p


na;)


s775 is dead tech now.

920 icore 7 for just over 200 and 150 quid x58 mobo's is where its at now :D
 
Yeah that makes sense I suppose, not forgetting the slab of DDR3 of course.

I'm stuck on LGA775 for now, didn't play with it as much as some guys so still quite interesting, also LGA775 is amazingly affordable for most normal users that are trying to cobble a new build together amid the credit crunch.

Core i7 is very much the preserve of the cutting edge crew/Multimedia professionals and the OcUk big guns, looks nice, shame about the price but as you point out it's almost fallen into the same price bracket as some people pay out for a really high end LGA775 Quad Core build!

easyrider said:
s775 is dead tech now.
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Well I can't agree with you there, of course I understand your bored to death with that socket as u been using it for two and a half years!

From a normal user/gamers point of view (i.e dual core city) LGA775 is a sweet deal still! :cool:
 
easyrider said:
s775 is dead tech now.
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It's not dead tech quite yet as the CPUs for it (both lower and higher end) fly. For someone on a budget they can buy say an E2180 and have a huge upgrade path for 2nd hand Core 2 Quads years down the line. Also, most Socket 775 match or exceed the Socket AM2+ cpus which are apparently not dead tech. No (known) new cpus are coming out for socket 775 I'll give you that, and if that's what you mean then the statement is partially true, but to say its dead tech is far from the reality. Then again if you have the money for a higher end quad (and don't already have a socket 775 board) then you might as well buy a socket 1366 system (or AM2+/AM3).
 
sambo_joseph said:
Hi all, I currently have a Q6600 and was just wondering if (clock for clock) it was worth upgrading to a Q9450 for 3D work?. Does the 12mb cache of the latter actually come in as any use to render speed over the 8mb cache of the Q6600?
Click to expand...
I suppose all things considered the cheapest option would just to be stay put, the second cheapest option would be a 65nm for 45nm swap-out and the third most expensive option would be a complete overhaul of the system to Core i7.

My platforms (CPU/Mobo/Mem) usually cost about £250 total so obviously a jump to Core i7 would be three times as expensive. If I was a hardcore power user with a big quad and uBer expensive motherboard (kinda £500 pound platform) then i7 makes a lot more sense!

Kentsfield to Yorkfield still provides a nice easy upgrade, I suppose one should keep an eye out in MM for anyone selling their old-hat Q9450/Q9550! :D
 
I thought about going to 9xxx but it's not worth it, my next upgrade will be i7 when the platform matures.

To be honest, not that desperate to upgrade, Q6600 and 8gb RAM for me at the moment is more than enough.
 
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