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Is it worth upgrading ? Dual core vs quad core ...

SLiCKe

SLiCKe

SLiCKe

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Joined
4 Jul 2009
Posts
27
Hi guys,

You can see my system specs in my sig. I mostly use my PC for gaming and hence the question - one of my mates is selling a Q6700 for a good price, but when it comes to gaming - would i see much difference ? Of course the Q6700 would be overclocked to whatever I can hit on air :)
 
Depending on what your friend is asking for I would jump all over a Q6700. May I ask how much he is asking (bear in mind you can get a G0 stepping Q6600 for ~£70).

I think it's fair to say that the majority of modern games now make good use of a quad core to some degree - in some games (like BF:BC2 and Crysis 2) the performance increase going to a quad is rather big.

That said, with a P43 board you won't be able to overclock a quad core as far as you can a dual core - the Q6700 should be able to hit 3.5-3.6GHz using a chipset like a P45, with a P43 you may have to settle for less - perhaps 3.0GHz.
 
You didnt mention any games but yes quad is used by many

I skipped right from dual to i7 because all the prices in between arent that great

Does that board take a quad because I imagine it would need an upgrade to overclock by much
 
cmndr_andi said:
Aye, they are all G0 revision. £80 is fair, but pretty much market price - no hint of mates rates?
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I'm sure he will come down few quid of the price - it looks as it is worth it anyway so hopefully i should have it by Saturday.

Would Arctic Cooler 7 Pro rev 2.0 do the trick of cooling this quad ?? Same idea in mind - its cheap and i have the rev 1.0 on my dual core and I'm happy with it.
 
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SLiCKe said:
I'm sure he will come down few quid of the price - it looks as it is worth it anyway so hopefully i should have it by Saturday.

Would Arctic Cooler 7 Pro rev 2.0 do the trick of cooling this quad ?? Same idea in mind - its cheap and i have the rev 1.0 on my dual core and I'm happy with it.
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I have the Rev 2 on my Quad. 35c Idle, 60c under IBT, about 50c gaming.
 
silversurfer said:
Just wonder what phase it is. Not every board can overclock quads, some just run it +10% maybe. i7 was 100 when i looked hence old quad prices were too much imo
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True, but if i go for a diffrent socket that means getting new board and new ddr's, and the cost just keep going up. One thing I can do now i spend between 60-100 :)
 
Yep slicke, Im saying you might need a new board anyway to get more much more then stock, maybe it will be fine
Im not sure, I realised on price vs performance the i7 was similar or maybe even better value then the quad but in absolute terms the quad should still be cheaper excluding the idea of selling your old parts

gta4 arma2 bc2 all devour cpu power. Might be a few others Im not aware of, quad is the future for a while
 
I went from an e6600 to a q6600 a few days ago and there's a big difference in newer games that actually utilise the extra cores.
 
This is what I was wondering a while ago. Basically it is worth it, if not now then in the future. Also you can leave your browser and stuff open while gaming and wont experience lag.

I'm waiting for 22nm/Bulldozer before upgrading, because quad core isn't the only reason for upgrading (for me anyway) you've also got stuff like UEFI and SATA3 for the new SSDs. And the current games I play are Source based (TF2, L4D2) and won't use more than 2 cores. But future games like RAGE might.
 
Q8400 or Q9400 is good, too. Don't bother they've got less L2 cache than Q6600/Q6700 - extra core is extra core in gaming, and extra cache gives some additional FPSes on the top of it.
Big advantage of Q8400/Q9400 (both for ~80 quids, sometimes less sometimes more) is they operate at 1333 FSB and give decent efficiency with no o/c - which is nice addition to your power consumption, temps etc etc.
 
I wouldn't spend more than 50quid on it considering nowadays prices. Can get AM3 mobo+cpu+quad for like 120-140 so 80 for a Q6600 is WAAAAAAAAAAY overpriced now, maybe a year ago but definitely a no no.
 
Yeah £80 seems a bit steep I would have thought as a 'reliable' buyer and the fact he won't need to post it anywhere would see your mate knock another tenner off the price.

Personally the idea of spending £80 on an 'old' generation cpu (not even an i-series never mind SB) doesn't sit terribly well with me although obviously it is a cheaper and easier upgrade path from C2D.

Finally one point to bear in mind is that a C2D @ 3.5ghz is still no slouch for gaming aside from a few titles that really need a tricore or better e.g. GTA4. I would assess whether you feel you can hold out a bit longer and then do a 'proper' upgrade i.e. SB. Tough call as having monitored CPU usage in some modern games on my i5 I was suprised to see utilisation so high, we are approaching the tipping point where developers are really starting to tap into the extra power.
 
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