Moving to Tri-Core worth it?

[JamesM]

Currently have a e8400 running at 3.7GHz stable as pie and although it runs games fine recently i've been doing quite a lot of things at once and i've been toying with the idea of getting more than two cores.

I mainly play CSS and Company of Heroes and although I believe COH would benefit from the extra core, I know that CSS wouldn't.

Would I notice a big enough drop in 'fps' performance that would make the move pointless? How good are the new AMDs clock for clock against the current intel chips?

 

[racerboy59]

Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to go for an Intel quad core, if your motherboard allows it?

 

[Mul]

I'm going to say no. I made the switch from a first gen overclocked Core 2 Duo E6300 to a X3 720 Black and the performance increase was certainly noticeable in CPU intensive games. For someone with a 6mb L2 Core 2 Duo already, I'm not so sure whether it's worth it. Clock for clock, your E8400 is a bit quicker and I'd imagine you'd be able to push it further than 3.7GHz. Even if you wanted to upgrade, selling the E8400 on that well known auction site for good money and buying a Q9550 is probably a more convenient proposition.

 

[gt_junkie]

I'm going to say no. I made the switch from a first gen overclocked Core 2 Duo E6300 to a X3 720 Black and the performance increase was certainly noticeable in CPU intensive games. For someone with a 6mb L2 Core 2 Duo already, I'm not so sure whether it's worth it. Clock for clock, your E8400 is a bit quicker and I'd imagine you'd be able to push it further than 3.7GHz. Even if you wanted to upgrade, selling the E8400 on that well known auction site for good money and buying a Q9550 is probably a more convenient proposition.

Completely agree!

gt

 

[psychas]

e8400 to tri core no way. anyway cs:s only uses 2 cores if not one. also i think e8400 prety much same performance as 720

 

[Zillio]

Thought they had patched CS:S sometime this year to use at least 4 cores.

 

[!TIMMY!]

Thought they had patched CS:S sometime this year to use at least 4 cores.

Not sure about that, css uses very little of my Q6600, like 35%.

 

[arc@css]

CS:S is a cpu intensive game but how many cores it can use I don't really know for sure, at least 2 I'd be inclined to agree with.

 

[JamesM]

Cheers guys, been out of the loop for a while and wasn't sure just how quick the AMDs were. I can hit 4GHz with my 8400 but at the moment 3.6 runs nice and cool for me at the moment, hence why i'm not going higher.

Will give it a miss and wait

 

[gt_junkie]

Best choice TBH.

I only went with AMD since i wanted SLi and couldn't afford i7.

Although happy with the purchase (didn't cost me anything after selling all my s775 kit) in hindsight i probably should have waited, saved a bit and gone i7.

You do right to wait!

gt

 

[littlepuppy]

Im in same boat as you junkie, like my SLI on AMD, im gonna sit tight now till the die shrinks next year and then make the jump... I think we can both hold out till then (just) lol..