Q9400 Overclock or Upgrade?

[Skynet-T800]

Hi chaps,

Just bought Battlefield 3 and although my system is running it very well on high settings about 50/60fps I was thinking about upgrading but will there a noticable difference in game?

My CPU is running about 80% on all cores while running this game.

Or would this be a good overclocking CPU?

Was thinking about the 2600k if not but I really wan't to hold off upgrading a little longer if I can.

My mobo is Asus P5Q Deluxe btw..

Cheers Paul

 

[SouthEastBlue]

To be honest 50 - 60 fps on high is fine, more than playable (exactly the same as what I get myself). Also from the CPU benchmark I saw for BF3 it seems you'll only really be slightly limited by a CPU if it's an older dual core.

I would probably hold off until the next lot of Sandybridge CPUs rear their heads as I doubt there is much (if anything at all) you can't already play game wise with that CPU.

 

[Skynet-T800]

I would probably hold off until the next lot of Sandybridge CPUs rear their heads as I doubt there is much (if anything at all) you can't already play game wise with that CPU.

What these next lot of sandybridges you talk of?

There are some on the web site now like the i7 2600k sandybridge?
or is there a new breed on thier way?

Sorry I'm a little out of touch with todays tech!!

 

[moody89]

What these next lot of sandybridges you talk of?

There are some on the web site now like the i7 2600k sandybridge?
or is there a new breed on thier way?

Sorry I'm a little out of touch with todays tech!!

After the Core2 series you had the first Core i series - i2, i5, i7 etc. Now we're on the second generation Core i series, codenamed Sandybridge. The next lot are the Sandybridge-E series which should be out soon-ish!

As far as your system goes, you'd just as well stick with what you have for the time being, or try an overclock on it. It's still a very capable system so it's pointless to waste money

 

[mrspliff]

As above. Unless you're flush.

 

[Confused Stu]

I'd say try overclocking it. My Q9400 ran at 3.8GHz on an Asus P5Q-E very easily (I'm rubbish at overclocking, just fiddled with FSB and voltage) and is still running the same overclock for a friend over 8 months later. After upgrading to my current setup, I noticed a difference in GTA4 and when I crossfired my 5870s, but for gaming on a single card, it wouldn't have been worth the upgrade cost in my opinion.