Upgrade to Sandybridge ?

[Mortster]

Hi guys.

At present I run an E6420 (dual core) @ 3.2GHz on an Asus P5b Deluxe (P965 chipset) | 4GB RAM | ATi 4870 512MB.

Obviously I need a GPU upgrade soon, I will probably go for an NVidia 560Ti OR ATI 6950. I have noticied though that with some games I am seeing a CPU bottleneck now (for example with F1 2011 my FPS is not affected no matter what resolution I run the game in).

So I need to go for a quad core, my options are either swap out the E6420 for a Q9550/Q9650 and try to overclock back to 400MHz giving 3.4/3.6GHz respectively and change my GPU as mentioned OR go for an i5-2500K Sandybridge build and O/C up to 4Ghz or higher probably on an Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 (GEN3 for PCI-E 3.0 and Ivybridge support).

Now I don't see many benchmarks around comparing a Q9x50 system to an i5. I do wonder how much of an upgrade clock for clock that an i5 would give me rather than just sitting tight for another 12 months with a Q9x50 and a new GPU. I am interested in playing Battlefield 3 and I game at 1920x1200 normally with 4xAA / 16xAF if I can. I also do some x264 encoding, but i'm never in a rush, so i'm happy to just see the improvement going from a dual to a quad with encoding.

What is my best option guys balanced against cost ?

So, if I had a Q9x50 @ 3.3GHz | 4GB | ATi 6950 against an i5-2500K @ 3.3Ghz | 4GB | ATi 6950 realistically for gaming (particularly BF3) what % increase in performance should I reasonably expect ?

 

[mp260767]

if you can get the Q9xxx for the right price then that would do you for bf3 with the 6950.

there was a post from someone on hear recently showing that cpu seems to affect the fps less on bf3 than gfx, will have a look to see if i can find the link.

EDIT:

mm that was easy for a change lol, have a look here, doesnt show a q9xx but gives you an idea on processor dependancy:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18334692

 

[jennidc]

TBH I would not spend money on old tech - you have a number of options dependant on budget...
1. Try and pick up a cheap 2nd hand q9xxx 755 chip to slot into your board (only a small upgrade) and perhaps use the money saved to add SSD, better cooler and GFX card
2. Buy a 990fx board and a AMD hexcore chip for around £200-£250 with some DDR3
3. Buy a z68 & i5 2500k for around £300-£350 with some DDR3
4. Buy a 990FX board and a Phenom ii x4 for around £150 with some DDR3

Personally I would go with either option 2 or 3 dependant on what you use the PC for and budget.

This looks a bit of a bargain - add a Gellid Tranquillo and OC to 3.8 - 4ghz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-189-OK&groupid=43&catid=2047&subcat=

 

[Mortster]

if you can get the Q9xxx for the right price then that would do you for bf3 with the 6950.

there was a post from someone on hear recently showing that cpu seems to affect the fps less on bf3 than gfx, will have a look to see if i can find the link.

EDIT:

mm that was easy for a change lol, have a look here, doesnt show a q9xx but gives you an idea on processor dependancy:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18334692

Thanks for that information mate, it would appear that BF3 is not quite as CPU bound as some people would make you believe (although on 64 player maps i'm sure the CPU plays a greater part).

 

[mp260767]

Thanks for that information mate, it would appear that BF3 is not quite as CPU bound as some people would make you believe (although on 64 player maps i'm sure the CPU plays a greater part).

yeah problem you have as well is that some maps/servers are lagggyyyy as hell, so you start to wonder if its the system or the server .

 

[dlknight]

TBH I would not spend money on old tech - you have a number of options dependant on budget...
1. Try and pick up a cheap 2nd hand q9xxx 755 chip to slot into your board (only a small upgrade) and perhaps use the money saved to add SSD, better cooler and GFX card
2. Buy a 990fx board and a AMD hexcore chip for around £200-£250 with some DDR3
3. Buy a z68 & i5 2500k for around £300-£350 with some DDR3
4. Buy a 990FX board and a Phenom ii x4 for around £150 with some DDR3

Personally I would go with either option 2 or 3 dependant on what you use the PC for and budget.

This looks a bit of a bargain - add a Gellid Tranquillo and OC to 3.8 - 4ghz
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-189-OK&groupid=43&catid=2047&subcat=

I would recommend 2 or 4 if you are buying brand new and I know you are an Intel fanboy but AMD have a good bang for buck IMO. Like I was telling you on messenger buying 2nd hand has its advantages too and there are some good deals to be had looking on the MM and also on clearance sections on OCUK and other sites. If you can get a SB bundle for the same price as AMD then go for it otherwise I would go AMD myself.

I picked up the following bits myself which you can use as an indicator for 2nd hand value:

• Gigabyte Z68X-UD4 - £80
• Intel i5-2300 - £80
• 4GB (2x2GB) OCZ Platinum DDR3 1600MHz - £26

So for £186 you can do SB, and with RAM prices as they are you should be looking at 8GB for around £40. An i5-2500K would be nice but the i5-2300 isn't far behind and at half the price was a steal. I won't be overclocking (apart from the turbo tweak) but hopefully will pick up a "K" series CPU when funds allow.

GPU wise I've not done any research for ages, medium performance I would say in AMD is 5850/6870. Then looking moving up towards the 6950 etc... NVIDIA I cannot comment on but I'm sure you have been looking at benchmarks.

One last thing I will say is GPU wise you are better off with a AMD 5850/6870 or equivalent NVIDIA card unless you are planning on running multiple monitors/very high resolution. I've felt no need to upgrade my 5850 even though I'm now running at 1920x1080.

I will post my benchmarks once I have assembled my SB so you can see the comparison between the Core2 rig (as our rigs are quite similar).

Speak soon Mortster !