Worth upgrading to a quad core?

[c61ll]

Hi there,
would make much of a difference to games if i upgraded my core 2 e6850 clocked to 3.78ghz to something like a q9450 or q9550?

 

[neithcat]

I think it is. Lots of games coming out now support more than 2 cores. I recently went from an E8600 @ 4.4GHz to a Q9650 @ 4.05GHz and there is a definite improvement.

 

[Reldar]

If you can get a cheap second hand one then I think it would be worth it.
Consider the Q6600 too, it's a great chip

 

[Draeger]

I went from a great little E6300 @ 3.2 to a Q6600 @ 3.2. Huge improvement in performance for not much cash outlay.

Go for it.

 

[kristmace]

I went from an Athlon X2 to an i5 recently and it's been unbelieveable. Definitley recommended.

 

[Uriel]

Depends which games. Console ports are starting to regularly benefit from having more than 2 cores. I have a dual core that I unlock to quad for games. Only noticed a big difference in Ghostbusters and GTA IV so far but there's plenty of recent games I've not played.

 

[Devil_Spawn]

definitely, in some games it makes a whole world of difference

 

[jayextreme]

perhaps going for 6 cores and save upgrade fees for another 3 years

 

[EniGmA1981]

E8600 @ 4.4GHz

I gotta ask how you did that... I know your 'stock' speed was a bit higher than my E8400 but the overclocking ceiling should be he same shouldn't it? Were you watercooled or did you have a heatsink the size of a small case mounted in there?

 

[c61ll]

Thanks. i will try to get hold of one at the right price.

Is there much in therms of performance between the q6600 and q9450?

 

[c61ll]

Also are the q8400s worth considering?
I noticed they have less cache than the other cpus.

 

[El Jimben]

Also are the q8400s worth considering?
I noticed they have less cache than the other cpus.

The Q9450/Q9550 are about 10%-15% faster clock for clock than a Q6600 but you can pickup the latter 2nd hand much more easily and for less money. I would definitely go for a Q6600 over a Q8400 given the choice as the Q8400 has a lower multi and less cache.

 

[bainbridge]

I went from a great little E6300 @ 3.2 to a Q6600 @ 3.2. Huge improvement in performance for not much cash outlay.

Go for it.

I also went from an E6300 to the Q6600 when the BIOS update for the Gigabyte DS3 I was using at the time offered quadcore support, however after flashing the BIOS RAM slots 1&2 stopped working, so I had to fork out on a new board anyway.

 

[-fedexer-]

Certainly worth an upgrade if you can afford it, as has been said there are a lot of games coming out which are starting to support more cores, and as things progress this will become the norm. So take a leap and get yourself one, especially before the VAT rise

 

[El Jimben]

I went from an E8200 @ 3.8GHz to a Q9550 and even though I'm only running it at stock at the moment it has sorted out my minimum FPS in a lot of games and made my system feel generally more responsive.

 

[JPNUFC]

Moving forward more cores are the way to go, all new games will utilise multi core so if your board supports you can go for a Q6600 or simular for minimal cost and gain some performance.

I had the Q6600 and it was a great chip only moved to the i7 on release of the 1366 platform to extend my E-penis to be honest no other reason.

 

[ffstream]

should move on to the next generation chips