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CPU Performance - Replacement Decision

R

RhoXS

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Messages
67
I am currently running a Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz @ 3.8 Ghz. It is absolutely stable and I am not unhappy with its performance.

I want to do an upgrade and replace the CPU and mobo (my existing CPU/mobo/memory will be a hand-me-down I promised someone). The new mobo would support DDR3 memory. What CPU would I need to consider to provide performance at least as good as I have now?

It appears, at least from much that I have read, that the latest Intel CPUs provide better performance at lower clock speeds. Therefore I really do not have a feel for how to compare the performance of a replacement with what I have now.
 
If you are looking to keep costs down, the i5 750 seems to be a great choice and would be faster than what you have now. It also won't force you to sell your car or take out a mortgage in order to buy it. Pair it with a good P55 board with some decent memory and you'd have a winner.

Although, you can even venture into the i3's but I haven't really read much about them.

Also, look into the i7 860 if you are willing to pay a bit more. With these "lower-end" chips you also won't have to worry about buying a more expensive Tri-Channel kit (although, the difference is marginal if you are going to get more than 4GB anyways).

At the upper-end, there's the i7 920/930 with a X58 motherboard and Tri-Channel ram. There will be a premium to this over the 1156 based chips so it depends on how much you want to pay and how much performance you want.
 
Thanks for the reply.

So, are you saying that either the Quad Core i5-750 1156 at 2.66 GHz or i7-860 1156 at 2.8 GHz will outperform my dual core E8400 at 3.8 GHz?

If so, is the improved performance at only 73% the clock speed because of the two additional cores? Will this performance be apparent with all applications that require CPU time?
 
No.

Those cpus have the potential to outperform your current cpu if you also overclock those cpus like your cpu. How much you have to overclock them to get comparable performance is going to depend on the application in use. Some do fine with one or two cores so you would have to clock them pretty close to 3.8GHz to get similar performance. Apps that can use more than 2 cores would need less clockspeed (to match your cpu)
 
I'm running a core2duo at 2.8 (stock 2.3). I'm trying to hold out as long as possible.

What do you use it for?

All the benchmarks I've read though, clock for clock; an i5 or i7 will beat an Core2duo dual/quad in most things.

A 3.2 Core2 isn't really shabby though. I play TF2 fine on a 2.8.
 
Thanks for the responses.

I am beginning to think that I will have a challenge to overclock and i5 or i7 to even match the reliable performance I am getting now from the 3.0 GHz E8400 at 3.8 GHz. Therefore, maybe the best thing will be to go to a plan B for the hand-me-down and just keep what I have. I really do not want to go to the trouble and expense of an "upgrade" for only an incremental improvement in performance or, even worse, a small decrease.
 
given the performance of my E8500 when overclocked compared to my laptop's i5 I would put the i5 as slightly faster overall based upon how long it takes my desktop to encode a 42min episode of Enterprise vs my desktop. 12 mins on average for the laptop vs 14 for the desktop with the same quality settings

max speed of i5 520m is 2.93Ghz vs 3.6 for the desktop
 
Isn't the low end Sandybridge chips comming out at the end of this year, beginning of next? I'd wait if I were you. E8400 at 3.8 to a I7 @ 3.8 didn't notice much gains if any at all for normal everyday computer use. Games that are cpu dependent did run a bit smoother though.
 
There's nothing wrong with the CPU you have right now. I probably wouldn't bother if all you are doing is playing games.
You will see a significant improvement though, so i wouldn't worry to much about that.
My friend just went from an E6300 overclocked to a 3.6Ghz to a brand new i7 870.
The difference was night and day. He didn't expect to be able to tell the difference, but everything has improved drastically.

When upgrading from one architecture to a new one, you can't really look at clock speeds.
CPUs have been maxing out at less than 4Ghz for several Generations, yet each new CPU is much more powerful than the last.
In the case of Core2Duo -> Core i7: the ram is changing, the memory controller is on chip, and the socket has much more throughput. The overall computer will be a very big improvement over 3 year old tech.

I'm going through the same debate here myself. I'm planning to make the switch from my Q6600 to an i7 in the near future. Probably gonna hold on until after christmas though.
 
if you're not against dual-cores and aren't a heavy multi-tasker I'd say go for an i3 540 and OC the shit outta the lil' sucker. should be able to hit the mid-4ghz range on air easy, it seems some have even reported being able to hit 5ghz on air (I haven't done a ton of research into it though). I couldn't tell you what they can do on water, but I saw something somewhere about nearly hitting 7ghz on ln2.

I mean if you have the budget go for a good quad core like the phenom ii 955 be, i5 750/760, i7 930, xeon w3520/w3530, but those lil' i3s ain't no slouches in the right hands, lol.

edit; I'd probably just go straight to the lga1366 build over the i7 8xx series on the lga 1156 socket personally. for gaming performance, the i5 7xx series seems to have the greatest performance over all, but with most other apps the i7 9xx series takes the cake for slightly more than a decent i7 8xx build.
 
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