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e5200 vs e8400

Jeep333

Weaksauce
Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
87
There are quite a few comparsions on the web showing the performance advantage of the larger cache in gaming when both cpu are clocked at the same speed. However, it seems that all those comparsions are done at low resolution where it is CPU limited. If the game is being played at a high resolution with AA enabled, so it is more GPU bound than CPU limited, does the larger cache still hold the same advantage, or would it become negligible? This is assuming that both CPU are overclocked to 3.6Ghz.
 
what Res are you going to run at?

At a resolution where the specific video card can easily be max out. It can be a 9800GT at 1680 x 1050 or a 4850 at 1900 x 1200. Basically, what I want to know is if the video card is max out, will the larger cache in the cpu still make a difference?
 
right then i'll just overclock my E8400 to pwn you again.

And by that time you'll have passed the point at which games are bottlenecked by the CPU, and overclocking higher won't have any affect on performance.
 
right then i'll just overclock my E8400 to pwn you again.

My e5200 maxes out @ 4.2 @ 1.5V, but then again thats too much voltage and like zeros statement says.

As for the thread goes, I was in the same situation, between the e5200, e7200 and e8400. For me the best was e5200, since the most i would be doing is gaming, the larger cache does make a few fps difference but not enough for me to fork over 80 bucks more for it. The e5200 is probably the best budget cpu in my opinion, 80 bucks gets you 3.8ghz easy and more if some tweaks and proper cooling. I maxed out mine to 4.25ghz @ 1.5V and temps were 39 idle and 65 load. Not really that bad but overkill for me so i turned it back down to 3.75ghz.

The e5200 is a very good overclocking chip, and it does 3.6ghz no problems, if budget is not the issue, i would probably go e8400, They overclock even more with little less voltage needs.

Im upgrading to a Q9550 soon tho ;)
 
goes back to my soap box. Is an overclocked e5200 fast enough to play modern games? yes.
If its fast enough it will be so at any resolution with any card.
 
i've built the same exact rig for my friend but instead of the E5200 i used the E8400 and i have to admit i didnt see much difference when I overclock my E5200 to 3.5ghz and the E8400 to 3.5ghz. I personally think that once you get to the 3.2ghz range performance wise is pretty much the same in games regardless of the cache size. It just looks better for benchmarks.
 
I think people are forgetting what's sitting dead in the middle of these two chips, the E7300 (which replaced the E7200). If you don't want to send an extra $80 for the E8400, consider spending an extra $37 for the E7300.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115132

You get an extra 1MB of cache, and slightly higher clock speed and FSB compared to the E5200.

The 1mb cache difference is not worth the extra money from the e5200, Basically everything is evened out when overclocking takes it part. Im sure the e7300 and e5200 clocked the same, the e7300 will win, but by very little.

On another note, i got my e5200 to be benchmark stable @ 4.3Ghz @ 1.5V Bios voltage, ram as well overclocked to DDR2-920. Almost scoring 16k in 3dmark06 :(

http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=almostxp5.jpg

If your wondering, the chip was stable at those speeds for no more than 3 hours and 49 minutes aftwards, it gave errors, so im sure another notch up will make it stable, yes 1.5V is alot for a 45nm but still very impressive imo.
 
Ok, cache may not make a big difference but what about fsb? the e5200's 800 fsb vs 1066 fsb? Ive never o/c'ed any processor like these so im not sure if you can o/c the fsb a lot higher or not.
 
If you don't want to send an extra $80 for the E8400, consider spending an extra $37 for the E7300.

The E7200 is $100 at Microcenter and the E7300 is $105 (everyday prices)

or if you have a Fry's near you, you might be able to get a combo. I got my E7200 w an ECS motherboard for $100. Motherboard could fetch $20~30
 
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