e6400-->e8500 worth it?

T

tpfaff

2[H]4U
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Jan 30, 2006
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My e6400 is oced to 3.2ghz and I'm thinking of picking up an e8400 as a stop gap upgrade until I can afford a whole new setup(mobo,cpu,ram) I mainly am looking into the upgrade for gaming. BC2 runs pretty badly on my 1680x1050 monitor. I will be getting a new gpu in the summer. Will I see signifcant fps improvement while gaming with an e8400?

Edit: E8400 not 8500
 
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E8600 yeah!!!!! They all go to 4ghz with a half junk cooler and cheap paste.

But hold onto your current cpu. Till you can upgrade to a newer platform. Don't waste your dough save it
 
You're probably better off getting a Q6600 and abusing it. It's not worth that much so you don't have to feel bad about overclocking it into the ground, and the extra cores will help performance a lot more than a few hundred extra mhz. Especially in BFBC2.
 
I remember seeing negligible improvements from a stock q6600 over my oced e6400 when they came out. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly.
 
Oc your current cpu as high as you can. 1 gpu dual core is enough but you need to be on 1080p where the gpu plays less of a role so you'll be ok till you can upgrade. Q6600 won't give you higher fps only a gpu will do that but you need the dual core around 3.5Ghz to keep up with it at 1080p
 
The highest I've ever gotten it was 3.5 and it was not very stable. I'm not very good at overclocking though. Hmmm so not worth it? GPU alone will suffice?
 
tpfaff said:
I remember seeing negligible improvements from a stock q6600 over my oced e6400 when they came out. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly.
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Barely any games used 4 cores when those chips were new. BFBC2 happens to be a game that benefits a lot from the extra cores. And the point of a Q6600 isn't to run it at stock, it's to overclock the shit out of it. He should have no problem finding a 3.8+ chip from someone, and it will be a much more consistent all-round performer than a E8400 in the typical 4.0-4.2 range.

tpfaff said:
The highest I've ever gotten it was 3.5 and it was not very stable. I'm not very good at overclocking though. Hmmm so not worth it? GPU alone will suffice?
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It depends on the games you want to play. Your GPU sucks, no doubt about it, but some games are going to require a better CPU too, BFBC2 being one of them. It's probable that both components are bottlenecking your system at alternating times.
 
save you're cash up and do a full system upgrade. You'll thank me later. :D
 
Save your money, the E8500 will overclock better for you, but in all honestly I would keep what you have and keep saving.
 
I may be wrong cause I'm more of an AMD guy but I don't think an 8400 will work on the same socket as a 6400.
 
Gym Rat said:
I may be wrong cause I'm more of an AMD guy but I don't think an 8400 will work on the same socket as a 6400.
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It's the same socket. S775. I wouldn't waste the money upgrading to another dual core. Even if you upgrade to a Q9550, I don't know if you'll see any benefit with that 8800GTS.
 
Ok thanks guys, I'll just get a gpu this summer and finish the build later on.
 
tpfaff said:
My e6400 is oced to 3.2ghz and I'm thinking of picking up an e8400 as a stop gap upgrade until I can afford a whole new setup(mobo,cpu,ram) I mainly am looking into the upgrade for gaming. BC2 runs pretty badly on my 1680x1050 monitor. I will be getting a new gpu in the summer. Will I see signifcant fps improvement while gaming with an e8400?

Edit: E8400 not 8500
Click to expand...

I doubt it, at least nothing substantial in the price to performance achieved department.
 
i'd wait til the sandy B3 boards prove to be good and pick up a system based on that.

I went from a stock E8400 + GTX460 that played BFBC2 at 1680x1050 on med settings with lag prevalent to the one in my sig playing at 1920x1080 with 0 lag on high settings. (until mass smoke comes into play, then it hitches just a tad...)
 
I agree with most other people, get a Q6600 for ~$100 and OC it to 3.2 GHz or better. As for it not performing much better than your E6400 when it first came out, that was due to a lack of actual programs and games that used multiple cores effectively. Today is much different, and Q6600's are far superior to any Core 2 Duo. Hell, my old Q6700 @ stock ran like a dream compared to my E6320 @ 2.8 GHz.
 
`br4dz- said:
I agree with most other people, get a Q6600 for ~$100 and OC it to 3.2 GHz or better. As for it not performing much better than your E6400 when it first came out, that was due to a lack of actual programs and games that used multiple cores effectively. Today is much different, and Q6600's are far superior to any Core 2 Duo. Hell, my old Q6700 @ stock ran like a dream compared to my E6320 @ 2.8 GHz.
Click to expand...


I can't agree more about going to 4 cores!

I have a Phenom II 555 with all 4 cores unlocked and a 5850 for BC2. Anyway, one day without me changing anything my frame rates went to shit (noticeably jerky, so likely 20-25 fps) and I didn't know why. Turns out my computer rebooted itself while I was at work and my cpu reverted back to dual core. Once I rebooted and unlocked the the cores again everything was silky smooth.
 
Get a 2500k and a mobo. I've seen some strange quad to SB upgrades in here lol
So do it and get over it
 
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