e6400 to Q9550?

[Ladicius]

Thinking about doing a minor upgrade, so I hit up the search button and couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.

Current System:
e6400 @ 3.0 ghz
6 gigs of ram
7900gs

Basically looking to get back into some gaming and a lot more HD content. I currently have my eye on a gtx275, but am wondering if my cpu will be a bottle neck. If anything, jump on the Microcenter deal and future proof my computer for another year or so.

Thoughts and Ideas?

 

[Dangman]

What size monitor do you have?
What PSU do you have? Exact make and model please.
What motherboard do you have?

 

[Ladicius]

42" 1920x1080 Westinghouse
Corsair 520HX
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 rev 2.0

Hah, really close to your system

 

[Dangman]

LOL!, I knew that setup looked familiar In fact, I use to have the 7900GS until I upgraded my video card last year.

For straight up gaming, you probably won't notice a performance increase with the Q9550 in games that'll justify the cost. However, a new GPU would work wonders for your setup. Go with either the GTX 275 or HD4890, whichever is cheaper.

 

[Ladicius]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[me0w0w]

Upgrade the GPU first.

 

[Varmint]

e6400 @ 3 GHz should be plenty fast for the 275 GTX, no need for the quad yet.

 

[SavageThrash]

Hmmm is this the old or new e6400, i know intel has used the name twice. Im running an e6600 @ 3ghz (bad stepping ) and im debating upgrading to the 4890 as well.

 

[Abit667]

Upgrade the GPU, that will give you by far the biggest improvement. That should also give you time to see what happens with the i7 and move to that instead of getting a quad core Core 2 in the future.

 

[AMDXP]

Graphics card. Your processor is more than fine @ 3.0

 

[Zero82z]

Hmmm is this the old or new e6400, i know intel has used the name twice.

There's only one E6400. You're thinking of the recently-introduced Pentium Dual-Core E6300.

 

[vjcsmoke]

Hmm might need to do both cpu and gpu then. I'd say i7 but i realize you'd need to do a whole new motherboard with that too, so it would get pricey fast. I'm still not sure how much better quad cpus are for gaming. Consider the costs and the benefits. Probably go with gpu first in this case. If it looks bottlenecked, then change the cpu after.