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Q6600 vs Core I7 920

R

rennocneb

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
136
I currently have a Q6600 running at 3.2 im considering upgrading my cpu and board. I have a gtx 295 video board and using a 9800gtx as a physx card. Question is for gaming will i see enough difference to justify the upgrade?
 
No, for the money it's not worth it.
EDIT: You'd have to get new RAM as well as a new board and CPU.
 
Oh im well aware id need a whole new setup to do it. I can sell my Q6600 board and ram and have to spend roughly 350 to upgrade to core i7. So i guess is it worth $350 is the question i should be asking, also how viable would Phenom II be as a cheaper option thats still faster.
 
depends - I did it for about 550

for the cpu, asus p6t (non deluxe) and 3 gb corsair 1600

the plus side it I got 4.02 Ghz out of thebox but I do a lot of encoding of dvds and videos so the increase for me was worth it. Gaming wise? your probably not going to notice that much of a difference.
 
Yea, as groebuck said not much gaming difference, and it's going to be more than 350 to do it, $550 at the least (250 CPU, 100 RAM, 200 Board) and most likely more if you want SLI and Crossfire support, etc etc.
 
no what im saying is i already have my q6600 board and memory sold if i want to. The upgrade would cost me about 350-400ish. If i went phenom II roughly 150 as im figuring.
 
I thought about dumping my Q6600 too for the tasty i7. However, with super-cheap DDR2, I couldn't resist going for 8 gigs on my current mobo. I am a gamer and occasional video encoder so the i7 pricing didn't justify the switch (yet).
 
It depends -- are you going to grow a hairy lip if your box can't calculate digits of pi faster than a thousand euclids? Have you noticed any bottlenecks that the i7 arch will solve?
 
Kuja said:
It depends -- are you going to grow a hairy lip if your box can't calculate digits of pi faster than a thousand euclids? Have you noticed any bottlenecks that the i7 arch will solve?
Click to expand...

Interestingly enough, I have found at least 3 so far. One single threaded game, and 2 multithreaded games. Same video card as my Q6600 rig had, the i7 can play Sins of a Solar Empire at maximum ship counts far better then my Q6600 did. And this is a single threaded game no less! With both chips at 3.6Ghz, the i7 plays it normally, the Q6600 crawls during the heaviest fights. Turbo mode on the i7 is disabled, so it's not gaining any advantages by boosting it's own clock speed either. It's just able to handle the incredibly crowded battles that much better.

For multithreaded games, I've found Company of Heroes and World in Conflict both play around 10-25% faster on the i7 over the Q6600 with equalized clock speeds. Company of Heroes gets it's biggest boost out of the i7 when playing a skirmish against 4 AI's on The Rhine map after it's been chewed up by massive artillery strikes. The uneven ground areas make the Q6600 choke on the physics while the i7 just plays right on through without breaking a sweat.
 
Kuja said:
It depends -- are you going to grow a hairy lip if your box can't calculate digits of pi faster than a thousand euclids? Have you noticed any bottlenecks that the i7 arch will solve?
Click to expand...

brilliant! but seriously, no need for that upgrade yet. then again, if you spent that much to updgrade your card, you might sleep better.
 
moshpit said:
Interestingly enough, I have found at least 3 so far. One single threaded game, and 2 multithreaded games. Same video card as my Q6600 rig had, the i7 can play Sins of a Solar Empire at maximum ship counts far better then my Q6600 did. And this is a single threaded game no less! With both chips at 3.6Ghz, the i7 plays it normally, the Q6600 crawls during the heaviest fights. Turbo mode on the i7 is disabled, so it's not gaining any advantages by boosting it's own clock speed either. It's just able to handle the incredibly crowded battles that much better.

For multithreaded games, I've found Company of Heroes and World in Conflict both play around 10-25% faster on the i7 over the Q6600 with equalized clock speeds. Company of Heroes gets it's biggest boost out of the i7 when playing a skirmish against 4 AI's on The Rhine map after it's been chewed up by massive artillery strikes. The uneven ground areas make the Q6600 choke on the physics while the i7 just plays right on through without breaking a sweat.
Click to expand...

seems like you have done some serious testing on the things that matter to you - so I would say if you have the old proc and stuff sold - go for it :)
 
groebuck said:
moshpit said:
Interestingly enough, I have found at least 3 so far. One single threaded game, and 2 multithreaded games. Same video card as my Q6600 rig had, the i7 can play Sins of a Solar Empire at maximum ship counts far better then my Q6600 did. And this is a single threaded game no less! With both chips at 3.6Ghz, the i7 plays it normally, the Q6600 crawls during the heaviest fights. Turbo mode on the i7 is disabled, so it's not gaining any advantages by boosting it's own clock speed either. It's just able to handle the incredibly crowded battles that much better.

For multithreaded games, I've found Company of Heroes and World in Conflict both play around 10-25% faster on the i7 over the Q6600 with equalized clock speeds. Company of Heroes gets it's biggest boost out of the i7 when playing a skirmish against 4 AI's on The Rhine map after it's been chewed up by massive artillery strikes. The uneven ground areas make the Q6600 choke on the physics while the i7 just plays right on through without breaking a sweat.
Click to expand...
seems like you have done some serious testing on the things that matter to you - so I would say if you have the old proc and stuff sold - go for it :)
Click to expand...

moshpit isn't the OP. :p
 
its those 3 things, and all the other stuff from now on. look at all the guys who spent $600 or more last year to upgrade video cards just to play crysis. you can upgrade to i7/x58/ddr3 for less than that, if you shop carefully.
 
Depends, I had a Q6600 @ 3.6 and just upgraded to an i7 920 @ 3.8. Worth every penny it cost me in my opinion.
 
Kuja said:
Okay. Was it worth the cost for you then? I mean, that's the ultimate question: are those three things worth the cost?
Click to expand...

Being able to play those games without stutter or bottleneck? Yes, I would have to say that it was certainly worth the cost plus some.

And you have a strange sense of what the ultimate question should be. I think it needs to be something that can be answered by "42"...
 
After reading through the posts here, I get the feeling the OP has the upgrade bug and it won't stop until a new i7 rig is at his fingertips. I say go for it and quit asking questions :) its a totally new architecture that I wish I could afford to play with right now! Does it have advantages over your current rig? yes.. is it worth the extra cost? that question can only be decided by you and your current state. I think asking people here is a way of feeling better about your purchase, because the actual numbers and figures of gaming/encoding/etc differences between i7 and your quad are just a quick google away. Good luck with your endeavors!
 
Kangg said:
Depends, I had a Q6600 @ 3.6 and just upgraded to an i7 920 @ 3.8. Worth every penny it cost me in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I had a nearly identical rig, and I can tell you, after having the i7 for the weekend @ 4.0, there's no comparison.

Granted in certain apps, your gains aren't HUGE, but in others, it's night and day.

Worth every buck spent on it.
 
already pulled the trigger guys typing this on my new i7 rig currently setting sweet at 3.6 want more lol
 
Kuja said:
Okay. Was it worth the cost for you then? I mean, that's the ultimate question: are those three things worth the cost?
Click to expand...

Apparently it was.
This question is obviously very personal.
To some people, $350 is just pocket money. They don't have to think twice about spending such an amount. As such, any performance gains are well worth it for them.
 
There is nothing wrong with spending just for the sake of any reason, whether $350 is pocket change or a week's worth of work. Some people buy shoes and handbags regularly, some people throw tens of grands at every new car, some of you change your wardrobe every season, some of us change hardware every iteration.
 
lowteckh said:
There is nothing wrong with spending just for the sake of any reason, whether $350 is pocket change or a week's worth of work. Some people buy shoes and handbags regularly, some people throw tens of grands at every new car, some of you change your wardrobe every season, some of us change hardware every iteration.
Click to expand...

Not only that, but we aren't talking about multiple thousands of dollars.

Granted, I recycled some of my parts for my build (PSU, SATA HD, Vid Card), but I was able to put together:

Antec Twelve Hundred
6 GB DDR3 -1600
Core i7 920 (OC 4.0)
Asus P6T
Scythe Mugen for under $850.00

Is that cheap? No, but it's about on par with just about every other system build I've done. Had I needed a top of the line Vid card and HD? Well, we are talking roughly $1200.00 for the total system.

IMO, that's not bad. It's not dirt cheap, but it's not bank breaking either.

The few hundred extra was definitely worth it to go from the Qseries to i7.
 
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