Q9450 vs Q9550 $200+ price difference worth it?

S

Shawnasee

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Subject.

Going from $616 to $380 is a large drop and lets me add dual 4870's to the machine I want instead of dual 4850's.

Am I going to see a big drop in performance? Specifically, am I going to see a $236 difference in performance?

Hell, I could get the Q9450 overclocked to (3.2? 3.4?) for $99 through AVA and still be saving $136.

Whats the opinion here?

Q9550 @ 2.83 GHz and dual HD 4850's
or
Q9450 @ 2.66 GHz and dual HD 4870's
 
Q9450 @ 2.66 GHz and dual HD 4870's is what I would do.

I still need to flash the bios on my MB but my Q9450 is running 3200MHZ off stock volts on MB and CPU.
 
Not worth it. You can overclock the 9450 to be a 9550 if you so need to. Dual 4870's gives you superior RAM over the 4850's as well as a better cooling solution for the cards (slot cooler as opposed to single slot blow the heat into the case coolers). FYI if you are willing to wait the 9550 is dropping to 9450 prices.
 
I want to know when soon is? I'm waiting for the Q9550 to drop...
 
matrix563 said:
a few weeks to months i think. just google Q9550 price drop ;)
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It was supposed to be July 22nd. Then Intel threw a curve-ball at us.

Now Joe-consumer is torn between sitting by his Wiji board waiting for news of the price-drop or going with what's out there now. IMO, the existing quads are almost all ridiculously overpriced atm anyways.

~S
 
matrix563 said:
a few weeks to months i think. just google Q9550 price drop ;)
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That's funny, because last month around this time, it was going to be August 10th.

Hey Intel, I'm not buying until your Q9550 is priced at $320 as it should be. TY.
 
Is the Q9450 dropping at the same time? Been eyeing it foreverrrr, but money led me to an E4500 for now.
 
When the drop occurs Q9450 will drop from the lineup completely. This may be why the price drop is taking longer, rid supply.
 
My Q9450 is running at 3.2 at stock settings as well. Very nice processor for encoding video's. I'd say get the Q9450 and you won't be sorry... :D
 
Brilliant...all +1 for the 9450.

I had heard about the price drops so I am giving it till the 1st of Sept(and the wait is killing me!) and then I am going with the Q9450.

Thanks all.
 
I'm on a Q9450 now, and I love it, I would definitely go for the Q9450 + 2x 4870 combo. I only have one 4870 right now, but if I had the extra to spend on a second I would, but I have to finish paying for this new build first, heh.
 
3.6, 3.8 and 4.0 are achievable on air. Any higher probably need water cooling and probably lots of volts unless you got a golden chip.
 
I have a q 9450 and its running at 3.4 with nothing more than a fsb bump to 425. Everything else is bone stock. Full load temps running small fft's never gets above 52 degrees so my vote is to this route and get the 4870's.
 
Is there any actual difference between the 9550 and 9450 once you start overclocking? I don't know much about chips really, but from what I've read, the chips are almost identical except for a slightly higher multiplier on the 9550. Would both of these chips have the same overclocking 'ceiling'?
 
Harb said:
Is there any actual difference between the 9550 and 9450 once you start overclocking? I don't know much about chips really, but from what I've read, the chips are almost identical except for a slightly higher multiplier on the 9550. Would both of these chips have the same overclocking 'ceiling'?
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unless you have water cooling or better, or are very fsb limited you probably won't see the benefits of the .5 multi bump.
 
yea, that $10 difference doesn't make sense. It can be found at other stores for $280, but still, I'd like to see it at ~$250 :(
 
myndcrime said:
yea, that $10 difference doesn't make sense. It can be found at other stores for $280, but still, I'd like to see it at ~$250 :(
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Could you provide a link please, I can't locate one for that price. Also, the Q9450 is EOL at this point. We may see some bargins soon as the retails clear stock.
 
Was going to say 9450, but for $10, the .5 is worth it. You should hit 3.6+ with a very safe and modest bump in voltage, 3.8 if your lucky.
 
msabo said:
Could you provide a link please, I can't locate one for that price. Also, the Q9450 is EOL at this point. We may see some bargins soon as the retails clear stock.
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What quad core replaced the Q9450?
 
I wonder if this means that Q9450 will be going out of stock, soonish.
 
I would say the q9550 replaces the q9450. It's cut to the low $300s which is what the q9450 is now. The q9400 replaces the q9300.
 
Shawnasee said:
What does half the cache do for performance?
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I wish I knew. I haven't looked at any benchmarks of two quad CPUs at the same clock speed, on the same manufacturing process (45nm), with different cache sizes.

There are probably some numbers out there though- perhaps someone has seen them?

My assumption, is that the difference is not very large at this point. My next assumption is that the difference will be seen mainly when all 4 cores are utilized.

You know what they say about assumptions though.... :rolleyes:
 
but the thing with the e7xxx series, is that with half the cache size, you also run a 266FSB with a higher multiplier when stock. I bumped my e7200 up to 333x9.5, negating the lower cache. For $119 at the egg, its a pretty good deal for those that don't feel they need top of the line stuff.
 
Surtrsflame said:
but the thing with the e7xxx series, is that with half the cache size, you also run a 266FSB with a higher multiplier when stock. I bumped my e7200 up to 333x9.5, negating the lower cache. For $119 at the egg, its a pretty good deal for those that don't feel they need top of the line stuff.
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I agree, the current crop of processors has a big "bang for your buck" factor.

However, we're talking about quads in this thread. And, it seems like the OP can now get the 9950, because the price difference is now much smaller.

If I were building right now and planning to keep the system for a while, I would get a quad with the largest cache- but that's just my opinion. I'm the sort who builds and then doesn't upgrade for a while...
 
So a lot of boutiques are offering the 9550 at the same price or $10 more than the 9450.

Newegg is $10 more but Tigerdirect still has them both at pre-price drop prices.

AVA and Velocity Micro have them at the same price, but Puget is still showing old prices.

Some sites are still catching up.
 
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