Keep Q9450 3.6Ghz or Try E8600 4.0-4.2Ghz?

[slim142]

So Im deciding between keeping my Q9450 running at 3.6Ghz (Ill overclock it soon, it is 3.6Ghz stable) or go for a E8600 (or E8500 to save some money) and try to go for 4.0Ghz or 4.2Ghz.

I dont know how much performance I will gain (or lose) since Im going from quad to dual, but for higher speed.

I will be gaming a lot so I would like some opinions.

[Leeghoofd]

a quad at 3.6Ghz will have enough power for most games mate... unless you can get a good price for it I wouldn't go back to a duallie... even though the latter can run easily 500mhz more than the quad...

[slim142]

Thanks for your answer

What about considering the higher RAM overclock that I would be able to achieve with the dual, will that justify it? (considering I find a good price on it)

[GeorgeStorm]

Surely if you just use another strap, you will still be able to get a high clock on your RAM?

[clayton]

Why would you even consider downgrading? :P

[FedericoUY]

You can't even think about it. Q9450 at 3.6Ghz it's a more complete proc.

[slim142]

Well I thought that it would be faster and better to game on a dual-core @ 4.0Ghz? But it seems that many here disagree so I guess Ill keep my Quad.

[Ket]

Stick with the Quad. You may even be able to squeeze 3.8 out of it, assuming @ 3.6 your vcore is still pretty low.

[GeorgeStorm]

I would agree with the above, while I wouldnt consider it a downgrade, more of a sidegrade for the purpose at hand, it isnt worth it
A Quad at 3.6 - 3.8 is more than enough for modern games, I mean, I find that my dual at 3.33 is fine, and thats with less cache etc,
The GPU is the most important factor, and in general is what limits your system at the moment with modern games, although that may change,
I would keep the quad, but see if you could push it any higher, :D

[slim142]

Aight, thanks for all of your comments :D

[YukonTrooper]

Keep the quad. If it could only do ~3.2GHz, then I'd look at the E8600, but that obviously isn't the case.