How much of a performance boost upgrading from duo to quad?

[Clovis]

I currently have an Intel duo-core @ 3.00ghz. My motherboard will support a quad and appears to support both 45nm and 65nm (my current cpu is 65nm).

I can pick up a Quad E6600 2.4ghz for $190 locally or a E9300 @ 2.5ghz for $230 from the same store.

My other system specs are 8 gigs of ram, vista 64, daul 250gb hard drives @7200rpm and a geforce 8800 GTS w/ 640 megs of video ram.

If I'm currently getting 15 to 30FPS on all windows, how much of a boost am I likely to realize upgrading to the quad?

Thanks,

-Clovis

[Chranny]

Well the E6600 is dual core not a quad. But you might be mixing it up with the Q6600. And it would probably help if we knew how many characters you box. :P

[Clovis]

Sorry that was a typo on my part, I did mean Q6600.

I box 5 characters. With my set up I can run 3 instances at max settings flawlessly but going to 5 I have to turn down the settings to minimal.

Thanks,

-Clovis

[Clovis]

Also, I just hit 70 with my new shamans so I'm about to hit up Northrend, which is one paticular reason I'm considering the upgrade. Before I was 5 boxing, I dual-boxed my hunter and shaman which ran fine, I couldn't tell the difference performance wise between Northrend and TBC zones.

Another possibility, all though much more expensive is essentially a new build. About $1100 to upgrade to a i7 920 quad core, new motherboard and 12gb of DDR3 RAM but given that my wife objects to my spending of $75 a month for WOW, I doubt she would be cool with that =P

-Clovis

[Starbuck_Jones]

You will see a nice performance increase going to the quad core that you will prolly kick yourself for not doing it earlier. After that your performance increase will be with your hard drives. Linking files and/or spreading out the installations between them or getting a hardware raid controller.

[spannah]

Read my answer to your same question on another thread ;-) (2nd reply)

How much of a performance increase going from dual to quad cpu? ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=18034&')

[Clovis]

Ahhh, thank you - I had thought I had lost the thread :)

[Clovis]

I had considered upgrading to an I7 but it would require a new motherboard and new 12gb DDR3 RAM to really take advantage of everything it has to offer. The cost of that would be around $1000 plus having to rebuild my machine.

However, when comparing the Q6600 ($195) to the Q9550 ($280) I'm starting to wonder.

For only $85 more you get 2.83ghz versus 2.4ghz - 12mb cache versus 8 and 1333FSB versus 1066FSB - as well as 45nm versus 65nm.

My motherboard, a Abit IP-35 Pro (love this mb btw) supports both 65nm and 45nm.

Cost of course is always an issue, especially in this lovely economy (I'm in mortgage banking, lol - went through 3 company closures in a year) the 9550 seem slike the best bang for the buck.

My only complaint about the motherboard is it's capped at 8gb of ram, which I currently have - I'd love to go to 12gb but so far in Outland anyways I'm seeing 6-7gb max usuage, but as I just hit 70 on my slaves I'm heading to Northrend...

Thanks,

-Clov

[king.pa]

switched from an E6600 to a Q9550 O/C @ 4Ghz
it was

HUGE
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=205132

[Clovis]

That's basically what I'm thinking too. For a $300 upgrade it looks like the best bang for the buck. I priced out building a new i7 920 based machine and it would come to around $2100 with all the bells and whistles.

However, the way I look at it the only game that I play now is WOW and with a quad, my graphics card and 8 gigs of RAM it can stream through just about every game that's currently out. I'll probably build a new machine in the next year or two, or if I'm still playing WOW (which is likely, I've played since release with a 2yr break thrown in) I'll build a new, even better machine for the next expansion which will probably be a system resource eater if WOTLK is any indication.

Thanks again everyone for the advice, that's among the many things I greatly enjoy with our community.

-Clov

[Owltoid]

....I priced out building a new i7 920 based machine and it would come to around $2100 with all the bells and whistles.....

I'm sure you have more salvageable parts (case, soundcard, etc..) but I was able to build an entire i7 system for $1700, including 12GB RAM and a low cost SSD:

New computer has been purchased - specs, rationale, and thanks ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=18795')

[Clovis]

Yeah if I wanted to build an i7 on a budget I would re-use my case and power supply (I have an Thermaltank Armor full tower case - this thing is massive with its 7 fans - lubs it. I have a 800watt power supply as well.

With the build I was pricing a totally new build including a GFX295 or dual 260s running SLI, a whole new build and then selling my dual-core system on Craigslist for $800 or so to negate the cost (cost to build my current system would still be about $1100 new). The current system still eats everything I throw at it game wise, but 5 instances or wow eats my CPU usuage - basically with one instance it's 40-43% so x5 and you can see my problem :)

-Clov