Worthwhile: P8400 to Q9000

Hi,

I can get hold of a Q9000 for £115 or about 185USD, would i see much difference? Also trying to source another 3870 for my M17 but proving difficult. Anyone know where i can get one, forget Alienware.

Thanks

 

I do not think its worth it for gaming unless they are more cpu intense games that support over 2 cores. (GTA IV)

 

I prefer quad cores, so I'd say it is. However if you're buying off eBay or somewhere and not from AW, go the full distance and get a QX9300, you should get one easily for between £300-£400. If that's too much go for the Q9200 which runs at 2.4GHz and is much cheaper than the 9300 at £150-£200.

So as you can see, add very little, just £50 or so and you get 2.4GHz.

 

You don't mention your intended use of the machine in question, so it's difficult to answer. I 100% agree with X2P regarding gaming; there is little point at the moment. However, if you do anything like serious database work or the such then it would perhaps be worthwhile. In fact anything that is setup to use more than 2 cores; or even if you use a lot of CPU hungry programs at the same time it would perhaps be worthwhile.

 

This is true, however. With a Q9200 running @ 2.4GHz...is there really very many programs at all that would run better on a faster duo? I haven't seen anything that isn't quad compatible that requires more than 2.4GHz on a duo (And yes by that I mean games).

 

you're forgetting something, q9200 not only gives you more clock speed, but also more cache (12mb while the q9000 only has 6mb).
cache also determines overall speed of a PC i think..

 

Not anything to intensive a bit of empire total war, street fighter IV, video encoding, the usual i guess. Just been hearing a lot lately about games being cpu bound. Noticed the other day that SFIV framrates drop on the level with water/lava. Wondered if this was the cpu. Thought if i buy the Q9000 and sell my P8400 the difference won't be too much and i'll get a nice bump in performance.

Not really got the money for a QX9300 and cant find any Q9200's except ES versions that i dont want to risk.

 

ES versions are exactly the same as the OEM versions, from what I hear, as long as you go for one with E0 stepping it's exactly the same with no risk involved.

And that's because there ARE no OEM Q9200s. It was never released, presumably due to their being no point with the QX9300 and the Q9100 with little clock difference between them. Because of that, they are very cheap.

There are VERY FEW games that are CPU bound. I think generally RTS games are the ones that are CPU bound. And if I'm honest things like video encoding will work a lot faster on a quad and as far as I know empire and street fighter should work fine on 2GHz.

If you have the money for a QX9300 though you could just go for that. Just with multiplier overclocking you should be able to go to 3.2GHz (don't take that for granted though, each CPU is different and some overclock far better than others).

 

Thanks for all the quick replies. What started me on this was reading a processor comparison article and i saw some passmark numbers (Q9000=3032 and P8400=1540). So assumed it was much more powerful, too simplistic i guess.

Maybe i should leave the processor and put my efforts into getting a second 3850?

 

Ha ha,sometimes I feel GTA IV has an inbuilt app which checks whether the CPU is dual or quad core and accordingly allocates performance

 

Just ran 3D mark 06 and got 5138, checked on notebookcheck and they say it should be about 8400. Think i have problems....!

 

It's very unlikely (although not altogether impossible) to find another 3870 outside of AW, especially as you'd need a slave card and crossfire cable. However if we M17 owners get an upgrade path in the future to better cards (e.g. 4850s, which is the most commonly believed right now) then you will almost definetely have people selling 3870s. There is still a lot of speculation over the release of better graphics cards though, so it's not something you'd wait for.

The trouble with that benchmark is it would have fully utilized the quad core, which very few programs do. The only areas right now where quad cores will provide more power than dual cores (assuming the clock speeds are equal, as well as cache size) are in games and programs optimized for quad cores. Very few games right now are optimized for the quad (although most releases now are going to be quad core compatible, as it were). However one area which will definetely benefit from quad cores is entertainment, or more accurately video and audio encoding and editing. It will also assist in multitasking, maybe you want to leave a movie to convert in the background while playing a (low CPU requirement) game for example.

Right now you will probably see more of a benefit from a higher clocked dual core. However if you want to be ready for the future, the upgrade to the quad could be worth it.

Basically, YES, the Q9000 IS far more powerful than the P9400...when you're using a game or program that can use a quad core.

Erm, yes, you have problems if that is true. Make sure you're on high performance mode and are plugged in; being on battery will decrease performance.

I had a problem with the score initially but it was because I'd accidentally deactivated crossfire. Seeming as you have one 3870, that isn't the problem, so...

 

get the q9200, its a great value.
its quad 2.4ghz but ppl in this forum
have stably clocked it at 2.93ghz!!!

thats powerful and cheap

 

Don't forget that the Q9200 ES CPUs apparently have unlocked multipliers. So essentially a QX9300 for considerably less.

 

If you actually bothered to read the first page, you'd see that I've already suggested it. Twice.

But yes, if you're going to put in a processor yourself bought externally it should be either a Q9200 or QX9300. Or X9100 if you prefer a duo.

Don't be afraid of ES processors, they are literally the same as OEM versions as long as you've got E0 stepping there's no problem.

 

ha woah dude no reason for the freak out.
i read the entire thread.
i was just reiterating the point and
adding a few more details...

 

Sorry, I'm very blunt at times, I didn't mean to cause any offense or anything of the sort.