Core 2 Duo E8600 vs Core 2 Quad Q9400

[Filingo]

I wanted to upgrade my old machine to C2Q Q9400 but I'm afraid my PSU won't allow me, and it's not swappable

I found this comparison between the Q9400 and a Core 2 Duo E8600: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q9400-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8600/m244vsm124

 

It says the difference is only 9% effectively. Is that right? Because I need a CPU that draws much less power (It's 7.5A on the 12V rail, and I plan to add a GPU as well)

 

Thanks

[Enzo1001]

The Q9400 has 4 Cores the E8600 just 2. Dont use userbenchmark for comparison. Watch a YT vid like: Q9400 vs E8600 gaming or something like that. Userbanchmark is not accurate at all. I would definitly go for the Q9400 and even try to over clock it. The E8600 has better singel core preformance but the Q9400 has 4 Cores wich is a huge differnce

[SupaKomputa]

Quad core would feel better than a dual core.

Pair it with a ssd drive yuor pc will feel like you bought it yesterday.

[Filingo]

8 minutes ago, Enzo1001 said:

The Q9400 has 4 Cores the E8600 just 2. Dont use userbenchmark for comparison. Watch a YT vid like: Q9400 vs E8600 gaming or something like that. Userbanchmark is not accurate at all. I would definitly go for the Q9400 and even try to over clock it. The E8600 has better singel core preformance but the Q9400 has 4 Cores wich is a huge differnce

The problem is my PSU is only capable at 7.5A on 12V (90 watts) and the quads are like 95W or more? I'm not sure and I can't find any accurate information. All the details online just measure the entire system power draw and I can't tell how much the CPU itself draws. 

5 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Quad core would feel better than a dual core.

Pair it with a ssd drive yuor pc will feel like you bought it yesterday.

But the integrated GPU is so bad it can barely light up a 720p TV. I wonder if I should get a dual core CPU and a higher end GPU (gt 1030) or in this case the quad and the Gt 710 that consumes 19 watts?

[SupaKomputa]

3 minutes ago, Filingo said:

But the integrated GPU is so bad it can barely light up a 720p TV. I wonder if I should get a dual core CPU and a higher end GPU (gt 1030) or in this case the quad and the Gt 710 that consumes 19 watts?

Core 2 processors doesn't have integrated GPU, it's on the motherboard.

You will need a gpu to playback 1080p videos.

If you only use it for 1080p i suggest GT710.

But get 4 cores if possible. Core 2 Quads in only like $15.

[DiegoTavares]

Core2 Quad is WAY more powerful than Core2 Duo. Two plus cores make many difference, but it shows as 9% performance increase cause this particular Core2 Duo has more single-core performance (2x3.33GHz) and the Core2 Quad wins on multi-core performance (4x2.66GHz). And well, this percentage is relative to a I9 9900KS, so makes sense to see this little increase between Core2 family, if comparing JUST the Core2 family you would see almost 100% increase between 2 to 4 cores. Besides, those benchmarks takes raw power as reference, not real performance.

 

See this benchmark with both 3.0GHz, the Core2 Quad wins with a lot of diference.
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q9650-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8400/m1706vs2720

About your power supply, what do you mean you can't swap? Show us some specs and photos of your rig, a good PSU makes all difference. And for a future upgrade a powerful GPU is welcome.
 

Personal tips: I have a LGA771 Xeon E5440 on a GA-G41M-S2P with 8GB DDR3, the mostly powerful part on my rig is my HD7950 GPU. I play Ride 4, Battlefield, Far Cry Primal, and many heavy games at 60FPS on maximum settings. GTA V on absolute maximum at +30FPS online with a full server. I can even watch 1080p videos on YT while gaming. My RIG is faster than my father's RIG, and he has a Ryzen 5 1400 with 16GB RAM and a RX560.

Try to get a Xeon CPU if you understand about Bios flashing, if not, a top of line Core2 Quad is great. If you use DDR2 Ram try to upgrade to a DDR3 motherboard with 8GB. A SSD make difference even on a I9 or a Threadripper CPU, so SSD is not optional  A GT710 will make some difference, but you can put a GTX1050 and in some games you will be bottlenecked by the GPU.

About consumption and PSU, this Q9400 have 65W TDP, but consumes 132.48W. While my E5440 has 80W TDP and consumes 108.5W sustained. The E8600 consumes 100.31W with 65W TDP. The difference between the E8600 and Q9400 is almost nothing, but you can check in this site:

https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_2/Intel-Core 2 Quad Q9400S AT80580AJ0676M (BX80580Q9400S).html

You said that your PSU has 90W on 12V rail...Well, in theory it's not enough even to get the Core2 Duo running on maximum performance.

AND RGB, DON'T FORGET RGB, it gives 1000% performance increase on every part that you put RGB.

 

[Filingo]

Haha I'm definitely getting that rgb asap.

 

How about a q9550, is it much better than the q9400?

[DiegoTavares]

On 11/27/2020 at 1:47 PM, Filingo said:

Haha I'm definitely getting that rgb asap.

 

How about a q9550, is it much better than the q9400?

The clock isn't that much higher, you can archive 3.20GHz or more with the Q9400. But on favor of Q9550, it has double the cache and almost the double of transistors on the chip.

 

The LGA775/1 is way limited on RAM speeds and sizes (i think that today 8GB@1333MHz is pretty much nothing), having double the cache will help your RAM and CPU to run smother. About the transistors, it will heat and consume the same, but it will run much stabler and will run better heavy tasks (but can have higher peaks of energy).

 

It's your tower that don't support PSU swap?

 

[Filingo]

14 hours ago, DiegoTavares said:

The clock isn't that much higher, you can archive 3.20GHz or more with the Q9400. But on favor of Q9550, it has double the cache and almost the double of transistors on the chip.

 

The LGA775/1 is way limited on RAM speeds and sizes (i think that today 8GB@1333MHz is pretty much nothing), having double the cache will help your RAM and CPU to run smother. About the transistors, it will heat and consume the same, but it will run much stabler and will run better heavy tasks (but can have higher peaks of energy).

 

It's your tower that don't support PSU swap?

 

 

Yep it's a unique shaped PSU for a small form factor workstatin. like foldable PSU with weird L shape