Upgrading procesor

Mare11

Baseband Member
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Location
Serbia
Hello guys! My rig is :
CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66Ghz (stock speed)
GPU : Radeon HD 6870 1Gb GDDR5
RAM : 2x2GB 1333mhz DDR2
PSU : LC power 600W
Motherboard: MSI G41M4-L

I am wondering is it worth upgrading my CPU from Q9400 to Q9550 ??
I am playing games at 1440x900 will it boost my performance and how much ?
 
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Yeah I know but difference is not only in clock speed Q9400 has 6MB cache and Q9550 has 12MB cache so I am not sure there

Cache size is not the bottleneck when it comes to your CPU, so doubling the cache will make an insignificant difference.
 
Sorry to reignite this thread.
Tried googling a few spots but couldn't find an answer.
What is a " cache" exactly, and when it comes to gaming more specifically?
 
Cache is very small amounts of memory on the CPU itself that is extremely fast compared to that of system RAM. The system "caches" small bits of data that it is currently using there. Cache doesn't really mean much in gaming when comparing it to the importance of single threaded performance or a GPU.
 
In computing, you have a hierarchy of storage, ordered in terms of capacity, latency, and cost. A cache is a is a component used for storage that is faster than forms of storage above it; the example PP gave is CPU cache compared to RAM. The tradeoff for increased speed is that the cache will have a much smaller capacity, and increase in cost.

RAM comes in multi-gigabyte capacities, takes between 10 and 100 nanoseconds to read or write to, and costs about $0.03 per megabyte.
CPU cache is usually less than 10 megabytes in a normal desktop CPU, takes less than 10 nanoseconds to read or write to, and costs in the range of a dollar per megabyte.



Here's a good diagram this illustrates the point:
Memory-Hierarchy.jpg
 
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The difference between somebody getting his masters and somebody who talks simplistic for a user :lol:

If I'd been the first one to reply, I'd've said essentially what you said. But since I wasn't I added the supplementary information in case they were interested
 
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