i5 3750k vs Q6600

[Caveman]

Hey guys,

At this current moment in time I have a q6600 running at 3.2Ghz coupled with 6GB 800Mhz Ram. I have been using this build for quite a few years. Luckily, I have been given a brand new 3570k for nothing (long story) however it is obviously going to require me to buy a new MB and new Ram as what I have now wont fit/work.

So my question is :- We all know that the i5 3750k is a great chip and is a lot better then my Q6600 however if I decide to upgrade am I actually going to see any real world performance gains? Benchmarks mean nothing to be, they're just numbers and I don't want to spend £100 odd on new MB and Ram if im not actually going to gain anything (anything worth talking about anyways)

I use my computer for various things. Surfing web, playing games, the odd (very odd) bit of video encoding, watching films and what have you.

Also :- This chip/mobo (Z77) has that Virtu MVP thing and I have a GTX560Ti. Is it worth trying to setup this Virtu MVP, if so how would I do it?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Phage]

There's a lot there so I'll go to point form,

1) Surfing - No change
2) Gaming - Game dependent, but I'd expect to see a very noticeable improvement if nothing else simply due to the gain in freq from 3.2 to 4.4 GHz.
3) Video encoding - Probably twice as fast.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=701
4) Watching films - No change.
5) Not sure about the Virtu chip, it's using some of the power of the HD4000 to improve the performance of your GPU. Mine is just a setting in the BIOS to enable. Not sure how much value it adds though.

[MrJim]

3) Video encoding - Probably twice as fast.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=701

The 3570k includes 'Quicksync', which accelerates high-quality video encoding, if your software supports it.

5) Not sure about the Virtu chip, it's using some of the power of the HD4000 to improve the performance of your GPU. Mine is just a setting in the BIOS to enable. Not sure how much value it adds though.

The Virtu system is software only as I understand it, not a chip. It adds a further layer of software between the OS & the graphics driver, and has two main functions. Firstly it allows the PC to use the iGPU (HD4000) in the desktop environment, whilst giving access to the dGPU for demanding applications like games, thereby saving power. It also allows dGPU users access to the Quicksync features of the 3570k, which would otherwise be unavailable when using a dGPU.

[Caveman]

Ok guys thanks for your input. Would you guys personally spend the extra money on a few MB and Ram for the increased performance or would you sell the CPU on ebay or the like?

[deejayburnout]

if you are happy with your rig, sell the i5 and get a SSD or some other gear.

Or

Keep it and sell your old CPU/Mobo/ram and get something newer. Depends on your cash flow.

[technodean]

Myself going from a q8400s @3ghz to a 2500k @4.2, was a breath of fresh air. for me games ran smoother. If your going from the 775 platform you will also benefit from sata 3 speeds, my m4 drive was quick in my old build but unleashing its full speed is a massive improvement.

[Caveman]

Yeah that's true I had forgot that my SSD is only running on Sata2. I'll buy the upgrade and see how it is. I could always use this system for a linux box or something.

Thanks for the advice guys.

[badass]

I upgraded to a 3570K from a Q6600 at default speed. Got a Radeon 6870. Not noticed any difference in games but not heavy gamer.
Quicksync is very, very fast but using mediacoder x64 I cannot get the quality to be as good as CPU rendering. However quality is definitely good enough if you're not obsessed with 1080p top quality films.
Getting appx 12x times faster transcoding than the Q6600 going from 1080p to 720p with quicksync and about twice the CPU performance.