CPU question

[Lancelot]

Will a E8500 make a worthwhile difference over a E7500? SMP folding VM-Ubuntu on a Windows7 system:

E7500 = 2,93Ghz 3MB 1066FSB
E8500 = 3,16Ghz 6MB 1333FSB

Both @stock speed on the same mobo, both with the same 2GB DDR2-800

Will I 'cripple' the kids' gaming rig if I swap their E8500 for the E7500?!

[Lavacon]

What are the kids doing with a better cpu than dad???!!!! :p

Short answer is no. It won't make a huge difference at stock setting imo. The e8500 is definitely a better chip, but, you are only looking at a losing few frames in real world game play.

[Adak]

2.9 versus 3.1 GHz.

I wouldn't bother swapping. The kids gaming will notice more difference than FAH will.

[Bobnova]

It won't make much of a difference anywhere, really.

If you start cranking the OC up the 8500 will likely go further.

As it is, it's a pretty small clock speed difference.

[Lancelot]

So double the L2 and higher FSB won't matter for folding?

[Adak]

L2 to me, means L2 cache, which you can't adjust.

There's just not much difference between 2.9 and 3.1 for dual's. If you want to increase something, jump to a quad, and your SMP WU's will fold much faster. (compared to a dual core cpu with the same speed).

FSB speeds matter, but not much, for FAH. cpu clock speeds are the driving force, and of course, getting over to more cores - which is a very big jump.

[Lancelot]

L2 to me, means L2 cache, which you can't adjust.

I was referring to the fact that E8500 has 6MB L2 where the E7500 only has 3MB...

[Surferseth]

Crank that E8500 up to 4GHz and you will see a difference!

You might see some mildly faster frame times, but probably not enough to warrant the swap unless you plan on OCing the E8500.

[Adak]

Our folding projects are too large to fit into cache, but obviously, the larger the cache, the better. I'm not sure what difference you'll see between 3 and 6MB of cache. Between 6 and 12MB, you do see a very noticeable improvement, however.

[Lancelot]

Our folding projects are too large to fit into cache, but obviously, the larger the cache, the better. I'm not sure what difference you'll see between 3 and 6MB of cache. Between 6 and 12MB, you do see a very noticeable improvement, however.

That's what I was pointing at. 12MB is 3MB per core on a quad, like 6MB is 3MB per core on a dual. I'll give it a try during the weekend without telling the kids. If they don't complain it doesn't hurt and it cannot hurt folding at all!