Question regarding the E8400 & E6850.

[MadMan112]

I need some info, I'm gonna buy a new CPU and decided to go with a Intel.
I'm just wondering what the difference is between the E8400 and the E6850.
Because the Level 2 Cache on the E8400 is 2x 3072 kb and on the E6850 it's 1x 4096 kb and the E8400 uses 65 Watts and the E6850 uses 75 Watts, but the clock speed and everything else is the same.
What does this Level 2 Cash mean? Is the E8400 alot faster then the E6850?
Please help me out, I need to decide before Saturday because that's the day I need to order the stuff.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

The E8400 uses a newer manufacturing process, hence the lower power consumption. It also tends to overclock better than the E6850 from what I have seen (many hit 4+ GHz). Given that the E8400 is cheaper right now, I think it's definitely the way to go for a dual-core CPU. The other thing you might want to consider, especially if you plan to keep this setup for a long time, is a quad-core CPU such as a Q6600.

 

[Albuquerque]

Actually on the E6850 it's 2 x 2048kb. For lack of a big nerdy lesson, cache is how much uber-high-speed memory is built into the processor for quick data access.

The E8400 is your best bet -- it uses less power, puts out less heat, has more features, will very likely overclock better, and probably even costs less than the E6850.

 

[Evilsizer]

the L2 is shared between the cores on duallies. that is that you have 6mb's for both cores not split as you show. for the same clock speed the E8400 is 5-10% faster then the E6850. for things like a/v encoding the L2 doesnt effect the encoding performance, clock speed does. the E8400 may be slightly more then the E6850 but the E8400 will use less power and run slightly cooler at stock speeds.

if i was you i would get the E8400..

 

[MadMan112]

I see, as I do wanna overclock the CPU I'll be ordering I think the E8400 would be the best choice.

@KillrBuckeye, I currently don't want a Quad Core because the things I'm hearing about it is that gaming on a Dual Core is better then gaming on a Quad Core because a Dual Core has higher clock speeds.

 

[Albuquerque]

To speak in generalities, you are correct: a higher-clocked dual will outperform a quad in the grand majority of gaming circumstances. There are a scant few games that do use all four cores, but they are VERY few. Much to that same point, not all current games fully utilize two cores, but dropping to a single core processor becomes rather detrimental to performance for other reasons, such as video drivers and operating system functions.

Also, you might gain an advantage on the quad core if you prefer to heavily multitask, especially while gaming. A quad would quite likely let you compress video "behind" your choice of game without largely affecting performance; a dual core CPU is much less likely to make that same claim.

 

[MadMan112]

I don't think I'll be needing a Quad Core then because I don't do things like compressing a video or ripping something while gaming.
If I'm gaming I'm just gaming and downloading, nothing more.
And if I'm ripping something I'm just surfing on the net while ripping.
So I guess a Dual Core will likely be the best choice for me.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

To speak in generalities, you are correct: a higher-clocked dual will outperform a quad in the grand majority of gaming circumstances.

This is my take: In most circumstances, gaming framerates will be bottlenecked by the video card, in which case an overclocked Q6600 will give you performance identical to a much higher clocked E8400. For older games or for people running low resolutions (1280x1024 or lower), either CPU will provide ridiculously high framerates (given that you're using decent video card). Who cares that the 4 GHz E8400 gives you 150 FPS while the 3.4 GHz Q6600 gives you 120 FPS? Is that a meaningful performance improvement?

PS: MadMan, I was in the same boat as you a couple of months ago. I had a tough time deciding between the E8400 and Q6600. IMO, either CPU will make you very happy. The Q6600 just gave me a bit more peace of mind knowing that I will be well-equipped to handle the increasing number of multi-threaded applications that we should be seeing. As I explained in the previous paragraph, you're not foregoing any practical performance benefits by going with the quad.