Anyone else still running Core 2?

[riva2model64]

Lately I've been thinking about getting an upgrade, but my E8400 runs every new game I throw at it like a champ. . I keep thinking that I can hold out til' the next generation of CPUs since Core 2 seems fast enough.

 

[Puppies04]

I built a core2 system for my sister last year and it is fine for what they use it for although they don't really game on it. If your current hardware performs at an acceptable level then there really is no point upgrading it.

 

[Mir96TA]

I am still using Xeon 3110 with Win 8 64 Pro

 

[MrPickins]

All 4 of the PCs in my house are still on Core2:

Mine: Q9400 @ 3.2
Wife's: E7200 @ 2.57
HTPC: E5200 @ 2.5
Laptop: T5500 @ 1.66

While I'm itching to upgrade mine, I'm waiting until Haswell. Then my wife will have the quad, which should last her for a few years more.

Really, for what most people do on a pc, we're reaching the point of diminishing returns on processor speed improvements. The move to SSDs for our system drives provided more "boost" than any cpu upgrade could have (aside from the laptop).

 

[Red Hawk]

Core 2 Duo will probably choke on recent games that are optimized for more than 2 threads.

The G2120 is the only CPU with only 2 threads on these charts.

 

[hokies83]

I have afew core 2 duo Cpus in my closet.

I had a bunch of pent 4s i delidded them all tho lol.

 

[dma0991]

My C2D laptop still runs strong. Probably the only reason that I still use it is because of its 16:10 ratio, 1280x800 screen. Might change once Haswell based laptops hit the market. Hopefully most Haswell laptops will come with 14" 1080P screens, not liking the current 1366x768 resolution standard.

 

[dud]

Lately I've been thinking about getting an upgrade, but my E8400 runs every new game I throw at it like a champ. . I keep thinking that I can hold out til' the next generation of CPUs since Core 2 seems fast enough.

Except for my wife's almost new laptop all of my computers still run C2Ds. My main rigs are two Dell precision M90s and continue to perform well for their age. Question: What video card are you using in your system? My precisions will not run many newer games, mainly because the built-in vid card (Quadro FXs) only have 512 megs. I can't even run games like Toy Soldiers (the game requires a 1 GB card).

 

[Barfo]

Lately I've been thinking about getting an upgrade, but my E8400 runs every new game I throw at it like a champ. . I keep thinking that I can hold out til' the next generation of CPUs since Core 2 seems fast enough.

I just upgraded from an E8400 myself, and while it will run newer games, it won't do it "like a champ" not even close.

Case in point, Driver San Francisco, it is a bad port I know, but with the E8400 I couldn't bear to play and enjoy it because in chases or instances with a lot of cars the frame rate would take a nose dive and it would turn unplayable for me.

Same with GTA 4, another bad port, gameplay was pretty choppy at all times with the E8400.

Same with Saints Row 3, Bad Company 2 (this was actually pretty playable and enjoyable, but now that I have the 3570K the minimum fps are way up and I'm enjoying the smoothness very much), Deus Ex: HR, etc.

Only "new" game I could run like a champ with the E8400 was Street Fighter X Tekken, hardly a technology showcase...

 

[tweakboy]

Yes a Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.7Ghz, these are my last days with it as earlier today I ordered RAM , MObo, and CPU,

got a Sabertooth x79 socket 2011 and Sandy E chip 3820 which can be overclocked. Ill be happy with a 4.5Ghz OC..... and 64GB Corsair Vengeance Red 2x 32GB kits. quad channel PCI 40 lanes ,, SSD caching.........Its coming next week, cant wait.. gl

 

[lakedude]

Got several systems crunching BOINC or Folding@Home. 2 are C2D systems.

At one time the C2D was the primary gaming system but now they just crunch...

 

[xavier es]

i retired my e6750 this morning, replaced w/a10 5800k.
definite upgrade .
running @4.2ghz , with stock tim and cooling, 65 degrees running f@h.
this box was supposed to be a "under desk leg warmer", but i guess i will need a little more oc to achieve that.

 

[riva2model64]

Glad to see I'm not the only one. Rock on:thumbsup:


@Red Hawk: There's no denying that high-end CPUs are much faster and giver better fps, but dual-core still gives a playable experience even on high settings. I expect this to change once the new generation of consoles come out.

@dma0991: I agree, I prefer 16:10 to 16:9, and looks like 16:9 is here to stay in laptops You do get used to it, though.

@dud: I have a GTX 470 SoC. I've able to play every new game on high settings, so far. I feel like I'm a bit CPU-limited at times, but the frame rates are good enough to not want to spend $300 on a new cpu/mobo/ram.

@barfo: Glad to hear that your 3570k is working smooth. I'll confess that I'm not getting 60 fps all the time, and I also didn't play some of the games you mentioned. PS I don't think GTA 4 was a fair reference Seeing that we have similar videocards, I should see the same boost if I got a new CPU. Even Skyrim ran kind of choppy, that is until they released the CPU optimization patch . And another thing that benchmark sites don't show is minimum fps among different CPUs, which I imagine varies more than the average fps especially if a given game is GPU-limited.

 

[ShadowVVL]

I am still running my Q9550.still doing great for me at stock clock.I might go haswell next year but it is more of a want then a need.

 

[nenforcer]

I'm typing this on a Xeon 3110 which is the exact same as your Core 2 Quad E8400.

We've probably got only one year left until the next round of consoles come out and every game is expecting multiple core systems, even the console ports.

Haswell next year (2013) will also be quite a tremendous CPU upgrade from Core2 if the integrated graphics portion from Intel is what it is hyped up to be.

 

[Shephard]

Core 2 Quad.

I have 3570k but no motherboard

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

My Hackintosh was until very recently still an E5200 @ 4GHz. Replaced it with a SB G645.

 

[pranavsg07]

i too have a e8400 and i can run far cry 3 with no problem(medium settings). maybe i'll upgrade when haswell is out.

 

[Borealis7]

running an E8400 @ 3.6GHZ it flies in Torchlight II (but that could also be due to my OCed HD5850...)
it also managed Borderlands 2 pretty well on high settings without AA and PhysX.

i will buy a Haswell rig come April if it doesnt heat up like Ivy does. otherwise, i'll fish for a used 2500K and oc it.

 

[Red Hawk]

@Red Hawk: There's no denying that high-end CPUs are much faster and giver better fps, but dual-core still gives a playable experience even on high settings. I expect this to change once the new generation of consoles come out.

It's not just being a dual-core, as Intel's i3s are still technically physical dual-cores with two extra logical cores. It's the amount of threads. Some games are optimized for more than 2 threads, and performance on those games suffers if you just use a plain dual core with two threads. Battlefield 3 is very stutter if you just use a dual core. The performance loss can be directly seen in Deus Ex Human Revolution:

Quad and even triple core Phenoms do just fine, but the dual core drops down to 33 FPS, just barely on the edge of "playability". You can bet your bottom that games are going to become more multi-threaded when we move into the next console generation.

Anyways, I essentially gave my little brothers my old rig with a Core 2 Quad Q6600 stock and a Radeon HD 5770. They use a 1440x900 monitor, so it's all they need.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i have a bunch of higher clocked (2.8 ghz and above) core2's and pentiums of that generation. i dont game at all and they run the business and computational software and internet surf just fine. i could easily afford to get new machines but i really dont see much reason to at this point. windows 7 and linux work perfectly fine for me, windows 8 certainly isnt going to motivate me to get new machine anytime soon

 

[Gryz]

Last May I upgraded from a E8500 to a i5-3570K.

Just before that, I upgrade my gtx260 to a gtx680.
At the time, I used Skyrim as my benchmark game.
With the new gtx680 and old E8500, I got slightly higher framerates. But the true power of the gtx680 allowed me to enable more eyecandy. More AA, SSAO, highres textures, etc. Without the framerates dropping. But from an absolute standpoint, my raw framerates were not increased that much by the gtx680. The E8500 did hold it back.

Then I upgraded to a i5-3570k. And my framerates doubled.
Later I overclocked my CPU to 4.0GHz. A 10% increase. And my framerates in Skyrim went up another 10%.

When I overclocked my CPU I was playing Guild Wars 2. That game also got a framerate-increase that was linear with my overclock.

So yes, you might think your E8400 is running like a champ. But I think a new i5-3570K would still be "double champ".

BTW, as Haswell is only 4 months away, I would consider waiting with my upgrade until Haswell is released.

 

[riva2model64]

@Redhawk: Interesting figures, though I wonder what the Core-i3 would get without HT. I was actually thinking of dropping in Core 2 Quad to further the life of my system, but its hard to see benchies of Core 2 Quads in modern games. I expect core 2 quad to do pretty well in multi-threaded games though.

@Gryz: Indeed, I think I can hold out until Haswell comes out, or Steamroller, for that matter. Though I may have to wait a bit longer for the latter

 

[Udgnim]

E8500 @ 4.05 GHz w/ 7850

definitely know I'm being CPU limited in some games, but it's not a big enough impact to make me want to move up to quad core yet

want to move up to quad core eventually though and am waiting for Haswell to be released

 

[gmaster456]

Core 2 still has plenty of life in it. Especially for Office type applications and web browsing. Lots of business/schools are still running them and I'd imagine they will continue to for some time. They do an incredible job and for the average user, I don't see much they'd need something faster for except gaming. Heck. We just started phasing out the P4 systems earlier this year/late 2011. We're now for the most part on Sandy Bridge/Ivy and I imagine we'll be on those for at least as long as P4. Especially for the office machines. Word processing/spreadsheets/web browsing hasn't gotten a whole lot more demanding in recent years.