Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Ponderings

[dualloop]

I have recently installed a Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2.4GHz and for some reason im not getting the performance i expected. It has been upgraded from an intel core 2 duo E6600.
For example games are stuttering when I enter new areas or sometimes when i go around corners, and loading can sometimes be a little bit lengthy.
Also, i have intels Ice storm fighters benchmark installed, it says that you can run it in high with no problems if you have a quad core processor, when i do i get 1-2 frames a second, like a slideshow.
I have looked at CPU-z and it says i have four processor cores and threads. Device manager lists the processor four times.

The processor is running on:
Gigabyte 965P-DS3 Revision 3.3 Motherboard
4GB RAM
Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 640MB
SoundBlaster XF-i Xtreme Gamer
600W PSU
6 Cooling Fans

Have i incorrectly installed this or have i been a bit over ambitious with what the processor can do?

 

[Scotteq]

When the slowness occurs, is your hard drive running? Why do I ask that?? When you get to a new area/scene, your comp has to go get the data needed for the new pictures/enemies etc. So stuttering when encountering new scenes/areas is games is often a sign that your system is swapping information to/from your HDD.

If that is the case, the possible solutions are: Defrag often. Add a second drive and convert to a RAID array to try for more throughput. Or buy a faster HDD.

 

[merc14]

Pull that Soundblaster out and remove its drivers and see how it runs. If the stutering stops then go ahead and reinstall the Soundblaster and you should be OK. Soundblasters hate any system changes..

 

[slicessoul]

temperature of processor ??

 

[killz86]

i have a q6600 as well. but i use a raptor. and dont have slow downs i would say get a raptor. it would be worth the money because i have 2 hdd's my 160gb for my os and music and such. and my raptor for my games. and i dont have any slow downs. so i say if you get other hard drive try to get a raptor. its well worth the money. it would not be your sound card i have the same one as him on vista 64. and i changed out stuff on my pc and it never gave me a problem

 

[dualloop]

Thanks for the very fast responses.
In answer to all your questions, i have 2 hitachi 320GB Sata hard drives, one for my games and the other for vista,
my motherboard does support SATA II, could getting a SATA II hard drive solve that problem?
I will try the soundblaster suggestion and get back to you on that as i have had problems with sound dissapearing on certain games before, its only today that i've noticed i have no sound on half-life 2 and episode one but i have sound on episode two.
Im not sure of the tempreture of the processor, but my temprature monitor says the pc is running between
32-45 degrees. (32 normal desktop operation, 45 upwards when i'm running games)
Also, does any one have Intel's Ice storm fighters benchmark installed?
I've tried running it on full as i have a quad-core (its says i should be able to,) but i get 1-2 frames a second. Anyone know how to solve that problem?

 

[Human1]

Hmmm... I have the same type of problem. I get stuttering in Half-life 2 and overall my performance with the Q6600 has left me underwhelmed. Seems to be barely squeaking past the old 4000+ I had on my machine.

 

[dualloop]

Hmmm... I have the same type of problem. I get stuttering in Half-life 2 and overall my performance with the Q6600 has left me underwhelmed. Seems to be barely squeaking past the old 4000+ I had on my machine.

What are your system specs?

 

[kittyhawk]

It may be the the soundcard problem. I had stutterring problems in BF1942 because of my soundcard.

Not sure if this is of any help to you.

 

[bornking]

It could be bad ram on the video card.

 

[Zorg]

Like they said it might be the sound card. One thing that I can tell from your posts, is that you have done no benchmarking except that one game. Read the forum stickies, and other threads and check the CPU temps properly then run benchmarks to test the HD, Ram, CPU and VGA. Once you learn what you are doing and have a decent heatsink then OC the CPU to 3G/1333, assuming the ram you got is fast enough. Also, I know everyone wants 4G of ram, but you should try running with 2G, after you clear the sound issue. Also you didn't give the model of the 600W PSU. That means you don't understand the value of a good PSU, so you might have a junk PSU as well.

 

[slicessoul]

regarding to soundcards, check your BIOS settings for an integrated soundcard (azalia), you have to disable it.

For SATA II drives, check your BIOS for AHCI and native options. they must be disabled. I have the same mobo and processor as you, native options will give me stuttering and longer loading times of OS XP.
BTW, where do you connecting those 2 drives ? in yellow sata port or in purple sata port ?

 

[dualloop]

regarding to soundcards, check your BIOS settings for an integrated soundcard (azalia), you have to disable it.

For SATA II drives, check your BIOS for AHCI and native options. they must be disabled. I have the same mobo and processor as you, native options will give me stuttering and longer loading times of OS XP.
BTW, where do you connecting those 2 drives ? in yellow sata port or in purple sata port ?

Both my Hard drives are connected into the yellow sata ports.
I will have a look i my bios and see if i can disable the intergrated soundcard.

 

[exit2dos]

Did you update your BIOS? You need version F10 for a Q6600 with the B3 stepping, and F12 if you got one with the G0 stepping.


http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2456

 

[dualloop]

Did you update your BIOS? You need version F10 for a Q6600 with the B3 stepping, and F12 if you got one with the G0 stepping.


http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2456

I have the latest F12 Revision applied to the motherboard, as i wouldn't be able to use the processor without it.

 

[Evilonigiri]

Do what others have said and if that doesn't work, reinstall all the programs, it may or may not be the cause. Maybe even reinstall the OS. It could also be your system overheating and during games it's cutting back on power to stay cool. If all fails, maybe the chip itself isn't fully compatible with the motherboard or it's defective so RMA it?

 

[dualloop]

ok, cheers for all the reponses, very appreciated how many people take time to respond to a post,
first off, what is RMA? lol
Secondly, Performance has improved a little but Iv'e been getting BSODs when exiting certain games, (Bioshock does this, it never used to and its getting really annoying) so I ran a memory test (vista's built in one) and i found that one of my ram sticks was defective, so i brought another one hoping to solve the problem (re-ran memory test which said no problems found) but i'm still getting BSODs.
Could anyone possibly suggest something that may help, as i want this rig without any problems, ready for Crysis

 

[slicessoul]

RMA = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_Merchandise_Authorization

regarding BSOD, are there any background applications running while you gaming ?
did you install the intel driver ?
do you overclock (CPU and GPU) ?
did the OS installation is clean ?

You have 4GB RAM, means all the memory slot are filled, try to remove two or three of them and test it with Memtest.
Check your BIOS for voltages. Are they in normal value ?
I'm using this mobo and northbridge chip are kind of hot (50-55°C) on load, put an extra fans (40mm) or change the heatsink will help reducing the temp and optimizing the stability.

 

[dualloop]

I have not overclocked anything, everything is set to normal (voltages,etc)
i have reinstalled sound, graphics and CPU drivers and nothing has worked.
I now have a new problem,
I ran crysis in a window and ran cpu-z beside it and i found that the core speed of my processor
was only working at 1.6GHz, where as it should be working at 2.4GHz.
Does anyone know how i can solve this problem? This may be why im getting bad performance

 

[slicessoul]

Check your BIOS for EIST function. If enabled, CPU multiplier will be changed according the running applications (from 6 until 9).
Try to disable the EIST and see if the CPU clock can stay at 2.4

Did you go to M.I.T. in BIOS ? check your voltages from "normal" into "auto".

 

[dualloop]

Check your BIOS for EIST function. If enabled, CPU multiplier will be changed according the running applications (from 6 until 9). quotemsg]

Cheers, the CPU multiplier was the problem, it was set to 6, so i changed it to 9 and the speed is normal.