How Much Would my Processor Bottleneck my Video Card

[SomeoneMustGetHurt]

I currently have an Intel Core 2 Q6600 @ 2.39 for a processor and I recently purchased an ATI 5850, which has yet to arrive.
So I'm wondering if the processor would seriously bottleneck my gaming performance in terms of fps.
Note: I am purchasing a new processor later but I'm stuck with the Q6600 for now.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Quad cores are generally fine, but there would be a bottleneck for non-quad optimized games due to its low clock speed and older architecture.

Luckily, the Q6600 is a great overclocker, able to OC 1Ghz or more depending on the stepping. Do a moderate 600MHz overclock to 3.0GHz and your CPU would be totally fine paired with a 5850.

 

[jimmysmitty]

It should be fine. I would recommend you Overclock it to say 3GHz.

Other than that, you wont see that bad of a bottleneck.

 

[jitpublisher]

Stock speed, it will not drive the 5850 to it's full potential.
Is this a prebuild that cannot be overclocked? If this is a home build, you can easily clock your processor to 3ghz.

 

[jsc]

If this is a home build, you should be able to reach 3.0 GHz with stock cooler. Anything higher and you will need better cooling.

At somewhere around 3.3 GHz, I'd guess that the CPU could keep the GPU fed.

 

[SomeoneMustGetHurt]

Unfortunately, this processor is pre-built :/
I'm just going to hope it doesn't choke my graphics card when it comes today lol

 

[jitpublisher]

Well, it is not going to "choke" it!
But as you go up in processor speed from where you are, the 5850 that you have is also going to scale nicely and it's performance will improve as your processor speed improves.