Will a stock Q6600 @2.4GHZ bottleneck a 5850?

[csquared587]

Whats up?

Im getting a 5850, but my q6600 is still only at 2.4 ghz. Is it worth learning how to overclock it? How much of a bottleneck do you think it will be?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

In games/programs that only use two cores, yes it will bottleneck. You have 4 cores but the low clockspeed will be limiting.

However, the Q6600 is very overclockable, easily reaching 3.0GHz without much effort, and can reach up to 3.6GHz-4.0GHz. 3.0GHz should eliminate most of your bottlenecking.

 

[strangestranger]

If 3ghz was enough to eliminate the bottlenecking of a 8 series nvidia, why would it be enough for a 5850?

 

[steadfast1984]

its always worth doing a mild overclock if you got the right equipment like aftermarket cpu coolers and a nice Motherboard that can overclock. the q6600 isnt to hard to overclock. there is a formula on how somewhere here at toms. Id say to you that you could safely go up to 2.8 to 3 GHz. the forumula for your stock speed is
1200 / 4 = 300 x 8 = 2400MHz or 2.4GHz. 300
1200 is your combined FSB, 4 is your cores, divide that by the cores and you get your FSB number which is 300. you multiply 300 by your multiplyers which the 6600 has 8 multiplyers and that give you your stock speed of 2400MHz. (i hope your following)

now to get overclocked to 3.0GHz (or 3000MGz) the formula is
(1500 / 4) = FSB 375 x 8 = 3000MHz (or 3.0GHz)
so you would set your FSB (front side bus) from 300 to 375 that will overclock your CPU to 3.0GHz
to get 2.8 the formula will be
1400 / 4 = fsb 350 x 8 = 2800 (2.8GHz)

so now you know a basic formula. now all you gotta learn now is how to work your Computers BIOS.
to recap
Stock - (1200 / 4) x 8 = 2400MHz
2.8GHz - (1400 / 4) x 8 = 2800MHz
3.0GHz - (1500 / 4) x 8 = 3000MHz

remember your FSB (front side bus) is the number you get when you divide the for example the 1500 by the amount of cores, in your case 4. if you wanna find out what the FSB is by how fast you wanna go. take the GHz and step backwards
for example i wanna know the FSB for 3.2GHz
3200 / 8 = 400 x 4 = 1600 , thats how you can check your answers to make sure its right also.

I hope you could follow me, I Tried my best with 1 attempt because I don't have time for editing hardcore.

Steadfast1984

 

[Raidur]

OC would definitely benefit you.

Its really easier than it seems.

I actually did my first overclock without reading any tutorials (not recommended). I just looked around at the options, saw what did what. I then looked up the max voltage and temps for my cpu from intel and my memory max voltage on the box, and began overclocking. Got my e8400 to 3.8ghz without reading a single tutorial and decided to study up before taking my e8400 to the limit (4ghz).

Most light to moderate overclocking can be done by simply changing 2 bios options. Vcore (cpu voltage) and fsb.

 

[csquared587]

^Thanks for the replies. I will probably overclock it to 3.0 ghz after I do some more research on the process and get a new cpu cooler.

Should I expect a performance increase at all from a 8800 gts 640 even with the CPU bottleneck? I am mainly upgrading because I got a new 1920x1200 monitor that the 8800 struggles with on some games.

 

[Raidur]

The stock cooler could be ok at 3.0ghz if you don't need too much voltage. Just do a torture test while watching your temps and if it stays under you max (i'd still keep it 5c under max) after a few minutes of testing then you should be ok. All of this is covered in the tutorial.

Aftermarket cooling is still a good idea though so you can keep the heat as low as possible.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

If 3ghz was enough to eliminate the bottlenecking of a 8 series nvidia, why would it be enough for a 5850?

huh?

 

[strangestranger]

I am just playing with the fact that people have been recommending overclocking all of intel's recent proc's to 3ghz to alleviate this "bottlenecking" ever since the C2D arrived.

The problem is that cards are now faster so you would really need it to go faster otherwise you will only get an 8800's level of performance or so you would think.

 

[csquared587]

Best answer selected by csquared587.

 

[lucuis]

Just thought i'd mention the Q6600 has 9 multipliers.

 

[Kralnor]

^Thanks for the replies. I will probably overclock it to 3.0 ghz after I do some more research on the process and get a new cpu cooler.

Should I expect a performance increase at all from a 8800 gts 640 even with the CPU bottleneck? I am mainly upgrading because I got a new 1920x1200 monitor that the 8800 struggles with on some games.

You will definitely notice an increase. I recently upgraded from a 8800 GTS as well although only the 320MB version. I replaced it with a HD 5770. The upgraded rig has a C2D E6600, which is now OC'ed to 2.8GHz, but wasn't at the time of the upgrade (2.4GHz @ stock) and it was a massive improvement even at a low resolution like 1280*1024.

Probably a bit of a late reply though.

 

[daviduk109]

I have a Q6600 that overclocked easy enough to 3.0 ghz on stock cooling and stock voltage. The cpu temps are a bit high with cpu intensive games (62c) but that is not my primary concern with regard to further overclocking.

After doing much research on the subject of overclocking, it seems the primary risk is from the motherboard northbridge chip overheating, rather than the processor (since it is the motherboard that is being forced to go faster). Northbridge overheating is something that is difficult to gauge and difficult to counter and for me is the factor that carries the greatest level of risk when overclocking (since I only have a cheap motherboard).

That is something you may like to take into account in your overclocking endeavours.

Incidentally, I have a 4850 graphics card, which I would like to upgrade to a 5850 at some point in the future (like when I can get a 5850 or equivalent performance for about £150 or less)