5870 + Q6600 ?

That should be a good combination. Tho overclocking the Q6600 would help bring the most out of the 5870.

The Q6600 should be fine for the 5870, might want to overclock the Q6600 a little bit to get the most out of it, i have mine currently @ 3.6 and i cant wait to get my new 5870.

+2 - overclock and go.

Cool ... I didn't get good result when OC ... my pc become instable ... I didn't find good setting ...

Q6600
Asus P5K
Corsair 800 (TWIN2X2048-6400C4 )
BFG 8800 GT OC2
(and another ATI Card for my third monitor)  

Maibe you could help me with my OC setting?

Q660 is a great CPU and will run 5870 without a problem

However,
If you try to overclock your CPU a bit, you can get more out of your GPU, which will considerably increase gaming performance



You can find some overclocking guides about Q6600 here:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2007/07/25/overcl...

http://gameandtechreviews.wordpress.com/2007/12/12/q660...

http://ezinearticles.com/?Q6600-Overclock-Guide&id=3130...

GooD LucK

Thanks...

I Try your first link exactly ...without any sucess ... the far I can go befor Blue Screen is just before Windows logon  

I don't know I guess is my board (p5k, in't a P5K deluxe ...)

i have my q6600 at 3.4 paired with a 4890. Runs everything beautifully. 5870 should be more than enough!

I used to have a q6600 b3 stepping. It was impossible to hit anything over 3ghz on that thing and the temps then got pretty hot at 3.0ghz. If yours is a G0 stepping try seeing if you cna atleast hit 3ghz and ull be good to go.

A Q6600 stock wont bottleneck a 5870. A OC to 3GHz wouldn't hurt keep the flow there but not 100% necessary.

Now if you ever plan to do a CF with another 5870 then you will want to OC it more or possibly upgrade the CPU to a Q9550+.

If you cannot OC your q6600 to at list 3,2GHz there is really no point to get a 5870.

In what resolution are you playing?

I have seen many people and benchmarks saying a stock Q6600 will bottleneck a 5870 easily - very much so.
need to push it to 3.3GHz+ to get most of what you should have outa the 5870

and have seen some benchmarks showing a Phenom II X4 4ish will also limit the potential (in certain benchmarks).

to truly get the Most (is over the top 75 - 135fps) you'd need a i7 @ 4GHz + which could give over 30 more fps compared to the Phenom in a few specific tests.

Spent some time looking at this a while back - the benchmarks showing this persuaded me away from my AMD leaning to maybe go I7 soon - even if not necessary.

Even at 3.6GHz a Q6600 (what I have) will not allow the 5870 to give its full potential - Think I am going to stick with it TBH though as will give close to 60ish FPS at all res I need  

Nice talk without knowing all the facts. Like the resolution. If the OP has a monitor with 1920x1200 or higher resolution all this talk about CPU bottlenecking and CPU overclocking is pretty much useless, because at those resolutions with all details to high/very high the GPU will become the botttlenecking part and not the CPU. My advice to the OP(seeing he has 3 monitors) is to go with the 5870 and an Eyefinity setup and forget overclocking the CPU.

not qiute so actually as I was considering 1920x1200 as it is what I will be gaming at...

as I mentioned - it was only in some specific benchmarks, not all by a long way.

Your own coments apply to yourself too  

My comment is based on the hypothetical chance that he has a monitor with a bigger resolution. The fact that he has 3 monitors and wants to buy an ATI card makes me think about the Eyefinity setup possibility. When using Eyefinity he will experience GPU bottlenecks at high/very high details and in my opinion a CPU overclock to 3.2+ GHz will not account for anything more than 5-10% FPS increase. That in my opinion doesn't worth shortening the life span of the CPU.

hypothetically I agree with you, we are both as right as we are wrong with what info we have on the res part  

but a Q6600 going from 2.4GHz to 3.2GHz+ is not that small an OC and can account for a Lot more than 5 - 10% fps increase when it is bottlenecking a great GPU

Hopefully he can make a more stable OC with a little help from here  

The same advice was given to me when buying the 4870 for the 1680x1050 resolution. And you know what...I OCed the CPU to 3.2GHz. The result: an increase of 2-3 FPS in the games I played at that time(mostly shooters - including Crysis). So I returned to stock and enjoyed my games without the extra FPS.

well, I guess I shall dig out some benchies later after I finish my work and we can see what is what. Am curious to refresh my memory on this subject as am very soon looking to buy a 5850 and OC it or maybe a 5870 for AvP  

I run my Q6600 at a very light 3GHz OC atm as no need for more till then and am lucky that mine is totally stable also at 3.6GHz - though gets a little warm running folding@home for my liking at 75celcius (167f)

Lets see

I try AGAIN to OC my Q6600 ...without any good result ... Y try N.O.S. feature of my P5k .. @ 30% ..hehe didn't logon...

@10% ...it work but the next day when I reboot my damn fan run full trust ...I have to reset my pc ... after ...fck all ...clock is jam @2400 and no setting in my bios is effective ... I have to reset cmos to OC again ... it's pain in the a** ...

I don't what is wrong with my pc   ... I guess I "need" an another one  

LOL. Come on. Buying a new CPU for a maximum 10 FPS increase in games. Some people have way too much money to burn.

Q6600 vs i7 (like 940) I have no more to expect than 10 fps ?

What type of heatsink are you using with this CPU? What kind of temperatures are you hitting on the CPU at stock and OC settings? When you say 10%, are you using the automatic overclocking features in the BIOS? You may want to try to manually OC'ing instead by increasing the CPU Multiplier, Bus frequencies, and/or voltages, if necessary (be careful adjusting the voltage too high, as you may damage your CPU).

Yeah I expect more than 10 FPS. More like 15-20. But, changing the CPU to I7 requires a full platform change: new motherboard, new memory. So basically you are paying hundreds of dollars for 15-20 FPS. GG

Noctua 12P
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products...

Pfff temp ... I don't know ... but each time I watch it's seem normal ...

Yeah 10% is the N.O.S. Asus P5k feature ...

Manually I put my cpu @~3.4 ... but jusr before Logon I got blue screen  
Exact same that http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/c [...] ad_q6600/1
But my setup is not a p5k Deluxe ... and not same ram ...

An another thing I have ... some time (first boot of day) ... my pc wont' start ... Fan in Full spin ...I have to reset 1-x times to finally start! (any Idea?) maibe this problem is link to my OC problem ?

Ummm I hope my wife didn't see you answer  

I hope she did!  

So I better chance to boost my fps to change my GPU (like 5870) ? ... I mean by better : $/fps

Yap.

heya again,

here's a nice little linky for you:

5870 CPU Scaling Review

In almost all cases at 1920x1200 res without AA the framerates were with a 2.7GHz Core 2 Duo were a min average of 50fps.
@ 3.4GHz it makes 60fps+ in most every test.

The tests with AA are run with 4x or 8x if frame rates are playable - so not all are the same.
The same kinda results are mirrored even with AA enabled in quite a few tests.

As this is the AVG FPS, it would be nice to try for a good OC on a Q6600 (as close to 3.4ish as possible - certainly 3GHZ ish would be nice)for some games to avoid big min fps dips ... and may be more relevant in future DX11 games?

Even without a good OC I imagine the min FPS would not dip below 30fps in most games which is acceptable to many people still, though some like 40ish as a min.

The Q6600 seems good with even a very modest 2.7GHz OC it appears.

Good luck with your OC and new GFx  

I actually had the same boot problems with my Asus P5K Prem twice.

Sometimes had to try booting 5+ times then seemed ok in windows - thought it was my MB at first just being funny on startup...

Sometimes it would give an "Overclocking Error" on a failed startup...

Both times it turned out to be a stick of my memory had gone bad, 1st one then the other stick from the same memory kit. Just in the middle of RMAing th faulty memory kit now and limping along on the other 2Gig.

Can't wait for more than 2Gig again!

I use memtest86 to test my RAM.

Good Luck with that  

Reading all the failed OC posts screams "not enough voltage" to me.

Manually set your CPU's voltage to 1.3 and then try these settings. You may be in for a surprise.  

was waiting for someone to ask him that one  

Incidentally, I run mine at 1.336 vcore for normal everyday at up to 3GHz (am sure I can run somewhat lower for 3GHz, but was just a chunky knockdown when I decided to run at 3GHz from 3.6GHz for quiet and cool peace + don't need more than 3GHz for my trusty old 8800GT)
For a stable 3.6GHz I run 1.38vcore

I use a little app called CoreTemp to accurately monitor my chips 4 core temps. I don't like to see mine hit over 76c ish as a rough max when folding@home on 3.6GHz. Games shouldn't push a chip that hard anyway though  

I think I remember 90c being said as absolute max working temp. - Most would be horrified to be hitting that hot. 80 is most peoples max ceiling and still too hot for most!

Motherboard Temp displays are often 10c too low a reading. my Asus AI Suite reads right now at 41c.
CoreTemp Shows 54c 54c 49c 51c

Good Luck Wupaz!

Lucky dog, my Xeon X3220 (a higher binned, lower voltage Q6600) won't hit 3.6 no matter how much voltage I give her. 3.48 was the highest, and that was at 1.5v. Safe to say she didn't stay there for long. I backed it down to 3.15Ghz @ 1.325v, as, like you, there is no reason for me to keep it 300Mhz higher. The speed benefit of 2FPS in most games (minus Supreme Commander, it LOVED higher clock speeds) isn't worth the ridiculous heat output (especially on a FANLESS cooler!!).

My temps stay around 40C idle and like 75C load. Hopefully they won't go up when I drop in my Vapor-X 5870 tonight.

man, but who's the Lucky Dog LOL

Good luck with your Vapor-X 5870 !!!

I will be passing on my trusty 8800GT to someone soon enough and walking a similar path  

Good to hear that someone else is doing a good deed for someone with their old card! I had a 4870, and it's going to a friend of mine that is financially down right now.

Thanks a LOT to all ... but I play & work with this pc ... and for just gain 3-5 fps when I OC my pc ... and risk to "unstabalize" my pc ... I guest is not a good trade ...

Beyond 3gig I got after 2 mins a BlueScreen (Unrecoverable Error) ... so for ~600mhz ...

For Temp I never go higher than 40°c ... (after 2 mins   I guess is not temp is the issue.

I think my best choice for stabililty & fps .. I'll change for a 5870 ... and later change my pc (and keep my 5870)