Download the Tom's Hardware App from the App Store
The reference for current tech news
Yes No
Ads
Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > CPUs > Q6600 paired with a 5870 ?

Q6600 paired with a 5870 ?

Forum CPU & Components : CPUs Q6600 paired with a 5870 ?

Word :    Username :           
 
- 0 +

I'l keep it short and sweet how will my q6600 2.4 GHz stack up against future games when paired with a 5870 ?

At the moment I have the q6600 paired with a 3870x2 and 4 GB of RAM.

The 3870x2 still does a good job at handling newish games at high settings (BC2 50+ , MW2 70 +, ME2 60+, Empire 40+)

However it's starting to diminish when heavy shadow and lighting effects are in play ( SSAO in Napoleon Total War, DX10 light shafts in Call of Prypiat etc )

Basically before long I think its going to start falling on its arse when Crysis 2, newer Total War games, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood etc

Any advice would be welcome

Reply to bhamx2
Register or log in to remove.

You could get a big boost out of an overclock. The next gen of Intel CPUs should be a nice upgrade.... so maybe get by for 6 months or so with a good OC.

------------------------------ Waiting for an answer? I lost the flag to the post. Send a PM
My Guide to choosing parts
Troubleshooting Guide
PSU Guide
Reply to Proximon

I agree... if you can get an OC to about 3.2 you will see a significant improvement from the 5870

Reply to jonh1974

Just OC the Q6600 to 3GHz, and paired with the 5870, it should give you pretty good performance in the long run. Q6600 is still strong.

Reply to unknown_13

Yes you will have to overclock to 3.0 or higher, or you will be bottle necking the 5870.

My q6600 was the bottleneck for my gtx 285, until around 3100ghz.

Reply to sportsfanboy

sportsfanboy wrote :

Yes you will have to overclock to 3.0 or higher, or you will be bottle necking the 5870.

My q6600 was the bottleneck for my gtx 285, until around 3100ghz.



I think that Nvidia cards usually tend to grab more juice from the CPU that their ATI counterparts.

Reply to unknown_13

^ How would that work? Nvidia's slower memory latency?

Reply to sportsfanboy

Disregard it's probably a driver thing

Reply to sportsfanboy

sportsfanboy wrote :

Disregard it's probably a driver thing



Probably yes. :)

Reply to unknown_13
- 0 +

sportsfanboy wrote :

Yes you will have to overclock to 3.0 or higher, or you will be bottle necking the 5870.

My q6600 was the bottleneck for my gtx 285, until around 3100ghz.



My pc at the moment is a dell xps 420 (x38 mobo) so will i be able to overclock the q6600 ?

Reply to bhamx2

Most pre-made pc's have locked bios, so most likely not.

Reply to sportsfanboy

Well, look into it. You would need a good cooler obviously but some of those Dell XPS had pretty good boards as I recall.

------------------------------ Waiting for an answer? I lost the flag to the post. Send a PM
My Guide to choosing parts
Troubleshooting Guide
PSU Guide
Reply to Proximon

I have a Q6600 @3.4 with a 5870 it runs good

------------------------------ 8088 @ 2 mhz
Reply to fleakiller
- 0 +

bhamx2 wrote :

My pc at the moment is a dell xps 420 (x38 mobo) so will i be able to overclock the q6600 ?

 

Yes you can - google "electrical tape q6600 overclock"

 

Also, Q6600 is a shitty processor. Was crap when it came out, and is worse now. Everyone got a Q6600 because "games/programs will use more cores soon just you wait!"

 

Now in 2010 we are just barely hitting parallel processing past 3 cores and we have 32nm processors that make the Q6600 look like a Pentium 4 - which it is. 65nm, power hungry, room heater and very inefficient.

 

Look at current benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=109

 

Besides that, I would agree overclocking is the way to go but you are really doing a disservice to your gaming by packing such an outdated weak sauce CPU. I still hate anyone and everyone who proposed a Q6600 was beneficial for gaming when it came out. My E8500 still smokes the Q6600 in games while remaining cool and less power hungry.

 

Anyways /rant about Q6600 being so awful. Overclock it but ditch it soon. Don't need that thing in your house anymore.

Message quoted 2 times
Message edited by werxen on 10-14-2010 at 01:24:16 AM
------------------------------ E8500 @ 3.8 (Normal settings)
E8500 @ 4.5 (Benchmarking settings)
Reply to werxen
- 0 +

I have a q6600 its easily overclockable to 3ghz.. most get to 3.2+

on my motherboard i basically bumped all the voltages up 1 notch..
and changed the FSB from 266 to 400 and the multiplier from 9x to 8x

been rock solid at 3.2ghz for over 2 years now. Max overclock i did was 3.6 but i had to bump the voltage too much and I didnt like it going to 88C on prime95

also make sure you have an aftermarket cooler.. the stock q6600 retail box cooler kinda blows. although even with the stock cooler you should be able to easily hit 2.8

finally, are you sure its your video cards bottlenecking? some of the newer games arent 4 thread friendly... those video cards were pretty beast in the day.. might want to just OC the processor and wait abit for 6xxx ati series. or a pair of 460's


ps. the q6600 isnt really bad, although for games that use 1.2 cores it needs a hefty OC to be competitive.

if there are no OC options you are better off selling that computer and building a new one.


Message edited by rand_79 on 10-14-2010 at 01:37:14 AM
Reply to rand_79

His problem is that his bios might be a locked. Maybe a hacked bios is available or maybe if he can find out what the mobo is, then flash to an unlocked version.

Reply to sportsfanboy

^wow based on that link, it holds up better than I expected against the i5.

BTW they use a GTX 280 for their benchmarks.

So I agree that the Q6600's low clockspeed will be what will hold you back in games. However, that said, upgrading to a 5870 will still certainly increase your FPS and gaming ability.

That said, If you intend to keep the computer setup for a long time, I would recommend getting overclocking or getting a new CPU/motherboard/RAM. This all depends on your budget. I believe a new 5870 will be worth the price regardless if your CPU holds you back some. That said, if you want to keep your system more balanced, you could opt for a cheaper GTX460 1GB.

Regardless of what route you choose, since you have an OEM machine, you almost certainly will need a new and better power supply to support the 5870, unless you already upgraded the power supply to support your dual 3870s.

Reply to enzo matrix
- -1 +

werxen wrote :

My E8500 still smokes the Q6600 in games while remaining cool and less power hungry.

Anyways /rant about Q6600 being so awful. Overclock it but ditch it soon. Don't need that thing in your house anymore.




Well, the rant was entertaining if a bit extreme :)

It's true though, I've seen my moderately overclocked E8400 next to a stock Q6600 and in most gaming situations the Wolfdale wins easily.

------------------------------ Waiting for an answer? I lost the flag to the post. Send a PM
My Guide to choosing parts
Troubleshooting Guide
PSU Guide
Reply to Proximon

^he's running a 3870x2 so I think he'll be ok with power.

Reply to sportsfanboy

As long as he runs a single card that is, no gtx 480 or 5970.

Reply to sportsfanboy

sportsfanboy wrote :

As long as he runs a single card that is, no gtx 480 or 5970.


GTX480 is a single card. Still, I agree it draws too much power. 2 3870s are 210W TDP.

Reply to enzo matrix

I thought it was a duel PCB in one package, my mistake. So Nvidia hasn't released a double Fermi card?

Reply to sportsfanboy

sportsfanboy wrote :

I thought it was a duel PCB in one package, my mistake. So Nvidia hasn't released a double Fermi card?


Nope, they haven't. The GTX480 is a stripped down version of their originally intended single graphics chip card. Because of heat and power issues. Alone, the GTX480 has a TDP of 250W. The dual chip 5970 draws under 300W. No way Nvidia could get dual chip into the power limits of PCI-e with two 6pin power adapters.

Reply to enzo matrix

Well, the Q6600 is very easy to overclock-stable. Also, when it reaches >3.0 Ghz it can compete with other processors with similar clock, but it has four-cores advantage.

-=EDIT=-
I mean 'other processors'= Core 2 Duos.


Message edited by andrern2000 on 10-14-2010 at 04:51:50 AM
------------------------------ Greensmith: Intel Q6600 @2,4Ghz Kentsfield G0;GByte GA-P35-S3L; 4 GB DDR2 A-Data Plus 800Mhz 4-4-4-11@1.8V; Sparkle GTX560Ti 1GB 256bit DDR5; Seagate 160GB + WDC Green 1 TB 64MB; Acbel Gold 500W gaming;ECS 430W Casing System; 18"LED.
Reply to andrern2000
- -2 +

enzo matrix wrote :

^wow based on that link, it holds up better than I expected against the i5.

BTW they use a GTX 280 for their benchmarks.

So I agree that the Q6600's low clockspeed will be what will hold you back in games. However, that said, upgrading to a 5870 will still certainly increase your FPS and gaming ability.

That said, If you intend to keep the computer setup for a long time, I would recommend getting overclocking or getting a new CPU/motherboard/RAM. This all depends on your budget. I believe a new 5870 will be worth the price regardless if your CPU holds you back some. That said, if you want to keep your system more balanced, you could opt for a cheaper GTX460 1GB.

Regardless of what route you choose, since you have an OEM machine, you almost certainly will need a new and better power supply to support the 5870, unless you already upgraded the power supply to support your dual 3870s.



It only "holds up better" because of the 8MB L3 cache. Besides that, any overclock applied to the Q6600 can be applied to opposing processor and still hold a ridiculous lead. While the Q6600 might be able to hit 3.4, a 920 will be able to hit 4.2. You do the math - its already faster stock vs. stock.

------------------------------ E8500 @ 3.8 (Normal settings)
E8500 @ 4.5 (Benchmarking settings)
Reply to werxen

There is not that much of a difference between the Q6600 and the latest I5 and I7 in performance terms for games. The difference per core is only 60% or so (i560) and of course the I5 and I7 have four cores as opposed to the two on the Q6600 but in general games do not make any use of the extra cores. You can easily overclock the Q6600 to give a 20% improvement without increasing voltages. The performance of games is more determined by the graphics card rather than the speed of the CPU (within reason)

Reply to pjmelect

werxen wrote :

any overclock applied to the Q6600 can be applied to opposing processor and still hold a ridiculous lead. While the Q6600 might be able to hit 3.4, a 920 will be able to hit 4.2. You do the math - its already faster stock vs. stock.


How is that relevant?

Reply to enzo matrix

Quote :

My E8500 still smokes the Q6600 in games while remaining cool and less power hungry.



what game? cod4? i lol'd

Quote :

Now in 2010 we are just barely hitting parallel processing past 3 cores and we have 32nm processors that make the Q6600 look like a Pentium 4 - which it is. 65nm, power hungry, room heater and very inefficient.



so this dude is ranting, how contemporary cpus are trashing the q6600. isn't that a given? that's what new technologies are supposed to do.

darn it! i shouldve gotten an e6600 instead:

http://www.legionhardware.com/arti [...] ate,3.html

10 fps is irrelevant (sarcasm). i lol'd again.


Message edited by wh3resmycar on 10-14-2010 at 07:11:45 AM
Reply to wh3resmycar

werxen wrote :

Yes you can - google "electrical tape q6600 overclock"

 

Also, Q6600 is a shitty processor. Was crap when it came out, and is worse now. Everyone got a Q6600 because "games/programs will use more cores soon just you wait!"

 

Now in 2010 we are just barely hitting parallel processing past 3 cores and we have 32nm processors that make the Q6600 look like a Pentium 4 - which it is. 65nm, power hungry, room heater and very inefficient.

 

Look at current benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=109

 

Besides that, I would agree overclocking is the way to go but you are really doing a disservice to your gaming by packing such an outdated weak sauce CPU. I still hate anyone and everyone who proposed a Q6600 was beneficial for gaming when it came out. My E8500 still smokes the Q6600 in games while remaining cool and less power hungry.

 

Anyways /rant about Q6600 being so awful. Overclock it but ditch it soon. Don't need that thing in your house anymore.

 

:pfff:

 


Could you please stop b$ing 'bout the entire C2Q series??? Especially 'bout the Q6600.


Message edited by unknown_13 on 10-14-2010 at 10:35:20 AM
Reply to unknown_13

Well, although I bought Q6600 on 2007 when it's still expensive, I'm not complaining because it's still rock-solid and functioning after 3,5 years until now. :)

------------------------------ Greensmith: Intel Q6600 @2,4Ghz Kentsfield G0;GByte GA-P35-S3L; 4 GB DDR2 A-Data Plus 800Mhz 4-4-4-11@1.8V; Sparkle GTX560Ti 1GB 256bit DDR5; Seagate 160GB + WDC Green 1 TB 64MB; Acbel Gold 500W gaming;ECS 430W Casing System; 18"LED.
Reply to andrern2000

A C2Q is still a pretty solid processor, my C2D E6750 isnt struggling yet (OC to 3.5). But I havent played high end games in a few months.

------------------------------ Antec 1200, Asus P5K Premium, Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 4.05GHz, Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, DDR2 @ 1057, 3x 6400AAKS Raid 0, 2x Radeon 4780 in Crossfire, 760,900 and 825,950, SilverStone ST1000-NV
Reply to Snipergod87
- -2 +

^ Lawl. Q6600 fanbois at it again. Was a bad processor - still a bad processor. Get over it.

------------------------------ E8500 @ 3.8 (Normal settings)
E8500 @ 4.5 (Benchmarking settings)
Reply to werxen

^ And I guess you're Q6600 hata,

------------------------------ Greensmith: Intel Q6600 @2,4Ghz Kentsfield G0;GByte GA-P35-S3L; 4 GB DDR2 A-Data Plus 800Mhz 4-4-4-11@1.8V; Sparkle GTX560Ti 1GB 256bit DDR5; Seagate 160GB + WDC Green 1 TB 64MB; Acbel Gold 500W gaming;ECS 430W Casing System; 18"LED.
Reply to andrern2000

The Q6600 processor was a very good processor for the money when it was released and hit the sweet spot as regards price and performance. Nowadays it has been overtaken by the Quad i5 and the i7 processors but it still performs as well as an i3 processor.

Reply to pjmelect

@pjmelect please check your PM? Thanks :D

------------------------------ Greensmith: Intel Q6600 @2,4Ghz Kentsfield G0;GByte GA-P35-S3L; 4 GB DDR2 A-Data Plus 800Mhz 4-4-4-11@1.8V; Sparkle GTX560Ti 1GB 256bit DDR5; Seagate 160GB + WDC Green 1 TB 64MB; Acbel Gold 500W gaming;ECS 430W Casing System; 18"LED.
Reply to andrern2000

A q6600 is a good processor, but will bottleneck the 5870.

I suggest a good overclock to 3.4-3.6GHz and get a 5850 or GTX460 1GB instead.

Reply to Bluescreendeath

Quote :

^ Lawl. Q6600 fanbois at it again. Was a bad processor - still a bad processor. Get over it.



empirical evidences suggest otherwise. either you're dumb, or you're just dumb. i'll let you choose.

oh and btw this is the biggest BS i've ever seen:

Quote :

Now in 2010 we are just barely hitting parallel processing past 3 cores



barely huh?

Reply to wh3resmycar

werxen wrote :

^ Lawl. Q6600 fanbois at it again. Was a bad processor - still a bad processor. Get over it.



And how 'bout a proof? You had one? Links?

Reply to unknown_13
- -2 +

unknown_13 wrote :

And how 'bout a proof? You had one? Links?




Here is my point:

When this processor was released - there was no reason to get it other than running some kind of server or rendering machine. It came stock at a weak 2.4 gig, 65nm power hungry processor. This purchase was justified for gaming because it would be more 'future proof'. People spent money aimlessly on this low clock speed crap processor for no apparent reason. I made the claim that by the time games were parallel processed as in mainstreamed multicore computing, that the Q6600 would be outdated by a big margin.

Guess who was right?

Future proofing a concept that is not mainstream is a STUPID idea. I don't care how many of you noobs in here disagree. The fact of the matter is many people do NOT overclock their CPUs and are left with a shitty stock 2.4 gig processor. Instead of going this route, they should have went with a higher clock speed dual core, but alas, didn't listen and they eventually made a switch to a modern quad core that has a much better IPC and lower power consumption.

You may say that they would have made the switch anyway, to that I go back to point 2: low clock speed = low clock speed.

I didn't wake up one day and go "Gee I should hate on the Q6600 for "x" reason"
I took the facts objectively and looked to see what people were buying and for WHAT REASON. The Q6600 was a dumb buy for anyone looking for anything but server/rendering at the time. Get over it. For the money people spent on buying a crappy quad core they could have invested in a premium dual core and had a much better level of game play and switched right about NOW when games are becoming multi-core.

Oh well - logic escapes some, right? I mean if "Q6600 is an awesome future proof CPU" is said enough on TOMS forums it MUST be true right? Just like how killing jews in 1940s was said enough times it must be for the greater good, right?

Wake up noobs - do your research. Don't spout out crap heard on these forums verbatim because you think its right. Think for yourself.

------------------------------ E8500 @ 3.8 (Normal settings)
E8500 @ 4.5 (Benchmarking settings)
Reply to werxen

Bluescreendeath wrote :

A q6600 is a good processor, but will bottleneck the 5870.

I suggest a good overclock to 3.4-3.6GHz and get a 5850 or GTX460 1GB instead.


^+1
short and sweet.

------------------------------ A+, Net+, MCDST, DSCE (Dell)
Reply to malmental

werxen wrote :

Here is my point:

When this processor was released - there was no reason to get it other than running some kind of server or rendering machine. It came stock at a weak 2.4 gig, 65nm power hungry processor. This purchase was justified for gaming because it would be more 'future proof'. People spent money aimlessly on this low clock speed crap processor for no apparent reason. I made the claim that by the time games were parallel processed as in mainstreamed multicore computing, that the Q6600 would be outdated by a big margin.

Guess who was right?

Future proofing a concept that is not mainstream is a STUPID idea. I don't care how many of you noobs in here disagree. The fact of the matter is many people do NOT overclock their CPUs and are left with a shitty stock 2.4 gig processor. Instead of going this route, they should have went with a higher clock speed dual core, but alas, didn't listen and they eventually made a switch to a modern quad core that has a much better IPC and lower power consumption.

You may say that they would have made the switch anyway, to that I go back to point 2: low clock speed = low clock speed.

I didn't wake up one day and go "Gee I should hate on the Q6600 for "x" reason"
I took the facts objectively and looked to see what people were buying and for WHAT REASON. The Q6600 was a dumb buy for anyone looking for anything but server/rendering at the time. Get over it. For the money people spent on buying a crappy quad core they could have invested in a premium dual core and had a much better level of game play and switched right about NOW when games are becoming multi-core.

Oh well - logic escapes some, right? I mean if "Q6600 is an awesome future proof CPU" is said enough on TOMS forums it MUST be true right? Just like how killing jews in 1940s was said enough times it must be for the greater good, right?

Wake up noobs - do your research. Don't spout out crap heard on these forums verbatim because you think its right. Think for yourself.



Well not everybody buys a new PC every 2-3 years.
2.4GHz crap in 2007/08??? :heink: The Core 2 architecture was way better than Phenom 9xxx, Pentium duals (i'm talking 'bout Pentium duals BEFORE the E5xxx series) and Athlon X2 5xxx and the 6000+.
Yes the Q6600 is outdated but not by a big margin. The Q6600 was a budget quad, so you should compare it to a PII X4 955 or a Core i5 750/760, not an i7 980x.
It is power hungry, 65nm, but in terms of performance, it's still a good CPU.

Reply to unknown_13
- -1 +

unknown_13 wrote :

Well not everybody buys a new PC every 2-3 years.
2.4GHz crap in 2007/08??? :heink: The Core 2 architecture was way better than Phenom 9xxx, Pentium duals (i'm talking 'bout Pentium duals BEFORE the E5xxx series) and Athlon X2 5xxx and the 6000+.
Yes the Q6600 is outdated but not by a big margin. The Q6600 was a budget quad, so you should compare it to a PII X4 955 or a Core i5 750/760, not an i7 980x.
It is power hungry, 65nm, but in terms of performance, it's still a good CPU.



That's not the point. The point is that it was an expensive useless item when it came out. Similar to people buying a 980x for gaming. Sure flight sim will be able to utilize it but that's it. Same logic applies to dual vs quad cores 3 almost 4 years ago when this processor came out. Don't compare a q6600 to a p1 either they are both crappy.

My logic is sound. Do research before coming on and debating.

------------------------------ E8500 @ 3.8 (Normal settings)
E8500 @ 4.5 (Benchmarking settings)
Reply to werxen

werxen wrote :

That's not the point. The point is that it was an expensive useless item when it came out. Similar to people buying a 980x for gaming. Sure flight sim will be able to utilize it but that's it. Same logic applies to dual vs quad cores 3 almost 4 years ago when this processor came out. Don't compare a q6600 to a p1 either they are both crappy.

My logic is sound. Do research before coming on and debating.



Well when it came out, second half of 2007 (correct if wrong), people were mostly buying it for Crysis, they thought it would use quad CPU's, not for COD4, NFS ProStreet. The real benefit from this chip in 2007 was seen if you were running Vista 64 bit (and 4 gigs of RAM), playing Crysis and have dozens of apps running in the backgroung. Soon in early 2008 it became an affordable quad core chip and any serious multitasker has grabbed one.

And overclockers liked it alot cause it OC's like mad.

Reply to unknown_13
- 0 +

Test

------------------------------ Laptop Buyers FAQ
Locked Out Of Your Laptop?

Reply to WR2

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey

------------------------------ http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/3995/bl11.gif
Reply to Mousemonkey
Register or log in to remove.
Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > CPUs > Q6600 paired with a 5870 ?
Go to:

There are 1981 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Ads
Latest best answer
Case with filters. Recommendations?
By al360ex, 6 hours ago:

Then I'd go with one of these cases. If you choose the HAF 932 Advanced Edition, you...

Best offers
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
Top experts