Q6600 and modern graphics cards

[HDmac]

So a few year back (when the FIRST Crysis came out) I built myself a nice rig however its starting to show its age a little bit... I am debating whether or not to get a GTX 660 or 670 soon, (and a new HDD). It currently has a GTX 260 core 216 (up from a 8800GT when i first got it )in it which does well in BF3 medium settings, but chugs at high settings... same thing with Crysis 2.

Now here's the problem, I am worried that the Q6600 (I have to keep at stock 2.4Ghz, my mobo is crap) will bottleneck a GTX 660 or 670 to the point where it wouldn't be worth upgrading the GPU alone. If I have to replace the Q6600 to an i5 or 7 series, that means new socket, new mobo, new ram, new cooler etc etc. and thats just too expensive for me right now.

So, upgrade GPU or wait and redo the whole system in a year or 2?(it would really be nice to have something for when crysis 3 comes out)

Current System:
600w PSU
Q6600 (w/ all-in-one coolermaster liquid cooling, looking to replace)
ASUS P5N-32E SLI
4GB corsair dominator ram (forgot the speed, its decent)
GTX 260 core 216 (OC to 666, 1150 ish)

 

[stant1rm]

You're better off redoing the whole system. A GTX 660 or GTX 670 will bottleneck on a 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad. Getting a new i5, Z77 motherboard and some DDR3 RAM. That alone will help bring some of those BF3 frames up. Then, as long as that 600W PSU is decent, you can just upgrade to a GTX 7xx series card when they come out (Q2 2013).

 

[wiinippongamer]

That mobo is by no means crap, it should be capable of pushing a good OC if the CPU itself is. That said yea at 2.4ghz bottlenecks will be a problem.

If I were you I'd get a good heatsink and OC the most I can out of that chip, 3.6ghz should be doable, at which point the bottleneck wouldn't be that bad and you'd still get a nice improvement by going with a card like a GTX670, then upgrade the rest of the system within a year or so.

 

[akxpckwb]

Both the 660 or the 670 will be bottlenecked by your current CPU but they are worth the upgrade. You will notice an increase in performance although in CPU heavy games you won't have much gains.
So I would get a GPU upgrade and in the future get new mobo+cpu+RAM

 

[jaguarskx]

Yes, you are likely better off with a new system.

I believe the GTX 670 will be bottlenecked by the Q6600, but the GTX 660 should be fine. If you are going to build a system within a year, then buying a GTX 670 can arguably make sense. Yes, you will be bottlenecked, but you should still see a big improvement. However, if you upgrade the entire PC at the same time, then you can likely buy the GTX 670 at a lower price, but that means you need to put up with the GTX 260's performance. Or lack thereof.

 

[HDmac]

That mobo is by no means crap, it should be capable of pushing a good OC if the CPU itself is. That said yea at 2.4ghz bottlenecks will be a problem.

If I were you I'd get a good heatsink and OC the most I can out of that chip, 3.6ghz should be doable, at which point the bottleneck wouldn't be that bad and you'd still get a nice improvement by going with a card like a GTX670, then upgrade the rest of the system within a year or so.

There is no overclocking with a P5N-32-E, trust me I did extensive research when I first got the system, everyone said it a crap mobo for QUAD core cpu's. I was only able to overclock to ~2.6Ghz before *** would hit the fan. Its that bad. My Q6600 even has a G0 stepping, which should push past 3.0Ghz without even having the bump the voltage....

 

[wiinippongamer]

There is no overclocking with a P5N-32-E, trust me I did extensive research when I first got the system, everyone said it a crap mobo for QUAD core cpu's. I was only able to overclock to ~2.6Ghz before *** would hit the fan. Its that bad. My Q6600 even has a G0 stepping, which should push past 3.0Ghz without even having the bump the voltage....

In that case I too would recommend waiting some more till you can upgrade the CPU, at 2.4ghz it will bottleneck pretty bad.

 

[HDmac]

I just had a thought, I think I might pick up a 2nd gtx 260 off eBay, it would be pushing that 600w supply, but I think it would be ok. (especially at stock clocks) Plus, I would not have a problem upgrading the power supply to 1000 or 1200w. CPU's and GPU's come and go, PSU's mainly stay the same.

 

[godlyhank]

Just OC the Q6600 to 3.0 or 3.6 Ghz, at 3.6 ghz it can beat out quite alot of the phenom ii line, if you cnt a q6600 is still very competent for single payer games, and if you dont mind nearer 30fps, multiplayer games too i went from one at 3.6 to a phenom ii 965 x4 3.4 ghz,and have noticed little increases, tho an i5 2400+ is a very high jump hehe

 

[kitsunestarwind]

Why not just buy your GTX670 and use it for the time being, While saving up to replace the CPU/Ram & MOBO a bit down the track
A GTX670 will make a difference in performance even if it is bottlenecked

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey HDmac,

Yes, as others pointed out your cpu will bottleneck your new GPU, well certainly the 670. Your system spec is almost identical to my own, and I struggled with getting a new system or a small upgrade to keep me going, eventually going for a 560ti to plug the gap.

The Q6600 is easily overclockable with your mobo. I have a P5n-e which is the little brother of your mobo, and 3.0ghz is easily reachable. Here's a link to a guide, and I'm sure you can find it usefull, and push your cpu a little. Anything over 3.0ghz will be a nice boost. My spec is definately old, but it plays all games bar BF3 maxed out. BF3 runs at 40-60 FPS on high!.

Anyway, here's the link :

http://www.overclock.net/t/146744/asus-p5n-e-sli-650i-thread

happy overclocking.

 

[HDmac]

Best answer selected by HDmac.

 

[joeman99]

Hey HDmac,

Yes, as others pointed out your cpu will bottleneck your new GPU, well certainly the 670. Your system spec is almost identical to my own, and I struggled with getting a new system or a small upgrade to keep me going, eventually going for a 560ti to plug the gap.

The Q6600 is easily overclockable with your mobo. I have a P5n-e which is the little brother of your mobo, and 3.0ghz is easily reachable. Here's a link to a guide, and I'm sure you can find it usefull, and push your cpu a little. Anything over 3.0ghz will be a nice boost. My spec is definately old, but it plays all games bar BF3 maxed out. BF3 runs at 40-60 FPS on high!.

Anyway, here's the link :

http://www.overclock.net/t/146744/asus-p5n-e-sli-650i-thread

happy overclocking.

Hey I have an a6152n HP . It too has a q6600. Besides doing the tapemod, can anyone tell me if I can overclock with this stock Mobo?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01083552&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=3445434

If not, tell me how ingenius or not this idea is?

Instead of buying a new mobo cpu and new ram since I prob wont be able to use my stock ram that came with this computer, (and if i could, would I want to?) could I just buy a new mobo for the time being and put the qq600 into that so I can overclock it to not bottleneck my nvidia gtx 460 ?'

Thanks

 

[joeman99]

BUMP PLEASE

 

[joeman99]

I'd really appreciate some help here. I am clueless about motherboards and just want to upgrade from a Q6600 to a processor that won't bottleneck my nvidia 460

Also I am considering buying a solid state drive. Will I see much performance if I hook it up to an old motherboard thats probably only SATA 1 or SATA 2 and not SATA 3 ? Meaning should I wait to buy a new mobo first or is it safe to buy a SSD?