Is the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz good for modern gaming?

[Baumber]

I am thinking about upgrading my computer by putting in an XFX radeon hd 7870. I am 17 and i dont have enough money to buy or even build my own computer. But I have never played games on it before.

So i just want to know how well will the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor perform with more modern games like Skyrim, CoDs, and Battlefield 3.

Thanks

 

[djangoringo]

It will do well with the 7870(a bit of bottleneck), if you can overclock the cpu for 3.2 GHZ it will be better and it's not that hard to do.

 

[socialfox]

The Q6600 is a decent processor but you can make up the gap between the newer processors by overclocking it.

Here is a gaming hierarchy list for CPUs:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

Judging by the list (and I hope it is accurate) the 955 and the Q6600 is very close to each other. That being said for me @ 1600x900 with a HD 7770 I max out Skyrim on ultra settings. If you play at that resolution or overclock the processor you should be able to do the same if not better due to the video card. I can't testify the performance on BF3, still have yet to play it because I a tend to stay away from video games during the school year :lol:

Can't stop once I get into a game.
Anyways if you can you could also consider an i3 processor, they are not too expensive and are quite good.

Edit: Forgot to mention a crucial part of my post, I run the 955 Black edition. Hehehe, bet you were thinking why the heck was I mentioning the 955 and comparing the HD 7770 with no processor.

 

[jaguarskx]

Yeah, OC that CPU if you can. But even if you can't it will still be fine for playing games.

 

[Baumber]

haha ok thanks dude, but my computer that i have still has the original dell motherboard from when my parents got it, so that is probably a pretty big bottleneck, so do you know of any other motherboards that would be better but are still kind of cheap?

 

[socialfox]

Here is a nice board:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/G31M-GS%20R2.0/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157337

The Asrock page states it can overclock up to great amounts and that it supports processors up to 105 watts which is exactly yours. I assume you still have DDR2 ram?

Edit: To be honest, you are kind of limited with motherboard choices since the LGA 775 series is no longer in production and so motherboards are also limited. That being said you could look on ebay for a motherboard?

 

[Baumber]

yea i do still have 4gb of ddr2 ram

 

[socialfox]

Okay you should be able to re-use that ram, anyways have you also considered a good CPU cooler? Overclocking comes at a price which is increased heat. You need a good cooler. However since you state money is a bit of an issue then the best bang for your bucks would be this cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

 

[Baumber]

iv heard horror stories about oc, i mean the last thing i want to tell my parents is that i melted the processor, and if i do decide to oc it, what frequency would be the best for both performance and safety

 

[jaguarskx]

Well get the graphics card first. It will likely be bottlenecked a little bit by the Q6600, but like I said, it will still be fine for playing games. Also most games are not bound to the CPU, they are limited by the graphics card.

If you feel that you want a little more performance, then go out and buy a motherboard that can allow you to overclock. You also need to buy a good heatsink because the one from Dell is not meant for overclocking.

I actually recommend not buying a new mobo & heatsink. You would be better off saving up money for a new system like Haswell when it comes out next year. I think you are better off doing that to get more bang for your buck. Yeah, gaming might suck a little for the short term, but completely modern CPU/Mobo/RAM with your Radeon HD 7870.

I do not believe in age discrimination so I will say to you what I said to a 12 year old....

Get a job you deadbeat.

 

[Baumber]

haha thanks ill see what i can do with that job

 

[socialfox]

Well I do not own the Q6600 so I can not tell you the exact settings or cautions of overclocking that processor. However read this:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2007/07/25/overclocking_intel_core_2_quad_q6600/1
^It's about overclocking your processor.

In addition, one thing I will contribute is no need to worry about melting the processor as long as the temperatures stay under a good range. I would say raise the voltage very slowly in small increments, I hear processors die or get damaged from way too much voltage. I mean WAY TOO MUCH voltage, more voltage than what you need won't damage the processor if its not too much but you should attempt to lower it.

Edit: You could consider a new build as well like Jaguarskx stated. Though the motherboard and heatsink should not cost way too much but factor in the video card and it piles on a bit. So your at a crossroad now and must decide which road to take.

Edit 2: Forgot to mention by the time you save up for a new build the HD 7870 should be cheaper since the new HD 8000 series will be coming out soon and will replace the 7k series.

 

[Baumber]

ok thanks i think i might stay with getting the 7870 and maybe upgrading to a new computer in a couple months

 

[socialfox]

ok thanks i think i might stay with getting the 7870 and maybe upgrading to a new computer in a couple months

Consider being a paper boy if there aren't any vacant jobs. I was a paper boy myself once, and the pay was $250 a month, though the actual money depends on your route and how many papers you deliver. I still remember walking through shivering winters while everyone was inside all cozy and everything watching me out their windows :lol:

 

[Baumber]

hahaha ill see what i can do

 

[cmi86]

I do own the Q6600 in my back up gamer and I will be the first to tell you that you will be lucky to get over 3 Ghz with this chip on any current production 775 board because they are based on one of 2 chip sets G31 or G41 and both mediocre overclockers at best. If you want extreme overclocking (3.0Ghz +)on the 775 platform I would look at a used P965X/P975X intel board or 680 or 780i nvidia board. That being said I use the ASUS P5G41T-M-LX Plus with my Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz and a Zalman CNPS cooler which seems to be capable of playing any game I have thrown at it with plenty playable frame rates on a GTX 260 216. Hope this helps if you have any question please feel free to ask.

 

[Scott_D_Bowen]

Yeah 2.80 GHz to 2.93 GHz is about the sweet spot for that die from memory.
I still have a Core 2 Duo E6600... somewhere.

They're (E6600 and Q6600) both 65nm parts aren't they?

 

[steddora]

I'll just let you in on this little piece of information. I actually just got done rebuilding a friends system, my older E8400 based system. Matched with a 550Ti, it's not bad. Now when I had it, I clocked it pretty decently with my modified GeminII cooler paired with two high CFM 120mm fans from silverstone. I got some really nice clocks out of it and at the time it was paired with an 8800GTS 512mb. The E8400 was one of the first .45nm chips if I remember correctly and I had a good batched chip. I did play all the hot games on that rig after I built it. It was retired to him on the cheap to help him get his Diablo 3 on without being on an old dell craptop with integrated craphics. However, the 8800GTS decided to retire itself to the big bin'o'dead cards.

Just a few weeks ago I tossed an eVGA 550Ti 1GB into the machine.

E8400 @ stock 3.0Ghz
4GB DDR2 667
MSI P7n Diamond (nVidia 680i Chipset)
eVGA GTX 550Ti
Sound Blaster X-Fi

Now, that does sound like a pretty kickin` machine for back in it's day. But in games like Rage, Dungeon Siege 3, Dead Island; it still maxes all the settings (aside from Anti-Aliasing for the most extremes) on them all at 1920x1080. I'm sure it'd handle BF3, maybe not acceptable; but it'd be playable at lower resolutions. I'll go with the general consensus and say don't worry about that processor much. Yeah; back in their day, the E8400 was a better gaming chip as not many games took advantage of a quad core processor and the extra 600Mhz of frequency did help. But as soon as more developers went into supporting triple and quad core platforms; the quad cores started becoming more capable to handle the games and would actually outperform the dual cores with higher clocks.

I wouldn't worry too awful much about that. I'd be more worried about finding out what you do have sitting in that machine you have. Will the power supply hold the extra wattage from the GPU? I'm almost positive it does, but does the machine have PCI Express lanes for the GPU? Does your power supply have the 6 or 8 pin connectors the video requires, and if not does the card come with the adapters? There's a few other things I'd look into before just slapping a new video card into a machine.



I hope this helps out; and don't stress on that processor. It's not going to affect your gameplay nearly as much as some other potential bottlenecks could.

 

[Baumber]

Best answer selected by Baumber.

 

[Oricon]

Hey there,I have an Intel Pentium D 830,GeForce 430 GT and 2GB Ram i am thinking to upgrade my CPU to an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (8MB Cache).I wanna make my pc gaming and i know the Quad core Cpu's are very good i am gonna upgrade and my Ram too soon but first i wanna ask if the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 can run Lord of the rings online,star wars the old republic and league of legends at:Lord of the rings online at Low-Medium graphics with 40-70 FPS (currently running at 10-45FPS its enjoyable)Star wars the old republic i have seen some forums telling i can run at 40-70 FPS at open world not sure what setting i think low-medium and league of legends at 40-70 FPS (currently running at lowest 20rarely and highest 71 with A-A off(Anti-Alliasing).I wanna make my computer Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 4GB Ram and GeForce 430 GT if the Reply's that u give me is gonna be like:"Yes you can play them'' Or "U can play league of legends and lord of the rings online at those FPS 40-70 but not sure about Star wars the old republic"Also i dont care a lot about Star wars the old republic just asking and my Mainboard is compatible i have check it.

 

[Baumber]

Just letting you know this is a very old post and it can get you in trouble in forum for bringing back old topics! since i posted this almost 3 years ago, i have bought a new computer that is specifically built for gaming. it was definitely worth the upgrade!

But anyways, if you do not want to buy a new computer then there are 3 ways you can go about this.

1) I would recommend buying the 4gb of ram for sure along with this cpu: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Processor-2-83GHz-1333MHz-LGA775/dp/B0059E05FM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1440630382&sr=8-2&keywords=intel+core+2+quad

its a lot faster than the q6600 and it does not cost that much more. Also I would recommend upgrading your graphics card to this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127788

these few upgrades would bring a new life to your computer and it would be noticeably faster. These games would run at medium to high settings if not higher and it would be a much better experience.

2) you can also buy the q6600 and a new cpu cooler so that it can be overclocked (but ONLY if you have a self built computer that ALLOWS OVERCLOCKING!!). also buy the 4gb ram. either way i do recommend upgrading your graphics card. It will be a huge upgrade for your system and you will not regret the $70 after the rebate. here is a great, cheap cpu cooler that will work great for your computer: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&cm_re=evo_212-_-35-103-099-_-Product


3) if you dont care to do either of the other 2 upgrades, which i STRONGLY recommend you do! then definitely get that q6600 and the 4gb ram, there will be a difference but it wont be game changing like the other 2 suggestions would be.

 

[Oricon]

Okey First of all thanks for the reply.
My computer is very old so i just wanna to make a good upgrade and i dont wanna to cost me a lot also i am gonna upgrade and my GPU to a GTX 660 1GB at the future and the Q9550 Quad core cost more than the Q6600 also is the Q6600 better than Intel Pentium D 830 and better than Intel Pentium G3250 and i have find the Q6600 with 30$ at Ebay and i believe since i upgrade everythink that i want and i am gonna got CPU:Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600,Ram:4GB and GPU:GTX 660 1GB my computer is gonna be gaming?

 

[_RaZ_]

Recently bought a used Dell Optiplex 760 with following specs:
1. Dell Optiplex 760 Core2 Quad Q6600 8MB Cache
2. 8GB DDR2 667Mhz
3. used EVGA GT430, 1GB DDR3, 128bits, with 96 CUDA Cores, (low profile)

Since installing EVGA GT430, i' m able to play GTA4, Entropia Universe on by-default MEDIUM settings. Haven't tried GTA5 and a lot of other heavy games but i' m pretty sure, Q6600 + GT430 128bits + 8GB DDR2, i will be able to play almost every old and new game on High, Medium and Low settings.

There is very little space to install a heavy duty graphics card on this Dell Optiplex 760 without any serious modification.
The whole system with Q6600, 8GB DDR2 RAM and GT430 1GB DDR3 128bits is now capable enough to play almost every old or new game with HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW settings.

GTX750 2GB DDR5 is about 150 Dollars.
GT740 2GB DDR3 is for 100 $$ and
R7 240 2GB DDR3 is for 80 $$.
where as the used graphics card i managed to get is
GT430 1GB DDR3 is for JUST 26 $$.

The whole computer system with Mouse, Keyboard, Display etc cost me about 180 $$.
GTX750 is definitely much better than GT430 but 26 $$ vs 150 $$ makes me think, that, when im getting PhysX with GT430 and the game performance is also good enough than why would i get GTX750 which may not work well in this Dell Optiplex 760 and i may end up wasting money.

Check out the following youtube links.
this is when i was searching for a low profile graphics card and saw GT430 ad on OLX.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nvidia+gt430

 

[ballixxe]

Recently bought a used Dell Optiplex 760 with following specs:
1. Dell Optiplex 760 Core2 Quad Q6600 8MB Cache
2. 8GB DDR2 667Mhz
3. used EVGA GT430, 1GB DDR3, 128bits, with 96 CUDA Cores, (low profile)

Since installing EVGA GT430, i' m able to play GTA4, Entropia Universe on by-default MEDIUM settings. Haven't tried GTA5 and a lot of other heavy games but i' m pretty sure, Q6600 + GT430 128bits + 8GB DDR2, i will be able to play almost every old and new game on High, Medium and Low settings.

There is very little space to install a heavy duty graphics card on this Dell Optiplex 760 without any serious modification.
The whole system with Q6600, 8GB DDR2 RAM and GT430 1GB DDR3 128bits is now capable enough to play almost every old or new game with HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW settings.

GTX750 2GB DDR5 is about 150 Dollars.
GT740 2GB DDR3 is for 100 $$ and
R7 240 2GB DDR3 is for 80 $$.
where as the used graphics card i managed to get is
GT430 1GB DDR3 is for JUST 26 $$.

The whole computer system with Mouse, Keyboard, Display etc cost me about 180 $$.
GTX750 is definitely much better than GT430 but 26 $$ vs 150 $$ makes me think, that, when im getting PhysX with GT430 and the game performance is also good enough than why would i get GTX750 which may not work well in this Dell Optiplex 760 and i may end up wasting money.

Check out the following youtube links.
this is when i was searching for a low profile graphics card and saw GT430 ad on OLX.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nvidia+gt430

Gaming with a Q6600 since 2008....still going strong. OC'd to 3.01 (from day one) on room air. Radeon R9208...with a bottleneck, but still playing Star Wars Battlefront 3 @ ultra with no stutter....even in heavy action. Granted, I have a max FPS of maybe 50, but who cares. The Q6600 is by far one of the best CPU's ever built.

ASUS P5E mobo
Radeon R9 280 3 gig
8 gigs DDR2
500 watts PSU

 

[andrewdrinnan]

Gaming with a Q6600 since 2008....still going strong. OC'd to 3.01 (from day one) on room air. Radeon R9208...with a bottleneck, but still playing Star Wars Battlefront 3 @ ultra with no stutter....even in heavy action. Granted, I have a max FPS of maybe 50, but who cares. The Q6600 is by far one of the best CPU's ever built.

ASUS P5E mobo
Radeon R9 280 3 gig
8 gigs DDR2
500 watts PSU

Same here.....

Built my Q6600 rig late 2008.

Antec 900-2
Q6600 @ 3ghz
Originally with a GTX260 Black Edition, upgraded to the HD6970 in 2011
4gb ram ddr2 (the let down of my system since my board only handles 4gb)
Corsair tx650
Samsung EVO 840 SSD

Lapped my processor about a year after having it and had it clocked as high as 3.4Ghz on air but been running it at 3ghz almost everyday of it's life. Amazing CPU