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Sitting on Q6600

W

wingnut691983

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 7, 2009
Messages
78
Hi,

I have been sitting on my Q6600 for a very long time now. Its been a great CPU and I havent seen any real reason to upgrade to the i series yet. The bottleneck has always been the graphics card.

Are people starting to move away from the core2 series yet or should it still last me for some time to come?

I ask this because I am thinking about upgrading my video card (for about the 4th time since I got this mobo/cpu (started with X850XTX --> 2x X850XTX --> 1950XTX --> 8800GT ---> 2x 8800GT which I currently have and am thinking about either 5850 or 5870)

Thanks
 
Lots of threads on upgrading from a Quad Core2Duo to i5/i7. Just search through the threads.

It really depends on what you do (video editing, gaming, upgrade or bragging rights bug bit you, etc). Also need to know if your OC'ing your Q6600 or not (put you specs in you signature it helps). I'm guessing from your SLI use you game a bit. If you have >3GHz Core2Quad you should be good for a while still. Get a new GPU (5850 is good for 1920x1080 gaming, higher resolutions and eyefinity need something better). If you edit video or fold a lot then getting a i7 can be worth it. Lots of benchmarks showing what you can expect.
 
get a 5870 and a corsair H50 and overclock your gpu to 3.6ghz and you will be set for the next couple of years
 
Specs:

C2Q6600 3.2Ghz (stock)
4gb OCZ DDR2
150GB WD Raptor
2x8800GT SLI
550W OCZ Fatality PSU
Dell U2410 24" Monitor 1920x1200

Seeing that, and what you said about res, would the 5850 not be a worthy upgrade for my resolution? Actually I noticed a stiff hit to performance when I went from 1680x1024 (or something like that) from my 20" acer I had with the 8800s

I'm pretty convinced I should be good for a while with my cpu, specially given that I havent overclocked it. Need a case with better airflow before I go there.
 
wingnut691983 said:
I ask this because I am thinking about upgrading my video card (for about the 4th time since I got this mobo/cpu (started with X850XTX --> 2x X850XTX --> 1950XTX --> 8800GT ---> 2x 8800GT which I currently have and am thinking about either 5850 or 5870)
Click to expand...

I'm a bit curious which Core2 Motherboard you're running where you've run both Crossfire and SLI configurations on the same board. Prior to x58/i7 SLI only worked on Nvidia chipsets and Crossfire only worked on Intel or ATI chipsets (with few exceptions like skulltrail, etc).

As far as the Q6600 goes. It's not a bad chip but the thing is that it has a very LOW stock clockspeed. You are looking at 2.4Ghz at stock which IMO is not fast enough and will likely represent a bottleneck.

3Ghz would be what I would consider a minimum acceptable overclock, though really you should be shooting for 3.3-3.4 as a minimum and 3.6-3.8 if possible. At that speed it shouldn't be a bottleneck.

wingnut691983 said:
C2Q6600 3.2Ghz (stock)
Click to expand...

Stock on a Q6600 is definitely 2.4Ghz, so either you are, in fact, overclocking, or you misidentified your chip.
 
Typo on the 3.2, just handed someone a P4 3.2 ghz chip so for some reason that was lodged in my mind.

And I have replaced the mobo once or twice, however with the X8500's those didnt generally use integrated support circuitry as all the crossfire cabling was on the outside....remember that funky and awkward crossfire cable before it was internal? :)
 
Well a 2.4GHz Q6600 really shows it's age to be quite honest.

But if you overclock that thing to at least 3.2-3.6GHz, you quickly bring it up in performance to be competitive among most quads aside from the i series.

Q6600 @ 2.4GHz vs Q6600 @ 3.6GHz is literally night and day in games for me.
 
I can't comment on stock performance of the Q6600 as I had mine overclocked to 3.4Ghz from day one, I just upgraded to a i7 930 overclocked to 4.2Ghz and I immediately noticed a difference in general usage, I haven't had a chance to play many games on it yet (I'm currently trying my best to finish GTA 4 before my wife comes back from China) because I've only had it up and running for a little over a week, but with 3 x 24" monitors running 5760x1080 on my Q6600 + 5870 there were a few games that I had to either drop the res, drop the detail or both, I'm not sure how these same games compare with my current i7 setup, but I suspect that it may not be much different.

I'll load up Dirt 2 when I get home and let you know how that runs as that was one of the games I had to drop both on.
 
Running my Q6600 @ 3Ghz currently, with a GTX 260 and my system runs fine at a slightly lower 1920x1080 resolution. Based on the CPU head to head done here at the [H], I'm having no problems thinking I'll stick with this setup for at least another year. I don't rip, burn movies, do any encoding or anything like that. I do regular document creation, surfing and gaming. For my needs this system still rocks just fine.
 
I am in the same boat as you OP. My CPU is roughly the same as the Q6600, but I have had mine at 3.2 - 3.5 Ghz since day 1. I am looking to get a single video card in the near future, but trying to wait and see what happens when we get more dx11 titles out. Also the refreshes of the ati cards should bring prices down on the 5870s and 5850s if you can wait.
 
GotNoRice said:
I'm a bit curious which Core2 Motherboard you're running where you've run both Crossfire and SLI configurations on the same board. Prior to x58/i7 SLI only worked on Nvidia chipsets and Crossfire only worked on Intel or ATI chipsets (with few exceptions like skulltrail, etc).

As far as the Q6600 goes. It's not a bad chip but the thing is that it has a very LOW stock clockspeed. You are looking at 2.4Ghz at stock which IMO is not fast enough and will likely represent a bottleneck.

3Ghz would be what I would consider a minimum acceptable overclock, though really you should be shooting for 3.3-3.4 as a minimum and 3.6-3.8 if possible. At that speed it shouldn't be a bottleneck.



Stock on a Q6600 is definitely 2.4Ghz, so either you are, in fact, overclocking, or you misidentified your chip.
Click to expand...

Actually, SLI now works on pre i7 motherboards.
http://www.xdevs.com/eplugins/content/content.php?content.30

Works just fine for me on my P5Q-E.. 2x 8800GT in SLI :)
 
I found a nice jump when I moved from my Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz, to my X6 1090T @ 4.3...notice a big difference in some games and a monumental difference in video ripping/editing.
 
wingnut691983 said:
Specs:

C2Q6600 3.2Ghz (stock)
4gb OCZ DDR2
150GB WD Raptor
2x8800GT SLI
550W OCZ Fatality PSU
Dell U2410 24" Monitor 1920x1200

Seeing that, and what you said about res, would the 5850 not be a worthy upgrade for my resolution? Actually I noticed a stiff hit to performance when I went from 1680x1024 (or something like that) from my 20" acer I had with the 8800s

I'm pretty convinced I should be good for a while with my cpu, specially given that I havent overclocked it. Need a case with better airflow before I go there.
Click to expand...

Just overclock your cpu and then you can pair it with a faster video card without fear of bottlenecking it.

If heat/airflow is a concern, use a simple watercooling kit like the H50 or the Coolit Eco for your cpu. Get that cpu up to 3.6 ghz and you should be good to go with either a 5850 or 5870. I can't really recommend GTX 4xx series for you if your airflow is bad because those cards get really hot.
 
I recently upgraded from my 2x8800GT SLI setup to a 5870 on my q6600@3.4 and it's made a huge difference in gaming. At 1920x1200 you will be able to max out any game on the market. The only two games that bottlenecks my cpu are Bad Company 2 and GTA4 (playing at 5760x0180). I ended up buying 3 monitors for eyefinity and highly recommend it -- you already have an awesome monitor with a displayport btw. I do want to upgrade my cpu, but I'm trying to hold out for the next generation socket before I make the jump. I would highly recommend overclocking to 3Ghz (simply run a 333fsb with a very tiny voltage bump on the cpu) and upgrading your graphic card. That will breath a lot of new life into your system.
 
I think a lot of people are sitting on their core 2s. The reason - When core 2 came out this board was absolutely flooded with users asking advice etc.. When the new i7 came out there was a bump an activity but not nearly anywhere near the interest and post frenzy. Maybe they went someplace else. This place is dead now compared to the first year of C2D;s even the second year. So based on that I think a lot of people are still happy with their C2D's.

Not overclocking that Q6600 to 3GHz or more is a crime. It will do it on the stock heatsink and cost you nothing. Then decide what you want to do.
 
I'm not a big gamer but of the games I have played my Q6600@3.6 doesn't even come close to bottlenecking them. My 8800GT on the other hand is a completely different story. Not once have I wished for more CPU power for gaming. I'd love to have an overclocked to hell and back i7 for other things I do, but gaming is not one of them.

As recommended by others, overclock the Q6600 to at least 3Ghz. If anything grab a decent heatsink to replace the stock heatsink (if you are running the stock heatsink) and go a bit higher to 3.2 or 3.4. It's almost impossible to not get at least 3Ghz out of the Q6600 and there is usually no problem getting 3.2.

[H] has done articles on CPU speed and core scaling on games and they have shown that in order to bottleneck something like a Q6600 requires the CPU to be under 3Ghz and using at least two high end video cards in SLI or Crossfire. The vast majority of games are going to be GPU limited as long as you have a moderately clocked quad core.

 
wingnut, give the OC a quick try and see how it feels - just set your FSB to 355 and increase your CPU voltage up by 0.1. For 80 - 90% of the Q6600 CPUs, that will get you an easy and stable 3.2 GHz.
 
I've had my Q6600 for nearly 2.5 years now and have no "need" to upgrade. My current setup has been by far the best I've had, both in terms of performance and trouble free operation.

That said, I do have the upgrade "itch" not for the added performance, but mainly to play around with the intricacies of overclocking the newer processors/chipsets. It's a minor enough itch that I don't need to scratch it just yet though.
 
I actually just upgraded to the q6600, from an e6550. Jumping to quad core made a night and day difference alone.

I don't see myself needing to upgrade for at least a year, cpu wise. The only thing I feel I'm missing out on is ddr3, usb3, and sata6gb. That and sli/xfire on the same board.

I'm stuck with sli only for the moment, and I really want to 5870 xfire, so I can give eyefinity a shot. But all that can wait, honestly.

Now if only I weren't on a 650i board, and could OC the q6600 worth a damn.
 
SpeedyVV said:
Man, based on that review, my Q6600 which I think is great, really sucks the big one :(
Click to expand...

If it's still getting the job done for you, and does everything you need it to do, then don't worry about. I will say this though, having a q9550 myself (which I wish they would have included in the article) I am little envious of the i7 users after seeing all the test results in that article. I love that article, I have spent many hours studying it.
 
i was recently faced with the same decision with my q6600. i applied a modest overclock (3.0Ghz) and the machine responds much quicker to my commands, programs open faster, and i picked up a few FPS in games. i can't exactly quantify these findings though.

try to OC it a bit and see what you find. then if you're still not satisfied, you can upgrade.
 
wingnut691983 said:
Hi,

I have been sitting on my Q6600 for a very long time now. Its been a great CPU and I havent seen any real reason to upgrade to the i series yet. The bottleneck has always been the graphics card.

Are people starting to move away from the core2 series yet or should it still last me for some time to come?

I ask this because I am thinking about upgrading my video card (for about the 4th time since I got this mobo/cpu (started with X850XTX --> 2x X850XTX --> 1950XTX --> 8800GT ---> 2x 8800GT which I currently have and am thinking about either 5850 or 5870)

Thanks
Click to expand...

I think upgrading to a 5850 or 5870 (or a GTX470) would give you the biggest bang for your buck. This Anandtech test of the 5870 from the introduction last fall included the 8800GT (non-SLI) and it's a huge improvement. Even if you're getting 200% of the single 8800 frame rate, a single 5870 is going to run more than 50% faster. You didn't mention what you play, but on something like Crysis or Far Cry 2 it's going to be the difference between unplayable and playable.

The CPU performance from the Legion Hardware tests show pretty equal performance at the same clock speeds for each CPU, with the single exception of the C2Q running Crysis. They don't explain the abnormality, and it's so out of whack I gotta question if there was a bug in the test. In every other test I've seen the differences between the i5/i7 and C2Q at the same clock speeds were minor.

If I were in your shoes I'd think about leapfrogging this generation of CPU's. Ride your C2Q for another year, year and a half, and see what the next-gen 32nm chips look like.
 
Yea im going strong with my q6600. Love it. I can play any game pretty much maxed at 1920x1200. So ive had a hard time convincing myself to spend all the $$$ for a platform change.
 
There's a new thread like this about every week or so. :p Anyway, I have to change my previous answer a bit. We just got new systems at work and they have Xeon W3520 (i.e. i7 920) quads in them. These new machines are dead silent and still fast as hell (2.933 GHz in turbo). The only reason I'd consider upgrading my home Q6600 to an i7 is for the silence. I have a TRUE on my Q6600 with the requisite 120mm fan and the CPU still cooks. This i7 is nice. I can see what people are saying about the i7 snappiness. Performance with my Q6600 is fine but silence would be good for a change.

BillParrish said:
This place is dead now compared to the first year of C2D;s even the second year. So based on that I think a lot of people are still happy with their C2D's.
Click to expand...

Interesting observation. I've noticed this myself. The Intel board now looks like the AMD board did after Conroe.
 
Last edited:
SpeedyVV said:
Man, based on that review, my Q6600 which I think is great, really sucks the big one :(
Click to expand...

I don't trust that review at all. They have the Q6600 at 3.6GHz being beat out by a Sempron 100 at 2.0GHz in most of the games. Sometimes by huge numbers.
 
RamonGTP said:
I've had my Q6600 for nearly 2.5 years now and have no "need" to upgrade. My current setup has been by far the best I've had, both in terms of performance and trouble free operation.

That said, I do have the upgrade "itch" not for the added performance, but mainly to play around with the intricacies of overclocking the newer processors/chipsets. It's a minor enough itch that I don't need to scratch it just yet though.
Click to expand...

Yep, been fighting that same itch since the core i7 chips were released... :D
 
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