Video card recommendation for stock Q6600?

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brinstar117

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
213
Computer specifications:

Q6600 @ 2.4GHz (I have the old B3 stepping and am not planning on overclocking.)
Radeon HD 4870 512MB
6GB DDR2
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R v1.0 (single 16x PCI-e 1.0 slot)
Seasonic 80Plus Power Supply M12II 620 BRONZE

My computer runs most of the games I want to play at reduced settings. I would ideally like to get a card that will let me play Civilization V on max settings at 1920x1080.

The most demanding game I seem to own is Saints Row the Third which does not run smoothly. I think Saints Row has known performance issues with certain video cards and my current one seems to be one of them. I plan on getting Company of Heroes 2 when it comes out. I unfortunately could not run the open beta due to a bug that made the game crash with Radeon 4870's.

AMD or Nvidia are fine, I'm looking for the best value. Ideally I don't want to spend more than $150 but am willing to go up to $200. Used is okay. Thanks for any suggestions!
 
I had a q6600 @ 3.3GHz and a HD 4870.

I kept running into CPU limited games, so I upgraded to a 3570k. The 4870 still serves me decently. Saints Row ran perfectly.

What I mean to say is, I'm not sure which piece of hardware is holding you back, because my overclocked q6600 definitely was.
 
You are probably having issues due to low VRAM. With that CPU I would go no further than an HD 7790 1gb or 2gb but maybe if I were you I would purchase with the future in mind and try to find a good deal on a 7850 2gb or GTX 660 2gb.
 
brinstar117 said:
A new video card won't let you play Civ V on max settings at that with your setup. It'll be running slow yet because Civ V is wayyy more CPU demanding than GPU. Especially getting into longer games. Pretty much all strategy games are more CPU intensive than graphics cards.

I would say to give overclocking your q6600 a try first. If you're uncomfortable with that imo a new CPU would be a bigger upgrade.
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Yea, like samson says try Overclocking the Q6600 if you are up to it. They Overclock really well
 
Yep.. I ran a q6700 in Eyefinity with a HD5850 on a Gigabyte P965 DS3 Rev 3.3 as it had bios settings to puch PCI Express to near 2.0 as the board is 1.1a

The q6600 is still enough with tuning but your video card needs a refresh with something 1Gb or more in vram

This is an issue to a point (GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R v1.0 (single 16x PCI-e 1.0 slot) that 1.0 as i recall issues with 8800GT's not liking it.. i had to play with my PCI Express as to bump it over to 101 or 102mhz and run in Turbo mode to open up bandwidth in the PCI Express lane and that was 1.1a

You need to reseach that 1.0 and see what can be done with it at the bios level as the standard is 2.0 now with most video cards.
 
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I have almost the same specs, I'm leaning on buying a 7850 2gb when they slash prices to make way for their new cards in a few months. My Q6600 is overclocked to 3ghz...btw

From what I read, a Q6600 shouldn't bottleneck a 7850.
 
fanboy said:
Yep.. I ran a q6700 in Eyefinity with a HD5850 on a Gigabyte P965 DS3 Rev 3.3 as it had bios settings to puch PCI Express to near 2.0 as the board is 1.1a

The q6600 is still enough with tuning but your video card needs a refresh with something 1Gb or more in vram

This is an issue to a point (GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R v1.0 (single 16x PCI-e 1.0 slot) that 1.0 as i recall issues with 8800GT's not liking it.. i had to play with my PCI Express as to bump it over to 101 or 102mhz and run in Turbo mode to open up bandwidth in the PCI Express lane and that was 1.1a

You need to reseach that 1.0 and see what can be done with it at the bios level as the standard is 2.0 now with most video cards.
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I used to have a 8800GT and it was stuck at 1x transfer speed. I tweaked so many settings but was never able get it to work properly.

My upgrade path for video cards for this motherboard:

EVGA 7600GT 256MB (blown caps)
BFG 7900GS OC 512MB (artifacts galore)
PNY 8800GT 512MB (stuck at 1x and eventually wouldn't output video)
PNY 9800GT 1024MB (got from RMA'ed 8800GT, eventually wouldn't output video, died one month after warranty expired)

Basically every card eventually died. The Diamond HD 4870 has served me well for the last 2 years. I got it brand new but for cheap. I think it only cost me $45.

I'm trying to hold off on building a new computer as I don't game nearly as often as I used to. Civilization V turns take awhile during later eras but I don't mind as I watch shows on a separate laptop screen while playing. It's still faster than playing Civilization IV on my old Northwood Pentium IV. :D

My Q6600 might overclock well, but I doubt it as it's the original B3 stepping. I might try it someday but it already runs quite warm at stock and I only have an original Scythe Ninja cooler. I like to keep my computer quiet and have the CPU fan on low RPM. The weird thing is that people say that the 4870 is a loud video card, but it only has a 1 or 2 second burst of fan activity every 15 minutes or so while under load.
 
If the Q6600 is like a stock AMD 965 in terms of performance, go with the GTX760 for $250 with a dual fan cooler. I run a GTX 670 PE and my performance jumped by 70-80% in most games from my GTX560ti 2GB.

Still, when frame rates drop it is due to my CPU being a bottleneck. But luckily most games run just fine. The 760 is slower but cheaper. Put the extra money towards a better CPU/motherboard.
 
If the Q6600 is like a stock AMD 965 in terms of performance, go with the GTX760 for $250 with a dual fan cooler. I run a GTX 670 PE and my performance jumped by 70-80% in most games from my GTX560ti 2GB.

Still, when frame rates drop it is due to my CPU being a bottleneck. But luckily most games run just fine. The 760 is slower but cheaper. Put the extra money towards a better CPU/motherboard.
 
If the Q6600 is like a stock AMD 965 in terms of performance, go with the GTX760 for $250 with a dual fan cooler. I run a GTX 670 PE and my performance jumped by 70-80% in most games from my GTX560ti 2GB.

Still, when frame rates drop it is due to my CPU being a bottleneck. But luckily most games run just fine. The 760 is slower but cheaper. Put the extra money towards a better CPU/motherboard.
 
I suggest an upgrade in your CPU/MOBO/RAM civ 5 is heavily CPU limited at any resolution. The biggest gain you will see is in an upgrade to a i5 gaming rig.
 
I would still go for the GPU then if the CPU can't keep up then consider replacing that. You will need both anyways and you should start where the bottleneck will be the worst. I believe its VRAM.
 
I tried overclocking and got to 3GHz @ 1.3v (stock voltage) and it looks stable. I can't seem to go any higher even with increased voltage. The CPU reaches 75° C under load which is a bit high but not surprising given that my HSF isn't very aggressive.

Overall, I am pleased since now Saints Row runs smoothly albeit on nearly the lowest settings. I'm almost tempted to source a G0 chip to see how far I can push it, but that would probably require me to get a better cooler.
 
I wouldn't upgrade that Q6600 platform at all. 3ghz should give you a noticable increase, good work. It seems that the CPU was bottlenecking Saints Row. I know when I play Saints Row 2 it gets choppy at times with a Dual Core Celeron G1610.

If you are planning on playing more recent titles you should look into upgrading what you have. 2500k's can be found on the cheap and offer a nice increase from what you have.
 
Here to post <3 for the good ol Q6600. @ 3.0/1333 they can still handle most games. Civ V is indeed one of the more CPU intensive games you can play atm. Also from what I read even people with beefed out i7 systems can see some lag in late games on big maps. the game is just not coded efficiently for that late/big game.

+1 to not bothering to upgrade your current q6600. 3.0 is its super duper sweet spot.

If you did upgrade to an i5 gaming system you might be disappointed seeing games still GPU limited or running those that will tax any system. (remember crysis first few years after it was launched?)
 
Rvenger said:
What HSF are you running OP? You might be able to push it a little further.
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I'm using the original Scythe Ninja Cooler. I got it so that my computer could run as quietly as possible. There's an RPM toggle on it for LOW/MED/HIGH speeds and I just kept it on low which is silent from where I am sitting.

I put it on high RPM when I overclocked my Q6600, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference in temperature. I'll play around with some settings to see if I can keep it quiet but overclocked.

I think I can successfully hold off on upgrading for awhile. I didn't realize how CPU limited I actually was. Thanks everyone, it's been a learning experience. :D
 
I would upgrade the mobo myself as there are socket 775 boards that surport your q6600 and offer surport for 2.0 video cards as 1.0 and 1.1a are dead and some of the newer video cards are 3.0 now so thats giving up alot of bandwidth.
 
crowgwu said:
They Overclock really well
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Great post!
 
In this scenario I'd base my purchace on a potential upgrade. It can't hurt to go overboard on the GPU so that you can still make decent use of it when you eventually upgrade your base system.
 
Thanks for all of the recommendations. At the moment I think I won't sink any more money into the computer. Now that my chip is overclocked it will satisfy my needs until I build a new computer. But I have no concrete plans for one.

I built this back in July 2007. I upgraded from a single core Northwood Pentium IV to a Q6600. :eek:

The jump in performance was the largest I have ever experienced. I doubt my next build will be quite so amazing but who knows what the future will bring. Maybe I'll get another year or two out of it. It's already the longest serving desktop I've had by a two year margin. I don't really need much as I spend more than 90% of my computer time on a Core 2 Duo 1.86 GHz laptop and it serves all my needs.
 
brinstar117 said:
I'm using the original Scythe Ninja Cooler. I got it so that my computer could run as quietly as possible. There's an RPM toggle on it for LOW/MED/HIGH speeds and I just kept it on low which is silent from where I am sitting.

I put it on high RPM when I overclocked my Q6600, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference in temperature. I'll play around with some settings to see if I can keep it quiet but overclocked.

I think I can successfully hold off on upgrading for awhile. I didn't realize how CPU limited I actually was. Thanks everyone, it's been a learning experience. :D
Click to expand...

IMight want to try blowing some air through that cooler also. I had a similar one with my old q6600 build and the dust was holding it back.

just fyi.
 
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