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Q6600 and Bad Company 2

Lonz

Lonz

Lonz

Associate
Joined
29 Jun 2005
Posts
1,013
Location
Newcastle
I was thinking about getting a completely new rig altogether from the following spec

Windows 7
Q6600 @ 3.2
2x 2GB 1066Mhz RAM (I've got another 4x1GB 1066mhz sticks lying around somewhere)
8800GTX
Abit IP35-Pro
X-fi Gamer
620W Corsair PSU

However after a bit of research, I'm wondering whether most of it will be fine for now. If I was to upgrade to a 5970, and buy an SSD (will be PSU be fine with that?) then I'd probably save myself a lot of money and gain most of the performance increases rather than spending twice as much on a new system altogether.

I've been thinking of getting a 1920x1080 display in the near future, and will need some extra graphics juice to power it. The above system as there abouts been in place for around 3 years now, and I feel I've got the most out of it.

Will the PSU cope?
Will adding a 2x1GB sticks increase performance (assuming the overclock is still stable, and is that likely?)
Is the Q6600 likely to bottleneck at all, on say Bad Company 2 and FSX?

My thinking is I'll always be able to upgrade the CPU/Mobo/RAM when something big comes along (eg Sandybridge?).

Lots of questions, appreciate if people can cast their opinions on the matter.

Cheers.
 
Err, well im no expert on this subject, but I have a qx9650 which I was running at stock 3ghz.

I recently bought a 5870, and Iv realised, that my qx9650 is not fast enough to keep up with the gpu.

Im not saying its bottlenecking it, no, im just saying that the gpu out guns my cpu. Im now looking to overclocking my qx9650 from 3ghz, up to as close as I can get to 4ghz (will probably end up with 3.8ghz if lucky)

What im sating is your new 5970 will still run great on your rig, but I believe your cpu will be badly out gunned by the gpu....

Maybe some one with experience of these cpu's will have more to say.

Im sure your still have a good experince, but my two cents would be to save a bit of money and pair the cpu with a card moe in its league, maybe a 5870?
 
Stick with what you got for now and sell that 4x1gb ram soon whilst the prices are still high.
Maybe look in to getting that q6600 to 3.2-3.6 ghz at those clocks the Q6600 is still a more than capable cpu.

You aren't going to see a massive improvement running 6gb ram over 4gb.
 
Running a q6600 at 3.6 and an overclocked 5850. Do not feel like it is bottlenecked at all, I mean c'mon it's a quad core at 3.6ghz. Sure I could prob spend 500 odd quid on a i7 rig and get a few more frames but I do not play enough to justify it.

I would rather put that £500 quid in the bank and then when a game comes out that I really love with awesome graphics that ACTUALLY REQUIRE an upgrade.
 
deadkomodo said:
Running a q6600 at 3.6 and an overclocked 5850. Do not feel like it is bottlenecked at all, I mean c'mon it's a quad core at 3.6ghz. Sure I could prob spend 500 odd quid on a i7 rig and get a few more frames but I do not play enough to justify it.

I would rather put that £500 quid in the bank and then when a game comes out that I really love with awesome graphics that ACTUALLY REQUIRE an upgrade.
Click to expand...

This, but I have a 5770 instead of 5850. All I play at the moment is Starcraft 2 and MAME games - Which actually require a beast of a CPU - california speed, san francisco rush etc
 
I am sort of in the same boat. I have my Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz for now and I was looking to upgrade my HD4870 soon. I am looking at the HD5870 myself but again, will this be worth the upgrade? Shall I just wait and see what happens in the future?
 
smeaney said:
I am sort of in the same boat. I have my Q6600 @ 3.2Ghz for now and I was looking to upgrade my HD4870 soon. I am looking at the HD5870 myself but again, will this be worth the upgrade? Shall I just wait and see what happens in the future?
Click to expand...

I also have an HD4870 but Im waiting till the end of the year for the ATI 6000 series to be released.
 
malachi said:
I also have an HD4870 but Im waiting till the end of the year for the ATI 6000 series to be released.
Click to expand...

I am trying to wait but I dont know... Had this setup almost 2 years now, thats the longest I have had a setup I believe. I am trying to wait for the new CPUs (post i7 stuff) and new GFXs but I am really wanting to upgrade!
 
Lonz said:
I was thinking about getting a completely new rig altogether from the following spec

Windows 7
Q6600 @ 3.2
2x 2GB 1066Mhz RAM (I've got another 4x1GB 1066mhz sticks lying around somewhere)
8800GTX
Abit IP35-Pro
X-fi Gamer
620W Corsair PSU

However after a bit of research, I'm wondering whether most of it will be fine for now. If I was to upgrade to a 5970, and buy an SSD (will be PSU be fine with that?) then I'd probably save myself a lot of money and gain most of the performance increases rather than spending twice as much on a new system altogether.

I've been thinking of getting a 1920x1080 display in the near future, and will need some extra graphics juice to power it. The above system as there abouts been in place for around 3 years now, and I feel I've got the most out of it.

Will the PSU cope?
Will adding a 2x1GB sticks increase performance (assuming the overclock is still stable, and is that likely?)
Is the Q6600 likely to bottleneck at all, on say Bad Company 2 and FSX?

My thinking is I'll always be able to upgrade the CPU/Mobo/RAM when something big comes along (eg Sandybridge?).

Lots of questions, appreciate if people can cast their opinions on the matter.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

BC2 doesn't stress out my stock speed 5850 at all. Afterburner's GPU utilisation graph shows it under 40% most of the time @ 1920x1080, DX11 all high (HBAO off). CPU speed has a big impact on FPS though.

Go with your first option: SSD and GPU, though I'd not bother with a dual GPU card. Get a 5850 or GTX460 IMO, see what is coming out at the end of the year. You can wait forever in the tech game, there is always better coming out :)
 
The only reason to upgrade your system is if it's not doing its job satisfactorily.

The 8800GTX is an aging card though so a new GPU and you'll be in good shape for the next while.No reason you can't get another year or so out of the rest of your system.
 
DONT BE STUPID/if all ur doing is gaming then keep the q6660 and upgrade ur graphics card and a ssd ,and that should last u atleast a 1year,i upgraded from a q6660 a few months ago to a i7930,and to be honest i wish i ah jst bought a decent cooler along with 2x5870,i would have saved myself £2000 ohwell i learned the hard way,jesus its a quad processor for god sake oc it to 3.5ghz and youl be good to go mate,dont make the mistake i made wait for sandybridge next year.....ps dont llisten to these fools
 
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Err.. thanks Hash?:eek:

Anyway, thanks for the advice. Think I'll just be upgrading the graphics card and buying an SSD for the time being. :)

EDIT: And by the looks of it.. a new case as well! :p
 
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Good choice, I don't get why so many people still think the q6600 can bottleneck a system so heavily because its a few years old. Its a four core cpu for crying out loud, we have 6 core cpus on the market which cant perform as good as the q6600.
 
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Just as an aside. Best CPU ever these Q6600 G0. I've had mine since launch day (paid £195!!!) and still a beast after 3 years!

Bad Company 2 runs very well too, although I have only got a 8800 GTS 512mb!
 
good choice lonz,save your money so that when sandbridge gets here youl have have the cash for a kick ass system,i wish i had not upgraded as my watercooled q6660/ati 5850 is jst sitting there not getting used,cant get a buyer for it
 
I would say 5970 is overkill. Like others have said your CPU will be fine at 3.6, but the 5850/70 are very capable cards and more than do the job. Also bare in mind the release of new cards around the corner.
 
q6600

I love my q6600 - running mine at 3.6ghz - sanded it down and my Tuniq cooler to get a nice shiny finish and lovely low temps.

Had it 2 years - nothing I run comes close to maxing it out

I do need to upgrade my gfx card though i have a 4850 - I do have a x-fire mobi (ASUS) so I might do the worlds cheapest upgrade and get a £50 2nd hand 4850 and give cross fire a blast.

It has a 500gb HD so I could buy a second to go RAID zero and possibly wipe Vista64 and buy OEM Win 7 Home Premium for a total upgrade cost of around £150
 
BC2 loves the q6600, there is no need to change it. if u can get it up to 3.5GHz u will see some improvement and at between 3.2 and 3.5Ghz it will not bottleneck a 5970. If u stay at 1680x1050 a 5870 or GTX 470 would cope fine on max settings but if ur upgrading the monitor a 5970 would add some future proofing. The SSD, whilst a great upgrade for ur PC, wont make a blind bit of difference to BC2. 4GB is plenty and also ur 620W PSU is perfectly adequate to run any current single card. All the above from my personal experience.
 
malachi said:
Good choice, I don't get why so many people still think the q6600 can bottleneck a system so heavily because its a few years old.
Click to expand...
The problem was almost all games released earlier than October last year were not written to to use more than two cores, thus it can bottleneck high end cards in those games (frame rate will suffer a bit at the very least). However with new games starting to add support for using 3rd and 4th cores, quad-cores such as Q6600's life-span just got extended further which is a pleasant surprise. I see myself probably would still be using my Q6600 in two years time, unless the rumour of the new CPU architecture being able to to spread light-threaded tasks properly amongst the cores and usings the cores fully turn out to be true.
 
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