Bottlenecked - Q6600?

fizz112 · 22 Sep 2011 at 09:58

I have an "old" computer with Q6600 @2.6GHz and a 8800GTS 512MB graphics card. I was thinking of upgrading just my graphics card for BF3 but worried my CPU might bottleneck. My motherboard does support 2x PCI-E2.0 x16 full bandwidth.

I was thinking of purchasing a GTX560 and then SLi-ing that after a few months.

Thanks!

Marine-RX179 · 22 Sep 2011 at 10:02

If you would overclock the Q6600 to higher, then it wouldn't really bottleneck a single GTX560 considering BF would usage all 4 cores. But if you are going SLI, you'd defintely need to upgrade your entire platform, considering a) the CPU will bottleneck the GTX560 SLI b) your motherboard most likely won't support SLI, unless it has Nvidia nforce series chipset instead of Intel's.

Deception · 22 Sep 2011 at 10:09

fizz112 said:
I have an "old" computer with Q6600 @2.6GHz and a 8800GTS 512MB graphics card. I was thinking of upgrading just my graphics card for BF3 but worried my CPU might bottleneck. My motherboard does support 2x PCI-E2.0 x16 full bandwidth.

I was thinking of purchasing a GTX560 and then SLi-ing that after a few months.

Thanks!

What are your current OC settings (volts etc) and also, which motherboard do you have.

fizz112 · 22 Sep 2011 at 10:38

Well I did try in the past to overclock but could never get over 2.66GHz mark (2.4GHz stock) even with increased voltages and stuff. So now I've just set mobo to do an auto 10% OC.
Motherboard is Asus P5ND (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5ND/#specifications) definitely supports dual x16 PCI-E lanes.

Edit:
I actually used to have a 8800GTS 512 SLi but one of them broke so I only have the one now. I can definitely see a loss in performance since then.

Marine-RX179 · 22 Sep 2011 at 11:03

fizz112 said:
Well I did try in the past to overclock but could never get over 2.66GHz mark (2.4GHz stock) even with increased voltages and stuff. So now I've just set mobo to do an auto 10% OC.
Motherboard is Asus P5ND (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5ND/#specifications) definitely supports dual x16 PCI-E lanes.

nforce chipset board ain't the greatest at overclocking CPU, but with that said I still managed to overclock my Q6600 G0 to 3.0GHz stable.

When you overclock, what you have to pay attention to is that the memory will overclock together with the CPU, so when your PC refuse to boot when you overclocking, it might be that the memory is being overclocked to far rather than the CPU. I would suggest you try lowering the speed of the memory slightly and have another go at overclocking the Q6600 to 3.0GHz. Might need a tiny bump in the vcore.

fizz112 · 22 Sep 2011 at 11:23

Marine-RX179 said:
nforce chipset board ain't the greatest at overclocking CPU, but with that said I still managed to overclock my Q6600 G0 to 3.0GHz stable.

When you overclock, what you have to pay attention to is that the memory will overclock together with the CPU, so when your PC refuse to boot when you overclocking, it might be that the memory is being overclocked to far rather than the CPU. I would suggest you try lowering the speed of the memory slightly and have another go at overclocking the Q6600 to 3.0GHz. Might need a tiny bump in the vcore.

Ahhh, okay. I'll go and try that now and see what happens.

Marine-RX179 · 22 Sep 2011 at 11:28

Sorry, forgot to say that Q6600 at 3.0GHz overclock was on my previous board which was a 650i chipset board. I was lucky enough to pick up a 2nd hand P5Q Deluxe (board + backplate only) from the members market for just £30 and have now overclocked my Q6600 to 3.6GHz nicely

Ricko · 22 Sep 2011 at 11:28

fizz112 said:
Ahhh, okay. I'll go and try that now and see what happens.

Just FYI, my Q6600 @ 3.2 handled the BF3 Alpha with no problems at all. This was with a GTX480.
So if you can get a bit more out of your Q6600 you'll have no problem running BF3.

fizz112 · 22 Sep 2011 at 12:14

Thanks guys, got my Q6600 up to 3.1GHz so far and still testing! But back to the main question, will a pair of GTX 560 in SLi still be bottlenecked or should I now be fine at this new overclocked frequency?

HummuH1 · 22 Sep 2011 at 12:29

Marine-RX179 said:
Sorry, forgot to say that Q6600 at 3.0GHz overclock was on my previous board which was a 650i chipset board. I was lucky enough to pick up a 2nd hand P5Q Deluxe (board + backplate only) from the members market for just £30 and have now overclocked my Q6600 to 3.6GHz nicely

Sorry to hijack, but what settings (voltage, NB etc) are you using to get your 3.6?? I have the same board and Q6600 but struggling for 24/7 stablity at 3.6 on a low'ish VID.

Cheers.

fizz112 · 22 Sep 2011 at 12:52

HummuH1 said:
Sorry to hijack, but what settings (voltage, NB etc) are you using to get your 3.6?? I have the same board and Q6600 but struggling for 24/7 stablity at 3.6 on a low'ish VID.

Cheers.

Haha no problem, I managed to gain a +20% OC in this thread by going off-topic

Diggsy · 22 Sep 2011 at 14:36

HummuH1 said:
Sorry to hijack, but what settings (voltage, NB etc) are you using to get your 3.6?? I have the same board and Q6600 but struggling for 24/7 stablity at 3.6 on a low'ish VID.

Cheers.

I've posted this several times now, hopefully it helps you out...

My settings for 3.6 (my chip is a 1.3 VID)...

External Clock - 400
Multiplier - 9x
DRAM Speed - 1:1:25 (DDR2-1000)
PCI-E - 100

CPU - 1.52v (1.42 or so under load)
DDR2 - 2.0v
CPU VTT - 1.23v
MCH - 1.29v
ICH - 1.05v
ICHIO - 1.5v
DDR2 REF - 0%
CPU GTL 0+2 - 67%
CPU GTL 1+3 - 67%

Limit CPUID MaxVal - Disabled
C1E - Auto
Execute Disable Bit - Enabled
Virtualisation - Disabled
EIST - Auto

RAM - By SPD

...you will need to watch the PWM temps. My board is bolt modded and I have a 60mm fan hovering above the PWM area keeping them cool. You may well need the bolt mod if it's not already done... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2330347&postcount=751

I also have 2x 40mm fans on the Northbridge, as it can get pretty toasty too.

Bear in mind that the above setting was when I was running 4gb RAM. I am still at 3.6 with 8gb, but have to run the memory on a different divider so that it runs at 800mhz. Any more was too much for the board to cope with.

EDIT - for what it's worth I found that anything above 1.3 for the MCH would cause instabilities. For some reason my board prefered the MCH to be kept fairly low.

HummuH1 · 22 Sep 2011 at 16:01

Diggsy said:
I've posted this several times now, hopefully it helps you out...

Thanks, very helpful to see what settings you're using. 1.52v to get to 3.6 sounds a bit much for me to be putting through the Q6600. I dont have the cooling for that voltage nor the balls

Others seem to be able to hit 3.6 xstable at 1.46v on the same board.

Marine??

Marine-RX179 · 22 Sep 2011 at 17:37

HummuH1 said:
Thanks, very helpful to see what settings you're using. 1.52v to get to 3.6 sounds a bit much for me to be putting through the Q6600. I dont have the cooling for that voltage nor the balls

Others seem to be able to hit 3.6 xstable at 1.46v on the same board.

Marine??

I need 1.5v on the vcore, but that's because my Q6600 has a weak 4th core, which keep on stop working in prime95 if I used lower voltage than 1.5v. Also my Q6600 has a relatively high VID of 1.3125v. I would imagine most other Q6600 with lower VID should be stable at 1.45~1.48v on the vcore. I got a Silver Arrow and a very good airflow CoolerMaster 690II Advanced case, so temp is not a problem for me (max temp in prime don't even get above 65C). I'm not sure why you'd need that high vcore, unless you are like me unlucky enough to have a weak core.

I think there's an option in the bios that claims to reduce vdroop of the motherboard which I'm can't remember if I've enabled or not, especially with a overclocked Q6600 which generate lots of heat.

Anyway overclocking aside, it's not a bad idea to consider getting a better case/case fans/CPU cooler.

HummuH1 · 22 Sep 2011 at 17:54

Marine-RX179 said:
I need 1.5v on the vcore, but that's because my Q6600 has a weak 4th core, which keep on stop working in prime95 if I used lower voltage than 1.5v. Also my Q6600 has a relatively high VID of 1.3125v. I would imagine most other Q6600 with lower VID should be stable at 1.45~1.48v on the vcore. I got a Silver Arrow and a very good airflow CoolerMaster 690II Advanced case, so temp is not a problem for me (max temp in prime don't even get above 65C). I'm not sure why you'd need that high vcore, unless you are like me unlucky enough to have a weak core.

I think there's an option in the bios that claims to reduce vdroop of the motherboard which I'm can't remember if I've enabled or not, especially with a overclocked Q6600 which generate lots of heat.

Anyway overclocking aside, it's not a bad idea to consider getting a better case/case fans/CPU cooler.

Thanks man. Think it's LLC (load line calibration) your referring to.

I can get mine running at 3.6 at 1.46v but fails IBT on about the 12th pass after hitting 93 degrees. Ive got an Antec 900 with Tuniq 120 so cooling is not too shabby but I'm gonna have another go this weekend to see if I can get it stable. Got some other good pointers on my thread here so will update that rather than derail this thread further.

Cheers.

Marine-RX179 · 22 Sep 2011 at 18:04

HummuH1 said:
I can get mine running at 3.6 at 1.46v but fails IBT on about the 12th pass after hitting 93 degrees. Ive got an Antec 900 with Tuniq 120 so cooling is not too shabby but I'm gonna have another go this weekend to see if I can get it stable.

The Tuniq 120 should be a capable cooler...and no way should your Q6600 be hitting as high as 93C! If I were you, I'd removing the cooler and the old thermal paste, and reapply some new decent paste like MX3/MX4 etc and have another go at resitting the cooler again.

HummuH1 · 22 Sep 2011 at 18:58

Marine-RX179 said:
The Tuniq 120 should be a capable cooler...and no way should your Q6600 be hitting as high as 93C! If I were you, I'd removing the cooler and the old thermal paste, and reapply some new decent paste like MX3/MX4 etc and have another go at resitting the cooler again.

Not sure tbh I'm new to all this. I've been told that getting into the 90's with IBT isn't uncommon for air cooling when pushing. It was idling at 28 to 32 and hit 66 when I ran a game. Paste was only one week old which is why I've given it a rest for a week or so before I have another bash.

Marine-RX179 · 22 Sep 2011 at 20:30

HummuH1 said:
Not sure tbh I'm new to all this. I've been told that getting into the 90's with IBT isn't uncommon for air cooling when pushing. It was idling at 28 to 32 and hit 66 when I ran a game. Paste was only one week old which is why I've given it a rest for a week or so before I have another bash.

Yea...may be the paste you use need time to settle. IF it was not a problem with the paste and the cooler being not properly seated, I'd try to see if the fan inside the heatsink is working properly.

Also, you do have an exhaust case fan directly behind where the Tuniq 120 blow toward to dump the heat to outside of the case right? What case you using by the way?

HummuH1 · 22 Sep 2011 at 20:57

Marine-RX179 said:
Yea...may be the paste you use need time to settle. IF it was not a problem with the paste and the cooler being not properly seated, I'd try to see if the fan inside the heatsink is working properly.

Also, you do have an exhaust case fan directly behind where the Tuniq 120 blow toward to dump the heat to outside of the case right? What case you using by the way?

Antec 900. Two intakes at the front, a rear exhaust and a top exhaust. The Tuniq blows out directly to the rear exhaust.

Marine-RX179 · 22 Sep 2011 at 21:26

HummuH1 said:
Antec 900. Two intakes at the front, a rear exhaust and a top exhaust. The Tuniq blows out directly to the rear exhaust.

Might be a stupid question...but have you increased the fan speed of the cooler to max (2000rpm) when under load? If that's too loud, you could consider replacing the default fan with a better fan that deliver higher airflow/static pressure at a lower fanspeed.

Also considering your case being Antec 900, it might be better to have the cooler blowing toward the top and use the case's top exhaust instead of rear.