Q6600 vs 3570k @ 3.5 for Crossfire

[the_director]

Just wanted to post a quick result with my crossfired 5850s, demonstrating that dual GPU users do benefit from moving on from socket 775.

I downclocked the 3570k to match my old Q6600 @ 3.5.

Used Far Cry 2 as the benchmark with everything maxed out:

Q6600 @ 3.5

Average Framerate: 75.30
Max. Framerate: 124.75
Min. Framerate: 50.14

i5 3570k turbo reduced to 3.5

Average Framerate: 125.10
Max. Framerate: 182.90
Min. Framerate: 88.21

Out of interest, even a downclocked 3570k pushes these cards as hard as they can go, moving it to 4.0 makes no difference to frame rates showing that they are GPU limited now.

As a comparison, the downclocked 3570k whips a Q6600 at stock badly:

Q6600 @ 2.4 (stock)

Average Framerate: 40.95
Max. Framerate: 69.31
Min. Framerate: 29.02

This might be of interest to those still using a Q6600 and considering crossfiring even an fairly old card like the 5850.

 

[SlugForAButt]

Not sure what you were expecting to see?
Maybe you were expecting a 3 or 4 generation old CPU to push a new gen CPU for performance?

 

[opethdisciple]

I think he is juts highliting the difference, no harm in that.

 

[El Jimben]

Not sure what you were expecting to see?
Maybe you were expecting a 3 or 4 generation old CPU to push a new gen CPU for performance?

Maybe he was just trying to show some useful data for people that are wondering what sort of performance gains they can expect when going from a Q6600 to Ivy?

I have to ask though OP, why test a game that's 3.5 years old and not something like BF3?

 

[opethdisciple]

Maybe he was just trying to show some useful data for people that are wondering what sort of performance gains they can expect when going from a Q6600 to Ivy?

I have to ask though OP, why test a game that's 3.5 years old and not something like BF3?

Because BF3 is gpu limited.

 

[the_director]

Firstly, as my original post stated, a lot of people do still run socket 775 CPUS and I just wanted to highlight - as many others have before - that a new CPU really does benefit dual GPU setups. After all, I thought long and hard before changing my trusty old Q6600 because I had a decent clock on it.

Secondly, I used Far Cry 2 as I had used the benchmark in the past to demonstrate performance increases to myself (moving from 4870 512mb to 5850, then CF) which meant that I happened to have some old figures lying around for an easy comparison.

I do not currently have BF3, which I imagine is some sort of crime. I will pick a copy up soon, but just bought Fifa 12 and two wireless Xbox controllers for PC getting ready for the Euros.

 

[El Jimben]

Because BF3 is gpu limited.

Even so you'd still see expect to see a higher minimum and a slightly higher average FPS wouldn't you? I was using a single 5850 and it handled BF3 pretty well.

 

[ahenners]

I jumped from a Q6600 clocked at 3.5ghz to a 3570k so interesting to see the differences even if they are hardly surprising. Thanks OP

 

[smit101]

Not sure what you were expecting to see?
Maybe you were expecting a 3 or 4 generation old CPU to push a new gen CPU for performance?

^^ Why don't you reign your neck in!

Cheers for info op'r, I'm currently running a Q6600 @3.5, so your post gives me a nice indication of performance jump I can expect to see when I get around to upgrading.

 

[scamartist]

Done similiar here as well, bought a 680GTX a few weeks back and ran it with a Q6600 at 3.2ghz.

Framerates didn't feel very smooth to me considering BF3 is GPU limited.

Got the rest of my new PC together last night using an 3770K and 16GB of Samsung Green.

The difference for me was night and day for a GPU limited game.

 

[Duke]

I've got the same cards but with the early i5 Skt1156 so am hoping to move to Ivybridge, although I won't quite see the same big leap. Thanks for posting.

 

[the_director]

Cheers for the more positive responses. I just think it is nice to get some results from an average user as to what benefits you can get from upgrading. I'm actually playing Far Cry 2 again just to appreciate the smoothness and speed of it all - it is a beautiful looking game.

I can also say that with old parts currently on an auction site that upgrading hasn't cost me that much at all. You'd be surprised at the interest in socket 775 still.

 

[Sasahara]

Nice one, hopefully this will stop people recommending £200+ graphics cards for Q6600 PCs now. (unless they plan on upgrading the CPU soon after).

 

[j.col]

Thanks, OP,
I have a Q6600, a HD 5850, and a x8 x8 crossfire mobo,
I was starting to considerate adding another HD 5850, but i will probably upgrade the cpu, mobo & ram instead.

 

[WingZero30]

Taken from Official Ivybridge overclocking thread

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=21815065&postcount=50

Here ya go, one thread only.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=21815096&postcount=51

thanks mate

same score as sandy at 5ghz more or less

My Cinebench 11.5 (64 bit) score for [email protected]
(Apology as I don't know how to display full size image from photobucket)

Looking at the results:

Single threaded

Sandybridge/Ivybridge @3.3-3.5Ghz : 2.0 pts

[email protected] : 0.98 pts

Multi threaded

i5 2500K @3.3Ghz : 7.75 pts

[email protected] : 3.87 pts

So basically generally speaking, at roughly same clock speed, Sandybridge/Ivybridge is twice as fast as Q6600.

Overclock the sandybridge/ivybridge to 1Ghz+ (4.5-4.6Ghz) and you are looking at imo 3X the processing speed of [email protected] (which is heavily overclocked itself).

Going from [email protected] to Sandybridge/[email protected]+ will yield imo 4X processing speed lol!!

This is just immense!!.

Pretty amazing though how architecture has evolved from the days of Core 2

 

[Sem]

^^ Why don't you reign your neck in!

Cheers for info op'r, I'm currently running a Q6600 @3.5, so your post gives me a nice indication of performance jump I can expect to see when I get around to upgrading.

lol dunno why but that phrase always cracks me up

Q6600 will go down as one of the all time great cpus imo
mine did 3.6 @ 1.36v awesome chip

i thought they could still do a job but i guess its time to put them to bed in a gaming rig

 

[the_director]

It was a great chip and really tough, that there are still so many around after years of abuse demonstrates that. Hopefully the 3570k will continue in the same vein.

 

[///Rage]

Just wanted to post a quick result with my crossfired 5850s, demonstrating that dual GPU users do benefit from moving on from socket 775.

I downclocked the 3570k to match my old Q6600 @ 3.5.

Used Far Cry 2 as the benchmark with everything maxed out:

Q6600 @ 3.5

Average Framerate: 75.30
Max. Framerate: 124.75
Min. Framerate: 50.14

i5 3570k turbo reduced to 3.5

Average Framerate: 125.10
Max. Framerate: 182.90
Min. Framerate: 88.21

Out of interest, even a downclocked 3570k pushes these cards as hard as they can go, moving it to 4.0 makes no difference to frame rates showing that they are GPU limited now.

As a comparison, the downclocked 3570k whips a Q6600 at stock badly:

Q6600 @ 2.4 (stock)

Average Framerate: 40.95
Max. Framerate: 69.31
Min. Framerate: 29.02

This might be of interest to those still using a Q6600 and considering crossfiring even an fairly old card like the 5850.

Great post. Thanks. Im cpu limited playing flight sims and going from E6850 to i7-2700k soon. hoping for a big jump in performance too.

 

[Wucked]

Good post OP, you've stated the obvious with flaire and panache.

 

[the_director]

For a lot of users on socket 775 with older GPUs like the 5850 going crossfire is a cheap upgrade but it is limited by the CPU. However, having said that the Q6600 and CF 5850 was still providing excellent performance!