Best bang for buck CPU for modern games

galadial · 11 Dec 2010 at 21:10

Just read that the witcher 2 minimum system requirements is dual core 2.2 GHz CPU and my aging core 2 6300 at 1.86GHz probably won't cut the mustard. What would you recommend from this list (ie gigabyte 965P-!DS rev 1.0 board)?

What's the score with dual versus quad core?

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2314

Cheers

Pete

cmndr_andi · 11 Dec 2010 at 21:14

Second-hand Q6600 or Q6700 without any doubt.

Considering your board, you won't be able to clock it much but it should handle most modern games - the Witcher 2 included.

littlepuppy · 11 Dec 2010 at 22:06

Or P2 555 then unlock to quad if you can

Superjeep4x4 · 12 Dec 2010 at 00:13

+1 to what cmndr_andi said but it might be time to bite the bullet and upgrade. If you had 4gigs of ram it would be a little different imo but with only 2 gigs of ram and running those at stock I would look into upgrading my cpu, ram and board.

Some really good budget setups these days that can be had for cheap and are pretty powerful.

Big.Wayne · 12 Dec 2010 at 00:19

galadial said:
Intel® Core™2 Duo E6300 @ 1.86GHz

Cooler Unknown?

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3

2GB (2x1GB) 2Gb GEIL 800MHz ultra

Hey galadial,

any reason you didn't overclock that chip? . . . heres the settings for a 50% increase in processor frequency!

Si105 · 12 Dec 2010 at 00:21

littlepuppy said:
Or P2 555 then unlock to quad if you can

Most certainly this would be the best choice for an INTEL 775 motherboard.

Q6600 second hand would be great, and you'd probably get it to 3GHz anyway.

1Day · 12 Dec 2010 at 10:57

You should be able to clock that CPU to close to 3GHz with the board you have. And then your CPU will not be a hand brake. Give it a try and if you are not happy then think of upgrading to a different CPU.

Duke · 12 Dec 2010 at 11:22

The E6300 is a good chip and will overclock well (even better if you have a decent heatsink/fan).

The E8400 would be a good upgrade as it has more cache, FSB and will run cooler.

MikeHunt79 · 12 Dec 2010 at 11:58

I'm typing this post on a Gigabyte Ga-p965-DS3 based system, the E5300 is a nice chip, well over 2+GHz stock and OC's to 3.5Ghz easily, and less than £50 too.

The high multi is nice also.

galadial · 12 Dec 2010 at 15:34

Big.Wayne said:
Hey galadial,

any reason you didn't overclock that chip? . . . heres the settings for a 50% increase in processor frequency!

Never considered o/c the chip - but that might provide a slight improvement. DO you know what kind of safe speeds these chips can reach for most users?

Also, are you o/c using the BIOS or some middleware to handle the overclock?

Pete

1Day · 12 Dec 2010 at 16:06

Use the BIOS and you should be able to get close to 70% overclock if you have a good air cooler. And no I am not joking. I was able to get a near 100% overclock with my E6400 CPU a few years ago with a cheap DFi Infinity board with is the same P965 chipset as yours. Your board is a good clocker by the way. For many it was one of the best boards of its time.

galadial · 12 Dec 2010 at 16:13

1Day said:
Use the BIOS and you should be able to get close to 70% overclock if you have a good air cooler. And no I am not joking. I was able to get a near 100% overclock with my E6400 CPU a few years ago with a cheap DFi Infinity board with is the same P965 chipset as yours. Your board is a good clocker by the way. For many it was one of the best boards of its time.

OK - thx - will see how I get on! Btw I have a pretty decent air cooler - can't remember what it's called when I built this rig - but it sure is big! Hopefully will hit 50% o/c and take it from there!

snowdog · 12 Dec 2010 at 16:14

I'd just get a q6600 g0, and clock it to 3.2 ghz, should be easy on that board.

easyrider · 13 Dec 2010 at 13:54

littlepuppy said:
Or P2 555 then unlock to quad if you can

That would been a new mobo.

Read the OP

jmp_78 · 13 Dec 2010 at 22:54

easyrider said:
That would been a new mobo.

Read the OP

+1

ozzyDe · 14 Dec 2010 at 00:09

best thing I ever bought was my Q6600 D0 I have such a want to upgrade but at the moe there is no point 3.5Ghz on my Q6600 so if you can get one second hand go for it.
I will be waiting to see what the new year brings us from the big 2 but till then there is just no need. GO AND GET A Q6600

ShakeNBake · 14 Dec 2010 at 02:26

why does everyone <3 the Q6600 so much? i had one at 3.2GHz for a while, and it was pretty good, but it put a lot of strain on the motherboard. you really need a good motherboard & good cooling to get one above 3.0GHz and have it still working a year later. also, it may struggle on games that only make use of 2 cores, especially if it is not overclocked.

at the moment, the i3 for £75ish is pretty good, a lot of games still don't benefit from having more than 2 cores, and it is easy as hell to overclock to 4GHz with pretty much any setup.

or the i5 for £150 or i9 for £200 are good too if you got the money to spare.

Superjeep4x4 · 14 Dec 2010 at 06:37

ShakeNBake said:
why does everyone <3 the Q6600 so much?

The OP is looking for a chip upgrade for his current 775 board as do a lot of people and if your going to get a 775 upgrade chip to boost your system and tide you over the Q6600 is the best bet for the most part.

While the chips you mentioned are nice and all unless you have a magic wand that will poof them into fitting a sock 775 your asking him to shell out coin for that new chip as well as a MB and DDR3 which is a heck of a lot more than a used Q6600.

WingZero30 · 14 Dec 2010 at 08:51

Superjeep4x4 said:
The OP is looking for a chip upgrade for his current 775 board as do a lot of people and if your going to get a 775 upgrade chip to boost your system and tide you over the Q6600 is the best bet for the most part.

Yup thats what I did with my upgrade from E6600

.

Nick1881 · 14 Dec 2010 at 09:29

I find it funny that you never thought to Overclock it being a member on this forum lol.

What cooler do you have? I got my old E6300 to 3.15 Ghz on that same board with an AC F7 Pro.