How bottlenecked would a 660ti be with a Q6600 @3.2?

[Mark A]

I'm currently in the process of upgrading my computer as i'm starting to have to turn down settings on the latest games. My GTX280 has been great and has lasted me 4 years, but i think its time to get something better.

I was all set on getting a 3570 and 8gb of ram but I'm now just wondering if there's any life left in my Q6600 and 4gb, or would it bottleneck the 660ti? My temps are great so I could possibly push the clock up to 3.4 if that would help.

Thanks.

 

[mickyflinn]

Get the 660ti and see how it performs, most game are gpu reliant.

 

[dave_beast]

The output from the GPU still has to be processed by the cpu and it will bottleneck the card.

In Jan 2011 I went from a Q9450 @ 3.6ghz to an i7 2600k at 3.4ghz with the same AMD 6870 and I got about 15% higher fps in all games.

 

[Gregster]

It will be a bottleneck in some games but not to a massive extent. Get the card and see how it plays. If you notice a bottleneck being too much in fps, upgrade the CPU/mobo/ram.

 

[iBSOD]

my GTX 465 was bottlenecked by a phenom 965.

the q6600 will be slowing you down a lot

 

[weehamish]

Grab a 7850 cheaper and will run all at decent settings. Beware skyrim however id had loads bother with this.

 

[Rusty0611]

my GTX 465 was bottlenecked by a phenom 965.

the q6600 will be slowing you down a lot

It won't. Not with an overclock which he has.

 

[andybird123]

I saw no bottlenecking on a 560ti and a very small amount (GPU usage at 95%) on an overclocked GTX 580... so there will be a bottleneck but it won't be massive

if you are thinking of getting the 660ti and then upgrading the rest later then I'd say do it

otherwise you may as well save some money and get a 5xx series card if you can find one going cheap and save the money towards a system upgrade sooner rather than later

 

[Mark A]

Thanks for the input guys. I will be upgrading the lot at some point, but with Christmas coming I was thinking of just the gfx card for now. Also just seems a shame to upgrade when this pc is still going strong. But then again my SSD would run faster on a new motherboard so might be worth it...