Is the Q6600 any good?

Retro6 · 9 Apr 2022 at 12:50

I thought I would upgrade one of my HP DC7900 Small Form Factor PC's. It was working fine with the E8500 that was in there but I wanted to put in the Q6600 as its a Quad Core and I thought it would be faster.

After upgrading the CPU is was so much slower. A quad core slower than a Dual Core 2 how?

Windows 10 takes a while to start up there is a huge noticeable difference in performance its under performing quite a lot. I ran a benchmark which never completed 3D games failed and the performance matched that of a slow single core processor.

Why is the Q6600 performing so poorly in this machine?
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...nt/c01570345&usg=AOvVaw2Mrfk2rTZmLzNS93AlUmh9

throwaway4372 · 9 Apr 2022 at 13:00

Well the E8500 does have better single core speed, so if the workload is single threaded then that will be faster. Split up the logical cores in task manager and see if 4 are used.

As for the thread title "is the Q6600 any good?" the answer is no. By today's standards both the Q6600 and E8500 are trash tier. They are 10-15 years old parts.

Comparisons
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6600-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8500/1980vsm13
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6600-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8500
https://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/705/Intel_Core_2_Duo_E8500_vs_Intel_Core_2_Quad_Q6600.html

EsaT · 9 Apr 2022 at 13:04

For start higher number of slower cores only helps with multithreaded loads.
And assuming BIOS even properly supports Q6600, 45nm Wolfdale is far lower on power draw than 65nm Kentsfield.
Hence both CPU VRM and cooling could struggle.

Andrew_McP · 9 Apr 2022 at 13:04

I'm a bit out of touch, but was running an overclocked E8400 on my "basic daily use" PC until about three years ago. I was tempted, but avoided 'upgrading' to a 4 core alternative because all the benchmarks and my experience pointed to single core speed being the biggest factor for most purposes, and I was unlikely to get the same overclock on a 4-core unless I was very lucky.

I'm still a bit of a multicore sceptic. Couldn't even tell you how many cores this laptop's got unless I look it up... it just does what I want when I want it to. #HowToGetChuckedOffOverclockersInOneEasyPost

throwaway4372 · 9 Apr 2022 at 13:12

Comparison with modern part
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6600-vs-Intel-Core-i5-12400/1980vs4122

Retro6 · 9 Apr 2022 at 13:41

I'm always a bit weary about BIOS updating just encase it bricks the board. It looks like the machine doesn't support the Q6600 very well. The Q6600 should be very capable of playing 3D games you can even play GTA5 on one of those processors but in this machine its not going to happen if its horribly under performing. Any processor capable of running GTA5 "just about" or respectively is a good processor in my opinion regardless of its age.

Tetras · 9 Apr 2022 at 13:59

The Q6600 shouldn't be noticeably slower in Windows unless something is wrong, I wonder if it is overheating and/or the VRM is throttling.

cjgardens · 9 Apr 2022 at 17:36

Check what it's doing in task manager. I just had a issue with a old machine, AVG was using a crazy amount of CPU.

Retro6 · 9 Apr 2022 at 20:03

I've switched it off but I'll come back to it tomorrow and download some CPU monitoring/ temperature software. The heatsink is barely warm so I don't think its heating up too much but more likely the BIOS not supporting it very well. Something is wrong either way.

HACO · 10 Apr 2022 at 01:46

Retro6 said:
I thought I would upgrade one of my HP DC7900 Small Form Factor PC's. It was working fine with the E8500 that was in there but I wanted to put in the Q6600 as its a Quad Core and I thought it would be faster.

After upgrading the CPU is was so much slower. A quad core slower than a Dual Core 2 how?

Windows 10 takes a while to start up there is a huge noticeable difference in performance its under performing quite a lot. I ran a benchmark which never completed 3D games failed and the performance matched that of a slow single core processor.

Why is the Q6600 performing so poorly in this machine?

Had the Q6600. Beast of a chip for its time. But single-threaded performance was really poor, and that's super important in general usage and snappiness of the computer.

Q6600 easily overclocks to 3.6GHz (good old times when overclocking actually made a difference). That makes it much better.

Rroff · 10 Apr 2022 at 02:41

Should not be seeing significant Windows performance difference between those cores, except where multi-threading comes into play which would hand the advantage to the Q6600.

Especially if it isn't the G0 variant you may find the motherboard is struggling with the current draw demand of the CPU and causing issues - especially if it is a pre-built system with OEM PSU, OEM motherboard, etc.

I had highly clocked Q6600 and Q9550 systems side by side running similar hardware back in those days and for booting up Windows, etc. the difference between them was not huge.

sastusbulbas · 10 Apr 2022 at 16:47

I still play with old LGA 775 equipment, as it still runs I see no point binning it.

My daughters 1st PC (just to get her started before high school) is an old LGA 775 system and with an E8500 and 4gb of Dominator GT ram. I found it rather lacking recently just with W10, Youtube and general multipage browisng, so have decided I will put a Q9550 and 8gb of memory in there.

I am currently using a Q9550/Asus Maximus II Gene/8gb ddr2, it was a far smoother experience than the old dual core.

Bug One · 10 Apr 2022 at 16:55

Retro6 said:
I've switched it off but I'll come back to it tomorrow and download some CPU monitoring/ temperature software. The heatsink is barely warm so I don't think its heating up too much but more likely the BIOS not supporting it very well. Something is wrong either way.

Are you sure the heatsink is seated right / thermal compound applied?

Scania · 10 Apr 2022 at 18:31

Something not right here, I’ve recently built a Windows 10 based machine with a Q9550 which whilst faster than the Q6600 is still pretty crap compared to basic kit today, that said, combined with an SSD which is critical for performance, it’s absolutely fine for basic browsing, watching videos etc

Fir similar usage, I can’t see a Q6600 being unbearably slower….

Retro6 · 10 Apr 2022 at 19:52

Rroff said:
Should not be seeing significant Windows performance difference between those cores, except where multi-threading comes into play which would hand the advantage to the Q6600.

Especially if it isn't the G0 variant you may find the motherboard is struggling with the current draw demand of the CPU and causing issues - especially if it is a pre-built system with OEM PSU, OEM motherboard, etc.

I had highly clocked Q6600 and Q9550 systems side by side running similar hardware back in those days and for booting up Windows, etc. the difference between them was not huge.

That would make a lot of sense. I don't think the PSU can handle it especially with an added GPU as well. Even without the GPU its still dog poop slow. The HP DC7900 can't handle it. The PSU is very specific to the machine so its not like I can put in a better PSU not without a tonne of modifications anyway. The CPU software failed to run and the computer was literally crawling along then Windows 10 wanted to do updates which took forever.

Bug One said:
Are you sure the heatsink is seated right / thermal compound applied?

Yep I always make sure before I fix the cooler in place that everything lines up and that its fitted correctly otherwise I have to re-do it which wastes thermal paste.

Cyber-Mav · 10 Apr 2022 at 20:37

Get cpuz pic up for us. You may need to reset the bios. I had a machine once that had a q6600 in it and it defaulted to a slow fsb speed and low multiplier ruining at like 1.2ghz or something. Bios reset and all was fine.

Rroff · 10 Apr 2022 at 21:28

Cyber-Mav said:
Get cpuz pic up for us. You may need to reset the bios. I had a machine once that had a q6600 in it and it defaulted to a slow fsb speed and low multiplier ruining at like 1.2ghz or something. Bios reset and all was fine.

Good shout - seen that before with the Q6600 where swapping out a dual-core it hasn't been setup properly in the BIOS.

Retro6 · 11 Apr 2022 at 18:57

I've been busy today so I haven't had the chance to look at it yet. I picked up two Q8300 processors today on my lunch break from a near by CEX. I'll reset the BIOS on it later and download cpuz.

JasonM · 11 Apr 2022 at 19:53

Rroff said:
Good shout - seen that before with the Q6600 where swapping out a dual-core it hasn't been setup properly in the BIOS.

Could it also be Windows only identifying 2 cores (from previous 2 core CPU installed), and not the 4 of the Q6600.

HangTime · 12 Apr 2022 at 00:11

Windows 10 should handle that fine.

I would upgrade the BIOS and overclock the CPU. The problem with the Q6600 is it has a slow clockspeed so at stock may be beaten by E8500 in lightly threaded apps.