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Q6600 bottleneck?

Dale

Dale

Dale

Associate
Joined
5 Jan 2004
Posts
663
Location
Sussex
Hi all,

With the release of BC2, plus a birthday I've recently upgraded my old 9800GX2 to a Saphire HD 5790.

Installed it yesterday, got all excited, ran (I know it's old, but its all I have!) 3DMark06 and then got irritated that my score was only a mere 1000pts above my old systems score.

Old system: 18026 3DMarks

Q6600 @ 3.45
Windows XP
3gb ram
Geforce 9800GX2

New system: 19095 3DMarks

Q6600 @ 3.5
Windows 7 Ultimate
4gb ram (G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PK PC2-8500C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit)
HD 5970
(Plus Falcon SSD HDD)

The old system scores better on the CPU (5395 vs 4834) and SM 2.0 score (7128 vs 6976), SM 3.0 score was considerably better (new system scored 10042 vs old system's score of 8203)

Now I realise that it's real-world "how-does-the-game-itself-perform" that counts most, however I can't help but be a little dissapointed.

My main question now is would it be worth upgrading the Q6600 CPU to a Q9550?

My Q6600 is OC'd to 3.5 (OC's really quite well, I have a superb cooler on top that doesn't even run a fan - so it's quiet as well), does the Q9550 overclock just as well? I.e. to make the money worth it?

My motherboard is an aging Asus P5K Premium, and to be honest, I can only just afford the CPU, so changing the mobo is out of the question at the moment.

The Q6600 is now about as fast as I can get it without changing the cooling method, but to be honest, 3.5 is pretty average / good for one of these isn't it? Any more and it just BSoD at various points and becomes really quite unreliable. (Vcore is at 1.480)

So, would it be worth it to go for a Q9550, or would the gains be way to minimal?

Thanks for any advice.

CPUz screenie of Q6600 in current guise:

CPU.jpg
mobo.jpg
graphics.jpg

memory.jpg
spd.jpg
 
Interesting reading. I wouldn't have thought @3.5Ghz it would cause any bottlenecks. However, I would go by real game benchmarks rather than what 3dmark06 says.
 
Thanks for the replies chaps,

Prime95 64bit up and running, 4 cores doing the business.

CPU hitting 65 degrees max, then drops back to 63ish at the moment (core1, other cores hovering between 59-62 degrees) - all cores working at 100%

CPU_cores.jpg
 
Last edited:
How is the 6600 at 65c max with no fan? Or have you got a water cooling?

On a side note, BC2 works good on my system - between 30fps - 50fps most of the time, highest settings, 1680 x 1050, 4aa, 4af

[email protected]
8800GT@ 730 core, 1040 mem
4GB OCZ Plat (4 x 1GB)
Win 7 Pro
 
Hi Guest2, no fan on the CPU (and no water-cooling), but I do have a 120mm exhaust fan (which sits right behind the cooler), Prime has just crashed, so in retrospect, it isn't really Prime stable at all (lasted just over 20min) - however, I'll add that it basically never crashes during normal operations (BF2, Borderlands, you know, "work"!!)

CPU got to about 65, no higher - idling away now at between 35 to 37.

I may re-assess the cooling and see if I can get it more Prime stable. Borderlands is getting between 40-60fps. Right at the beggining on the Zombie addon DLC without moving I get about 45fps, then down in the caves 65fps - This is with everything maxed out. Not bad I guess??

I'm installing L4D2 as we speak, will see what Fraps thinks of that and report back.

Doubt I'll go spending on a Q9550 though...

Thank you for your input guys.
 
9800GX2 was an extremely fast card in its day, and in SM2 games it will consistantly out perform a 5770.

However SLI can still introduce microstutter, while a single fast card will give a better gaming experience. Of course your new card supports DX11, and will give a better performance in games which dont work well with SLI as well.

Given the performance of the 9800GX2 you really should have gone either for a pair of 5770's and gone crossfire, or a 5850/5870 for a really fast single card.
 
well in all battlefield benchies ive seen theyve overclocked to 4ghz to eliminate any chance of bottleneck from cpu. very doubtful youd get that high though.

to be honest wouldnt get the 9550 unless you can source one second hand .

i reckon if you could get a 9550 at 4ghz you could get 30-40 fps more than current cpu.

these are some of a guy who did a benchie off bfbc2 forums

With GTX275:

E6400 @ 3.2GHz: 27.67

E8400 @ 3.00GHz (8x375MHz): 37.89
E8400 @ 4.23GHz (9x470MHz): 51.69
E8400 @ 4.40GHz (9x490MHz): 57.29
Q9400 @ 2.66GHz (8x333MHz): 45.04
Q9400 @ 3.76GHz (8x470MHz): 63.45
Q9550 @ 4.00GHz (8.5x470MHz): 70.18


With HD5870:

Q9550 @ 4.00GHz w/ HD5870: 95.63

this game loves a fast quad and those who say it bottleneck much it will at current speeds.
 
Thanks DG, I may keep an eye out for a cheaper 2nd hand one, saves paying out £££ for one, then not being able to keep a worthwhile stable overclock.

Corasik said:
9800GX2 was an extremely fast card in its day, and in SM2 games it will consistantly out perform a 5770.

However SLI can still introduce microstutter, while a single fast card will give a better gaming experience. Of course your new card supports DX11, and will give a better performance in games which dont work well with SLI as well.

Given the performance of the 9800GX2 you really should have gone either for a pair of 5770's and gone crossfire, or a 5850/5870 for a really fast single card.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info Corasik, however, my card is a 5970, not a 5770 (unles that was a typo, and 9800GX2 really is better than the 5970 in SM2.
 
I do not think that your processor will bottleneck your system at all, As long as your no noticing bad frames whilst in game then in my opinion you should not worry,

With your rig, it should be overkill on games...
 
I've just had another little tweak of the overclock of the Q6600, trying to get to 3.6.

I've changed the multiplier to x8 and upped the FSB to 450.

Should I be doing anything with the memory with this change?

the NB Voltage is still set to auto, should I change this?

I've booted into Win7 now, all working, however if I dare run Prime it stackes within about 30 seconds, so something isn't happy.

If I have to much voltage (obviously not enough to fry the chips) would that make it crash? I've got the DRAM Voltage set to 2.10, and the CPU Voltage set to 1.45 (although CPUz thinks different).

cpu_2.jpg
mem_2.jpg
 
Dale said:
Thanks for that info Corasik, however, my card is a 5970, not a 5770 (unles that was a typo, and 9800GX2 really is better than the 5970 in SM2.
Click to expand...

Sorry typo in your original post, you said 5790, not 5970, and I just got as far as the 57 and I guess I let my brain fill in the rest :) As the 5970 is effectively a crossfire card, it should outperform the 9800GX2 in everything really :P
 
Hehe, my bad - been doing that a lot! :)

OK, current status of play, machine is stable at 3.5, get 40-45fps in Borderlands (everything at max) and L4D2 doesn't go below 110fps (everything at max).

If I up the FSB to get 3.6 machine crashes all over the place! Odd.
 
Have you tried running your cpu at stock settings yet?
It also sounds like you need to start your overclock again with it being so unstable. :)
 
I have tried it on stock settings, and all is dandy. I may do what you suggest and re-set the BIOS and start again.

Before that though I'll be info gathering, as I said above, I'm unsure as to what most of the settings mean. :)
 
When I had my Q6600 at 3.5 I had to have all my Antec 900 case fans on full and my T/tower on full blast to keep temps in check.
So I think a fanless cooler wont do the job, have you used core temp to chek your temps.
It might be that thats your limit of chip or M/B
sorry if I am not much help.
 
Can't believe people are saying the q6600 isn't a bottleneck! It totally is!

I just switched from a Q6600 @ 3.6GHz to an i7 920 @ 4GHz and the difference is immense! Taking annoying low fps and making them spot on (I hate sub 60fps gaming)...

And that's with a pair of 5770s... let alone a 5970!

3DM06 went from 19.5k -> 24k
Dirt2 went from 50-55fps with everything on high/ultra to just over 70fps
BC2 Beta on high went from 50fps to 70fps

Those are the only games that needed the fps bump... haven't tried crysis warhead yet, but I'd imagine that's still very gpu limited lol!

Heck... just ocing the q6600 from 3 -> 3.6 took my score from 17k ->19.5k

Then 3.78 pushed it up to 20.5k, but that ran too hot to be my 24/7 clocks

Seeing as you're getting a slightly lower score than I did with a slightly lower clocked cpu and a better graphics config... it's obvious you're cpu limited ;)
 
Excellent, thank you Crinkleshoes, nice post - Expecially with your example 3DMark scores for me to compare with.

I have just bumped the Q6600 up to 3.6, but not sure how long I'll be able to last (I'm keeping an eye on temps, and they are getting a bit to hot for comfort - I saw 67 degrees at one point).

I'll do some pricing for the i7, but to be honest, doubtful I can afford to change - will wait and see how BC2 performs first anyway :)
 
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