Q6600 still good enough?

Sirrel Squirrel · 25 Nov 2011 at 20:19

I'm still running a Q6600 with 4GB of RAM from about 4 years ago, is this still good enough for the latest games? I will need to upgrade my 8800GTS though, I know that much!

bhavv · 25 Nov 2011 at 20:29

Its still fine, but do upgrade your ram to 8 Gb.

Sirrel Squirrel · 25 Nov 2011 at 20:30

Will do, it's cheap enough!

bhavv · 25 Nov 2011 at 20:34

Basically most games are now maxing out 4 Gb ram, leaving very little for data / shared ram caching.

Lots of people have significantly eliminated lag and stutter by upgrading from 4 gb to 8 gb ram.

As for the graphics card, HD 7000 and Keplers are coming out very soon. I'd try to make do until then if you can.

j.col · 25 Nov 2011 at 21:30

is it overclocked?
i have one at 3.4ghz and it can run games good imo.

Sirrel Squirrel · 25 Nov 2011 at 22:15

Yeah it's running at 3.4ghz, I didn't really think it would be a bottle neck since it handles anything I throw at it, obviously now with games my 8800GTS is showing it's age, last PC game I bought was Crysis 1

and I'd like to get BF3. Think I'll hold out for the next cards though from AMD and Nvidia.

j.col · 25 Nov 2011 at 22:35

i have a hd5850 on mine and i can run BF3 on high settings only, but at 1920 x 1080, so it looks good to me

Gangster · 25 Nov 2011 at 22:36

Sirrel Squirrel said:
Will do, it's cheap enough!

ddr2 isn't cheap, ddr3 is though. unless you has link?

bhavv · 25 Nov 2011 at 22:44

Oh is he using DDR2?

I remember I had an MSI X48c - 2 x DDR2 slots, and 4 x DDR3 slots. Was nice, but then had to have an I7 920 over a C2Q.

Sirrel Squirrel · 26 Nov 2011 at 16:16

Gangster said:
ddr2 isn't cheap, ddr3 is though. unless you has link?

Doh' it is DDR2 isn't it

strumpusplunket · 26 Nov 2011 at 16:41

I have a clocked Q6600 and 4GB RAM in my rig and I still play the latest games with it. I reckon it's starting to show its age, though, and things aren't as smooth as I'd like. I've just bought components for a SB upgrade because for me it was too sluggish. But having said that, I don't think there are any games that won't play on 3.2GHz + Q6600.

iamtheoneneo · 26 Nov 2011 at 16:55

Its a gd chip but unfortunately nowadays its a little on the slow side, yeh you can play currant games ok with it but it isn't as smooth as say an i5 , i7 chip. Differences in arma 2 for example are mental.
Id say defiantly look at upgrading the lot as ddr2 memory is not cheap anymore

Vimes · 26 Nov 2011 at 18:05

I run my E8500 @ 4Ghz and have 4GB of RAM with Windows x64. Combined with a GTX460 it runs everything fine. Skyrim, Shogun 2, Anno 2070 etc etc etc all run with no problems at a good speed.

You could always make a case to "upgrade or change" and I suppose it comes down to how deep your pockets are and much you enjoy changing stuff over.

I have toyed with the idea of bringing some change to my system but for the cost of changing the mb, cpu and ram I do not consider it worthwhile for the difference it would bring.

My trusty socket 775 and P35 board along with DDR 2 will last a while yet

Raikiri · 26 Nov 2011 at 19:09

I had a Q6600 until the other day when I kind of accidentally upgraded, it's good (the Q6600) but the 2500k is definitely a hell of a lot faster for things like encoding and image editing.

Games wise, the frame rate is a little steadier but the difference isn't huge.

I'd consider upgrading if I were you, the cost of going to a 2500K, 16gb DDR3 and a new motherboard from a Q6600/4GB will be less than £200 once I've sold my old bits.

hedgey · 27 Nov 2011 at 02:04

no its basically not good enough anymore.

uretsai · 27 Nov 2011 at 11:28

I upgraded thursday. for me the difference between q6600 and the i5 2500k is huge. I did change my graphics card from a 8800gt to a 6970 also though.

gazzaa · 27 Nov 2011 at 11:39

I had a q6000 with a gtx 570 i upgraded to a 2500k using the same gtx 570 and my framerates almost doubled.

eddyr · 27 Nov 2011 at 14:10

It all depends on what you want to play, your sytsem balance and how much you want to spend.
If you already have one and its clocked 3.4-3.5, with a mid range gfx card(hd5870/hd6870/nv560ti), then yes it is still good enough. May as well wait to see what next gen brings. Im personally waiting for amd/intels next offerings.
Paired with a high end card you will lose on its performance due to cpu bottlenecking, devalueing the extra money spent on the high gfx.

bhavv · 27 Nov 2011 at 14:21

Wqait, Anno 2070 is already released?

decto · 27 Nov 2011 at 14:25

eddyr said:
It all depends on what you want to play, your sytsem balance and how much you want to spend.
If you already have one and its clocked 3.4-3.5, with a mid range gfx card(hd5870/hd6870/nv560ti), then yes it is still good enough. May as well wait to see what next gen brings. Im personally waiting for amd/intels next offerings.
Paired with a high end card you will lose on its performance due to cpu bottlenecking, devalueing the extra money spent on the high gfx.

Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz does bottleneck a 560Ti in some games, e.g. BF3 which is supposed to be ok with all CPU's.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18345642

I'm now looking at an update to SB with a s1155 board that will support Ivy B when that's released.

Q6600 is still fine, but an upgrade will make a difference.

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