Q6600 to i5

[Kelt]

***UPDATE***

I took the plunge and have replaced my ageing 8800 with a shiny new Inno3D OC GTX970.

I'm please to say there have been no compatibility or power issues and the performance increase is good, the Q6600 is still sitting at stock atm, and is definitely holding the card back, but it looks good for being able to play Elite until I can upgrade the CPU too Thanks again for all the info and advice, glad I made the decision I did.

Interesting to know that a 970 will run on a 775 board with no problems.

Can you not OC your Q6600 at all?

 

[ginjaninja]

I actually completely disagree with most comments on here.

Buy the 970 assuming you have a decent ish PSU yes there will be a bottleneck but the graphics card does most of the work on 3d games and a Q6600 is still a very capable cpu I suspect people would be very surprised to see the results and you will be very disappointed at how little difference it makes when you get round to replacing the CPU.

i agree..the gpu would be transportable to new system..so nothing to loose...most games do not require an overclocked q6000.

 

[ginjaninja]

I seem well placed to answer your question, having a Q6600 overclocked to 3.3ghz and recently upgraded 560gtx1gb to a, yes you guessed it Nvidia 970

First ignore people who are quick to say yes or "No WAY!!" straight away off the bat, the answer is more complex and actually yes and no.

There are and will be games that are more cpu dependant, there are however a surprising amount of new games (RYSE, Shadow of mordor) that don't need a beefy CPU and the GPU does all the work. A lot of the new console ports of course should be an example of this.

see my benchmark data below of my Q6600 3.3ghz with 560 and with new 970:

Shadow of mordor, high settings 1920 res on 5601gb, 11fps. cpu usage 30%
shadow of mordor, high settigns 1920 res on 9704gb, 87fps. cpu usage 80%

Batman, everything pretty much on MAX 1920, 5601gb 38fps. cpu usage 75%
Batman, everything pretty much on MAX 1920, 5601gb 47fps. cpu usage 95%

mordor average max min
very high 970 87 300 44
very high 560 11 64 4

Just in those two exampels above you can see the massive change you will see game to game, shadow of mordor i am not evening maxxing my q6600 with a 970, however in Batman i am not pushing the 970 at all. General rule is older games are more cpu dependant where as newer titles are more GPU limtied.

Ryse son of rome is interesting, playing the game i have exactly 95%+ CPU and GPU usage, the q6600 is fast enough to max out the 970gtx, i think a lot of people would be surprised by that.

Remember these newer game engines are targeting mutliple lower clocked 1.6ghz cores, the q6600 is much faster then current gen ps4/xbox1 console CPUs.

What i would advize you of is where as the 970 needs only a 500w psu, it needs 42a (off top of head) on the 12rail, i had a 500w earthwatts PSU for my Q6600 ip35 pro and needed to purchase a new PSU to feed the 970.

seems like broadwell will not be out until 2015, i advize you todo what i did buy the 970, run some benchmarks, be impressed and if the games you play are maxxing your CPU, then upgrade to z97, i5 4790k. let me know if you need any more benchmarks run.

what they said.

 

[mr1000]

Interesting to know that a 970 will run on a 775 board with no problems.

Can you not OC your Q6600 at all?

Yes I can, been a while since I did it, will have to get my eye back in! had it up to about 3Ghz with no problems, didn't push it any further. So far, I haven't needed to. This upgrade is primarily to be able to play Elite Dangerous, will see how that plays to see how long I can hold off going for an i5

 

[mr1000]

Sooo tempted to get the Beta, but don't want all my progress wiped

 

[lofz]

I just spent £350 on new components. Got a second hand R9 280x and have gone the cheap AMD route with everything else. I reckon it will be perfectly suitable for my current 1680x1050 non HD gaming.

A new screen is next on the list

 

[mr1000]

Well, I succumbed...

Bought into the Beta for Elite, and glad I did

Plays just fine with the new card and the old Q6600 (at stock)

Next toy - Occulus Rift

 

[Martini1991]

I just spent £350 on new components. Got a second hand R9 280x and have gone the cheap AMD route with everything else. I reckon it will be perfectly suitable for my current 1680x1050 non HD gaming.

A new screen is next on the list

1680x1050 is "HD".

HD's just a crap moniker.

 

[the_director]

My Q6600 was bottlenecking HD5850 Extremes in CF, but games were still very playable - its just that the cards could do more frames with a 3570K powering them.

Good to see the old Q6600 still going.

 

[lofz]

1680x1050 is "HD".

HD's just a crap moniker.

Oh right I didn't realise that. I have a new screen on the way. Just waiting for our friends at Yodel to be bothered to deliver it. Clearly should have gone to Overclockers. Schoolboy error.

 

[rich99million]

Excellent thread - I have been out of the PC game for a few years and had come to the conclusion over the last week or so I pretty much needed to start fresh (which I can no way afford at the moment) so refreshing to see I'm in good company with a Q6600 and looking at going the 970 route also

PSU is a Corsair HX650, need to dust it off and see what the 12V rail gives.

 

[mr1000]

Yep, still going strong

I will be going i5 soon though, promised my boy his first PC for Christmas, makes sense to build him one from my bits, and get new for me. (he only really wants it for Minecraft!)

 

[wam7]

Well, I succumbed...

Bought into the Beta for Elite, and glad I did

Plays just fine with the new card and the old Q6600 (at stock)

Next toy - Occulus Rift

Had a feeling you might bite the bullet and succumb. There's a guy selling an Occulus Rift on the MM.

Yeah running a single card and mainly gaming then an i5 is probably all you need though I would get an i7 just in case.

 

[mr1000]

Had a feeling you might bite the bullet and succumb. There's a guy selling an Occulus Rift on the MM.

Yeah running a single card and mainly gaming then an i5 is probably all you need though I would get an i7 just in case.

Not got access to MM yet how many posts do I need?

 

[Luke_Bowman]

Don't know why he mentioned that as you need 1000+ posts

 

[mr1000]

Hmmm, a fair way to go then!