q6600 - still a beast?

[beatts]

wondering if anyone could provide some input? If anyone can remeber this cpu, Im still using the q6600 g0 @ 3.6ghz, 1600fsb and 4gb domanatrix ddr2 ram @ 1066mhz on a p45 mobo chipset. Ive just ordered an ati hd7870 (to be oc'ed to 7950 performance) upgraded from a 6870.
My question is if i should expect to see any bottleneck from this cpu?
Cheers

[Taxmancometh]

I have a Q6600 and a GTX 560 TI and I think I'm bottle necked. I would like to upgrade to a Q9650.

[beatts]

have you oc'ed it?

[Taxmancometh]

I tried to overclock it in my Gigabyte motherboard of which I can't remember the model at the moment, but the over clock settings were not sticking. It would revert back. I did for a time have it over clocked to 3 GHz but then it reverted back. Crappy mother board I say.

[beatts]

I tried to overclock it in my Gigabyte motherboard of which I can't remember the model at the moment, but the over clock settings were not sticking. It would revert back. I did for a time have it over clocked to 3 GHz but then it reverted back. Crappy mother board I say.

Ive had a look at the q9650 and its still expensive 2nd hand on ebay and seem quite popular. Id change your mobo rather than cpu and oc... It will Probably be cheaper. Im using the asus p5q mobo... Has kept the q6600 @ 3.6ghz for over 4years. Could you reccomend any bench software that can compare me to newer processors?
Thanks again

[Taxmancometh]

I use this to compare procs. AnandTech - Bench - CPU

[KarmaKiller]

Your new GPU will be limited by your current Q6600. They are still decent CPU's, but they are starting to show their age, especially when paired with a newer era GPU.
I still have my Q6600 system, and it's still used daily by my g/f, but there is a noticeable difference in games between my I7 and her system.
If your looking for a cheap upgrade, you could pick up a 2nd hand first gen I7 for cheap, along with an X58 board. I've seen combo's go for around $200 on forums.

[JLK03F150]

I think the Q6600 @ 3.6GHz should still perform pretty well. I'm running a Q9650 @ 3.6 GHz & it runs fine with my 6950 at 6970 speeds. It may not be on par with an i7, but should be able to compete with a similarly clocked i5.

[beatts]

Thanks for the replies guys.. Ive not really looked at cpus since i bought the q6600 so im left a little behind with the progress.
Ive checked cinibench 11.5 and it puts me with a score of 4.08 - this puts me a little below Core i5-2400s which comes in at 4.15.
performance test 7.0 puts me at 5109.5, again just behind an i5 2400s which is 5027.

Would the i5 -2400s bottleneck a 7950? and would the q6600 last a few more years for gaming... i dont really want to buy a new computer if I can get away with running new gfx cards without hinderence.
Many thanks

[beastgreeley]

I had my Q6600 hooked up to my Geforce GTX 670 and didnt feel bottled necked much, I have since gone to to an i5 3450 and it does seen to game a bit better. Im not talking "tons" bettter, just better.

[Taxmancometh]

Do you still have the Q6600 PC? I'm curios to see what frame rates you get vs mine.

[beastgreeley]

yes i do, with a radeon HD6950, ill get you some frame rates if you give me the benchmark or game.

[Taxmancometh]

Okay, run this: Demo Versions: X3: Terran Conflict Rolling Demo Benchmark - Demo Movie Patch Download Section

And use these settings. This is what I have.



Make sure you run as benchmark otherwise it will play on continuous. I did that once and was like WTH.

[Taxmancometh]

Here are my results. I think there's a bottleneck with my GTX 560 TI and the Q6600.

--------------------------
X3 - Terran Conflict
--------------------------
Game Version: 1.2.0.0

Operating System: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (5.2, Build 3790) Service Pack 2 (3790.srv03_sp2_rtm.070216-1710)
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Graphics Card Info: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti [1024 MB] Driver: 6.14.0013.0142
CPU Info: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Usable System Memory: 6142 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
Screen Resolution: 1680 x 1050 * [32], fullscreen
Using Shader Profile: 3.0
Antialias Mode: 4x
Anisotropic Mode: NONE

Graphics & Shader Settings:
Texture Quality: high
Shader Quality: high
High Quality Bumpmaps: enabled
Environment Mapping: enabled
Glow Filter: enabled
Ship Color Variations: disabled
More Dynamic Lights: disabled
Used Vertexsize: 40 bytes

Framerates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scene "Trade" 26.4 average fps 7.0 minimum fps 61.0 maximum fps
Scene "Fight" 57.8 average fps 20.0 minimum fps 141.0 maximum fps
Scene "Build" 78.3 average fps 42.0 minimum fps 183.0 maximum fps
Scene "Think" 35.7 average fps 18.0 minimum fps 69.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 49.5 fps

[ShyguyXPC]

ya know, I plum forgot to run that bench to see how it is on my 560 Ti SLI setup, LOL, AND even single GPU over my GTX 470.

[Taxmancometh]

Hey shy. Is X3 - Terran Conflict a real game?

[ShyguyXPC]

yep, have had it for a couple years now. If your into the older Privateer (Wing Commander Spinoff), type Series or "Elite" that Preceeded it, you'll probably be into X3.

Its not a bad game, though a bit more complicated with the market and some micro management than I'm used to, but I resorted to running some hacks to give me extra money and ship parts.

souped up my ship so much, that I couldn't revert it, and my game save was at same point each time, I would hit my ships thrusters and slam into a space station I was undocking from and blow myself up everytime (Docking point was up inside the station, so as soon as I was undocked, I would hit accelerator and slam into the outer edge of station LOL).


But I haven't played in in a year or so.


Its actually got some interesting parts of it. I had fun just taking my ship out and shoot up some Asteroids at one point.


neat thing is, if your daring enough, you can get out of your craft and via space suit, hijack or float on over and take another craft.

I think there was one mission where I found a derelict ship I had to recover, had to leave mine sitting somewhere, get out of mine, get into the derelict, and fly it back to a base or something. Been a while, and have forgotten, but it does have some interesting aspects, as well as some nice mods to install as well.

Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, BSG, you name it.


There's X3: Reunion, and X3: Terran Conflict (latter is more or less a stand alone expansion of the former.

X2: The Threat wasn't too bad either, graphics not that bad for when it came out, but X3 is much more polished. All of them are DX9 games, and I think I read somewhere there was work on a X4 or something, DX10/11 game.


anyways, I never did play the first game, but have X2 and Both X3's.

Its a time consuming game when it comes down to it, and between Skyrim and ArmA 2 right now, I just don't have much time to play it.


X3: Terran Conflict - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

X3: Reunion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I haven't tried Albion yet, though. X3: Albion Prelude - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And Rebirth is the new one coming out: X Rebirth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Taxmancometh]

Wow! I'll have to check the game out. I don't get around to gaming that much anymore. I'm currently on my desktop listening to some tunes on 5.1 surround sound. I haven't done that since June! I'm always up stairs on the laptop. But the demo was way cool and I can only imagine what the game is like.

[ShyguyXPC]

1920x1080 2x GTX 560 Ti SLI, everything maxed out on settings:


--------------------------
X3 - Terran Conflict
--------------------------
Game Version: 1.2.0.0

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
Graphics Card Info: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti [3790 MB] Driver: 9.18.0013.0623
CPU Info: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 940 @ 2.93GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.9GHz
Usable System Memory: 6144 MB


Video Settings During Benchmark:
Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 * [32], fullscreen
Using Shader Profile: 3.0
Antialias Mode: 8x
Anisotropic Mode: 16x

Graphics & Shader Settings:
Texture Quality: high
Shader Quality: high
High Quality Bumpmaps: enabled
Environment Mapping: enabled
Glow Filter: enabled
Ship Color Variations: enabled
More Dynamic Lights: enabled
Used Vertexsize: 40 bytes

Framerates
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scene "Trade" 43.7 average fps 17.0 minimum fps 100.0 maximum fps
Scene "Fight" 96.1 average fps 36.0 minimum fps 216.0 maximum fps
Scene "Build" 128.8 average fps 74.0 minimum fps 287.0 maximum fps
Scene "Think" 57.2 average fps 30.0 minimum fps 108.0 maximum fps

Overall average framerate: 81.5 fps

[Taxmancometh]

The average frame rate is only 32 fps faster than mine.