Best GPU for Core2Duo E6700

[pumukly]

Hi all,
I'd like to ask you how to calculate (or get your professional advise) on what best (2nd hand?) GPU I can get for my system. I read couple threads, even here:
1. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2267412/bottleneck-core-duo.html
2. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/393454-33-upgrade-humble-dual-core-e6700
just to name a few, however still have some doubts. My system specs - I'm not planning to exchange any of them, only if it would make significant sense for PSU (if 400W is too low).
PSU: 400W
Mobo: PSI 965 NEO (PCI-Express x16 slot)
CPU: Core2Duo E6700 @ 2.67Ghz - that's the best one my mobo can handle
RAM: 4GB DDR2 800MHz (would be upgrading soon to 8GB) - max. my mobo can handle
system: Win 10 Pro 64-bit
At the moment I have 512 DDR2 NVidia GPU by MSI
I have an SSD disk, HDD and DVD ROM powered up, might be powering up wifi card and USB card (with external power supply so should not really count) in PCI-e slots in the future.
I don't look at this budgetwise, with couple of options I might have, I can search for a used one...this is more about what best I can get thinking of CPU bottleneck...
Usage is some gaming but mostly video editing things...

Thank you!

 

[JUICEhunter]

Go 750/750ti as a good last GPU for that CPU. An i3 would be a good next CPU as it will give you the 750/750tis full performance but also fast enough to get a new GPU when needed.

 

[pumukly]

Thanks for quick answer. Wouldn't the TI version be a waste or there is no diff in terms of a CPU bottleneck?

 

[pumukly]

and I have MSI GeForce 9400 GT 512MB DDR2 at the moment, the new one would be as per hierarchy like 17 levels up...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html?_ga=1.27196542.2128403977.1460717653

 

[JUICEhunter]

There isn't a huge difference between 750/ti and they are often the same price. If you can find a non ti for a lot less go for it but if you're within $20 might as well get the ti.

 

[SoNic67]

GTX 740 might do it too for you... slightly cheaper.
BTW, are you sure you can't get a quad core on that MoBo, maybe MSI didn't test it?
I would try it anyway, the mobo supports 130W CPU's (Prescott) so power supply is not an issue - Q6600, Q6700, Q9300, Q9400...
I have a Q6600 (from ebay, like $20) installed in a MoBo that wasn't listing it as supported.

 

[JUICEhunter]

My only issue with 740 is it scores a 1575 on passmark and 750 scores a 3241 (TI scores 3685) the biggest gap I've seen from one series to another and they are priced close to each other with only half the performance.

If you got the quad core (great idea SoNic67 and thank you for sharing real world experience) I'd recommend a 950 (passmark score 5254). That combo would put you up a lot higher up than the duel core/750. It's not up to anyone but intel what CPUs you can/can't have so if it's the same chipset you're good.

 

[pumukly]

I can't get a quad core...it has been tested.
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-MSI/P965_Neo_%28MS-7235%29.html
Breathing new life to my old 2006 build the E6700 is the best I could get...well the extreme version @ 2.93GHz is the best, but the price is 6 times more for a used one so I went for E6700. Putting 8GB of RAM 800Mhz in a dual mode and some good GPU with the SSD disk would make the machine not that bad for the things I do mostly - video editing...
I had 3GB of RAM in Win XP 32-bit, 10-year old 5400rpm HDD and Pentium C 3.2GHz 1MB L2 Cache and the system would take like 5mins to start..., was freezing etc...
Now with SSD and Core2Duo and more RAM this is a different story...and the price for E6700 was like 15 bucks...
Just need a good GPU to give relief to CPU and that is the max I can do with my mobo....I still have PCI-e 1.0 versions (250MB speed) which is still good when using it for a USB 3.0 speed (I get something like USB 2.5 speed). SATA II with 300Mb/s can handle the SSD's pretty well.
PCI-express is 4GB/s speed, not sure but I think these days it is still not that bad. Times when I had AMD K2 and was so happy to upgrade from 300Mhz to 400Mhz and 32MB RAM putting to 64/128MB RAM and saw huge difference are over (IMHO). Well, for me, not a heavy gamer...8GB RAM even 800MHz is still OK and the volume used in nowadays MID-range laptops...
Thanks for the hint on GPU, I guess I will try to hunt one down!

 

[pumukly]

what about 650Ti versus 750Ti (650Ti is like 20% cheaper - for my system would I see some benefit of 750ti - wouldn't the CPU just bottleneck the 750ti)?

 

[JUICEhunter]

GTX 750ti (Passmark score 3685) is a lot faster (more than 20%) and is $80 like this one:

http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=02G-P4-3757-RX

How much is the 650ti (Passmark score 2699) that you're looking at? I believe you will get overall higher settings/fps with 750ti, even with your CPU. If you were a little faster I'd say 950.

 

[pumukly]

I guess I will be hunting down for 750Ti then...just last question - I have a PCI 1.0 slot and this card does not have a power connector. It has 60W. Mine current one has 50W and works....does anyone know the limit of PCI 1.0 - whether it will work? Could not find this answer....I just found other cards benchmarks that the speed would be OK, not a bottleneck really...thanks!

 

[SoNic67]

The issue is that with a dual core the money spend on a 750Ti will be a waste. Even the 740 is too much for a Core2Duo.
Now, if he can up the CPU to a quad, that might be a discussion to have. But if the budget is really tight, I would go for a quad that I have listed above and use the rest of money for a 740. Sure, if that's not the case, go for 750Ti...
Also, don't look for "better" quads on that mobo, they might not work - I recommended those to match the FSB, BIOS microcodes and local CPU power capabilities.
Looks like QX6700 is working on that with 7235v18.zip BIOS.

 

[pumukly]

I haven't noticed that one is a quad actually on the list! It is basically double power of my core so I guess I'll go with that one + 750Ti. The question is there are like 3 listed there:
QX6700 - HH80562PH0678M / BX80562QX6700
QX6700, 2.66 GHz, FSB 266 MHz, L2 8 MB, TDP 130 Watt, Kentsfield, Rev B3, SSpec SL9UL 7235v18.zip
QX6700, 2.66 GHz, rev.B3, 130W, 65nm, 1066 MHz FSB, 2x4MB, Kentsfield 1.B 1.1
QX6700, 2.66 GHz, rev.B3, 65nm, 1066 MHz FSB, 2x4MB, Kentsfield 1.A 1.1
While I understand that 1.A/1.B/7235v18 is a BIOS version, which I can check and upgrade if needed, I don't get what 1.1 is (table says PCB which I don't know what it stands for) and why the 1st one says FSB 266Mhz and the other 2 say 1066Mhz...
On intel site there is only one version - 1066Mhz as well as on Wikipedia. So the question is - are there 3 types of QX6700 or just one?

 

[pumukly]

Guess I was too quick to ask. I just wrote an article where basically the QX6700 is like two core2duo E6700 in one box - so the one I have and a mobo that supports E6700 would simply support this one as well as the FSB was not raised to 333Mhz (=1333Mhz QPB). As one core has 266Mhz, which makes it to 1066MHz QPB which means quad pumped bus. So I conclude, that I just buy QX6700 and there is ONLY one type of them, not 3 and with correct bios version it would work? Can anyone confirm?

 

[SoNic67]

Correct, that's just one type of QX6700 with FSB 266 (equals quad 1066).
And I really think that Q6600 or Q6700 would work too in there, they have lower power requirements too... don't know why on that list are marked as not working.

http://ark.intel.com/products/family/79667/Legacy-Intel-Core2-Processor#@Desktop

 

[Epicness937]

i would get a 750 ti for that setup
also you could look into the r7 250 its a good low profile card and i've seen it (in the usa) for around 70$

 

[pumukly]

It might be that Q6600 and Q6700 are listed as not working with bios 1.A/B. But with BIOS version 7235.18 - no info, so it might have not been tested. See the QX6700 where it is not working for 1A and B, but tested on newest BIOS - working...
I think I might give it a try with Q6700 as it is the same as QX (I will not play with overclocking so the 'X' version is not interesting for me). This Quad has better benchmarks than i3 3rd generation (which supports hyperthreading so daily usage might be better). But I think this Quad and 750Ti would bring my old PC couple nice levels up...

 

[SoNic67]

Good catch about the firmware versions.
I have the Q6600 on a Media Center PC and like you said, because it has 4 true cores and bigger cache, at many tasks is faster than a hyperthreaded 2 core of newer generation. And is not that expensive if things don't work out
Just be careful with the plastic locking pins for the cooler, they are absolute junk from design, I had to replace all of them eventually when I was playing with the CPU's on the LGA775 socket.

PS: I even had installed Xeons with LGA 771 socket in that 775 with adapters from eBay. There was no firmware support for those Xeons, but they still worked - well, sometimes Windows wasn't recognizing correctly the frequency, it was reporting something like 60GHz, but the CPU-Z was showing the right value. Updating the microcode in the BIOS manually fixed the issue.

 

[pumukly]

I also checked my BIOS version and the v1.8 version was released 27.03.2007. Since then there were 3 new releases and mine is v 1.11 released 13.06.2008. All these next version were all about "update CPU micro code". The Q6700 was released Q3/07. I can only guess when the article was written and what they mean by BIOS version 1.A and 1.B. Bottom line is there are examples where 1.A/1.B is not working, but BIOS version 1.8 is (example of QX6800). To be safe, I guess I'll check for used in some vicinity and agree to return if not working...