Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

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spankyc

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Jun 3, 2012
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I bought an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and I have the Radeon 6670. At the time when I bought it I had a Core 2 Duo and it was the best GFX card for my cpu. Now that I have a quad core does this still apply or are there better cards? Also I have a 450 Antec PSU
 
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Than a 6670, yes.

Depends on the resolution of your monitor.

1280x1024 - 6870
1600x1200 - 6870
1920x1080 - GTX 560ti
1920x1200 - AMD 7870

Edit: Before you ask, no, I don't believe a Q6600 would be limiting any of these GPU's to any great degree. I would of course reccomend overclocking your processer to ensure that any CPU bound games do perform better, but given the majority of titles are highly GPU driven I do not foresee this becoming a problem.
 
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i would say that you can still handle some very high end cards like:
GTX 480, GTX 570, HD 6970, HD 7850 or below. however that 450 watt PSU will be holding you back to a GTX 460 SE, GTX 550 Ti, HD 6850, HD 7770.
 
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I also have an intel Mobo, would I still be able to use Nvidia Cards?
 
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Absolutely.

And for a 1680x1050 screen the best would be a 6870 or GTX560 ti

Personally I have a 1280x1024 panel and the 6870 can MAX any/everything while keeping above 30fps. If you prefer a higher ceiling, I would reccomend a 7850 or 7870, they also use very little power and would be suitable given your sub 500W PSU.

I would NOT recommend the old Fermi Nvidia GPU's (GTX480) on a 450W coupled with an elderly quad core as you may overdraw your PSU and kill it.
 
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having an itel motherboard or AMD motherboard does not matter what video card you have. i mean there is no compatibility difference between any manufacturer.
 
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Oh ok that was the only reason I didn't go with Nvidia the first time. I thought my board would only support AMD cards. Thanks for the info 😀. In your opinion, which card would be the best for my setup? My price range is $100-$200
 
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Oh ok that was the only reason I didn't go with Nvidia the first time. I thought my board would only support AMD cards. Thanks for the info 😀. In your opinion, which card would be the best for my setup? My price range is $100-$200
 
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hey call it my eyes are failing with old age, but i see the 450 is an antec PSU, you should be able to run most any single card set up but, like what posted before, the 480.
 
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Lol are Antecs supposed to be good? I just picked it up at Staples because I needed a new PSU 😛 So the 480 is good?
 
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you can't run a 480 . .they are good but power hogs and it will be like putting a small oven in your case.

antec is a highly recommended PSU.
 
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Sorry didn't realize you said everything but the 480 my bad
 
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You said earlier that you would not recommend the old Fermi 480's. Is the above GPU an older fermi or would it be safe my pc? I noticed it had a super fast core clock speed.
 
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the 570 is pretty much the limit of performance for your Q6600 and even then on some CPU intensive games like BF3 multiplayer maps, skyrim and metro 2033; you cpu will be getting a load from the game and that will affect its performance with the graphics card. not a bottleneck per se; but a limtation of the cpu.

if you have a P35/45 chipset you can overclock that cpu quite high with a good cooler. a G41 chipset will get a decent overclock but not nearly as high.
 
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On a 450w PSU, you might want to stick to the 7000 line to leave room for expansion and PSU aging. The 7770 (~$130) performs about like a 6850, and would give you good fps at high, but not max settings in most games at that resolution. The 7850 would max out everything in existence on your monitor, but is $250 (XFX does have one on newegg for $220 after mail-in).

WTB 7790 or 7830. For srs.

good luck!
 
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this is why you ought not use online calculators:
power_peak.gif

it is recommending 100 more watts for a GPU that uses LESS power 🙁
 
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POWER: It depends on the specific PSU model you are using. Can you link it? As said earlier, as it's an Antec I assume you'll be fine up to a GTX 570. If it were a Corsair, you'd be fine up to a GTX 560Ti. This is merely because of the specifics of the two PSU models I have in mind and precisely why we need the exact model.


CPU: You've gotten a lot of misleading information on this. People have been saying that your CPU will match or overpower a graphics card and it's just not really getting to the point at hand, which looniam has given some advice on--most games will run great with a Q6600, but a couple will be CPU limited.

It entirely depends on the specific title, but the ones he listed are especially hard on CPUs. Some games are programmed such that a 4GHz Dual core in the world would struggle, but a 2.4GHz Quad would not. Others are the opposite and some, such as Source Engine games like Portal 2, could run great on a Pentium 4.

Because so many of the most popular games that you'd be able to play with a new graphics card are CPU intensive, I STRONGLY suggest you look into overclocking your Q6600. I've had very little trouble overclocking the one I've used to 3.0GHz on stock voltage. If you have a decent motherboard and cooling, you can go higher.

PLEASE post a new thread on overclocking your Q6600 and link it here. You'll want to pick up something like a Hyper 212+ for $15 when it goes on sale with a rebate. Just make sure it'll fit in your case first. You can transfer this cooler to a new computer in a year or two.


GRAPHICS: Once you start talking about high end graphics, there are diminishing returns on performance/dollar. For example, a GTX 580 provides about a 33% performance improvement on the 6870 for over double it's price: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/372
If you're using a 6670, I say just get a 6870 and be blown away by the performance. I personally own a GTX 570--but that's only because I got it for $200.
 
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