Q6600 and GTX 970 and GTX980

[g335]

Hello

Would a q6600 overclocked to 3ghz bottle neck a GTX970 or GTX980

Can a q6600 run a 2560x1440 monitor with a good gpu? GTX 970 or 980?

 

[Derza10]

Yes it would, pretty badly to. You really should think about doing a motherboard/CPU upgrade if you want to get a high end GPU.

 

[gamerk316]

The Q6600 is ancient by modern standards, but is still *somewhat* capable, if heavily OCd (most can reach the 3.6GHz range). But getting a 970 is overkill without a CPU upgrade.

 

[clonazepam]

Yes. Additionally, the fact you would be using a Q6600 limits your overall system performance because of the features of the motherboards that support that processor. I don't think it would be a major bottleneck in all situations, but definitely present.

If you are building a new system in stages, and have a new processor, mobo, ram planned for later, you could get by pairing up a Q6600 with a 970 or 980, but in some more processor intensive games, you will be missing out on a decent chunk of performance. I don't know of anyone currently using this setup, but I suspect its certainly playable and will work just fine with some tweaking of game settings. Some games may max out just fine, other more complex titles might choke up a bit. It might be hit or miss with some AAA titles, but that's what settings are for.

All in all, nobody would ever say that its a good pairing. If you are looking at upgrading cpu/mobo later, then I'd consider the least expensive graphics option, like a 750ti or a gtx 960 for gaming at 1080p, save up, and do a full rebuild later this year, whenever AMD drops the 390x and nvidia inevitably fires back would be a great time for some shopping I suspect.

 

[centaurius]

YEs it would. A GPU like that it seems only can get its full potential out on a decent i5 from 2nd/3rd or 4th/ gent on Intel at least. I am not sure the correspondets of AMD to these.

I have a Q9450 OC to 3.2 and I believe the max GPU i could get to this would be somewhat a 670 / 960, anything over with more horsepower on the GPU front won't be able to do any good.