Well, you'd think so, huh? But it doesnt seem to work that way. It appears that between 3.6 and 3.8 you are reaching the chips design limitations without exceptional cooling.
I have tested personally 10 or so q6600 and q6700s. A high VID q6700 cant reach 3.8 within intel specs. I have a SINGLE low VID q6700. 1.2375 that can get stable at 3.8. I have a SINGLE q6600 that could PROLLY reach 3.8 stable. A 1.2000 Which is the lowest VID out of anyone so far. So if I cant do it...
You are welcome to try.
Think of it this way, a q6700 is a q6600 with a 10 multiplier. Thats all. I am sure it passed something at intels shop that got them to set its clock at 2.66 and not 2.4... I hope. But from what I have seen, they are all the same.
So as I said, if you want more than a 5% chance, get a q6700, because if its VID is under 1.2500 you may hit 3.8. ALL the chips will reach 3.6ish.
Vid will determine the rest.
(Oh, and getting 3.8 stable in prime is no easy task! Its about 25 bios VCore notches to gain that extra 200 Mhz. It takes like half that to get 3.6 stable! So that first 1Ghz is free. Then your VID comes into play after that, and how easily you can OC farther depends on where your voltage started!)
Example. My 1.2000 VID q 6600 gets 20 Bios VCore notches MORE within Intel Specs over my 1.3000 VID q 6600.
My 1.2000 is stable at 3.6 @ under 1.3000 loaded.
My 1.3000 needs 1.44-1.45 to be stable.
Add that up, my friend. So as the VID is raised, and the accompanying VCore that's required for a higher VID comes into play, it AUTOMATICALLY required more VCore voltage to become stable.
Appears that it needs .0500 or more EXTRA to become stable. Thats yer High VID syndrome and chip limitations coming into play! And then the more voltage you add, the less efficient that voltage becomes, and the more that's dissipated as heat.. if you can dissipate that much!
To sum it up. As you add voltage you need more voltage. The higher the VID starting level determines how long it is before you see that High VID syndrome. The more voltage you use, the more that escapes as heat, as well as causes more heat when you use processor power. Heat means your chip becomes less efficient along with the voltage.. and you have a weird set of circumstances doing weird things and poof! 3.6!
And somewhere between 3.5-3.8 there is what we will call High VID syndrome, caused by the chips limits. As it reaches upper speeds, it looks to me like there is a limit to where it will go. 3.6-3.8 Anything after that is good luck and good cooling!
Thats not mentioning that I mean Prime stable. You can run a chip higher and not see any errors at all, because you dont get no where near the drain from daily use that you get from artificial testing like Prime 95s small ffts!!
Let me know how you do, if you wanna try it for your self. If you wanna see the info, search for my VID threads.
--Lupi