Upgrade further?

jimmymac

VIP Member
After the issues I posted in another thread regarding crashing I decided that it must be something going on with the GPU, everything else in my system has always run fine and its only really been glitching since I got that card some years ago.

So i've now plumped for a GTX560Ti which is going to add a decent improvement I would say but I wonder if I am now going to see a bottleneck from the processor side, with the GPU installed i'll be running :


Q6600
Gigabyte DS4 Mobo
GTX560ti
OCZ 600w stealth psu
4GB DDR2

and all the usual stuff that goes with it

The question is, do I really need to upgrade the rest of do we think that the new setup would still be plenty powerful? Bear in mind i'm not after having the latest and greatest Uber computer, just something that runs current games (and I dont really game that often) at decent settings.

As an example i'm currently playing The Witcher 2 and I have to use low settings, i'm expecting the new GPU to enable me to play at medium to high at least

Is it worth spending what could be the best part of £400 on an i5 2500k upgrade or wait for a while longer? Is a Q6600 going to be a hinderance or is there still plenty of power left in it yet?
 

Slacker7

Member
From what I have read your GPU is more than adequate but the issue may lie in your cpu because if I have read correctly Witcher 2 is cpu demanding. I always go with the recommended. Still it would seem your Q6600 should handle this game.

Recommended specs:
Processor: Intel Quad Core or AMD equivalent
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 260, 1 GB memory / Radeon HD 4850 with 1 GB memory
Memory: 3 GB for Windows XP / 4 GB for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Hard Disk: At least 16 GB of free space

Minimum specs:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD 2.5 GHz equivalent
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800, 512 MB memory or ATI HD3850 512 MB
Memory: 1 GB for Windows XP / 2 GB for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Hard Disk: 8 GB for the game installation and 8 GB for bonus materials

* If you can wait see what AMD's new Llano and especially Bulldozer will offer which will begin being released to the public in June.
 

Shane

Super Moderator
Staff member
Is that Q6600 stock?...if so it will seems slow,when overclocked to 3.6-3.8Ghz it flys....I still think the Q6600 is a very capable cpu.

imho i would wait for Bulldozer then upgrade.
 

2048Megabytes

Active Member
From what I have read Advanced Micro Device's new processor line is going to be released around June 30th. I cannot wait to see what is released. I would be happy to see AMD match or exceed Intel's Bloomfield (Socket 1366) processor line at a decent price tag.
 

jimmymac

VIP Member
Cheers for advice folks :)

It's at stock and it's not g0 stepping either but should still overclock reasonably, maybe get 2.8 out of it
 

funkysnair

VIP Member
well i have had a q6600 and have had it up to 3.6ghz and wasnt a go stepping, your cpu is dated but a little overclock might just help you out!!

if not try looking at the i3 series for a cheap build
 

2048Megabytes

Active Member
If I upgrade it's an i5 2500k, just not gonna do it unless I need to :)

I hear you there. I just sold my Phenom II 940 for $70 and bought a Phenom II 945 for $100 because I wanted a lower wattage processor.

The Phenom II 945 is the most powerful processor my motherboard can handle and I do not want to upgrade again until I can afford it. Right now my system is far more than I need with the software I use.
 
Top