E6600 with 5870

[Skurge]

I've been offered a 5870 with a Zalman cooler for a price I would normaly jump on, but im worried that i might have a huge bottleneck and it isnt worth replaceing my 8800gts.

It's also pretty hard to find a card from 2009 benchmarked with a cpu from 2006.

 

[Zanovar]

I've been offered a 5870 with a Zalman cooler for a price I would normaly jump on, but im worried that i might have a huge bottleneck and it isnt worth replaceing my 8800gts.

It's also pretty hard to find a card from 2009 benchmarked with a cpu from 2006.

I would grab the card if the price is good Skurge,you maybe upgrading that cpu later on..

 

[Termie]

I've been offered a 5870 with a Zalman cooler for a price I would normaly jump on, but im worried that i might have a huge bottleneck and it isnt worth replaceing my 8800gts.

It's also pretty hard to find a card from 2009 benchmarked with a cpu from 2006.

The 5870 will be about 2.5x faster than the 8800gts. That's based on my experience upgrading from an 8800gt to an HD5850. This benchmark is approximately what you could expect: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/178?vs=162

But, you will be fairly bottlenecked. I've found that my e8400 is at its limits with my GTX460, so the HD5870 will not be at full strength. Even so, you'll probably get 1.5-2x improvement depending on the game. If, however, the 5870 is significantly more expensive than what you can get a GTX460/HD6850 for, it probably isn't worth it. If it's less, than it's definitely worth it.

 

[Skurge]

The 5870 will be about 2.5x faster than the 8800gts. That's based on my experience upgrading from an 8800gt to an HD5850. This benchmark is approximately what you could expect: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/178?vs=162

But, you will be fairly bottlenecked. I've found that my e8400 is at its limits with my GTX460, so the HD5870 will not be at full strength. Even so, you'll probably get 1.5-2x improvement depending on the game. If, however, the 5870 is significantly more expensive than what you can get a GTX460/HD6850 for, it probably isn't worth it. If it's less, than it's definitely worth it.

Well I can get it for a little less than 460/6850, So I guess I'll be going for it. the 5870 makes a lot of those games playable. So it seems like a no brainer.

 

[n0x1ous]

I've been offered a 5870 with a Zalman cooler for a price I would normaly jump on, but im worried that i might have a huge bottleneck and it isnt worth replaceing my 8800gts.

It's also pretty hard to find a card from 2009 benchmarked with a cpu from 2006.

Skurge, what is this E6600 clocked @? Certainly a factor in this bottlenecking discussion.

 

[Termie]

Well I can get it for a little less than 460/6850, So I guess I'll be going for it. the 5870 makes a lot of those games playable. So it seems like a no brainer.

Yeah, I'd jump on it then. At less than an HD6850, it's a very good deal. Plus you can carry it over to another system if you decide to upgrade.

 

[Skurge]

Skurge, what is this E6600 clocked @? Certainly a factor in this bottlenecking discussion.

It's clocked at the stock 2.4ghz. I was thinking of carrying it over, but im only getting a new system at the end of the year. I could possibly get a second one for thr same price.

 

[Barfo]

Get the 5870, crank up the AA.

 

[toyota]

a 2.4 E6600 will only give you about half the performance a 5870 can deliver in many newer games. heck it is even going to be right at or even below minimum requirements for a couple of games.

 

[Termie]

a 2.4 E6600 will only give you about half the performance a 5870 can deliver in many newer games. heck it is even going to be right at or even below minimum requirements for a couple of games.

Sounds like he'll eventually get a new system, but in the meantime he should definitely try overclocking. My old e6600 easily went to 3.1 on auto voltage (that was before I knew much).

 

[Skurge]

Sounds like he'll eventually get a new system, but in the meantime he should definitely try overclocking. My old e6600 easily went to 3.1 on auto voltage (that was before I knew much).

Was that on the stock cooler?

 

[Termie]

Was that on the stock cooler?

No, it was not. I think it got up to around 55-60C with the Scythe Mine cooler. You probably don't want to go over 3.0 on a stock cooler. My brother has the system now, and I've actually taken it down to 2.7GHz since it's an older system and he's not using it for anything demanding. Idle around 40C, loads around 50-55C. I'm sure you could get at least to 2.7 on a stock cooler and keep it below 60C. You won't damage anything trying it out - just keep an eye on the temps.

 

[happy medium]

5870 with a Zalman cooler

If its less than a gtx460 like you said, than yes jump on it quick.

Just buy a universal cpu cooler that will mount on 775,1155,and AM3, there are plenty out there. Then when you upgrade your system you can use it with the new cpu.
Meanwhile overclock the e6600 over 3.0 and the bottleneck won't be that bad.

 

[Tempered81]

I've been offered a 5870 with a Zalman cooler for a price I would normaly jump on, but im worried that i might have a huge bottleneck and it isnt worth replaceing my 8800gts.

It's also pretty hard to find a card from 2009 benchmarked with a cpu from 2006.

 

[bryanW1995]

It's clocked at the stock 2.4ghz. I was thinking of carrying it over, but im only getting a new system at the end of the year. I could possibly get a second one for thr same price.

e6600 is one of the easiest cpus ever to overclock. 3.2-3.4 on stock cooling is typical, with 3.6+ on aftermarket coolers. That's assuming 23-24c ambient, of course.

I'd get the first 5870 now, then wait and see if you even need a 2nd after getting the new cpu.

edit, whoops, now that I think about it I overclocked mine with an aftermarket cooler. 3.0-3.2 is still doable with stock, depending on what sort of temps you're willing to deal with.

 

[Termie]

FYI, these tests were done with a GTX460, and your CPU is most similar to the G6950.

Full report: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20873/2

 

[toyota]

FYI, these tests were done with a GTX460, and your CPU is most similar to the G6950.

Full report: http://techreport.com/articles.x/20873/2

a stock E6600 would be closer to the E6400 than the G6950. at best it would perform somewhere in between. either way its a massive bottleneck for a gtx460 never mind the 5870. and as you can see, even just playability in general is not all that great for some games. and there are other games that are pretty cpu intensive too.

 

[Termie]

a stock E6600 would be closer to the E6400 than the G6950. at best it would perform somewhere in between. either way its a massive bottleneck for a gtx460 never mind the 5870. and as you can see, even just playability in general is not all that great for some games. and there are other games that are pretty cpu intensive too.

You're right. I forgot he hadn't overclocked yet (he obviously should).

 

[sm625]

My work computer is an E600 clocked at 3.2GHz with stock cooling. It actually fails prime95 before the core temps get over 70C when I push it to 3.3GHz.

 

[Skurge]

Looks like I'm going get the 5870 then, I'll go over to the CPU section to help with some overclocking. Havn't overclocked an FSB based CPU in a long time.

 

[tweakboy]

You can do 4Ghz but that is too extreme, cuz the voltage would have to make a jump up. With a little bump in voltage you can do 3.6Ghz easy.

 

[tweakboy]

What should he set his CPU voltage to ? To be able to get 3.6 at least and stable as a rock.

But ya your 460 is being bottlenecked by CPU , which is all not bad,, very playable still.

 

[Will Robinson]

Temps with the stock HSF rise quickly once you O/C an E6600 past 3.3GHZ.
The '66 Conroe chips will run happily at 3.0GHz all day,no need to change from stock voltage and would be a smart move if you want that HD5870 to really perform.

 

[postmortemIA]

lol at folks saying C2Q is comparable to C2D with same clock speed.
It does not add up: if CPU is bottlenecking games, then better be that such games are taking advantage of 2 more cores. If not, they are not good measure for stated issue. And Pentium with 2 cores and 2 threads and little L2 cache is not same thing as 4 cores with significant L2 cache.

 

[happy medium]

lol at folks saying C2Q is comparable to C2D with same clock speed.

It depends on the core 2, if its the e8xxx it will be comparable to a q9xxx, if its a e6xxx it will be comparable to a q8xxx. Thats if 4 cores are not utilized.