Overclocked Q9550 enough to drive 2x HD6870s?

[VirtualLarry]

Just a quick check, am I going to be CPU-limited with an overclocked Q9550, if I go with CF HD6870 cards? I realize that an i7 would probably be better, but I already have the X48 mobo and the Q9550 and the DDR2 RAM, so I'm not going to do a platform upgrade right now. Probably skip out on that until Ivy Bridge or even later (Haswell?)
I don't know what the overclock will be yet, but for certain I will likely run at least 400Mhz FSB, since the RAM is DDR2-800. I will also try for 450Mhz FSB, but that isn't guaranteed.

 

[toyota]

well I think you already know the answer. sure an i5/i7 would give you the BEST experience but an overclocked Q9550 is plenty enough to get the job done.

 

[dangerman1337]

Yeah i would say so but if you are going to upgarde to Ivy bridge you may just well go for sandy bridge as Ivy bridge will likely just be lower power consumption and Cooler. But if you can wait even for haswell yeah you CPU right now is fine but i'm not sure if Crossfiring two 6870's would be better than have one card now then upgrade later when a newer one comes along, but if you willing to do what you want to do, i'm fine about that.

 

[Arkadrel]

Q9550 is a 4 core/4 thread cpu? that can OC to like 4ghz (or close to from a google search) Sounds good to me.

So a Q9550 will have as many threads as a i3 cpu,and generally do things where you can use 4 cores better than the i3.

"Q9550 absolutely destroys any i3." quote off a forum.
Besically if you want a faster CPU you would atleast need a i5 or i7, and theyd need to run about same mhz as your Q9550.


The short answear: Your CPU is NOT a bottle neck, even if you got some serious GPU power like say 2x 6870's in crossfire. Just overclock that CPU and you should have more than enough horse power left in it to power the gfx cards.

 

[nyker96]

I think if you turn up all the eye candy, max setting on everything, the graphics card may become your system bottleneck instead of the cpu. On a side track, why get 2x6870 now when the 69xx is on the horizon, at least give that a look before dive into 2x6870s. who knows maybe 69xx can offer enough performance you can just buy one 69xx then have the option to xfire later when you wish.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Q9950 are monster's at gaming due to "still" fast cores and that great 12MB of cache.

I have one on my second machine and love it.

 

[cubeless]

if you can get to >=3.8ghz it should be fine... i have one @3.8 (will do 4.0 but takes a bunch more juice and cooling noise) with 2 460's and it lets them fly...

but i don't know that i would buy one to build a new rig...

 

[notty22]

Here is a fellow with the 9650, sli gtx 460's great results.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1552813&highlight=gtx+460+sli+775

 

[Wag]

I have one @ 3.4GHz and even that is fine (can't get it higher due to crappy P5N-D motherboard). You should be able to get at least that on any halfway decent motherboard.

 

[MagickMan]

Yup. I run an OCd Q9550 with CF 5850s. It's still very fast.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Keep your OC moderate. Don't burn your components out.

IME (in my experience) OC failures are mostly due to RAM kits failing, second would be the motherboard... I had a really nice Q9650 chip and i kept loosing stability on the overclock, i sold it for real cheap, bought a Q9550 and had the same problems only to find out the memory was the problem. I did extensive memory testing too....