Q6600 & 8800Gt's in SLI

[Wenus23]

i was able to run far cry 2 quite well actually... 1920x1080 high settings... ~45-50 fps. (Q6600/8800 GT SLI). because im having trouble overclocking much higher than a 2.7...on my Asus P5NE-SLI...i hear guys have a lot of trouble with this cpu/mobo combo....and my VID is 1.3125. is it my processor chip thats not very overclockable or is it my motherboard? if i get a new motherboard will i have an easier job overclocking...because i just cant get past 2.7 without load temps being in the 70's...and my heatsink is a arctic freezer xtreme pro (which i heard is a respectable air heatsink).

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Wenus23
i was able to run far cry 2 quite well actually... 1920x1080 high settings... ~45-50 fps. (Q6600/8800 GT SLI). because im having trouble overclocking much higher than a 2.7...on my Asus P5NE-SLI...i hear guys have a lot of trouble with this cpu/mobo combo....and my VID is 1.3125. is it my processor chip thats not very overclockable or is it my motherboard? if i get a new motherboard will i have an easier job overclocking...because i just cant get past 2.7 without load temps being in the 70's...and my heatsink is a arctic freezer xtreme pro (which i heard is a respectable air heatsink).

I suggest you either try to reseat your heatsink and see if temps improve or sell the cpu and try a cooler 45 nm wolfdale quad cpu (q8xxx series) if your motherboard supports it.

Edit: nevermind . A quick check with your motherboard web site tells me your motherboard only has 2, 8x pci-e slots. I don't think it's worth upgrading your cpu for you unless you upgrade your board.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Wenus23
i was able to run far cry 2 quite well actually... 1920x1080 high settings... ~45-50 fps. (Q6600/8800 GT SLI). because im having trouble overclocking much higher than a 2.7...on my Asus P5NE-SLI...i hear guys have a lot of trouble with this cpu/mobo combo....and my VID is 1.3125. is it my processor chip thats not very overclockable or is it my motherboard? if i get a new motherboard will i have an easier job overclocking...because i just cant get past 2.7 without load temps being in the 70's...and my heatsink is a arctic freezer xtreme pro (which i heard is a respectable air heatsink).

Edit: nevermind . A quick check with your motherboard web site tells me your motherboard only has 2, 8x pci-e slots. I don't think it's worth upgrading your cpu for you unless you upgrade your board.

An 8x slot is still plenty of bandwidth for just about any modern GPU. Some pontificate that card like GTX295/4870X2 are slightly bottlenecked by the slot but I've seen no irrefutable evidence.

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: yh125d
An 8x slot is still plenty of bandwidth for just about any modern GPU. Some pontificate that card like GTX295/4870X2 are slightly bottlenecked by the slot but I've seen no irrefutable evidence.

A PCIe 1.0/1.1 x8 slot (same bandwidth as PCIe 2.0 x4) will definitely hold back a GTX295/4870x2. Maybe you were thinking of PCIe 2.0 x8? The OP's board is a 650i, which is PCIe 1.1.

However, when using a single video card on that motherboard, it'll run at 1.1 x16 (same bandwidth as 2.0 x8) which is enough for most current video cards.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: vj8usa

Originally posted by: yh125d
An 8x slot is still plenty of bandwidth for just about any modern GPU. Some pontificate that card like GTX295/4870X2 are slightly bottlenecked by the slot but I've seen no irrefutable evidence.

A PCIe 1.0/1.1 x8 slot (same bandwidth as PCIe 2.0 x4) will definitely hold back a GTX295/4870x2. Maybe you were thinking of PCIe 2.0 x8? The OP's board is a 650i, which is PCIe 1.1.

However, when using a single video card on that motherboard, it'll run at 1.1 x16 (same bandwidth as 2.0 x8) which is enough for most current video cards.

I believe new cards will saturate the pci-e 1.0 16x as do gtx295's right?

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: vj8usa

Originally posted by: yh125d
An 8x slot is still plenty of bandwidth for just about any modern GPU. Some pontificate that card like GTX295/4870X2 are slightly bottlenecked by the slot but I've seen no irrefutable evidence.

A PCIe 1.0/1.1 x8 slot (same bandwidth as PCIe 2.0 x4) will definitely hold back a GTX295/4870x2. Maybe you were thinking of PCIe 2.0 x8? The OP's board is a 650i, which is PCIe 1.1.

However, when using a single video card on that motherboard, it'll run at 1.1 x16 (same bandwidth as 2.0 x8) which is enough for most current video cards.

Yep, I had been thinking pci-e 2.0. My bad

 

[evolucion8]

Originally posted by: happy medium
I suggest you either try to reseat your heatsink and see if temps improve or sell the cpu and try a cooler 45 nm wolfdale quad cpu (q8xxx series) if your motherboard supports it.

Edit: nevermind . A quick check with your motherboard web site tells me your motherboard only has 2, 8x pci-e slots. I don't think it's worth upgrading your cpu for you unless you upgrade your board.

He could sell his CPU in ebay and get a used Wolfdale or Yorkfield CPU, that's what I did, I sold my QX6850 for $255 and got an used Q9650 for the same price, much better thermal dissipation, better overclocking, slighly more responsiveness, better gaming performance and video encoding for free.

 

[SolMiester]

Originally posted by: Wenus23
My 3DMark06 score is ~13,800 - all settings default (trial version)

Q6600 @ 2.7
4GB PC8500 Kingston HyperX
8800 GT's in SLI
Vista32

That cant be right, I get over 13K with a single 96GT and a 3Ghz Q66!!, is SLI working?

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: SolMiester

Originally posted by: Wenus23
My 3DMark06 score is ~13,800 - all settings default (trial version)

Q6600 @ 2.7
4GB PC8500 Kingston HyperX
8800 GT's in SLI
Vista32

That cant be right, I get over 13K with a single 96GT and a 3Ghz Q66!!, is SLI working?

It's a fairly average score for a q6600 - 8800GT SLI combo.

As other have said SLI and Crossfire scale well with higher CPU clockspeeds (just look at my 3dmark scores).

To be honest while I don't consider a Q6600 to be much of a bottleneck to a multi GPU setup, higher clockspeeds are always a good thing...it's just a shame that the OP's Q6600 hasn't been able to reach the 3ghz+ mark...they really start to perform well at that speed and faster.

 

[Wenus23]

if i could reach 3ghz id be more than happy. unfortunately ive read several guys having OC'ing problems with my cpu/mobo combo. the highest i can get stable is 2.7ghz with idle temps around ~40...and stress temps in the upper 60's. @ 1.4v vcore. my heatsink is solid, twice in the last week i've readjusted heatsink and coated both that and the cpu with thermal paste. any suggestions for overclocking for me?

vcore - 1.4
nb volt - 1.39
ram volt - 2.1

fsb:ram = 1/1
1200/600

ram @ 4-4-4-12-1t

i just think my cpu/mobo combo is not good for overclocking....?

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Wenus23
if i could reach 3ghz id be more than happy. unfortunately ive read several guys having OC'ing problems with my cpu/mobo combo. the highest i can get stable is 2.7ghz with idle temps around ~40...and stress temps in the upper 60's. @ 1.4v vcore. my heatsink is solid, twice in the last week i've readjusted heatsink and coated both that and the cpu with thermal paste. any suggestions for overclocking for me?

vcore - 1.4
nb volt - 1.39
ram volt - 2.1

fsb:ram = 1/1
1200/600

ram @ 4-4-4-12-1t

i just think my cpu/mobo combo is not good for overclocking....?

what mobo are you using?

From my experiences with the 6 series NV chipsets, they are pretty ordinary when it comes to overclocking (myself I'd never use a 6 or 7 series NV chipset board not matter the brand...even if it was my beloved Gigabyte)

It is very possible that your mobo is limiting your overclock.

what HSF unit are you using?

I have overclocked many Q6600's using the stock HSF unit and been able to reach 3ghz with out too much trouble, mainly on intel chipset boards and usually at or near stock Vcore.

But it could all just come down to the fact that you might be one of the unlucky few that got a bum Q6600 as far as Overclocking goes...

 

[Wenus23]

my motherboard is an asus p5ne-sli. ive heard they're not very quad oc'ing friendly.

heatsink is an arctic cooler xtreme.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Wenus23
my motherboard is an asus p5ne-sli. ive heard they're not very quad oc'ing friendly.

heatsink is an arctic cooler xtreme.

As my two year old daughter would say "ewww yukky". it's most likely the cause of your poor overclocking.

Last time I worked in a computer shop www.enspiredigital.com.au we sold very few of these boards as they were crap overclockers...they weren't much better reliability wise at stock speeds either.

 

[Denithor]

3D Mark06 is perhaps the worst benchmark to use to test game performance. Puts far too much emphasis on CPU power and less on GPU (while the reverse is actually true for RL gaming results).

Run 3d05 instead at different cpu speeds for a more realistic idea of how you will benefit from faster cpu.

And you should read this page before stating that cpu won't restrict game performance.

 

[evolucion8]

Actually when 3DMark06 came off, it was a very well balanced benchmark, taxing both, GPU's and CPU's alike, but today the story is different, GPU's are so much powerful today that the 3DMark06 will not tax them enough making it so CPU limited. A strong CPU like the i7 will benefit greatly powerful setups like 3 SLI GTX 280 or Quad Crossfire because of the driver overhead involved when CrossfireX and SLI is used (Data replication, synchronization etc), plus the vast power of rendering available, but with a normal SLI/Crossfire card a regular Quad is more than enough, even if more powerful single GPU's are available now, your card will work fine since there's less overhead than using a comparable multi GPU setup.

Update* I found a link which is intesresting regarding of the performance of the i7 vs Phenom setups in SLI/Crossfire:

http://www.modreactor.com/engl...Intel-Core-i7-920.html

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: SolMiester

Originally posted by: Wenus23
My 3DMark06 score is ~13,800 - all settings default (trial version)

Q6600 @ 2.7
4GB PC8500 Kingston HyperX
8800 GT's in SLI
Vista32

That cant be right, I get over 13K with a single 96GT and a 3Ghz Q66!!, is SLI working?

It's a fairly average score for a q6600 - 8800GT SLI combo.

As other have said SLI and Crossfire scale well with higher CPU clockspeeds (just look at my 3dmark scores).

To be honest while I don't consider a Q6600 to be much of a bottleneck to a multi GPU setup, higher clockspeeds are always a good thing...it's just a shame that the OP's Q6600 hasn't been able to reach the 3ghz+ mark...they really start to perform well at that speed and faster.

Sol's games won't run anywhere near as fast as Wenus' will at higher resolutions like 16x10 and 19x12.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: soccerballtux

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: SolMiester

Originally posted by: Wenus23
My 3DMark06 score is ~13,800 - all settings default (trial version)

Q6600 @ 2.7
4GB PC8500 Kingston HyperX
8800 GT's in SLI
Vista32

That cant be right, I get over 13K with a single 96GT and a 3Ghz Q66!!, is SLI working?

It's a fairly average score for a q6600 - 8800GT SLI combo.

As other have said SLI and Crossfire scale well with higher CPU clockspeeds (just look at my 3dmark scores).

To be honest while I don't consider a Q6600 to be much of a bottleneck to a multi GPU setup, higher clockspeeds are always a good thing...it's just a shame that the OP's Q6600 hasn't been able to reach the 3ghz+ mark...they really start to perform well at that speed and faster.

Sol's games won't run anywhere near as fast as Wenus' will at higher resolutions like 16x10 and 19x12.

Sol's PC won't run most games anywhere near as fast at most resolutions, especially once the detail settings start to get turned up.