Q6600 & 8800Gt's in SLI

[Wenus23]

i have an asus p5ne-sli and was just wondering if my q6600 is bottlenecking my 2 8800gt's? i have it at 2.7ghz OC (up from 2.4)....and i dont know about going any higher because of temps... the VID on my chip is 1.3125....and im already at 1.4v to get 2.7ghz stable. thanks.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Wenus23
i have an asus p5ne-sli and was just wondering if my q6600 is bottlenecking my 2 8800gt's? i have it at 2.7ghz OC (up from 2.4)....and i dont know about going any higher because of temps... the VID on my chip is 1.3125....and im already at 1.4v to get 2.7ghz stable. thanks.

I doubt a q6600 @ 2.7 is much of a bottleneck, if at all.

 

[Wenus23]

can anyone else confirm that?

 

[Sylvanas]

Depends what you are playing, if it's something like Facry2 you would notice higher FPS with a new CPU like an i7 but in other games the difference is less dramatic and not worth worrying about for the moment.

 

[Scionix]

Originally posted by: Wenus23
i have an asus p5ne-sli and was just wondering if my q6600 is bottlenecking my 2 8800gt's? i have it at 2.7ghz OC (up from 2.4)....and i dont know about going any higher because of temps... the VID on my chip is 1.3125....and im already at 1.4v to get 2.7ghz stable. thanks.

Unless you play at some stupid-low resolution, you are a long way from any sort of cpu bottleneck.

 

[Pantlegz]

Originally posted by: Scionix

Originally posted by: Wenus23
i have an asus p5ne-sli and was just wondering if my q6600 is bottlenecking my 2 8800gt's? i have it at 2.7ghz OC (up from 2.4)....and i dont know about going any higher because of temps... the VID on my chip is 1.3125....and im already at 1.4v to get 2.7ghz stable. thanks.

Unless you play at some stupid-low resolution, you are a long way from any sort of cpu bottleneck.

I'm not so sure about that, I always got improvements with my e8400 when I would OC it with my old 8800gt's @ 1920x1200

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: Pantlegz1

Originally posted by: Scionix

Originally posted by: Wenus23
i have an asus p5ne-sli and was just wondering if my q6600 is bottlenecking my 2 8800gt's? i have it at 2.7ghz OC (up from 2.4)....and i dont know about going any higher because of temps... the VID on my chip is 1.3125....and im already at 1.4v to get 2.7ghz stable. thanks.

Unless you play at some stupid-low resolution, you are a long way from any sort of cpu bottleneck.

I'm not so sure about that, I always got improvements with my e8400 when I would OC it with my old 8800gt's @ 1920x1200

Theres a huge difference between improvements and bottlenecking.



OP, I'd upgrade the 8800's before that quad

 

[Scionix]

Originally posted by: yh125d

Originally posted by: Pantlegz1

Originally posted by: Scionix

Originally posted by: Wenus23
i have an asus p5ne-sli and was just wondering if my q6600 is bottlenecking my 2 8800gt's? i have it at 2.7ghz OC (up from 2.4)....and i dont know about going any higher because of temps... the VID on my chip is 1.3125....and im already at 1.4v to get 2.7ghz stable. thanks.

Unless you play at some stupid-low resolution, you are a long way from any sort of cpu bottleneck.

I'm not so sure about that, I always got improvements with my e8400 when I would OC it with my old 8800gt's @ 1920x1200

Theres a huge difference between improvements and bottlenecking.



OP, I'd upgrade the 8800's before that quad

Again, this.

I just bought a gtx 295, and believe me there's no way I would've bought that thing if I wasn't 100% sure that my q6600 wouldn't bottleneck it.

Quad SLI, though, might be another story >.>

Which begs the question, is there even a processor that WON'T bottleneck gtx 295 SLI?

 

[betasub]

Bottleneck, schmottleneck.

The OP hasn't even bothered to mention an app/game and graphics res/detail. Total guesswork without this info.

 

[Wenus23]

k well im definitely into first person shooters...and looking forward to several coming out this fall....bioshock 2, borderlands, singularity...etc. i have a 37inch 1080p tv as my monitor....so id like playin it in 1920x1080....and ~high details...as much as i can go to get around a minimum of 30fps. with the right tweaks i was running crysis very well, cryostasis on the other hand i can only get around 30fps on (roughly) in 1920x1080, and high settings...

 

[hclarkjr]

Originally posted by: Wenus23
i have an asus p5ne-sli and was just wondering if my q6600 is bottlenecking my 2 8800gt's? i have it at 2.7ghz OC (up from 2.4)....and i dont know about going any higher because of temps... the VID on my chip is 1.3125....and im already at 1.4v to get 2.7ghz stable. thanks.

i feel fortunate that i have a G0 chip with low VID, i have mine at 1.30 in bios and 1.26 reading in windows via CPU-Z running at 3.2 GHZ

 

[evolucion8]

Originally posted by: hclarkjr
i feel fortunate that i have a G0 chip with low VID, i have mine at 1.30 in bios and 1.26 reading in windows via CPU-Z running at 3.2 GHZ

You got lucky, my QX6850 which is simply a Q6600 G0 with an unlocked multiplier, needed a lot of voltage to remain stable at 3.60GHz, it needed 1.43V and was limited by the heat dissipation, I couldn't stabilize it at higher clocks because of it, it ran hot as hell, I ended up selling it.

 

[Stumps]

A Q6600 isn't a bottleneck for 8800's in SLI,

My OC'd Crossfired 3870's are similar in performance to SLI'd 8800GT's and they are starting to get pretty limiting these days.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Stumps
A Q6600 isn't a bottleneck for 8800's in SLI,

My OC'd Crossfired 3870's are similar in performance to SLI'd 8800GT's and they are starting to get pretty limiting these days.

Just for kicks Stumps try some benchmarks with your cpu at 2.7 (like the Op's ) and @ 3.6 like yours presently.
There will be a difference but how much of a difference I'm curious.
Thanks.

 

[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

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Stumps
A Q6600 isn't a bottleneck for 8800's in SLI,

My OC'd Crossfired 3870's are similar in performance to SLI'd 8800GT's and they are starting to get pretty limiting these days.

Just for kicks Stumps try some benchmarks with your cpu at 2.7 (like the Op's ) and @ 3.6 like yours presently.
There will be a difference but how much of a difference I'm curious.
Thanks.

Ok

here are some quick 3Dmark06 scores.

System specs are in my sig, I'm currently running the ATI Cat's 9.6, my 3870's are running at 850mhz core and 1030mhz (2060mhz ddr, my cards are the crappy DDR3 models) memory.


2.7ghz (300x9 1.2v) memory running at 750mhz 4-4-4-12

Score : 13411
SM 2.0 : 5146
HDR/SM 3.0 : 6442
CPU : 3776

3.6ghz (see sig)

Score : 16924
SM 2.0 : 6925
HDR/SM 3.0 : 7505
CPU : 5013

let me know if you want any other benchmarks.

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Depends what you are playing, if it's something like Facry2 you would notice higher FPS with a new CPU like an i7 but in other games the difference is less dramatic and not worth worrying about for the moment.

yes but that would happen regardless of the graphics card. he's asking about an 8800gt sli setup, in which case no, it definetly would'nt be a bottleneck.

 

[hclarkjr]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Stumps
A Q6600 isn't a bottleneck for 8800's in SLI,

My OC'd Crossfired 3870's are similar in performance to SLI'd 8800GT's and they are starting to get pretty limiting these days.

Just for kicks Stumps try some benchmarks with your cpu at 2.7 (like the Op's ) and @ 3.6 like yours presently.
There will be a difference but how much of a difference I'm curious.
Thanks.

Ok

here are some quick 3Dmark06 scores.

System specs are in my sig, I'm currently running the ATI Cat's 9.6, my 3870's are running at 850mhz core and 1030mhz (2060mhz ddr, my cards are the crappy DDR3 models) memory.


2.7ghz (300x9 1.2v) memory running at 750mhz 4-4-4-12

Score : 13411
SM 2.0 : 5146
HDR/SM 3.0 : 6442
CPU : 3776

3.6ghz (see sig)

Score : 16924
SM 2.0 : 6925
HDR/SM 3.0 : 7505
CPU : 5013

let me know if you want any other benchmarks.

interesting, i have a diamond 3870x2 and at 356x9 ( 3.2ghz ) i get
3DMark Score 16853 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score 7 K
HDR/SM3.0 Score 8 K
CPU Score 4581

 

[hclarkjr]

my memory timings are 5-5-5-15 running at 1 to 1 at 712

 

[hclarkjr]

stumps, which catalyst are you using? i am using 9.6

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: hclarkjr
stumps, which catalyst are you using? i am using 9.6

I'm using 9.6 as well

 

[hclarkjr]

i am curious then as to why our scores are so close when you are at 3.6 and i am at 3.2? does having 2 video cards vs an x2 make that much of a difference?

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: hclarkjr
i am curious then as to why our scores are so close when you are at 3.6 and i am at 3.2? does having 2 video cards vs an x2 make that much of a difference?

From articles that I have seen, the P35 crossfire (x16 x4) is inferior to having an X2 card.

The 965 and P35 have the slowest implementation of crossfire due to the second card using a x4 PCI-E slot instead of either having a x8 or x16 slot like the P45 and x38/x48 chipsets.

In the real world however it's only a matter of a few FPS in most games, but if I had an X2 card I would have a higher 3Dmark score (probably high 17K, low 18K).

 

[Stumps]

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...-pci-express,2095.html

this articles kinda explains the crossfire performance difference.

 

[happy medium]

Seems there about the same with 3d mark.( x2 and crossfire).

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/656/8/

If you look closley at this review the 8800gt is also a good bit faster.
So 2 8800gt's would even be faster still.

http://hothardware.com/Article...eon-HD-3870-X2/?page=4

A 8800 sli setup with good scaling = 4890 or gtx285 which I believe a cpu @ 2.7 will bottleneck depending on how much aa/af you use and the game itself.

Have any modern games besides Far Cry 2 and Crysis. These games are both gpu and cpu limited.

Call of Duty 5?