Gtx 1060 3gb to much for a Q6600 ?

Jbort1984

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Ive got 2 machines both are core 2 quad Q6600 running aftermarket heatsinks @3.5ghz each 8gb ddr2 memory looking to freshen them up for my buddys 2 boys for xmas got the ssds new case 600watt thremaltake psu just looking at videom card choices. Was thinking Gtx 970s but was curious about using the 3 gb gtx 1060s there both gonna be playing at 1920x1080
 
Yes a Q6600 can significantly hold back a 1060 but it will vary wildly from game to game. I would probably just go with a 1050 ti for those old comps.
 
GTX 1060 is fine. Also you have to start somewhere, so perhaps CPU upgrade next :)
 
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not sure what games they play, but Battlefield 4 was bottlenecking my Q9550 processor, was using an AMD HD6950 2GB GPU and 8GB ram.
 
not sure what games they play, but Battlefield 4 was bottlenecking my Q9550 processor, was using an AMD HD6950 2GB GPU and 8GB ram.

Same reason that my Q6600 is plugged into a motherboard in the corner of my room as a showpiece.
 
Can't reasonable do it all for them... 1060 is a good start. If they don't like the performance still, at least they only have to replace part of the system and not the whole thing!

I think it will perform decent.
 
Can't reasonable do it all for them... 1060 is a good start. If they don't like the performance still, at least they only have to replace part of the system and not the whole thing!

I think it will perform decent.
A 3gb video card with a Q6600 and 8gb of system ram is not a good start at all if they are wanting to play the latest games...
 
I threw my highly overclocked gtx960 4gb in my q9550 @ 4.0 and it was a fair match. I wouldn't go any higher than a gtx1050ti/gtx960 4gb, it will bottleneck bad.
A q6600 @ 3.5 would be a bottleneck for a gtx960. I'd go for a 100$ gtx1050 or rx 460 4gb. If you upgrade to a overclocked q9550 a gtx960 4gb or gtx1050ti 4gb.
 
just need the pcs to last un till early march when me and my buddy are upgrading and his kids are getting out mobos and cpus
 
just need the pcs to last un till early march when me and my buddy are upgrading and his kids are getting out mobos and cpus

So you have plans to upgrade your CPU as well, in the not-so-distant future. Since a full upgrade is imminent, buying the 1060 sounds like a great move to me. In fact, if your budget allows you to, I would urge you to at least have a look at some of the 6gb models. Even if you do not though, your initial choice of the 3gb variant is spot on and a great step towards a very capable gaming system.
 
So you have plans to upgrade your CPU as well, in the not-so-distant future. Since a full upgrade is imminent, buying the 1060 sounds like a great move to me. In fact, if your budget allows you to, I would urge you to at least have a look at some of the 6gb models. Even if you do not though, your initial choice of the 3gb variant is spot on and a great step towards a very capable gaming system.
I think the 3 GB version is very poor choice going forward. 3 GB already does not cut it in some current games at settings that card could otherwise run and upcoming games are going to use even more vram. If he is going to upgrade those comps to modern cpus then he needs to spring for the 6 GB version.
 
Up until recently, I'd still toy around with an old Q6600 and Q9450. Even when paired to a GTX 680 2GB, the Core 2 Quads were the main bottleneck in most of my games @ 1080p
 
I think the 3 GB version is very poor choice going forward. 3 GB already does not cut it in some current games at settings that card could otherwise run and upcoming games are going to use even more vram. If he is going to upgrade those comps to modern cpus then he needs to spring for the 6 GB version.

I do agree, partially. 6 GB variant is definitely the way to go, if budget allows. No question there. But in reality, at least going by what is presently available in the gaming world, if a game is going to be limited by the 3 GB vram, of the 1060, it will be at a point where 1060 is already inadequate for the settings.

Now if this was a 1070, or something of equivalent power, that would obviously be a different case.
 
My first choice would be a used gtx980 for about $225, when overclocked they will beat any overclocked gtx1060 and save you 50$. More if your buying for 2 machines.
The $100 you save could buy you 16gb of ram in both new systems.

Second choice 1060 6gb.
 
because they are for 2 different machines?.. both machines are running Q6600, is stated in the OP.

yea its 2 machines i needed cards for for a buddys 2 boys. there running q6600s now but there getting mobo cpu and ram upgrades in a few months to 4th gen i7 so i wanted something that was gonna be right at the bottleneck point or just over but was stioll good enough for a newer system to play todays games at 1080
 
Let me put it this way: I had a GTX 480 that I carried from my Q6600 box to a new 4770K build.

Performance went up dramatically with that same card in DCS World, PlanetSide 2, Warframe, GTA IV, just about anything I could remember at that time. I had underestimated just how much the ol' Kentsfield bottlenecked everything until PlanetSide 2's FPS counter revealed near-constant CPU bottlenecking.

Needless to say, the GTX 1060 would curbstomp that old 480 performance-wise, so the bottleneck would only get worse. At least you should be able to ramp the graphics quality up with minimal/no framerate loss over what you're currently getting.

I'd only advise it if you're in the middle of transitioning to a Skylake/Kaby Lake or Zen build later when funds permit; you can get away with more affordable cards for permanent use in such an old system.
 
Let me put it this way: I had a GTX 480 that I carried from my Q6600 box to a new 4770K build.

Performance went up dramatically with that same card in DCS World, PlanetSide 2, Warframe, GTA IV, just about anything I could remember at that time. I had underestimated just how much the ol' Kentsfield bottlenecked everything until PlanetSide 2's FPS counter revealed near-constant CPU bottlenecking.

Needless to say, the GTX 1060 would curbstomp that old 480 performance-wise, so the bottleneck would only get worse. At least you should be able to ramp the graphics quality up with minimal/no framerate loss over what you're currently getting.

I'd only advise it if you're in the middle of transitioning to a Skylake/Kaby Lake or Zen build later when funds permit; you can get away with more affordable cards for permanent use in such an old system.
You are forgetting that some graphics settings impact the cpu so blindly ramping up the graphics is not a good idea.
 
You are forgetting that some graphics settings impact the cpu so blindly ramping up the graphics is not a good idea.
As always, that depends on the game engine used, but it's safe to say that ramping up things like resolution, AA and textures shouldn't add too much load onto the CPU; those things want GPU horsepower and lots of it.

Draw distance and anything that results in more draw calls will hammer the CPU hard, though. Also note that DCS and PlanetSide 2 in particular are pretty infamous for being CPU-bound moreso than most other games, especially once you're in the middle of a fight between dozens of units. Part of it is that they call for as much single-threaded performance as possible. You can lower the GPU settings all you want, it still won't change their CPU-intensiveness.

I figure that anyone posting here is smart enough to do their own research and experimentation with graphics settings to figure out what'll hammer the CPU and what won't. If nothing satisfies them, start saving up, because only new hardware will cut it.
 
Yes, it is way too much. I had an x5365 for quite some time (a 3 GHz quad core of that architecture) and it massively throttled my r9 290.
 
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