Looking to upgrade from 9800GTX+ (but keep Q6600)

T

Teitoku

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
346
Hi all,

So I have a system I built in 2009, and I'm getting tired of having to run new games @ 1280x800. My monitor does 1680x1050, so I'd like to be able to run games at that res without having to skimp on other graphic settings.

I have: Core2Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz, 9800GTX+, 4GB DDR2, and 500W PSU.

I don't want to have to replace the entire thing, so what's a worthwhile upgrade in the GPU department? I've been looking at everything from refurbished 280s (needs too much power) to GTX 660s (kinda pricey for me). I paid about $190 for the 9800, and I'd rather not spend much more than that on a replacement. Hell, I'd like to spend less, but the 660 looks about twice as powerful as the next one down... the 650Ti.

What do you, the viewers at home, think?
 
You could probably find a 560 ti for pretty cheap. If I'm not mistaken, I've read that is about the best card you can get without bottlenecking the crap out of it with that cpu.

EDIT: You can also Overclock that cpu to get more performance out of it!
 
What 500W PSU do you have?
What games are you planning on playing?
Are you willing to overclock the CPU?
 
Games: ESV: Skyrim, Diablo III, Borderlands 2, new games. Not the most demanding; no BF3 or COD w/ 16xFSAA or whatever.

PSU: Some Thermaltake (I know) 500W unit with modular cables. Got tired of name-brand PSUs wiping out entire computers and figured what the hell, Tt has a 5yr warranty, why not. But a 560 Ti might be pushing it too much.

OC CPU: I used to run it at 3.6GHz, which was great, but this motherboard (GA-EP45-DS3L) is notorious for running too hot. The NB will burn your fingerprints off. It got worse, though, and started crashing if I overclocked it even the slightest bit. So I run it at stock.
 
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Which Thermaltake? Unfortuantely, not all good TT PSUs are good.

Though what name brand PSUs were you using that was wiping out entire PCs?

As for overclocking, did you ever bother to strap a fan to that NB heatsink? Thats what we use to do with a lot of Gigabyte socket 775 mobos back in the day to get good and stable OCs out of them. I'm making a point about this because at stock your current CPU may limit the performance a bit of newer video cards.
 
Danny Bui said:
Which Thermaltake? Unfortuantely, not all good TT PSUs are good.

Though what name brand PSUs were you using that was wiping out entire PCs?

As for overclocking, did you ever bother to strap a fan to that NB heatsink? Thats what we use to do with a lot of Gigabyte socket 775 mobos back in the day to get good and stable OCs out of them. I'm making a point about this because at stock your current CPU may limit the performance a bit of newer video cards.
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Uh... TR2 500W? NO! It's the RMA'ed SeaSonic replacement... M12II SS-500GM. Whew.
Bad ones? Antec. Last one was a SeaSonic though.

Fan on the NB? I wouldn't be against it, if you could recommend one. I've just never seen a replacement.

^edited
 
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Teitoku said:
Uh... TR2 500W?
Bad ones? Antec. Last one was a SeaSonic though.
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I recommend getting a new PSU then. The TR2 series are known to be crap. You've been lucky so far. The Corsair CX500 should do the job.
Teitoku said:
Fan on the NB? I wouldn't be against it, if you could recommend one. I've just never seen a replacement.
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Any small fan tied to the NB would work.
 
Teitoku said:
Turns out it's actually the Seasonic in there. M12II SS-500GM.
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LOL. All right that PSU will do the job fine.

If you overclock the CPU, I'd recommend something like the HD 7770 or GTX 650 Ti. Maybe the HD 7850 2GB.
 
Teitoku said:
Games: ESV: Skyrim, Diablo III, Borderlands 2, new games. Not the most demanding; no BF3 or COD w/ 16xFSAA or whatever.

PSU: Some Thermaltake (I know) 500W unit with modular cables. Got tired of name-brand PSUs wiping out entire computers and figured what the hell, Tt has a 5yr warranty, why not. But a 560 Ti might be pushing it too much.

OC CPU: I used to run it at 3.6GHz, which was great, but this motherboard (GA-EP45-DS3L) is notorious for running too hot. The NB will burn your fingerprints off. It got worse, though, and started crashing if I overclocked it even the slightest bit. So I run it at stock.
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Skyrim especially loves a faster cpu. Try running your cpu at 3.2 to 3.4, that seems to be the sweet spot for the q6600.

I'd start saving some pennies for a complete overhaul though!

As for a gpu, 7850 or 7870 on a deal would be great.
 
Danny Bui said:
Any small fan tied to the NB would work.
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How about Logisys' CC2; would that be worthwhile? That's about all I can find that would seem to fit next to my AC Freezer Pro 7.

NBRIDGE2_small.jpg


Well, at least with the way I have it oriented, that is. I have it set up like example B on the Freezer Pro page; pulling across the RAM and blowing out the back of the case. Maybe I should have it like example C; pulling across the NB and blowing out into the PSU?



257Tony said:
Skyrim especially loves a faster cpu. Try running your cpu at 3.2 to 3.4, that seems to be the sweet spot for the q6600.

I'd start saving some pennies for a complete overhaul though!
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Oh yeah? I was under the impression that 2.4Ghz was plenty for that game. I'll have to try it when I manage to get the thing stable at more than 2.6GHz. That NB is a MF.
 
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Teitoku said:
How about Logisys' CC2; would that be worthwhile?
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Maybe if it fits. But it's gonna be noisy as hell due to it being 40mm. Not to mention short lived considering it's a Logisys product.

Teitoku said:
Well, at least with the way I have it oriented, that is. I have it set up like example B on the Freezer Pro page; pulling across the RAM and blowing out the back of the case. Maybe I should have it like example C; pulling across the NB and blowing out into the PSU?
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If it frees up more space around the NB and if you have a case with a top exhaust, might be worth it.
 
Danny Bui said:
If it frees up more space around the NB and if you have a case with a top exhaust, might be worth it.
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It very possibly could free up space there (don't have it in front of me ATM), but there's no top exhaust... just the PSU directly above it. Worth a shot, or no? The Freezer 7 is a bitch to adjust.
 
I agree that you should run the q6600 at 3.2 GHz, cooling the NB shouldn't be that difficult nor expensive. Once that is done, the gpu you select will be soley based on your needs since the CPU can handle a 680 if you felt the need. For your requirements I'd go with a GTX 660 since its lower power than a 560Ti and more capable.
 
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TO THE OP:

DO NOT OVERCLOCK WITH THAT PSU.
500w is enough to run your cpu, video card, and other hardware, but when you start to push that CPU, you're going to want something with a bit more headroom. ESPECIALLY if you try to get a card like a GTX680.


Personally, I wouldn't bother with anything more expensive than a GTX 650 TI. Save your money and get the 650ti over a 560ti.
less power draw. About 80 bucks cheaper. and just as powerful.
If you've been getting buy on a 9800GTX until now, you will be giddy with excitement by the power of a 650ti.
Even being a budget card, it is several times more powerful than your current card.

If you do this is will cost you about 150 - 180 bucks. No need to break the bank on such an old system.

Q6600s are still pretty solid work horses, but you would really see a huge performance gain by switching to even a core i3. I would recomend spending as little as you can on this current PC. Save your money for a future CPU/MOBO/RAM upgrade.
 
S[H]ady;1039529290 said:
TO THE OP:

DO NOT OVERCLOCK WITH THAT PSU.
500w is enough to run your cpu, video card, and other hardware, but when you start to push that CPU, you're going to want something with a bit more headroom. ESPECIALLY if you try to get a card like a GTX680.
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Ummm, huh? He will have plenty of power even with overclocking involved with the Seasonic SS-500GM that he has.
 
I ran a GTX 560 Ti overclocked, in addition to a overclocked Q6600 and my 500 Watt ps was enough. It was only when I put in a GTX 680 that I upped the PS to 620 W. in addition the GTX 660 most of us recommend uses less power than a 560 Ti! ( and has slightly more performance than the 560 Ti)

I also had a 9800GT, the 560 Ti was a massive upgrade! The only reason I went with the 680 later is I play BF3 and I wanted the extra eye candy.
 
Consider a GTX 660 over a 560 Ti for its higher performance and lower power consumption
 
I would honestly save my money for a better CPU/MOBO combo first. The Q6600 isn't a bad chip per say but its had its day.

You can get a low end i5 that will outshine it greatly in games. Any half way decent GPU you buy will be bottlenecked by the Q6600.
 
500W is sufficient for 680 SLI... anybody who says otherwise don't know what they're talking about half the time:

62758007.png
 
johnnydoe said:
500W is sufficient for 680 SLI... anybody who says otherwise don't know what they're talking about half the time:
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Pretty sure that chart shows power needed for the gpu only. Unless you are telling us we can run a complete system with a gtx 680 on a 200 watt psu??
 
257Tony said:
Pretty sure that chart shows power needed for the gpu only. Unless you are telling us we can run a complete system with a gtx 680 on a 200 watt psu??
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Total system PEAKS to 420W, and that's on an heavily overclocked old i7 Extreme 965 machine with CCFL lightning and watercooling. And, while running an application that loads up the GPU's to full 100 percent, which is completely unrealistic since you pretty much never get full SLi scaling (GPU usage) in games.

A PSU that's rated at continuous 500W will handle a continous 350W of power usage without breaking a single sweat.

And that's mainly because you can NOT add up TDP values on top of each other in multi-GPU configs. The second card on an SLi config usually pulls 50W less than the first.

Like wise, you can run a 680 on a 250W PSU all way long as long it's a SOLID PSU. Not that I'd suggest anyone to do that, but it's very possible.
 
Now I have that Q6600 doing 3.0GHz again. Probably should add a fan before I try 3.2GHz+...
 
Teitoku said:
It very possibly could free up space there (don't have it in front of me ATM), but there's no top exhaust... just the PSU directly above it. Worth a shot, or no? The Freezer 7 is a bitch to adjust.
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Hmmm, not really IMO since you can just ghetto it and just literally place a fan over that NB and you'll be ok.

Although if you want a "clean" solution, the Antec Spot Cool might do the job:
http://store.antec.com/Product/cooling-cooling_fan/spot-cool/0-761345-75018-9.aspx
 
Danny Bui said:
..just ghetto it and just literally place a fan over that NB and you'll be ok.
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I just dug out an old K6-2 HSF and bolted the 60mm fan to the NB. Running at 3.2GHz now. When the card arrives, I think I'll take this machine apart and re-do the cooling compound on the NB's heatsink. It's a little jiggly, too... maybe try to tighten the springs or something.
 
Cool. Once you do that, see if it you can push it that overclock a tad higher.
 
Well damn, it's a lot less stable with this new 650 Ti. Can't OC the system even 200MHz over stock, or it won't make it to the desktop. It was a bit more forgiving with the 9800 GTX.

I wonder what's wrong? I'm still a big OC noob. Think it's the RAM settings? There's so damn many, I don't know where to begin.
 
johnnydoe said:
Like wise, you can run a 680 on a 250W PSU all way long as long it's a SOLID PSU. Not that I'd suggest anyone to do that, but it's very possible.
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If you're under the rating, you're under the rating. The problem is finding a 4 pci-e cable PSU with a rating of 500W... usually at that point they're built well enough to handle higher ratings.

Teitoku said:
Well damn, it's a lot less stable with this new 650 Ti. Can't OC the system even 200MHz over stock, or it won't make it to the desktop. It was a bit more forgiving with the 9800 GTX.

I wonder what's wrong? I'm still a big OC noob. Think it's the RAM settings? There's so damn many, I don't know where to begin.
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That would be weird. It might be that since it's an older system, the higher overclock can't support the higher PCI-e bus for the 650 Ti.

I wouldn't think it would matter, but it might be since the CPU controls the PCI-e bus, IIRC. I would just live with your lower overclock unless you find that you're CPU-limited.

EDIT: I read your other post in the OC section. Reset all BIOS settings to default, and slowly work the overclock again. Don't touch RAM settings until you find a stable CPU setting. Also sounds like you weren't running your OC in a long time.. could have changed many things in the time since then.
 
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I have 0 overclock at the moment, and yeah, I think it's hurting framerates. I'm not seeing too much difference from the 9800GTX right now. Skyrim & Far Cry 3 stutter badly when outdoors.

Where could I get some help trying to OC this system? I bought it with overclocking in mind (G0 SLACR, EP45, DDR2 1066), but there are so many fiddly settings, I just gave up after a while.
 
Teitoku said:
I have 0 overclock at the moment, and yeah, I think it's hurting framerates. I'm not seeing too much difference from the 9800GTX right now. Skyrim & Far Cry 3 stutter badly when outdoors.

Where could I get some help trying to OC this system? I bought it with overclocking in mind (G0 SLACR, EP45, DDR2 1066), but there are so many fiddly settings, I just gave up after a while.
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If you want to be sure, turn down your graphics settings lower and lower, and if framerates aren't steadily rising, then you are CPU limited. I also believe HW monitor or similar programs will show CPU/GPU utilization.

Now, as for OCing the Q6600, I do not have one nor do I have any experience in this, but the Q6600 is one of the most popular quad core processors still relevant. Try the OC section here and on any other major forum... it's been overclocked to death. There is probably an extremely comprehensive guide for both your processor and your motherboard out there at this point.
 
blinx said:
You could probably find a 560 ti for pretty cheap. If I'm not mistaken, I've read that is about the best card you can get without bottlenecking the crap out of it with that cpu.

EDIT: You can also Overclock that cpu to get more performance out of it!
Click to expand...

A Q6600 will still bottleneck a GTX 560 Ti, even when over clocked.
 
Eureka! said:
If you're under the rating, you're under the rating. The problem is finding a 4 pci-e cable PSU with a rating of 500W... usually at that point they're built well enough to handle higher ratings.
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If you're clueless, you're clueless.

Thing is, there're a ton of 550W units out in the market with 4 PCI-E cables for a multi-GPU setup; AP550, Silent Knight, XP550 so on and so forth. All made for dual GPU setups. The SuperFlower units can even do 650W at Gold at excellent performance.

And what rating are you referring to anyway? If you're talking about nVidia's official PSU recommendations, then you should know they're overexaggerated thinking that you have a shitty, overrated PSU.

If you're referring to the "SLi-Ready" PSU list, then that's even worse as they have deals with PSU makers to sell you 1000W PSU's you don't need so that they gain revenue.

Personally, I'm sick of explaining these things.
 
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