Core 2 quad ok for modern gaming?

[smeek14]

So I'm helping my friend get a gaming pc for chrap.  I found out through eBay, it is indeed possible to get a pc with a gtx 760, 8 gb ram, core 2 quad, and a 500 gb hard drive for 200 dollars.  He wants to play modern day games such as fallout 4 just cause 3 gta 5 etc.  I was wondering how a core 2 quad would perform with these games and how much it would bottleneck the gtx 760.

[Dabombinable]

3GHz 65nm C2Q, barely. 3GHz 45nm C2Q, yes. And there would be no bottleneck with a 45nm C2Q (although if you can get a Xeon X5450+motherboard for the socket mod, that's the way you should go).

 

Edit: And I say that after using my QX6850 and Xeon X5450 with my GTX 650ti OC 2GB.

[KezzaMcFezza]

2 cores is pretty rough for any game nowadays. Go for the Q6600 if you really are on a budget.

 

Hope this helps

[smeek14]

3 minutes ago, ProKeero said:

2 cores is pretty rough for any game nowadays. Go for the Q6600 if you really are on a budget.

 

Hope this helps

Yea the core 2 quad!

[jackm1120]

no core 2 quad will hold up well against triple a titles

[KezzaMcFezza]

Just now, smeek14 said:

Yea the core 2 quad!

Lol did i read that wrong xD, yea that CPU is fine xD. *embarrassment intensifies*

[smeek14]

Wow I'm surprised!!!  What a deal!

[iHardware Shelden]

For $200 that is a great deal, really depends on the Core 2 Quad and if it is a 65nm or 45nm model. You would also be looking at the motherboard in terms of possibly overclocking or upgrades. For GTA V you would be quite surprised how well it can run even on a Q6600 (oldest/slowest Core 2 Quad). I paired one with a GTX 650ti and going to with a GTX 760 later this year when I have the time again. Personally I think that system will be more than fine but more details on it such as exact parts would be nice, I have been using and messing around with the LGA 775 platform for a while and personally can not agree with the best answer you chose so hopefully you can reconsider that purchase and let me know what other information you might want regarding what you might be looking at.   

[iHardware Shelden]

2 hours ago, jackm1120 said:

no core 2 quad will hold up well against triple a titles

Can you please point out exactly which titles and provide some proof to why the Core 2 Quads can't "hold up well" with triple a titles? 

[Biggerboot]

Your mileage will vary with the C2Q, even the 45nm ones.  Less CPU intensive games will run fine, but for GTA V and Just Cause 3, you may have to really compensate to get it running smoothly.  

$200 isn't that bad for that system though, the GPU alone is probably worth $120.  If it has a decent PSU and case, you could always salvage it for a newer setup.  I'd say take a shot on it if your willing to upgrade in a couple of years, or if you have a means to sell some parts later.

 

Personally though, another $100 could go a long way.  You should really have sandy bridge at minimum for gaming.  i5 2400's go for pretty cheap, or you could look at upgrading an used dell optiplex.  Either that or build a new skylake system with a g4400 and plan on upgrading that later.  Then pair whatever you get with a gtx 670/760/7870 (best $100 options).

[smeek14]

18 hours ago, iHardware Shelden said:

For $200 that is a great deal, really depends on the Core 2 Quad and if it is a 65nm or 45nm model. You would also be looking at the motherboard in terms of possibly overclocking or upgrades. For GTA V you would be quite surprised how well it can run even on a Q6600 (oldest/slowest Core 2 Quad). I paired one with a GTX 650ti and going to with a GTX 760 later this year when I have the time again. Personally I think that system will be more than fine but more details on it such as exact parts would be nice, I have been using and messing around with the LGA 775 platform for a while and personally can not agree with the best answer you chose so hopefully you can reconsider that purchase and let me know what other information you might want regarding what you might be looking at.   

I'm just buying an old dell optiplex off of ebay, and adding a 500 gb hhd, 8gb ram, and a gtx 760.

[smeek14]

14 hours ago, Biggerboot said:

Your mileage will vary with the C2Q, even the 45nm ones.  Less CPU intensive games will run fine, but for GTA V and Just Cause 3, you may have to really compensate to get it running smoothly.  

$200 isn't that bad for that system though, the GPU alone is probably worth $120.  If it has a decent PSU and case, you could always salvage it for a newer setup.  I'd say take a shot on it if your willing to upgrade in a couple of years, or if you have a means to sell some parts later.

 

Personally though, another $100 could go a long way.  You should really have sandy bridge at minimum for gaming.  i5 2400's go for pretty cheap, or you could look at upgrading an used dell optiplex.  Either that or build a new skylake system with a g4400 and plan on upgrading that later.  Then pair whatever you get with a gtx 670/760/7870 (best $100 options).

Ok.  Yea I was worried about the cpu.  I'll see what I can get for 300.

[smeek14]

1 minute ago, smeek14 said:

Ok.  Yea I was worried about the cpu.  I'll see what I can get for 300.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-790-SFF-Intel-Core-i5-2400-3-1GHz-2GB-250GB-Win-7-Pro-1-Yr-Wty/191771582466?_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226&_trkparms=aid%3D555014%26algo%3DPL.DEFAULT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D36502%26meid%3D4875e62b4daa4272a0118775b6d57f01%26pid%3D100505%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26

What if I modify this dell?

[Dabombinable]

2 minutes ago, smeek14 said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-790-SFF-Intel-Core-i5-2400-3-1GHz-2GB-250GB-Win-7-Pro-1-Yr-Wty/191771582466?_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226&_trkparms=aid%3D555014%26algo%3DPL.DEFAULT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D36502%26meid%3D4875e62b4daa4272a0118775b6d57f01%26pid%3D100505%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26

What if I modify this dell?

For starters you'll need from that:

• A new case
• A non Dell motherboard
• At least a 4GB DDR3 stick

Looking at the shipping on it, price the cost of an i5 2400+motherboard, than compare their price+shipping to that of the Dell. Because you won't get much that is actually useful from the thin Dell pre-builts.

[SLAYR]

41 minutes ago, smeek14 said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-790-SFF-Intel-Core-i5-2400-3-1GHz-2GB-250GB-Win-7-Pro-1-Yr-Wty/191771582466?_trksid=p2045573.c100505.m3226&_trkparms=aid%3D555014%26algo%3DPL.DEFAULT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D36502%26meid%3D4875e62b4daa4272a0118775b6d57f01%26pid%3D100505%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26

What if I modify this dell?

Dell uses proprietary fan headers so you cannot just replace the fan, but yo will have to replace it, and the psu is a special form factor (tfx?) and will not have any pcie connectors.

 

newegg refurbished computers have a bit of 2400's and ocassionally they have good deals on some of the dell workstation computers, but you may have to do a bit a research to determine what the cpu is in them and what that is comparable to. 

[Biggerboot]

If you do go the optiplex route, get the MT version so you can get a full sized GPU and replace the power supply.  Or you can go for the 6 pinless GTX 950.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-Computer-Intel-Core-i5-2400-3-10-Ghz-w-500-GB-HD-4-GB-RAM-DVD-RW-D-/131793719471?hash=item1eaf8490af:g:KAoAAOSwxp9W3ty4

 

I know some would shun me for even recommending such a thing, because the airflow in these aren't the best.  But if you keep it maintained/dust free, it can be a cheap way to get your friend into gaming.  I gamed on an HP Compaq (sff) for a while with a sandy bridge i3 and gtx 750 ti, and it was a lot better than my core 2 quad.

 

Otherwise, keep hunting.  Used but useful sandy/ivy bridge systems are out there.

[smeek14]

23 hours ago, Biggerboot said:

If you do go the optiplex route, get the MT version so you can get a full sized GPU and replace the power supply.  Or you can go for the 6 pinless GTX 950.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-Computer-Intel-Core-i5-2400-3-10-Ghz-w-500-GB-HD-4-GB-RAM-DVD-RW-D-/131793719471?hash=item1eaf8490af:g:KAoAAOSwxp9W3ty4

 

I know some would shun me for even recommending such a thing, because the airflow in these aren't the best.  But if you keep it maintained/dust free, it can be a cheap way to get your friend into gaming.  I gamed on an HP Compaq (sff) for a while with a sandy bridge i3 and gtx 750 ti, and it was a lot better than my core 2 quad.

 

Otherwise, keep hunting.  Used but useful sandy/ivy bridge systems are out there.

Is the gtx 750 ti fanless?

[Biggerboot]

On 4/30/2016 at 9:24 PM, smeek14 said:

Is the gtx 750 ti fanless?

Nah, but it was a half height version.  Here it is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127836

[Nena Trinity]

I would OC it but yeah it should do fine with GTX 760!

[Iraxis]

I could be wrong (Correct me please), but it's possible that the pci-e slots on motherboards that old could be version 1.0, leading to highly degraded GPU performance.

 

I will say this: I had a c2q machine with a q9400 with a gtx 750 ti, and I upgraded to a new system with an i3-6100 and the same gpu, but my gaming performance skyrocketed. (Not to mention day to day performance).

[Dabombinable]

1 hour ago, Iraxis said:

I could be wrong (Correct me please), but it's possible that the pci-e slots on motherboards that old could be version 1.0, leading to highly degraded GPU performance.

 

I will say this: I had a c2q machine with a q9400 with a gtx 750 ti, and I upgraded to a new system with an i3-6100 and the same gpu, but my gaming performance skyrocketed. (Not to mention day to day performance).

Nope, very few games show any tangible benefit when going from pcie Gen 1.1 x16 to Gen 3.0 x16. And the gaming performance boost with the i3 6100 is because it is better in every single way than any C2Q. Also, Q9400 if you don't overclock only run at 2.66GHz, which is why I always recommend overclocking any C2Q to at least 3GHz, or outright buying one with a 3GHz clock speed.

[yenic]

I have a Q9450 @ 3ghz that I'm typing this on now. With a modern video card people would be very surprised. It will hold back the top end cards on minimum framerates with the most intensive games. And if you're sitting on a boatload of money like I am, you should upgrade to Skylake (I just don't replace many things as long as they're doing what I need and aren't broken). But a Geforce 960 would be a great match. A CPU like this one is roughly equivalent to AMD's A10 APUs in CPU performance.

A 750Ti, 950 or 960 to an old C2Q I think it would be fine. I wouldn't spend any more than what those cost on an old system but will definitely breathe new life into it with the video codec offloading and other desktop acceleration.

 

If you're doing competitive gaming, my friends and I drop the resolution on those games anyway such as CSGo to 1280x1024. Regardless if we run a GF960 or 980Ti. For League of Legends it doesn't matter what you use. For mainstream AAA titles that are mostly about graphics, I don't care if there's less than ideal performance since I don't play those competitively.

1 hour ago, Iraxis said:

I could be wrong (Correct me please), but it's possible that the pci-e slots on motherboards that old could be version 1.0, leading to highly degraded GPU performance.

 

I will say this: I had a c2q machine with a q9400 with a gtx 750 ti, and I upgraded to a new system with an i3-6100 and the same gpu, but my gaming performance skyrocketed. (Not to mention day to day performance).

This old system has a PCIE 2.0 x16 slot that I use. It's 8GB/sec (bidirectional so 16GB/sec) which is pretty good. If you want proof-

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/pci_express_scaling_game_performance_analysis_review,7.html
PCIE 1.0 x16 fast enough to power a 980. Which is exactly half of PCIE 2.0 x16.

So you could have stopped worrying about PCIE bandwidth back in 2003.

[iHardware Shelden]

So about a month ago I made a video on how GTA V ran on the Q6600 (overclocked @ 3.0Ghz) and a stock 650ti so here is that video;

 

 

Not sure if I am aloud to post this but thought it might give a good idea on what to expect performance wise from a chip like the Q6600. Please feel free to remove this post if it does not fall under the rules. 

[Iraxis]

1 hour ago, yenic said:

I have a Q9450 @ 3ghz that I'm typing this on now. With a modern video card people would be very surprised. It will hold back the top end cards on minimum framerates with the most intensive games. And if you're sitting on a boatload of money like I am, you should upgrade to Skylake (I just don't replace many things as long as they're doing what I need and aren't broken). But a Geforce 960 would be a great match. A CPU like this one is roughly equivalent to AMD's A10 APUs in CPU performance.

A 750Ti, 950 or 960 to an old C2Q I think it would be fine. I wouldn't spend any more than what those cost on an old system but will definitely breathe new life into it with the video codec offloading and other desktop acceleration.

 

If you're doing competitive gaming, my friends and I drop the resolution on those games anyway such as CSGo to 1280x1024. Regardless if we run a GF960 or 980Ti. For League of Legends it doesn't matter what you use. For mainstream AAA titles that are mostly about graphics, I don't care if there's less than ideal performance since I don't play those competitively.

This old system has a PCIE 2.0 x16 slot that I use. It's 8GB/sec (bidirectional so 16GB/sec) which is pretty good. If you want proof-

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/pci_express_scaling_game_performance_analysis_review,7.html
PCIE 1.0 x16 fast enough to power a 980. Which is exactly half of PCIE 2.0 x16.

So you could have stopped worrying about PCIE bandwidth back in 2003.

 

Okay cool, wasn't sure. Thanks!