What is the highest GPU the Q6600 can stretch to?

[Brennan Price]

Ok, so I have just bought an Intel Q6600 quad core CPU. Currently I am still waiting to buy the power supply and hard drive however I can't buy a power supply until I know what the highest gpu available to it is. I have heard rumours that it can support GPU's up to the R9 380 buy I don't quite believe this. So my question to you all, what is the highest end GPU that the Intel Q6600 supports?

[Lotus]

Depends entirely on the game. What are you going to be playing?

[SeanAngelo]

6 minutes ago, Brennan_Price said:

Ok, so I have just bought an Intel Q6600 quad core CPU. Currently I am still waiting to buy the power supply and hard drive however I can't buy a power supply until I know what the highest gpu available to it is. I have heard rumours that it can support GPU's up to the R9 380 buy I don't quite believe this. So my question to you all, what is the highest end GPU that the Intel Q6600 supports?

depends on the game, some games might need more cpu power than gpu

[Moonzy]

it depends on the game, some programs will make the q6600 being able to perform alongside a 980ti without bottlenecking it 

 

but normally, i'd say around a 750Ti to a 960, which is about an r9 380, again, it depends on the game

[n00bmlg]

I have this question too, I'm currently using a Radeon HD 6570 but I want to upgrade

[DXMember]

there is no such thing

Tomb Rider 2013 for example doesn't really need CPU and can run on a motherboard with an empty CPU socket despite of what masses believe to be possible.

GTA V on the other hand requires dual Xeon setup to run at all.

 

The advice would be to go with the most powerful GPU solution you can afford at the time and upgrading the rest of your computer at a later date.

[agent_x007]

Like others said - it depends.
But in Q6600's case : Buy best GPU U can.

[Brennan Price]

9 minutes ago, n00bmlg said:

I have this question too, I'm currently using a Radeon HD 6570 but I want to upgrade

Ha-ha, dude that is still better than what GPU I have to use at the moment until I buy a new one. The current GPU is going to be an HD 4550.

[Brennan Price]

16 minutes ago, Lotus said:

Depends entirely on the game. What are you going to be playing?

Tbh, it isn't going to be for triple a titles like witcher or anything like that at all. At the moment it is going to be a LAN rig for playing Minecraft, Brawlhalla, Terraria and any other games for playing online/multiplayer. However I am just curious as to what it could do if I did want to play serious games on it.

[Kobathor]

A think up to a 380 would be good. In some games performance won't be optimal, but it is a really old CPU.

 

I'd get the best you can afford at the moment, then save up for a CPU. Or, get a $200 380 4GB and put the rest towards saving to a new CPU.

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

I would look for a used 270

[Brennan Price]

41 minutes ago, Kobathor said:

A think up to a 380 would be good. In some games performance won't be optimal, but it is a really old CPU.

 

I'd get the best you can afford at the moment, then save up for a CPU. Or, get a $200 380 4GB and put the rest towards saving to a new CPU.

Ha-ha, I laugh cuz I'm 15 and I know it will take ages for that to happen. Sorry, I take on your advise but at this moment in time it will take me forever to get to that stage. I am probably just going to buy a GTX 460 or 560 or something. Thanks though

[n00bmlg]

q6600 is crap, get a newer processor

[Quaker]

On 4/8/2016 at 4:03 PM, Brennan_Price said:

 So my question to you all, what is the highest end GPU that the Intel Q6600 supports?

Any GPU you want. Of course at some point, your Q6600 is going to be the factor that limits your performance, but that doesn't mean the you have to limit your GPU choice - especially if you intend to upgrade your CPU in the near future.

 

Of course, realistically, it wouldn't make sense to spend $600 on a graphics card without spending some of that money on a better CPU.

 

Actually, you be better off getting an i5-6500 and a B150 motherboard and using the i5's IGP, then getting any GPU to use with a Q6600.

[Sentryy]

46 minutes ago, n00bmlg said:

q6600 is crap, get a newer processor

actually not that bad

 

ot: i would say a 290 / 770 maxiumum 

[Biggerboot]

I would base your GPU decision on the games you think you tend to play.  First person games tend to be more gpu heavy, while open world and strategy are more cpu heavy.

 

Or just look up the particular game you're interested in.  If it's GTA V, a 960 probably won't benefit you any more than a 750 ti.

[FPS-Russia]

R9 290, 770/780.

[luckydog32]

I'm going to say something a bit different. I would go with something in the performance sweet spot which is currently around ~$200. So maybe pick up a rx 470 which will be a bit bottlenecked by your cpu. But if you decide to upgrade your cpu, you'll get a great performance jump.

[Johnmakuta]

rx 480. That would probably be the best for the price now of days unless you already have something like a 960 (Don't buy one). Possibly a GTX 1060.

[Nena Trinity]

Get a GTX 770, GTX 960 or R9 380! (last one is best and most modern)

[i_build_nanosuits]

i had my Q6600 overlocked to 3.6ghz (+50% overclock) and i had it paired with an HD7950 (same as R9 280) and that was a bit much for that old bastard...but i would say a GTX 950 would probably be the best in terms of what you should pair that CPU with and also in terms of price to performance it's way up there...you can find one for around 120$ if you shop a bit.

 

For used cards, look for GTX 760 or GTX 670.

[i_build_nanosuits]

ALSO' quick word to those saying R9 290...GTX 780...RX 480...that type of stuff...i think you have NO idea what you're talking about.,..the Q6600 is intel's first quad-core processor and it has turned 10 YEARS OLD this year...here is the performance even compared to an FX-4300 which is now considered as a VERY bad weak ass CPU...well guess what? the FX-4300 is nearly twice as fast:

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core2-Quad-Q6600-vs-AMD-FX-4300/1980vs2879

 

With that CPU, you're looking at modern low-end cards, or older generations mid-range cards...at best.

 

GTX 950 though is cheap, and the nvidia drivers are very CPU efficient, so it's probably your real best bet.

Good luck!

 

The Core2 Quad Q6600 is over 9 years old which is a lot of processor lifetimes! This particular model has been included in the group test simply as a reference because of its exceptional popularity back when it was at the forefront of technological advance. The Q6600's four physical cores demonstrate exceptional overclocking capacity and often achieve in excess of 40% performance increases. Modern Quad core processors offer nearly three times more performance on both single and multi-core workloads. There have also been lots of non-processing related improvements in the platform over the last 9 years which include SATA 600 MB/s, USB 3.0 PCIe and more.