Build Advice Should i ditch the trusty Q6600 and go for haswell/broadwell or wait for next gen?

I'm in a similar position to the OP.

I'm going to hang on until next year when GPUs will have caught up with the demands of 4k gaming and Oculus Riftery-pokery.

In the meantime I'll be hiding in Battlefield 3.

 

The Q6600s are slacking behind now, and that's a fact. It's also a known fact that an i7 from the first generation of Core series is enough to drive most any single card configs out there once it has a healthy overclock on it. Don't forget, those i7 920 (and so on) chips are as fast clock for clock as the current AMD stuff (or damn near to) so you really cannot go wrong with whatever you choose.

As I said above, I'd personally wait for Broadwell as it is due to launch very soon, even if no one really knows when. I am willing to bet it will be within the next month, or two at the very latest. Skylake is also due to hit in summer but that will most likely add in a few extra costs such as 1) a more expensive motherboard and 2) DDR4.

Also, as far as the Pentium being "worse" than the i3, yes it is in terms of threads. However, once you overclock the little thing to 4.5GHz (very easily achievable on 95% of the chips) then it will destroy the i3 for half (and more) the price. The i3 is pointless with an unlocked Pentium. The only real step up from a dual is to a quad, and that's the i5.

 

This is true but that does not mean they don't give good "game play".

Game developers know most users don't have the budgets to buy and keep upgrading to the latest state-of-the-art. So they program to provide good play on lessor systems too. Okay, the backgrounds may not be as detailed, and there may be fewer independent objects currently "in-play", but the game will still be fun to play.

Heck, for many users, a low-end i5 or high-end i3 or Pentium (or equivalent AMD) with gobs of RAM and decent graphics is "good enough" to keep them entertained.

 

May I ask the OP what he's intending to do wih the Q6600 if he decides to get a new CPU?

 

Hi, once again thanks for the all the input.

Digerati summed it up, a system with decent gameplay ability is whats important to me most - but i do enjoy a bit of overclocking and tweaking, hence why the k series appeals

Just to clarify, I'm not after the ultimate eye candy, the prettier the better but solid frame rates are more important to me so a decent mid range card will do. I'd prefer to get a mid range card for around £100-150 and upgrade it every 2 to 3 years or when its needed rather than getting a high end card.

Recomended spec for Witcher 3, Arkham knight all need 3gb video memory, hence why i'm interested in Tahiti's. 280x RRP dropped to £170 so I could probably get one second hand for less than £130 alternatively a 280, 7950, 7970.

the-witcher-3-pc-system-requirements
batman-arkham-knight-pc-system-requirements-detailed

I would like to do a 'rolling' or 'staggered' upgrade but the specs suggest my current rig wont cut it. Need a better CPU, 2-4gb more memory and GPU. It seem's like the shape of thing's to come as I'm noticing other next gen games such as GTA V and Project Cars using DX11 prefer 3gb video memory, hence why i'm interested in Tahiti's afaik the cheapest cards that can provide that.

I've realised Skylake is going to be a new socket 1151. I assumed it would be socket 1150 so with that in mind, i'm rethinking getting a Haswell/Broadwell as its just another deadend.

[PUNK] crompers, The_Crapman, mrbungle I was dismissive of going for Sandy and Ivy bridge being the older option but it makes a heck of alot of sense. Looking on ebay, i could get a z77 mobo +i5 2500k + 8gb Ram for around £200 give or take. I would gain features like pcie 3.0, sata 3 so i could run my 850 evo at its full speed and be able to have some fun overclocking. Ticks alot of boxes and doesn't make my wallet cry.

 

I've jumped the Q6600 ship after about six years now & gone for a i5-4690k - the 3.2GHz overclock I managed with my Q6600 was pretty stable too, still works even now. However like yourself, I'd like to exploit the Samsung 850 EVO to its fullest with a modern board.

 

Cerberus90 Did the firestrike benchmark and got 2407
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4768877
Seems as if the 6850 is the bottleneck. What card were you using?

TheMadDutchDude I'm glad you mentioned that. For £50 once overclocked the performance seems impressive. This is why i wondered if even without the 2 extra cores, it would perform better than the q6600 or i3. Would the i3's extra cache and hypertheading really make it that much better?

Pete J Flogging it on ebay with all the other bits

 

I was using a GTX660, which should be a fair bit more than the 6850, graphics is the most important factor in 3DMark, but I was interested to see the difference between the CPUs.

Other benchmarks will show a much bigger difference between the Q6600 and the i3.
I was sure I'd done some benches with other tools but can't seem to find the results, I know I used userbenchmark on both, but I must have written down the results somewhere and can't find them now,

This was one of the places I used for deciding what to upgrade to when I was looking.

I decided against the Pentium as I read quite a bit that the lack of HT really hurt it in games and the i3 was much more competent at feeding the graphics card.

 

Well, before it goes on the 'Bay, post it in the Bit Tech Marketplace. I'm sure someone may pick it up for the right price .

 

Cerberus90 Thanks for that link, that site is really useful. I've seen similar comparison sites but they're crap cos they don't take into account overclocking and lack detail.

Pete J Didn't realise there was one. Just read I need 75 posts before i can access it

 

Please let me know when you decide to flog any bits of your rig! I am interested in the ram and gfx card!!

 

It might be worth waiting to see what DX12 brings to the table.

 

That's now 150 post I believe