Should I downgrade to upgrade?

[DaSinical1]

Here is my current system. Q6600@3.3Ghz w/ stock voltage (TRUE 120), Abit IP35-E, GTX 480, 4Gb Kingston HyperX DDRII, Antec Earthwatts 650, Intel x25 80Gb SSD, 2 500Gb HDDs.

My "extra" parts right now are a GTX 285, GTX 260, EVGA 680i SLI, XfX 8800GT w/ accellero.

Well... I am really considering selling my GTX 480, using my GTX 285 and upgrading to an i7 930 setup with 6Gb of ram. My reason is i've read that the Q6600 & DDRII is possibly bottlenecking my GPU, is this true? And, an overclock i7 930 w/ DDRIII would be more then enough to get the best out of my GTX 285 while giving my overall system a boost in performance. (Resisting since my GTX 480 is a pre-pro that runs cooler/quieter then retail cards.)

I could always just go the i7 930 route and keep my GTX 480 as well if I just sell all my extra parts. Probably keep the 8800GT as a physx card. Then SLI the 480 later on when the prices get cheaper. Possibly pushing back my next whole system upgrade to 3-4-5 years?

Or I can just keep my system as is and wait for sandy to be released.

Thoughts on how downgrading the gpu to upgrade my cpu would effect overall performance. Games I play are Crysis, Bad Company 2, future... Starcraft II & Crysis II. All at 1680x1240 (I believe thats the resolution, i know its 16something x 12something though) Software I use on a daily basis are Ableton Live 8, Soundbooth, FL studio, virtual synths, effects plugins (usually multiple instances, all at the same time).

Future upgrades... I really want 3d vision w/ 120 Hz monitor as well as hook up a 32inch - 40inch tv for movies as well.

Thanks in advance,

Mark
PS: Mods, i put this post in the video cards board cause i felt it really revolves around video card vs system performance. But, feel free to move this post if you disagree.

 

[RussianSensation]

My "extra" parts right now are a GTX 285, GTX 260, EVGA 680i SLI, XfX 8800GT w/ accellero.

Sell all of these parts, including the Q6600 and upgrade to a Core i7 930/860 if you are really itching for a CPU upgrade now.

Q6600 @ 3.3ghz will be a bottleneck to some extent at 1680x1050/1600x1200, but it's not still not worth selling your GTX480 and downgrading to GTX285. You can probably wait until next year with Sandy Bridge to upgrade your CPU. I don't understand the purpose of having GTX285/260 and 8800GT just sitting there. Sell all of them while they still have value. A single GTX480 is more than fast enough to enable PhysX at 16x12 resolution in the games which use PhysX.

Also, a stock Q6600 would have been a major problem for a GTX480, but @ 3.3ghz, it's still going to give you 80% of the performance of a Core i7 I would say. Just crank 8AA for now and enjoy 'free' eye candy.

 

[jdjbuffalo]

RussianSensation

What he said.

 

[Termie]

q6600 is a major bottleneck, even overclocked. It simply cannot match core i5, let alone i7. Check out this brand new article from xbitlabs showing a 5870 running on i5-750, q9505, and a few AMD processors: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1055t-overclocking_7.html#sect0

They run the CPUs at stock and maximum overclock. The q9505 (which I believe is a low power version of the 9550) just cannot keep up, and your q6600 will be in worse shape. While it's true that these tests, running at medium settings, may exaggerate the results, the tests show that you'll eventually be bottlenecking a GTX480 in CPU-intensive games. BC2 in particular is extraordinarily CPU-intensive.

I definitely agree with Russian...sell all those old cards. No reason to have them sitting around...you'll get almost as much for the three as you would for the GTX480, most likely.

 

[Powermoloch]

sell off your parts like the poster above me. and keep 1 card for physx if it fits your fancy.

otherwise your 480GTX alone is a beast all by its own.

 

[zerocool84]

q6600 is a major bottleneck, even overclocked. It simply cannot match core i5, let alone i7. Check out this brand new article from xbitlabs showing a 5870 running on i5-750, q9505, and a few AMD processors: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-phenom-ii-x6-1055t-overclocking_7.html#sect0

They run the CPUs at stock and maximum overclock. The q9505 (which I believe is a low power version of the 9550) just cannot keep up, and your q6600 will be in worse shape. While it's true that these tests, running at medium settings, may exaggerate the results, the tests show that you'll eventually be bottlenecking a GTX480 in CPU-intensive games. BC2 in particular is extraordinarily CPU-intensive.

I definitely agree with Russian...sell all those old cards. No reason to have them sitting around...you'll get almost as much for the three as you would for the GTX480, most likely.

Did you even look at the bench you linked to? The only game that makes any noticeable difference is Farcry 2 and somewhat in RE5 and no a Q9505 isn't a low power Q9550. A Q9505 has half the cache and the low power version of the Q9550 is the Q9550s. OP is fine with his system. Getting 5fps more for $300-$500 isn't worth it. He's getting probably 90% of the power out of it.

 

[NoQuarter]

You can always test for CPU bottleneck by lowering your resolution a notch, if fps goes up then your CPU is fine.

 

[MagickMan]

Did you even look at the bench you linked to? The only game that makes any noticeable difference is Farcry 2 and somewhat in RE5 and no a Q9505 isn't a low power Q9550. A Q9505 has half the cache and the low power version of the Q9550 is the Q9550s. OP is fine with his system. Getting 5fps more for $300-$500 isn't worth it. He's getting probably 90% of the power out of it.

That was my thinking. Spending $500 for a small bump in performance isn't wise, unless you're just a hobbyist having fun.

I've not budged from my Q9550, and I'm not going to until S2011. I'm pulling down the same numbers as other people with 5800 CF setups and they have i5 and i7 rigs. A lot of it is in how you setup your gear.

 

[Termie]

Did you even look at the bench you linked to? The only game that makes any noticeable difference is Farcry 2 and somewhat in RE5 and no a Q9505 isn't a low power Q9550. A Q9505 has half the cache and the low power version of the Q9550 is the Q9550s. OP is fine with his system. Getting 5fps more for $300-$500 isn't worth it. He's getting probably 90% of the power out of it.

Fair enough - but I figured the OP might like to see some recent test results showing the difference so he can make up his own mind. It sounds like he's kept his VGAs current while sticking with a circa-2007 platform. And the fact that the 9505 is a cut down 9550 means it's pretty close in performance to a q6600, clock for clock, and therefore a good comparison.

 

[DaSinical1]

Thank you to everyone for your input. To answer everyone’s question... I pretty much have all of these parts because I bought them all last week as a "lot" from my friend who works at Nvidia. The 8800GT was my previous video card. I went straight to the GTX 480. Guess the best thing for me to do is selloff all of my extra parts, build my i7 930 system then go sli with 3d vision. I am getting a really good price on the 3d vision /w 2 glasses & ddr3 as well so I just pretty much have to come out of pocket for the processor and mobo. Hopefully I break even with that after the selloff. Question is why upgrade...

I can think of a couple of reasons for me to upgrade. I multitask a lot when it comes to making music on my rig. Making a 20 track song in Ableton with lots of virtual effects, instruments, synths and mastering is pushing my quad. Sometimes I see the processor utilization go anywhere from 50-60%. Granted that still not 100% utilization but I would feel more comfortable with more headroom. Also, if my Q6600 can't even keep up with my 1st GTX 480... what more to expect when I add another one? Is my theory wrong on this?