Intels Quad Core (Q6600) Overclocked Gaming

Untapped Power

There are allot of sites that have piled praise on the Core 2 Duo dual processors available in the market but there are fewer around pitching the praise of the quad core class.

This has allot to do with the fact that dual processors can generate a fair amount of heat. More often than not this heat issue is easily remedied with 3rd party air cooling. No doubt this gives Core 2 Duos a significant advantage and solid bang for the buck. I have four rigs using the E6400 rated @ 2.13 GHz running flawlessly @ 3.2GHz.

With that as an example of the possibilities, what could be done with the Quad Core Q6600.
Well aside from the concern of increased heat, the first batches from Intel were too hot to do much with. But with the introduction of the G0 class, we have the Holy Grail of quad processors.
The new class has a lower Thermal Design Power rating of 90 Watts compared to its earlier cousins that chewed through 105Watts. All the power coupled with over clocking really limited the speed range.

Identifying a Winner

Knowing if you have the winning class is as simple as checking the Product Code on the boxed unit. PROD CODE BX80562Q6600SLACR. That is the marking of a winner and one that gives you a range of possibilities depending on the hardware you couple with it.

What Kinds of Speeds Can I Get?

Not unlike the Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13 GHz, the Q6600 has ample room to speed up.
Whats important is which motherboard and memory you choose to go with. Ultimately the motherboard bios, cooling unit, and memory speed will cap your overall speed/stability.

With that said, with a few simple bios settings you can get to the 3.2Ghz base line. Not a bad speed at all when you consider that gaming is making the shift to multi core processors. In 5 minutes I was getting the same speed out of a quad that I was getting from my duals. More importantly is the thermals are almost equal. 38-42 Idle and 54-60 at Load.

Currently Newegg has the C2D E6400 @ 204.00 and the Q6600 @ $279.00.
Not a bad price for equal Ghz performance. If you're doing rendering (video or 3D) on top of gaming, going with the two extra processors is a no brainer.

Rather than doing a search use this link to get the essential settings using some of the most common motherboards for the Q6600 Bit-tech Net.
The article isn't the most recent on the subject, but it is the easiest to follow and gives the starting steps to tapping into your quads potential.

Aren't Quad Processors Overkill for Gaming?

Yes and No.
When you take into consideration that current and upcoming PC titles Valves The Orange Box (Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2) and Crytek's Crysis and Remedy's Alan Wake to name few, the position of single CPU games is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Also keep in mind that if you're a media developer like myself, the applications I use are all multiprocessor aware. So you can cover your business and pleasure...or better business and play/leisure needs with multiprocessor solutions.

Cryteks Crysis on Quads

Having played the Crysis single player demo on the quad I can say there is significant performance increase over its dual core counterpart. Playing on two identical systems with the exception of the processors, the demo does take advantage of the two extra processors. This is not a complete day a and night difference, but there is enough frame rate increase that allows smoother game play in dense areas.

Since the game has gone gold, it should be nice to see what further optimizations have been made to the engine.

Technology is always about the early adopters buying into future prospects but (practical) multiprocessors aren't the future anymore; they are here now.