Would upgrading from Core 2 Duo E6600 to Core 2 Quad Q6600 help Civ5?

[tripecac]

Civ5 is painfully slow for me. I've ordered a new video card (HD 5850) but am wondering if upgrading my CPU from Core 2 Duo E6600 to Core 2 Quad Q6600 will noticeably improve Civ5 performance. Both CPUs are 2.4 GHz so the only change is the increased number of cores. Does Civ5 truly benefit from more cores?

Also, if I upgrade to the Q6600 (or even a Q6700), can I use my stock heat sink for the E6600 or do I need to buy a new heat sink?

Thanks!

 

[Maniacal]

All CPUs should come with a stock heatsink afaik, so don't bother. I myself bought a new one when I got my Q6600 (which has been awesome).

However, there are probably much newer and faster CPUs for a good price now than the Q6600. It also isn't listed on either Newegg or NCIX anymore

I assume that your E6600 has the LGA775 socket? Any other CPU with LGA775 should work then, or for any socket setting your motherboard will accept.

 

[tripecac]

My motherboard is an Intel D975xbx2, and, according to Intel, can only support up to Q6600 and Q6700 (plus QX6800 series but that's very expensive). I'm considering buying a Q6700 secondhand, without a heat sink. So I'm wondering if I can reuse my stock E6600 heat sink with the Q6700.

 

[civ_king]

Civ5 is painfully slow for me. I've ordered a new video card (HD 5850) but am wondering if upgrading my CPU from Core 2 Duo E6600 to Core 2 Quad Q6600 will noticeably improve Civ5 performance. Both CPUs are 2.4 GHz so the only change is the increased number of cores. Does Civ5 truly benefit from more cores?

Also, if I upgrade to the Q6600 (or even a Q6700), can I use my stock heat sink for the E6600 or do I need to buy a new heat sink?

Thanks!

If you buy a C2Q Q6600 it should come with a new heatsink, and yes it will work faster (soon enough)

 

[tripecac]

Anyone have any problems upgrading from Core 2 Duo to Core 2 Quad on the same motherboard? No need to reinstall the OS, right?

 

[tokala]

Both CPUs are 2.4 GHz so the only change is the increased number of cores. Does Civ5 truly benefit from more cores?

With the current state of the game engine, you will basically see no difference at all.
Civ_king keeps hoping that this might change with future patches, but looking at the technical mess the games is, this will take time, if it ever happens.

As for the heatsink, it will work in principle, but is not such a good idea. Under load the fan will get very loud, and the CPU might even start throttling. You would need fresh thermal grease anyway, and including shipping a cheap heatsink will not be much more expensive.

Anyone have any problems upgrading from Core 2 Duo to Core 2 Quad on the same motherboard? No need to reinstall the OS, right?

No, though you might need a BIOS update, which you should flash before swapping the CPU..

 

[tripecac]

Thanks for the info!

If I do decide on the upgrade (which I'm not so sure about), I'll buy a heat sink too. I flashed the BIOS yesterday in preparation.

 

[Maniacal]

Make sure the heatsink fits the motherboard and cpu, that stuff is always worth double checking.

 

[civ_king]

Thanks for the info!

If I do decide on the upgrade (which I'm not so sure about), I'll buy a heat sink too. I flashed the BIOS yesterday in preparation.

If you used a Tuniq Tower you could do a 50% overlclock to 3.6GHz which will make turns a bit faster

 

[tripecac]

I've never overclocked, and am hesitant to start now. I don't want to have to worry about stability, heat, shortened lifespan, or having to upgrade the cooling or PSU. Thanks for the tip, though.

 

[Mark Havel]

Well overclocking is a form of art, but I can tell that your Core 2 Duo should be able to run at 3 GHz without making any fuss. Ermm, at least mine does so since two years without any trouble of sort.

As far as I know, reduced lifespan and overheating come from upping the voltage, which increase power consumption and therefore, the generated heat and might damage the CPU if not properly cooled. Not to mention these little beasts are designed for a specific voltage they happened to be running by default. However, the Core 2 Duo are well known to be able to be overclockable (is that correct English ? ) without touching voltages, so an easy try is to put your FSB at 333 Mhz instead of the stock 266 and see what happens next. Don't forget to adapt some stuff like the memory frequency if necessary.
That's all I've done a few months ago and I can say it worked more than well, to say the least, which is nice free 25% increase.

 

[Beef Hammer]

lol hell i got an core duo E6600 too, it's even water cooled and I wont overclock it lol, mostly cause i don't know how and i don't want to break anything...

 

[Mark Havel]

I think water cooling any CPU is a waste if you don't plan to heavily overclock it. Especially when it is as simple as going into the BIOS and telling your motherboard to run the FSB at 333 Mhz instead of 266, which is something all the ones supporting Core 2 Duo are perfectly able to do.

 

[tokala]

Some socket 775 boards support C2D but are not able to reach FSB1333, so it's not garantueed to work.

 

[Mark Havel]

This must be the most old ones, even my 4 year old P5W DH Deluxe supports it with a Bios update. Ok, that was the least I could hope for from an high-end mobo, but still...