Intel Core 2 Qaud Q6600 2.4Ghz,,, is this slow??

[Marc fFOx]

I bought a new PC six months or so ago, it's an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz. I've 2Gig of ram and if I add it al up 1terra HDD. The graphics card is a NVidia GeForce 8500 GT and I'm up to date with directx. I'm having problems running Hl2 - Lost Coast, it says it requires a faster processor, if the program is meant to be a showcase of whats to come gaming wise does that mean Ill be left in the gutter unable to play new games using this technology?? I thought at the time it was the best processor I could afford and I know things move quickly, but this fast?? My only hope was that the graphics was responible which I couldnt see too much of a problem with as is upgradeable but if its my quad thats letting me down, should I have gone for a bigger single or dual processor?

Plus I keep getting jittery sound and crashes on hl2, not too often, but enough to annoy,, could this be my processor aswell?

 

[taviow]

I would like to let you know that the Q6600 is an excellent processor, don't worry.
About the problem, I don't know.

 

[Warbie]

The cpu is fine, far better than most - ignore the error message.

 

[Druckles]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
it says it requires a faster processor

Um... wut?

Half-Life 2 is quite old technology nowadays, even though it still has plenty of life left in it. In terms of graphics and system spec requirements, it cowers in front of Crysis. If you can play Crysis, you should have no problem.

I have no idea what your problem is.

Do not fear, your processor is better than mine.

...

bastard

 

[-Psy-]

It's because it only looks at your clock speed, not the fact that your CPU has lots of cache and 2 physical processors.

You'll be fine.

 

[bodhi]

if your looking for a quad core i suggest looking for the 2.4ghz q6600 G0 (i think thats what its called) id say its currently the best bang for your buck, and is extremely overclockable, if your into that sort of thing...

its around ?160 i think, i was certainly looking at one for a new system

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?IL-Q6600E

not neseccarily the best place to get it from but i thought it was worth posting a link to it

 

[WhiteZero]

Half-Life 2 is quite old technology nowadays, even though it still has plenty of life left in it. In terms of graphics and system spec requirements, it cowers in front of Crysis. If you can play Crysis, you should have no problem.

Sorry man, but thats pretty ignorant.
For one, Crysis is not very optimized at all. The ratio of PC Performance to Crysis frames is far worse than any other game out right now. In other words, you can have a Mid-Range PC and go to High-Range and you wont see much of a performance difference in Crysis. This is true for the game in both DX9 and DX10 mode.

For two, the Source engine is constantly updated; more so than any other game engine on the market. In fact, it's the most keep-up-to-date engine ever I believe. They've added multicore CPU support, added dynamic shadows, etc, etc.

Back on topic...
Marc fFOx: If your worried about your Q6600, throw on some after market cooling and overclock. People with the G0 version of the Q6600 easily push it to 3.4GHz; and thats on air-cooling.

 

[Marc fFOx]

Thanks guys, I thought it might be a thing with it being a quad. I tried reinstalling The Orange Box, then they all stopped working!??! I'm reinstalling again now but it keeps sticking and only gets going again if I click the cancel button and then continue installing. A lot of hassle really just for a 15 minute game, I just wanna beat this problem I guess. Basically it's saying that I need a 2.7ghz processor to run Lost Coast,, is that right?

I had a look on the Intel site and couldn't see any drivers for my processor.

Guess Ill stick at it. Whats the best way to check for driver conflicts?

 

[Marc fFOx]

3.4!! Thats ace! This overclocking sounds really interesting, Ill look into that. I've already got 2 fans running but theyre just standard, will I need more than that? Whats G0?

 

[bodhi]

the G0 just lets you know its a certain batch of the processors that are rated to perform at higher speeds but are clocked at 2.4ghz as intel had better yields on the processors they manufactured.

essentially they are sold running at a lower speed than they safely could. if youve not done overclocking before i would strongly advise against it as you could start breaking things.

that processor will perform fantastically so long as you dont skimp on the the quality of your ram and motherboard. for instance, seeing as that processors FSB is 1066, make sure you get a motherboard that will support 1066 and also 1066mhz ram. if you do this you will ensure each componant is performing optimially. for example...

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-P5E3
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CRU-T852GK

when it comes to gfx cards for your system, ive seen a lot of people recently buying 2 cheaper 8800gt cards and running them in sli instead of just buying 1 8800gtx (or wahtever the top end one is now) because they think sli will somehow be better.

just make sure you buy quality componants and dont mess with overclocking if you dont know what your doing

 

[phantomdesign]

My Q6600 is overclocked to 3.3GHz, air-cooled, and running EXTREMELY cool (idle it's only 1-2 C above room temp). I could easily overclock it higher, but I don't really need it and don't feel like pushing the voltages any further. NEVER had any problems with stability.

 

[Beerdude26]

I'm going to get a new computer with a Q6600

 

[Escaep]

I ran Lost Coast on my old Athlon XP 2200+ 1.8 Ghz. Thats REALLY slow!

 

[-Psy-]

(idle it's only 1-2 C above room temp)

I call shenanigans. :O

 

[Asus]

I call shenanigans. :O

It is possible that the temp he is reading is only a couple degrees above room temp. But most likely the sensor being read ("CPU temp") is not on the chip directly, just the CPU socket.

 

[Druckles]

Sorry man, but thats pretty ignorant.

I disagree with your statement entirely. That was a generalisation. The system spec for Crysis is higher than many others around, and while the difference between high-end and mid-ranged PCs is not phenomenal, it is still significant. I can state this from experience.

For one, Crysis is not very optimized at all. The ratio of PC Performance to Crysis frames is far worse than any other game out right now. In other words, you can have a Mid-Range PC and go to High-Range and you wont see much of a performance difference in Crysis. This is true for the game in both DX9 and DX10 mode.

You didn't disagree with me at all. If you can play Crysis well, then you can play Half-Life 2 with no problem. It's a fact.

For two, the Source engine is constantly updated; more so than any other game engine on the market. In fact, it's the most keep-up-to-date engine ever I believe. They've added multicore CPU support, added dynamic shadows, etc, etc.

I believe your statement here is "pretty ignorant". We're talking about Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. The Half-Life 2 engine has not been updated. You might not have noticed, but we're still waiting for this "HDR update" thing Valve has planned. I never stated that the Source engine hasn't been updated, and I never said it's not looking pretty good. I said that the graphics are of no where near the same standard as Crysis. Do you dare to dispute that?

And if you attempt to deny my faith in Valve, be it on your head.

 

[-Psy-]

I believe your statement here is "pretty ignorant". We're talking about Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. The Half-Life 2 engine has not been updated. You might not have noticed, but we're still waiting for this "HDR update" thing Valve has planned.

You can already create maps with HDR for HL2. All Valve have to do is recompile the 360 versions of the HL2 maps for the PC. Simple as.

Actually, I think that the maps between the 360 and PC can be interchangeable which would simply mean that all Valve would have to do, is copy the maps from the 360 build over to the PC version. :/

 

[Druckles]

You can already create maps with HDR for HL2. All Valve have to do is recompile the 360 versions of the HL2 maps for the PC. Simple as.

Actually, I think that the maps between the 360 and PC can be interchangeable which would simply mean that all Valve would have to do, is copy the maps from the 360 build over to the PC version. :/

You'd think.

I don't. Simply because you would have thought they would have already.

D:

 

[Beerdude26]

Yeah, the HDR maps are different BSP types, which means there's some extra data embedded in the HDR ones that the HL2 engine won't understand.

 

[phantomdesign]

I call shenanigans. :O

It's entirely possible that the temperature sensors in my computer are inaccurate, but my case is extremely ventilated, great heatsink, lapped (sanded) heatsink AND processor . . . so it's pretty cool when I'm not doing much of anything on it.

 

[kacation_man]

I got a q6600 and it rox mah sox!

 

[Killing2Live]

Someone already mentioned this but back when Lost Coast was released, the majority of people owned single core cpus that were pushing core speed. Obviously it is not like that anymore but for some reason that "check" is still left in there. The so called "check" only checks core frequenzy and nothing else so it can't tell if you have a dual core or quad core cpu. In other words, dont worry about it at all, its not like a A64 2800+>Intel Q6600.

 

[WhiteZero]

I believe your statement here is "pretty ignorant". We're talking about Half-Life 2: Lost Coast.

And I'm talking about EP2 in direct response to your "Half-Life 2 is quite old technology nowadays" statement.

We're talking about Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. The Half-Life 2 engine has not been updated.

Please be more clear in the future. Stating "We're talking about Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. The Half-Life 2 engine has not been updated." are two separate sentences which one could conclude that they are two separate thoughts. Thusly one would think your simply saying "The Half-Life 2 engine has not been updated." Which would also be a fallacy since Lost Cost did incorporate HDR. So who knows where the hell your going with that.

You didn't disagree with me at all. If you can play Crysis well, then you can play Half-Life 2 with no problem. It's a fact.

The point of my post was not to disagree with you, but to help clarify why "In terms of graphics and system spec requirements, it cowers in front of Crysis." Really, I don't think the EP2 version of Source "cowers" to Crysis at all. Yes, Crysis looks better, but I wouldent say it makes Source something to scoff at (and yes, I play Crysis on tweaked "Very High" settings). The majority of my post was describing why Crysis requires such higher system specs than HL2.

I never stated that the Source engine hasn't been updated.

One does not need to directly state something in order to imply it; again with the "Half-Life 2 is quite old technology nowadays" quote.

I said that the graphics are of no where near the same standard as Crysis. Do you dare to dispute that?

I don't know, did I? You may want to actually read my post if you couldn't discern that.

 

[Kyorisu]

I bought a new PC six months or so ago, it's an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz. I've 2Gig of ram and if I add it al up 1terra HDD. The graphics card is a NVidia GeForce 8500 GT

You should have bought a dual core and used the savings on something better than an 8500. Seeing as you made such a silly buying decision I could also gather you actually have no use for a quaddie at all and only bought it because it sounded cool or something.

 

[Link]

ffs. WhiteZero, if your gonna start being all literal, lets break it down. Drukles said:

Half-Life 2 is quite old technology nowadays, even though it still has plenty of life left in it. In terms of graphics and system spec requirements, it cowers in front of Crysis. If you can play Crysis, you should have no problem.

HL2. Not source engine. HL2 is coming up to 4 years old. In PC game terms, thats retirement age.

Crysis is vastly better graphicly, and its system requirements are much higher. A system that will just run HL2 on highest settings, will not run crysis at highest settings.

So, as you can see, the first statement, which you attacked, is now verified as correct. So be quiet and stop trying to back up your weak position by picking up grammatic errors.

And just so you know, I'm siding with Druckles here partly because hes right, but mostly because "Sorry man, but thats pretty ignorant." is just rude.

 

[Druckles]

And I'm talking about EP2 in direct response to your "Half-Life 2 is quite old technology nowadays" statement.

Please be more clear in the future.

I'm having problems running Hl2 - Lost Coast

How more clear can you get? The opening post himself stated that he has trouble playing Lost Cost

Stating "We're talking about Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. The Half-Life 2 engine has not been updated." are two separate sentences which one could conclude that they are two separate thoughts. Thusly one would think your simply saying "The Half-Life 2 engine has not been updated." Which would also be a fallacy since Lost Cost did incorporate HDR. So who knows where the hell your going with that.

Lost Coast was released around Half-Life 2's release date. Half-Life 2's engine has not been updated. They have no reason to update the engine of Lost Coast, because it's a tech demonstration. I don't see what's wrong with that line.

The point of my post was not to disagree with you

Sorry man, but thats pretty ignorant.

...?

You may want to actually read my post if you couldn't discern that.

You may not want to read lines in my post which aren't there.

And Link seems to have answered everything else, thanks.

 

[WhiteZero]

And just so you know, I'm siding with Druckles here partly because hes right, but mostly because "Sorry man, but thats pretty ignorant." is just rude.

Yeah, I realize I took some of that out of context, my bad. I wasn't really considering Lost Cost much in my original post.
Although I do still stand behind my statments about Crysis' performance, be it off topic. lol
But I wasn't trying to be rude about the "ignorant" thing. Calling Druckles an idiot would have been rude, which he's not.

Anyway, sorry for taking things off topic.