Steve’s Tech Guide

The Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 is a part of the Intel Core 2 Duo series. The Intel Core 2 Duo series was a major move for Intel to bring Quad-Core processing into the heavy hitters. The original retail price for this processor came up around $850 and now that it’s been a year since its release it can now be had for an affordable $250.

Specifications

Processor Speed: Q6600 / 2.40GHz
Processor Interface: Socket 775
Processor Class: Core 2 Quad
Processor Core: Kentsfield
Cache Size: 8MB L2
Bus Speed: 1066MHz

Quad Q6600 Performance

The memory performance of the Q6600, Intel Core 2 Quad QX6700, when compared to the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 are quite similiar. Even though when tested they used the same memory type and speed, so it should be that surprising.

When compared in the CPU performance the Q6600 performed about as 3 times as fast as the dual-core E6700 when using Quad-Core supported applications. However, it ran up as the slowest when not using dual/quad-core enabled applications.

Since games haven’t yet adapted to the big performance gains that can result of multi-core processors the Q6600 performed similarly to the QX6700 and the E6700.

But in real-world applications this isn’t the case the Q6600 was about 10% faster than the QX6700. With a Pentium D processor, users can expect to see an increase of 37% when using the Q6600.

The Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 is an amazing processor that you can clearly see the benefits from when working with real-world applications. At a price of only $250 as of this report, it’s a steal for the performance you get from it, plus its quad-core too, who could want more?

This is a list of the best bang for your buck gaming graphics card for under $200. If you’re on a budget check out these graphics card powerhouses. It ranges from $83 to $200.

1. Radeon HD 2600XT for $83- Core Speed: 800 MHz, Memory Speed: 700 MHz (1400 effective), DirectX 10, Shader 4.0.
   The performance of the Radeon HD 2600XT is comparable to the 8600GT, and they both make a very good introductory graphics card, or a cheap, easy upgrade that will help you computer get its feet on gaming.
2. GeForce 8600GT for $99 - Core Speed: 540 MHz, Memory Speed: 700 MHz (1400 effective), DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0.
   For under $100 this is a really good deal, it out performs the Nvidia 7600GT and the Radeon 1650XT in performance. It’s also DirectX 10 and is a good overclocker. Make sure you only get the GDDR3 equipped versions of these cards or else your performance will suffer.
3. GeForce 8600 GTS for $130- Core Speed: 675 MHz, Memory Speed MHz: 1000 (2000 effective), DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0.
   The GeForce 8600 GTS when it was first released was way too expensive for the performance, but now that they’ve dropped down the price it’s much better now. A good bang for the buck.
4. Radeon 3850 256MB for $150- Core Speed MHz: 670, Memory Speed: 833 MHz, DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.0.
   This card at only $150 is a steal, it provides the performance of a high-end graphics card for the price of a lower-end graphics card. It delivers Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB performance for at least $100 less than the going price. This is the card to buy if you’re looking for the absolute best performance per dollar.
5. Radeon 3850 512MB for $170- Core Speed: 670 MHz, Memory Speed: 833 MHz (1666 effective), DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.0.
   By getting the 512MB version of the Radeon 3850 you can expect to see performance gains in the higher resolution area, as well as being able to use ultra-high texture quality settings, and its a good opponent for the 256mb version of the 8800 GT that is limited by its lower amount of memory.
6. GeForce 9600 GT 512MB for $150-$200- Core Speed: 650 MHz, Memory Speed 900 MHz (1800 effective), DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0.
   The 9600 GT is Nvidia’s response to the Radeon 3800 GPU. It comes in several different versions and variety that are customized by each particular manufacturer. You can get a superclocked version of the card that will give you an improved core speed of 675 MHz for only $180. Good for high resolution gaming under $200.
7. Radeon 3870 for $180- Core Speed: 775 MHz, Memory Speed: 1125 MHz, DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.0.
   The Radeon 3870 is an extremely powerful card for only $180. Nvidia’s 9600GT forced Radeon to drop their prices on the 3870, this is an incredible high resolution powerhouse gaming solution for under $200.

This is a good list to always refer back to when buying affordable graphics cards.

The Geforce 9800 GTX is a beast in the graphics card arena. It boasts a core clock speed of 675 MHz, memory clock speed of 1100 MHz, and a shader clock speed of 1688 MHz. The 9800 GTX also has 512MB of GDDR3 memory with a 256-bit interface. It also contains 128 cores that are running at a record high of 1688 MHz. This is Nvidia’s most powerful GeForce 9800 graphics card to date. You can even put the Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX in a dual SLI configuration for up to as 2x boost in performance, and if that’s not enough you can triple it up with a 3-way SLI configuration to get up to a 2.8x boost in graphics card performance.

Over at HotHardware.com they put the Geforce 9800 GTX to the test with a GTX round-up featuring the BFG, EVGA, and Zogis versions of the 9800 GTX GPU, since they are all very similiar they were mainly comparing the GeForce 9800 GTX to its predecessors and it’s competitors as a whole. This statement sums up their testing:

“Performance Summary: Considering all we knew of the GeForce 9800 GTX going into this article, its performance was right in-line with our expectations. The GeForce 9800 GTX is marginally more powerful than the GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB and was faster than the GTS in every game we tested to some degree. The new GeForce 9800 GTX was also faster than the older GeForce 8800 GTX most of the time, but the battle was very close in UT3 and the 8800 GTX pulled ahead in ET: Quake Wars. And the dual-GPU powered Radeon HD 38070 X2 and GeForce 9800 GTX traded victories in our tests, but the X2 was the faster card more often than not. Traditional two card and 3-way GeForce 9800 GTX SLI configurations also showed good scaling in the games we used for testing, typically finishing at, or near the top of the charts.”

The Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX is the fastest single-GPU card, offers PureVideo HD, provides good power consumption along with hybrid power support, and a quiet cooler all for a competitive price.

SANTA CLARA, CA—FEBRUARY 21, 2008—NVIDIA® Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, has unveiled the first graphics processing unit (GPU) of its next-generation GeForce® 9 Series that may offer the largest single-generation performance jump in the Company’s history. Introduced today, the NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT GPU delivers up to 116% more performance than its predecessor at a price below $199.

“After going to all the GeForce LANs and seeing the rigs that gamers play on, we wanted to kick off the GeForce 9 with the perfect GPU for gamers,” said Ujesh Desai, general manager of GeForce desktop GPUs at NVIDIA. “The first product to be introduced in the GeForce 9 family gives gamers the horsepower to play cutting-edge DirectX 10 games at a price they will love and can afford.”

A point has been reached in PC gaming where the graphics horsepower requirements to play popular games such as Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3 at high-definition resolutions such as 1900×1200 and above, with high-image-quality features enabled, may have outpaced a lot of the installed hardware. Until now, graphics processors capable of delivering playable frame rates at those stressful settings have cost in excess of $400. With the GeForce 9600 GT GPU, immersive gaming with incredible graphics is now within the reach and budget of PC gamers for less than $199.

“NVIDIA continues to innovate in hardware technology so that game enthusiasts and consumers can fully experience the incredible graphics offerings in Microsoft’s operating systems, including Windows Vista,” said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows, Microsoft. “The new GeForce 9600 GT GPU further extends NVIDIA’s ability to deliver improved DirectX 10 performance on Windows Vista at an affordable price point, so that anyone and everyone can have an amazing gaming experience.”

The new GeForce 9600 GT GPU shows an improved performance-per-watt ratio compared to its predecessor as well as improved compression efficiency. In addition to 64 stream processors—each individually clocked at a blazing-fast 1625 MHz—and a 256-bit memory interface running at 900 MHz, the GeForce 9600 GT GPU is designed for the new PCIe 2.0 bus standard and features backwards compatibility with the original PCIe standard.

The GeForce 9600 GT GPU also improves high-definition video playback on everyday PCs by leveraging NVIDIA PureVideo® HD technology to deliver high-quality playback of HD DVD and Blu-ray movies. The new programmable video-processing engine takes on all of the high-definition H.264 video decoding, freeing the CPU to perform other tasks, while significantly reducing power consumption, heat, and noise. Spectacular picture clarity and vibrant color is achieved with advanced video processing technology.

Reviews:
Tom’s Hardware 9600GT Review
Ars Technica 9600GT Review

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