Hey guys,

Now firstly I may be completely wrong when it comes to what the problem is so just to be sure this is what is happening: Recently I've noticed that performance is decreasing when I have SLI turned on (I have 2 8800gt's), so I thought maybe it was some kind of driver problem (and I might do some checking to be sure about that). Because for example in BF3 I'd get like 20-25 fps with it on and 25-30 fps with it off. On trackmania if I have it on the game seems really laggy and jittery and with it off it seems smooth. Then in my desperation to improve performance I tried doing a little bit of driver based overclocking of the gpu's with sli on and it brought my fps in BF3 to 8. So with my limited knowledge of PC hardware I figured it must be the CPU bottle necking the GPU.. right? My cpu is a q6600 at the stock 2.4ghz, I overclocked it for a short while a long time ago but its pretty much been running normally since I got it many years ago. I have a decent heatsink but it seems like the CPU is just getting old or something. Take note I am using an old crappy ide hardrive to run games off I'm not sure how much that actually effects fps though if at all. I have 8gb of ram. If you need any other info about my pc just ask.

I really cannot be bothered with doing a full upgrade or upgrading a combination of more than 1 thing because I can't afford it. I'd like to get away with 1 quick fix for this so I can get another year or 2 out of my PC then I will actually do a full upgrade. If simply upgrading my CPU could magically bring my fps in bf3 to like 40-50 when I'm aiming down my gun sights I'd be very happy. So if the problem is without any doubt the CPU, I'd like some advice on what one I should buy. The goal is to get a CPU that will perform better then an old q6600 therefore should correctly compliment the 2 8800gt's in SLI.

This is the CPU support list for my ancient motherboard: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5NE_SLI/#CPUS

Something like a Core 2 Duo E8600 for $170 on ebay? How risky is buying a second hand CPU off ebay if its from a reliable seller?

q6600 is a old processor but it's still decent enough for todays tasks.

I doubt it's your processor bottle necking your GPUs. You did mention an IDE HDD, that might bring down your minimum fps.

Perhaps your rig isn't getting enough power anymore, what brand and what wattage power supply do you have?

I think its a 650W altec psu but its not as old as the rest of the pc.

So you think its more likely the GPUs aren't getting enough power rather then the CPU bottlenecking them? I wasn't sure if CPUs like wear out but you are saying PSUs wear out even more lol? Remember I don't think I was having this problem with SLI a year or 2 ago and it was the same setup as now.

Something is definitely negavtively effecting the GPUs because I'm pretty sure the GPUs themselves are fine (ill try check that out as well). I just need to know what so I can replace it.

what revision do you have G0 or B3?, either way you should really have it overclocked to at least 3GHz.

^^^^^^^ major problem right here

PSU's do wear out over time, specially if they're cheap power supplys. I've never heard of altec, but 650w should be enough.

If your setup was fine years ago then it wouldn't be bottle necking now would it? Anyway try push your CPU to 3.0ghz and play some BF, then report back with results.

Also I think it's time to get a SATA HDD.

BTW I wouldn't buy a second hand CPU.

gtx570 time or 560 at least would be a massive improvement.

pretty sure its a motherboard problem if you are having graphic performance issues (SLI problem)

update mobo and BIOS you're cpu should be handling it all fine tbh but could use an upgrade as well but as you said you cant afford it :/

The motherboard is really crappy and I've had problems with it in the past but I don't see how that could have effected this issue after such a long time.

I have a sata hdd but because I've had some problems with that one I chose to run windows off the ide one. I think bf3 just automatically installed on the ide hdd so ill try reinstall it on the sata one.

Like 500 years ago I remember overclocking my cpu to 3ghz but it was unstable, so either I did it wrong or ill just put it to 2.8. With overclocking I do it slowly right, like bit by bit not all at once? And do you guys really think I should OC it since I've had it for 4 years and used it heaps so isn't it a bit too late? Do CPU's wear out over time or not?

you could have a B3 revision (they were not as good for overclocking)

www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

check here, I've had my Q6600 @ 3.95GHz since I got it back in 2007..

I'm going to try playing off the other hdd, try other drivers, try swapping my cards around, then ill try overclocking. Ill probably just put it to 2.6 then ill try 2.8, I don't want to risk ******* it up like I almost did all those years ago even though I probably just made some stupid mistake. I remember thinking the problem was that motherboard is just terrible for overclocking or something because the cpu revision is G0.

Ill report back later tonight... thanks for the help guys I was too stupid to think of overclocking as a solution lol.

if you can find something like an i7 920, and mabey a gtx 560

would be a cheap overhaul

edit. you wanted it for ur old mobo..

i dunno what now

G0 is the good one, you can get 3GHz by upping the FSB and volts to like 1.35v and it should be stable. reason it prob wasnt good back then cause of ram, fsb is linked to ram so your overclocking both at the same time. you use the ram divider to bring the ram back to stock speed.

this is from my other pc - http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2162797 on stock air cooling.. no problems

Your only real upgrade path with your current gear.

Cpu is fine (overclock it) ,
Invest in a Geforce 560 Ti
Look into getting a 1 or 2 TB sata hdd with a cheap ssd.

Edited once, 24/12/11 - 7:00pm.

+1, one of those paired with the boosted q6600 would be sweet providing he gets a better OS drive lol.

I overclocked my cpu a little bit and I couldn't really see any difference, but I didn't really overclock that much since I get boot failures which is probably due to the motherboard being ******ed as usual. I'm trying out a few more things atm but I think ill just reformat my sata hdd and put a fresh install of windows on it + bf3 and nothing else. I would have been using that hdd originally but it screwed up once so I wasn't comfortable running windows off it but now I'm just curious to see what will happen. If using a fresh format on a better hdd doesn't fix this then somehow its the motherboard causing the problem....