Launched over a decade agone, the 65nm Core two Farthermost QX6700 was Intel'southward first quad-cadre desktop processor. Though its ridiculous request price of $one,000 ensured few would take the plunge, even with four unlocked cores operating at 2.67GHz, it was the fastest CPU money could buy back in 2006.

Fortunately, it was only a few months later when enthusiasts were blessed with the Core ii Quad Q6600, another Kentsfield-based quad-core scrap that sold for a less absurd $530.

Although the part was locked at a frequency of 2.4GHz, nosotros were still able to overclock via the front side bus back and so, allowing u.s.a. to boost the Q6600 from its stock 2.4GHz operating frequency to well over 3GHz! By no surprise, information technology quickly became one of Intel'southward most popular enthusiast-grade processors of all fourth dimension.

Released almost 10 years ago, we thought it would be interesting to see how the Q6600 holds upward in 2022 while playing today's games on modern GPUs. In other words, what would happen if you paired a trusty old PC with a GeForce GTX 1060 or GTX 1070.

We'll also throw in a Haswell dual-cadre Pentium, a Skylake Cadre i3, a Sandy Span Core i5 and the mighty Core i7-6700K. All CPUs volition exist benchmarked using the ii Pascal graphics processors to plant some comparisons.

Quite a load is going to exist placed on these aging processors as we exam some of the nigh CPU-intensive games released in the last year to see if the Q6600 can cope with such a burden.

Test System Specs

Benchmarks: Battlefield ane, Overwatch

The Core 2 Quad Q6600 really struggled in Battlefield ane, delivering only 26fps on boilerplate at 1080p with the GeForce GTX 1060 handling the rendering. Worse still, stuttering was a massive consequence and we often saw the average frame charge per unit cut in one-half as the arrangement halted. Even overclocking the Q6600 to 3.1GHz didn't get it out of problem as minimum frame rates still dipped into the teens.

Intel's fourth-generation budget Pentium processor did a better job, though it wasn't exactly smooth either. Withal, the now half-dozen-year-old Core i5-2500K kept its cool, delivering slightly better operation than the Skylake Core i3-6100 processor. With an average of 69fps and a minimum of 58fps nosotros were quite impressed with the 2500K and when paired with the mid-range GTX 1060, it wasn't a great deal slower than the 6700K.

Jumping up to the GeForce GTX 1070 allowed the 6700K to distance itself from the 2500K. That said, the 2500K was at present noticeably amend than Core i3-6100 when comparing the minimum frame rates. Once more, the Pentium G3470 was able to brush aside the Core 2 Quad Q6600, at to the lowest degree when comparing the minimum frame rates. Once again the Q6600 was unable to provide playable performance, even with the GTX 1070, due to excessive stuttering.

Our Overwatch criterion is a 'bot exam' with 2 teams maxed out using bots. This is a rather CPU-intensive test that uses all eight threads of the 6700K. Every bit a effect, the Q6600 once again suffers massive frame dips with the GeForce GTX 1060. The regularity of the frame stuttering isn't actually as severe as what was seen in Battlefield i, despite beingness greater in relation of the average frame charge per unit. Even so, using the ultra-quality settings at 1080p the Q6600 wouldn't allow the GTX 1060 to deliver playable operation.

Increasing the rendering power with the GTX 1070 didn't improve performance when using the Core 2 Quad Q6600, the same unplayable operation was experienced. The Pentium G3470 on the other hand was able to deliver 60fps and simply occasionally we did notice any kind of stuttering, simply information technology was minor.