Hey all,
 
My 9800gt Akimbo 512mb runs most things well.  I don't game real hard, and usually get fine framerates at 1680x1050 and mid-high general settings.  Arkham Asylum plays pretty great with no noticeable lag at any time.  Arkham City usually plays just as well, but at times it will slow to a crawl.  I realize the 9800gt is super old, so I want to upgrade.  I have played forever on OC'ing the q6600 and cannot get the thing past 3.0 without heat and stability both becoming issues so for now we can just assume I am stuck at 3.0.
 
A year or so ago when my 8800gt died I tried a 560 ti and a 460 (can't remember which one but don't think it was the SC).  Both of those cards gave me very bad framerates in GTA IV presumably because of the CPU bottleneck.  So I have been thinking of either the 460 gtx SuperClock or the 550 ti.  Money isn't an issue, but bottlenecking is.  I hate frame-rate drops worse than lack of AA and such.  Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Also, I OC'ed the 9800gt a little bit but that didnt seem to make much difference.  I took the clocks from 600/1500/900 to 700/1750/1050
 
Here's my specs
 
Board: evga 780i SLI
Card: evga 9800GT Akimbo 512mb
CPU: q6600@3.0ghz (cooler: @ntec 620 H2O)
Ram: 4gb DDR2@800mhz

if money isn't an issue then maybe sell all of the stuff (MB+CPU+MEM+GPU) you have and go with Z77 with IB and gtx 680
 
.. but if you want to stay with your setup, then maybe try a 570 (vanilla)? it worked pretty well for me on 790 setup with Q9450 (@ 3.6GHz though)...

Thanks for the reply! I have thought of relegating this to a LAN-party pc and going new like you said, maybe it's just time to do that.

Not to hijack my own thread here but before I buy new, I might as well push the q6600 one last time. I have read several guides including your own on temps. I am using real temp with my tj max at 90 for the g0 q6600 and at 1.5 vcore I'm stable so far for about 15 min. My distance to tj max is about 35 but it will likely settle around 20. Do you think it's ok to go to around 20 to max at 3.6?

Keep in mind since I'm so close to buying new I don't "really" care if this rig dies but I would rather it not :)

Update: prime finally crashed I might have to go into the red a bit above 1.5

Update2: it passed the first set of all tests on blend with temps maxing at 30 from tj, but then yeah when I ran the small series it got to 20 from max almost instantly. I'll try lowering voltage

I think that for Q6600 the "safe" vcore was up to 1.6 or something among those lines, those chips can stay on relatively higher volts (including VTT/FSB voltage past 1.4v easily) than their younger 45nm counterparts (much more sensitive).
 
there was an old overclocking guide for 65nm quads and duals and 780 boards, written by pwnzor if I remember correctly. you might want to look it up.
 
I wouldn't worry about temps up to 80C (10 to TJMax for your chip) at all if you are stress testing it only at such levels, however to make it shorter (and safer this way) I'd suggest using LinX doing short runs (e.g. 10,000-20,000 problem size) so it doesn't tax the whole memory which would be a waste of time, but rather makes focus on CPU stability and makes the runs pretty short (a 1-2 minutes each tops). 5 runs should be enough for initial stability testing. 10-20 runs would be solid, but if temps are a problem then you can skip it and just test it in games aka real life
 
or use the OCCT CPU test (not the linpack one) which is even milder as per temps and "rides" on only a fraction of memory while testing.

Awesome man thanks. I've had that old guide printed out in my drawer for ages :)

I do think that 3.6 may be possible now, I put dual fans push/pull on my radiator and that made a huge difference

Might go with the 570 after all

570 or 580 are very nice cards, run much cooler under load then 4xx series and are already DX11 which is a nice thing
 
also there was also a hardware mod for 780 SLI boards resulting in much less vdroop under load, look for 780 pencil mod, it could help you.
 
to lower temps further, keep the case open, turn the AC on, put some house fan blowing into intake, etc.
 
good luck!

If you are on air, don't go pass 1.5v
 
I had a Q6700, pushed it to 1.65v but I had it under water.
http://www.modsrigs.com/detail.aspx?BuildID=10630
 
Do not get the GTX 550Ti by the way, the GTX 460 is a good amount quicker.
 
As for the new PC, definitely have to agree with Feniks. I'd get something like this:
 
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131837
Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504
Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226302
Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121623
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130664
Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703027 

For that rig, I'd slap in a 560 Ti, and you'd notice a huge increase in gaming performance. BUT if you start a complete new build, then I'd buy a 680 (Used will be around soon for less).
 
Or if a 680 is too much, a 560 Ti Classified Ultra is amazing, basically on par with a 570, and rocks in gaming.

Well, the GTX 670 comes out tomorrow.