7850 vs. 720 x3 for 9600GT

[Vicaar]

Thanks to the help from everyone in the other thread, my question has altered a little:

I currently have a 9600GT and A64 3000+. My upgrade will be either to an AMD 7850BE or _possibly_ an AMD 720 x3 BE. Because of budget limitations, the video card won't be upgraded anytime soon.

So given the 9600GT (at 1680x1050), is the $70 difference in cost between the 7850 and the 720 worth it? Or is that money better saved now in hopes of a video card upgrade "sooner"? The risk of course is that a cheaper CPU now means that I'd be CPU bottlenecked in the future with a new video card, whereas a 720 now means I'm GPU bottlenecked with the 9600GT...

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: Vicaar
Thanks to the help from everyone in the other thread, my question has altered a little:

I currently have a 9600GT and A64 3000+. My upgrade will be either to an AMD 7850BE or _possibly_ an AMD 720 x3 BE. Because of budget limitations, the video card won't be upgraded anytime soon.

So given the 9600GT, is the $70 difference in cost between the 7850 and the 720 worth it? Or is that money better saved now in hopes of a video card upgrade "sooner"? The risk of course is that a cheaper CPU now means that I'd be CPU bottlenecked in the future with a new video card, whereas a 720 now means I'm GPU bottlenecked with the 9600GT...

Go for the CPU.

I have an 8800GT, which is a fairly similar performer to the 9600GT. Going from an AMD X2 @ 3 Ghz to a Phenom 9850 (and subsequently an X3 710) resulted in a huge FPS increase in games running @ 1680x1050.

 

[seemingly random]

Make sure the mb can handle the new proc.

 

[Vicaar]

Ah, yes. It is the "BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail" that is all the current combo rage at newegg that will be the choice regardless of CPU, so should be covered there. And thanks to Flipped for the input, that was exactly the kind of info I was after. I welcome any other confirmations or denials of course, but sounds like the decision is certainly tipping a bit.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: Vicaar
Ah, yes. It is the "BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail" that is all the current combo rage at newegg that will be the choice regardless of CPU, so should be covered there. And thanks to Flipped for the input, that was exactly the kind of info I was after. I welcome any other confirmations or denials of course, but sounds like the decision is certainly tipping a bit.

Ok. It's odd that you would have 3000+ on it.

Although I don't have personal experience with the tri-cores, most people are very happy with them. The reviews indicate the tri's are more cost effective than the quad's. Curious.

 

[Vicaar]

Haha, no no. I'm not putting a 720 into the same motherboard as the 3000+ (that would be killer, but alas) Upgrading the motherboard too - just meant that the motherboard will be the same upgrade regardless of whether I go with the 720 or the 7850.

And to correct myself - I dropped the Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P into my basked on a whim, and it wiped out the shipping charges making it the same price as the Biostar combo. I'll be going with the Gigabyte instead!

 

[Sylvanas]

The biostar's a great board and by far an X3 >>>>>>>> 7850. The 7850 is basically an 'old' Phenom 1 65nm, doesn't overclock well, finicky and generally not a good buy. X3 by a mile. I had a 9950 (65nm) and it was a huge difference between that and my current P2 955 (45nm).

 

[Vicaar]

You also have dual 4870's

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: Vicaar
Thanks to the help from everyone in the other thread, my question has altered a little:

I currently have a 9600GT and A64 3000+. My upgrade will be either to an AMD 7850BE or _possibly_ an AMD 720 x3 BE. Because of budget limitations, the video card won't be upgraded anytime soon.

So given the 9600GT, is the $70 difference in cost between the 7850 and the 720 worth it? Or is that money better saved now in hopes of a video card upgrade "sooner"? The risk of course is that a cheaper CPU now means that I'd be CPU bottlenecked in the future with a new video card, whereas a 720 now means I'm GPU bottlenecked with the 9600GT...

Go for the CPU.

I have an 8800GT, which is a fairly similar performer to the 9600GT. Going from an AMD X2 @ 3 Ghz to a Phenom 9850 (and subsequently an X3 710) resulted in a huge FPS increase in games running @ 1680x1050.

Now you have me interested. Do you have any data that compares all three processors and what games are you talking about? I'd like to see them

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Now you have me interested. Do you have any data that compares all three processors and what games are you talking about? I'd like to see them

I'll bet it's going to be difficult to find benches comparing a single-core 3000+ to a 7850 to an X3 720.

But in most games the 3000 -> 7850 would be an enormous jump (most support and majorly benefit from two cores versus one - plus the drastic clockspeed difference). And in many games the move from 7850 -> X3 720 would also be dramatic also due to the architecture change and the third core.

Remember that the 7850 is nothing but a dual-core PhI chip. And remember how craptastic the PhI architecture is for gaming.