Buying a Sub-$500 GPU this Year? What CPU Are You Pairing it With?

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
14,612
318
126
I am curious what CPUs people who are buying or have recently bought sub-$500 GPUs are pairing those GPUs with. Sub-$500 is for a reason, to represent you being a midrange GPU shopper or lower.
 

Headfoot

Diamond Member
Feb 28, 2008
4,444
641
126
Semi recently (6 mo) added a second 290 I got for $200 used to my rig below (5820k @ 4.44 w/ ddr4-3200)
 

Kenmitch

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
8,505
2,248
136
Got me a Zotac GTX 1070 Amp being delivered today. Pairing it with a 4790k @ 4.4GHz.

I might try it in my son's old rig too see how it works with a i5. Think it has a 3570.
 
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mohit9206

Golden Member
Jul 2, 2013
1,381
511
136
Paired my GT730 1gb gddr5 which i bought 4 months ago with my 4 year old Pentium G630. Seems like a match made in heaven.
 

bfun_x1

Senior member
May 29, 2015
475
155
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Have an i5 3570k and 780 Classified. Will be choosing between a 480 AIB ~1.5Mhz, 1070 or Vega.
 

Zstream

Diamond Member
Oct 24, 2005
3,396
277
136
I am curious what CPUs people who are buying or have recently bought sub-$500 GPUs are pairing those GPUs with. Sub-$500 is for a reason, to represent you being a midrange GPU shopper or lower.

Xeon V3-1231 & r480 - Best bang for the buck duo I could find.
 

monkeydelmagico

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2011
3,961
145
106
I just picked up a 980ti to go with my 4690k. My son gave me Witcher 3 for my Bday and my 780 struggles a bit at 1440 resolution. Gave me a good excuse to go shopping for a new card! Since there were no 1070's for under $400.- I picked up the zotac 980ti amp! omega that is on sale for $399.- at the egg. Seemed like a good price to me and should push the pixels faster.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
126
I got my 980ti last year which was over $500, but I paired it with my old i5-2500. I'd only gain around 20% by spending $600 on a modern i7 and would need to install the new motherboard. I keep waiting and waiting for intel to offer a real performance jump in desktop CPUs.

So I'd say if you have an i5 or i7 now, just keep using it. If you really do need a new CPU then an i7 if you don't mind spending the money, an i5 if you want to stay low-to-mid budget.
 

MustISO

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,928
12
81
Not a huge gamer anymore but would like either the 1060 or 1070 to go with my i7 4790K. Currently have a very old AMD card.
 

Midwayman

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2000
5,723
325
126
2600k @ 4.4. Always in the sub $500 range for a gpu. Kinda waiting for Vega though as my r9 290 is pretty good still. @ 1080p you still want a good cpu to push enough frames for ULMB to work well.
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,323
4,904
136
6700K @ 4.5 GHz w/DDR4-3400

I lost the silicon lottery on my 3570K, which motivated me to replace it earlier than I intended.
 

sirmo

Golden Member
Oct 10, 2011
1,012
384
136
rx480 as a stop gap, fun OC project.. on 4770K.. hopefully the last Intel CPU for awhile..

Waiting for Zen + Vega
 

MTDEW

Diamond Member
Oct 31, 1999
4,284
37
91
My current plan is...
My next ~$500 GPU will go in my 6700k / 16gb DDR4 3000 /Catleap 1440p IPS rig.
My current 390x will then go into my 2600k / 16gb DDR3 2133 / 1080p 144hz Freesync rig.
And my R9 290 Tri-x will go to the wife and her 2500k / 16gb DDR3 1600 / 1080p rig.

I may finally fully retire my old i7 920 DO/12gb DDR3 1600 / HD 7950 rig from use and just keep it around as backup "just in case" I ever need it. (or maybe use it as an HTPC...who knows...its been just sitting here collecting dust anyway)
 

YBS1

Golden Member
May 14, 2000
1,945
129
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I'm going to buy something sub-$500 for my 6700K soon. The MSI GTX1070 Seahawk EK was briefly in stock at NewEgg today (though it's over $500 but it still counts as it has an EK waterblock which pushes it above that range) and I about clicked the buy button on that until I had the foresight to swipe through the pictures. Good thing I did as this thing is much, much wider than a reference 1070, no way it would fit into an nCase M1. So I guess right now I'm waiting for......
1) Gigabyte (or other) mini-ITX 1070, best performance of those I'm considering, but most expensive. Bonus: tiny so it saves space.
2) GTX 1060 of some form
3) Fury X or Nano...I'll go this route if they hit ~$325 before I get one of the other options. I can't justify paying more than this for one of these considering performance relative to the 1070 and if I was to get the "X" it would also require an additional purchase of a waterblock as I have no place for it's AIO.
4) Custom RX 480 depending upon how it does relative to the 1060.

It's likely that I will put a full waterblock on whatever I get but the AIO on the Fury X is a knock as I would have to buy one for it, with any of the others I could wing it temporarily or just end up deciding not to extend the loop to them.
 

ozzy702

Golden Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,151
530
136
I just built a new system after selling my old box. i7-6700k @ 4.4ghz and an MSI Gaming X 1070. I really wanted to go with AMD this time around but they won't have anything powerful enough until 2017 so green again it is for me.
 

mjdupuis

Member
Apr 14, 2015
55
10
81
4690k paired with a 290 which I recently sold to make room for a 1070 or AIB 480. I'll decide after I see some reviews on OC 480's.
The 4690k daily driver overclock is 4.3GHz.
 

MTDEW

Diamond Member
Oct 31, 1999
4,284
37
91
I just built a new system after selling my old box. i7-6700k @ 4.4ghz and an MSI Gaming X 1070. I really wanted to go with AMD this time around but they won't have anything powerful enough until 2017 so green again it is for me.
Yeah AMD is making the ~$500 price point/performance a one-sided choice, Ive been eying 1070's myself. (that's actually why i replied to this thread)

Not sure how long I'll be able to hold out, if the rumors are true and AMD isn't even going to try and compete for another 9 months, i see a 1070 in my future too.
 

deanx0r

Senior member
Oct 1, 2002
890
20
76
I currently have a GTX 970 G1 paired with a 4790k @ 4.4GHz. I want to move to Freesync, so I am waiting for AMD to release a card that will compete with the GTX 1070 or higher. I was going to jump on the RX480 as a stop gap until Vega, but that card really disappointed.

My next card must have Titan (Maxwell) class performance at the minimum to handle 1440p with ease, 8GB of VRAM and an AIO cooler like the Fury X due to my ITX case limitation.

I already held out once when the HD7970 was launched due to the small improvement over my HD6970. I held out again when the R9 290 launched because the stock cooler was a hot mess (I went GTX970 instead). I cant say I will be surprised if they miss the mark again, and at this rate I'll be probably buying NVIDIA again if AMD does not deliver.
 

jhu

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
11,918
9
81
I have an RX480 with an FX8350. Runs Witcher 3 on Ultra really well.
 

Hi-Fi Man

Senior member
Oct 19, 2013
601
120
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MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1070 flashed with Gaming X OC firmware overclocked to ~2.1GHz and paired with an i7 5775C overclocked to 4.2GHz.