cheapest cpu that wont bottleneck a 7970

[Sohaltang]

Long story short. Building my kid a PC. Looking at microcenter tp find the best cpu/mb combo thats not $$ and wont bottleneck a 7970 oc. CPU OC is cool. Just dont wanna pay 300-400 for 3770k or 4770k setup.

 

[Face2Face]

There is a bundle for $260 with a 4670K and MSI Mobo -

http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/intel-processor-bundles.aspx

 

[crashtech]

Check this out:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6934/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-single-multigpu-at-1440p

At high resolutions, single card systems are GPU limited and CPU is not that important. It's food for thought, but most of us game at a lower res, like 1080. In the end, I would say the sweet spot is the Intel quad core, 2500K, 3570K, 4670K. Pretty hard to go wrong with any of those.

 

[Yuriman]

FX6300 is also not a bad choice if you can find a screaming deal.

 

[crashtech]

The article gives a startlingly low recommendation for single-card setups, yet at lower resolutions and with many newer games not tested, most graphs swing heavily in favor of quad core and up Intel chips. But I'm not saying anything almost everybody doesn't know already. I guess we should ask: What is the budget, anyway?

 

[Stuka87]

An FX8320 or something can be had for $150. And their are deals with mobo' for pretty cheap. Certainly cheaper than an Intel. The Intel will be a bit faster in some games, but for the most part most games are identical. AMD mobo's are also cheaper, so you can save money there as well.

So if you really want a lower cost solution, I would advise going AMD. Any game that is multi-threaded will run nearly identical on either one. Only games that are living in last decade (SC2 for instance) will be noticeably faster on an Intel.

 

[Sohaltang]

Budget about 700 $. He will be gaming on his plasma @1080. I have RAM and dvd drive. Also have a 965BE that was my cpu. Seen several threads ask about new GPUs with the 965be and most replies are buy a new cpu first.

Have microcenter and frys local to me.

 

[SPBHM]

overclocked i5 or i7... it's a $350 VGA, why save $50 for a CPU?
take a look on CPU bound gaming tests, like the ones from "gameGPU" or this,

in some games it makes a good difference, and you can save money buying cheaper MBs and ram, before saving on the CPU.

 

[Stuka87]

What version of the 965BE?

I have a later one (C3 stepping) running at 4GHz and it plays just about everything perfectly. Only game that suffers really is BF3 on large 64 player maps. Will drop into the upper 40's now and then.

You can buy a current gen AM3+ mobo that supports FX processors. Drop in the 965BE for now. And then upgrade it later when you can.

 

[Sohaltang]

Would be nice if I could save a little, donate him my 7970 and buy myself a 770.

 

[Face2Face]

Would be nice if I could save a little, donate him my 7970 and buy myself a 770.

At your current 7970 clocks you would not see much of an improvement, even if the GTX 770 was overclocked.

Budget about 700 $. He will be gaming on his plasma @1080. I have RAM and dvd drive. Also have a 965BE that was my cpu. Seen several threads ask about new GPUs with the 965be and most replies are buy a new cpu first.

Have you overclocked the 965 yet? I came from a 960T @ 4.0Ghz and still think a 4.0Ghz Phenom II is still a serviceable CPU for a single gpu @ 1080p. Also, if the motherboard supports AM3+ then a FX 8320 would be your best bet.

 

[Sohaltang]

At your current 7970 clocks you would not see much of an improvement, even if the GTX 770 was overclocked.



Have you overclocked the 965 yet? I came from a 960T @ 4.0Ghz and still think a 4.0Ghz Phenom II is still a serviceable CPU for a single gpu @ 1080p. Also, if the motherboard supports AM3+ then a FX 8320 would be your best bet.

Either way I have to get him a GPU. Guess I could save a little and get him a 7950.

Yes I did OC the 965BE to 4GHZ a looong time ago when it was released. There was an unintentional spill on that machine a couple months back and it prompted the rebuild/build of the rig in my sig below. I dont constantly upgrade PC's and hope to get a year or two out of them and then major upgrade (some say thats the noob way). The 965 is an option but its already a pretty old CPU. Plus if I buy a CPU at microcenter they give you 40$ off a MB. If I go AMD that 40$ is a huge chuck of buying a new chip.

 

[crashtech]

Budget about 700 $. He will be gaming on his plasma @1080. I have RAM and dvd drive. Also have a 965BE that was my cpu. Seen several threads ask about new GPUs with the 965be and most replies are buy a new cpu first.

Have microcenter and frys local to me.

I think with that budget and the parts you have, at microcenter you might even squeeze in an i7 if you wanted to. The 4670K deal listed above sounds right to me, add case, PSU, and HSF and that's it, right? $700 is way plenty for that.

The 4670K is probably overkill, but it will remain useful/salable for a longer while than cheaper options.

 

[Stuka87]

Either way I have to get him a GPU. Guess I could save a little and get him a 7950.

Yes I did OC the 965BE to 4GHZ a looong time ago when it was released. There was an unintentional spill on that machine a couple months back and it prompted the rebuild/build of the rig in my sig below. I dont constantly upgrade PC's and hope to get a year or two out of them and then major upgrade (some say thats the noob way). The 965 is an option but its already a pretty old CPU. Plus if I buy a CPU at microcenter they give you 40$ off a MB. If I go AMD that 40$ is a huge chuck of buying a new chip.

If you don't want to use the 965, then go for the 8320. Its priced well, mobo's are cheaper, and with $40 off, you get a pretty good deal.

Oh, and an OC'ed 7950 performs slightly better than a stock 7970.

 

[Face2Face]

So....

8320 or 4670K ?

7950 or 7970 ?

7950 is 5-7% slower clock for clock vs. 7970

 

[tweakboy]

I say 3770k

gl

 

[24601]

2500k/3570k/4670k
760

This will be the perfect combo unless this "kid" of yours is more than 10 years old :O

 

[lehtv]

Since you have MC close to you, get a 4670K + MSI G41 combo deal. It is less likely to bottleneck than FX series due to a much higher performance per core (most games being still 4 or less threads, and even those that utilize more don't do so under all in-game circumstances).

On your budget, 7950 makes more sense to me.

Sapphire 7950 3GB $257 AR shipped

Much better bang for buck than the cheapest 7970 which is over $100 more expensive. The 7950 typically overclocks easily, you can just set +20% power state and core clock to 1000MHz, and there you have 7970 stock performance. Many 7950's overclock to 1050-1150 MHz, the 1GHz OC is just a foolproof no fuss OC.

 

[FalseChristian]

I'm an Intel and nVidia guy but I think you should get an AMD FX 8350 and overclock it to 4.5GHz and get 2 7950 for Crossfire. I'm an SLI guy and recently purchased 2 eVGA GTX 760 2GB for SLI. The money you save going with AMD will allow you to get a second 7950. You won't regret it, trust me.

 

[Sohaltang]

I'm an Intel and nVidia guy but I think you should get an AMD FX 8350 and overclock it to 4.5GHz and get 2 7950 for Crossfire. I'm an SLI guy and recently purchased 2 eVGA GTX 760 2GB for SLI. The money you save going with AMD will allow you to get a second 7950. You won't regret it, trust me.

I like how you think. With the microcenter undercutting price the 8350 combo is only 40$ cheaper than the 4670k combo.