HD 7850 CPU Scaling

[Magic Carpet]

Thinking to build a cheap box for a friend. 7850 is going to be the GPU, but for now I am thinking to equip it with G550 cpu. It's got only 2 cores @ 2.6 Ghz.

He's going to play mostly BF3/Crysis 2/Mafia 2 single player. You reckon it should be enough to deliver him 40-60 FPS @ 1080p ?

Thanks.

 

[Durvelle27]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116775

Edit: how cheap

 

[Magic Carpet]

I'd like to know the difference. He's more than likely swap the chip to 3770 later in the year anyway.

is i3, really a worthy compromise?

 

[Durvelle27]

yes the i3 is just an amazing chip to be a dual core but that celeron will bottleneck the HD 7850

 

[Magic Carpet]

yes the i3 is just an amazing chip to be a dual core but that celeron will bottleneck the HD 7850

I am aware of that. But will it still maintain playable frame rates?

Of course, if you have an locked Intel SB or IV you could disable cores and downclock it to 2.6 and see how badly one ot those games does @ 1080, max details. Thanks

EDIT: @ $129.99 it doesn't look that sweet. Might as well shell out more for a true quad.

EDIT: Also, who is more CPU dependant, AMD or nVIDIA?

 

[Durvelle27]

AMD and Nvidia are about the same and yes it will have decent FPS since your @1920x1080 but not in BF3 mp

 

[Concillian]

i3-530 on ebay (~$70) + s1156 board from ebay (~$70) + decent HSF (~$25) + OC to 4GHz = cheap and better performance than any comparably priced current CPUs except possibly an overclocked AMD in heavily multithreaded games, but you'll take a hit in those that rely on solid single threaded performance.

Shutting down OCing in the low end chips for SB and IB has meant that the clarkdale i3s have been the best budget gaming CPU for like 3 years, and likely will continue to reign as king until Haswell or until AMD produces a CPU with significantly better single threaded performance.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Celeron G550 won't be enough for Battlefield 3. Just set my 2500K to 2 cores at 2.5 GHz and framerates frequently dipped into the 30s and 20s, plus there was some stuttering. Is it technically playable? Yes, yes it was, but it wasn't particularly enjoyable.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Celeron G550 won't be enough for Battlefield 3. Just set my 2500K to 2 cores at 2.5 GHz and framerates frequently dipped into the 30s and 20s, plus there was some stuttering. Is it technically playable? Yes, yes it was, but it wasn't particularly enjoyable.

Thanks for the input :thumbsup:

Might look into getting an IB i3 instead.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Celeron G550 won't be enough for Battlefield 3. Just set my 2500K to 2 cores at 2.5 GHz and framerates frequently dipped into the 30s and 20s, plus there was some stuttering. Is it technically playable? Yes, yes it was, but it wasn't particularly enjoyable.

I5 is strongly recommended.

 

[davmat787]

i3-530 on ebay (~$70) + s1156 board from ebay (~$70) + decent HSF (~$25) + OC to 4GHz = cheap and better performance than any comparably priced current CPUs except possibly an overclocked AMD in heavily multithreaded games, but you'll take a hit in those that rely on solid single threaded performance.

Shutting down OCing in the low end chips for SB and IB has meant that the clarkdale i3s have been the best budget gaming CPU for like 3 years, and likely will continue to reign as king until Haswell or until AMD produces a CPU with significantly better single threaded performance.

Not that the i3-530 isn't a great CPU, but going the LGA1156 route will severely hamper the future upgrade plans. If I understand the OP correctly, this current build is just a stop gap for a year until an I5-3770 can be purchased.

Personally, I would go with a G630 ($65) or G880 ($75), and put the saved cash towards the GPU or future upgrades.

Of course there is the Ivy Bridge based G2120 that can be had for under a hundred.

IIRC, these bench very closely to their I3 counterparts, for much less. I highly recommend you look at some benchmarks and see if the i3 is worth it over the Pentiums (they are not Celerons technically, but I understand why we call them that).

Remember, this CPU is just a stop gap for a year or so, and I assume the less he spends, the quicker he can upgrade to the 3770.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

A year or two isn't a stop gap. That is the life of a cpu

 

[bononos]

A year or two isn't a stop gap. That is the life of a cpu

Not for many people it isn't, even if they are gaming.
Your earlier post about getting an i5 is also overkill considering that the OP is talking about single player.

 

[jacktesterson]

I had a G530 and 5870 in a box for a while that surprisingly handled 1080p quite well. I was able to max out a lot of games. (single player)