Question Help me pair CPU's with gaming GPU's

[jamesdsimone]

I am wondering about good GPU matches for the following CPU's.

i7-4790/2x8gb DDR3 PC1333
i7-6700/2x16gb DDR3 PC2133
E5-2695v2/2x16gb DDR3 not sure speed
W-2145/4x16gb DDR4 PC2666

​

 

[MrTeal]

Are you choosing just one of these systems? That W-2145 at 8 core 16 thread and 4.3GHz all core is going to be basically the same a stock i7-7820X and will be ahead of a i7-6700. The E5-2695v2 Ivy system is going to be really limited by the clock speed and lack of overclocking.

The Xeon is good for really anything you want to throw at it within reason. Even a 3080 class GPU is fine.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Nope all of them. Just a bunch of projects I decided to take on. I not sure I'm going to add a card to all of them but wanted to know what would be good fits if I do. I'll probably give the i7-4790 to a friend and if he wants to add the card I can give him the recommendation. The rest not sure what I'll do with them.

 

[MrTeal]

I'd honestly just look for deals and then figure out the pairing then, really. Most of the systems don't have a huge amount of value anyway and the GPU will probably be as much as the rest of the system. The Haswell and Ivy systems would probably be great with something like an off mining RX 580/1660S or Ti. You could go higher with the Skylake ones, but if you can find some miner to sell you four 580 8GB's for <$200 that wouldn't be terrible balance for a system either.

 

[jamesdsimone]

RX 580 are pretty cheap these days that would be good for the i7-4790. I have to move the hard drive cage first but that is not a big deal. The W-2145 is the most interesting of the 4 CPU's.

 

[psolord]

I am wondering about good GPU matches for the following CPU's.

i7-4790/2x8gb DDR3 PC1333
i7-6700/2x16gb DDR3 PC2133
E5-2695v2/2x16gb DDR3 not sure speed
W-2145/4x16gb DDR4 PC2666

​

What kind of good matches? For what purpose? Do you want to drive a 1080p/60 panel, a 4k 60/120 panel, are there media decoding/encoding requirements? What about gaming?

 

[jamesdsimone]

What kind of good matches? For what purpose? Do you want to drive a 1080p/60 panel, a 4k 60/120 panel, are there media decoding/encoding requirements? What about gaming?

Gaming mostly on 4k but usually don't go over 1080p. Would need it to play 4k video too but CPU's are probably fast enough for that.

 

[blckgrffn]

New or used?

New, I would be looking for any 6600 left but 7600 or 3060 or 4060. PCIe bus width is likely fine in all cases in the real world, and all of them will be useful when a newer W11 CPU shows up late next year. If you are going to pivot to Linux at that point, I'd prefer AMD. Otherwise, its all pretty similar with a small nvidia premium as always.

Used? 2060/1660/6600 would all be cards I would consider.

All of these are great 1080p choices imo.

 

[psolord]

Gaming mostly on 4k but usually don't go over 1080p. Would need it to play 4k video too but CPU's are probably fast enough for that.

You mean gaming on a 4k panel, but you will be using mostly 1080p resolution? Will this be a monitor close to you, or a tv set, 2-3 meters away? Details matter.

Ok so regarding your op:

I am wondering about good GPU matches for the following CPU's.

i7-4790/2x8gb DDR3 PC1333
i7-6700/2x16gb DDR3 PC2133
E5-2695v2/2x16gb DDR3 not sure speed
W-2145/4x16gb DDR4 PC2666

First things first, the e5-2695v2 may not have AVX2 support. From what I gathered, the V2 Ivy's EP do not have AVX2, while the V4 do have it.

Here is shown the 2697v2 not having AVX2

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 - CM8063501288843 / BX80635E52697V2

Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 server CPU: latest news, detailed specifications, side by side comparison, FAQ, pictures and more from CPU-World

www.cpu-world.com

And here the 2695v4 does have it.

Xeon E5-2695 v4 - Intel - WikiChip

The Xeon E5-2695 v4 is a 64-bit octadeca-core x86 microprocessor introduced by Intel in 2016. This server MPU is designed for segment-optimized 2S environments (1U Square form factors). Operating at 2.1 GHz with a turbo boost frequency of 3.3 GHz for a single active core, this MPU has a TDP of...

en.wikichip.org

I am mentioning this, because there is a very irritating trend lately, with game requiring AVX2 to even run. It started with UNCHARTED Legacy of Thieves Collection, but the devs took it back. The game now runs fine on non AVX2 cpus. It even managed a mostly smooth gameplay, on my ancient 2500k sandy bridge.

This is not the case however, for newer games, like Avatar and Alan Wake 2 and I think The Crew 2 (or was it moterfest) too.

So you may want to move that system as a last choice, for your main gaming system. The rest of them are AVX2 capable, so you are fine on that front. However they are all old cpus and you will face cpu limits in current games, like Jedi Survivor or Starfield.

I mean your 8/16 skylake w2145, should be damn fine for 97% of the games out there and it should be your main gaming system, but still you will get some framedrops here and there (having a 60fps target in mind).

Your next best system is the 6700 one, then the 4790 one and last the 2695 one, despite its 12/24 cores. Games need strong single thread performance first and foremost and then something like 4/8 or 6/12 with strong cores / high ipc / low latency.

I have made a collection of the latest gamegpu cpu benchmarks, starting Q4/2023 and I will be updating it.

imgbox - fast, simple image host

Use imgbox to upload, host and share all your images. It's simple, free and blazing fast!

imgbox.com

You will see that a mere 4/8 12100f, is faster than the 12/24 3900X, because that how games work.

That being said, the best course of action, would be to sell all these old systems, and accumulate their monetary power, in one single system. Don't get me wrong, I have old systems too and I love them, but I keep the for testing. If you are on a similar path, then OK, proceed as things are now. But if you just want one good system, then gather all their power into one.

Now as for the matter at hand, the gpus that is, you can use anything really. I believe compatibility will not be an issue, although I do have a fear about these server systems. They are not made with gaming in mind. You never now...

Since you mentioned a mostly 1080p experience, but also a 4k panel, I'd advice to get an Nvidia card, to take advantage of dlss at its performance setting, whenever available. If you use 4k/dlss performance, the game will be rendering at 1080p internally. Of course it will not be the same as native 4k, but if you play from a distance, the result will be quite good.

So you should should start from RTX 4060 and look up from there, depending on your budget. Also will you be getting cards for all these systems? What you plan, is not perfectly clear.

 

[Seba]

The best graphics card you can find (used) for under $50 each.

Not sure if even that is worth it for those configurations now.

 

[blckgrffn]

The best graphics card you can find (used) for under $50 each.

Not sure if even that is worth it for those configurations now.

Ha, I just sold a GTX 980TI on the FS/FT forums here for $50. That would have been a solid match with enough PSU

 

[jamesdsimone]

Yes TV probably about 6 feet away. I know the E5-2695v2 is not ideal for gaming so I've decided to use the E5-2695v2 as a replacement for my trusty old Phenom II 980 which struggles with 4k video. I'll use it as my "work" computer and it will probably do well with Handbrake. So don't need a video card for that unless I need more vram. I have a Quadro k2000 in the i7-6700 I could use. After taking a hammer and several other tools to the hard drive cage, I shoe horned an old 7970 into the Optiplex 9020 MT with the i7-4790. I'm probably going to give that to a friend and let him worry about upgrading the video card. I'm not really that concerned with AVX2 because I'll be playing older games to start out but the W-2145 does support it. That's looks like a great gaming CPU since it boasts to 4.5Ghz. I searched for cheap Lenovo workstations and there are loads of W-2135's and lower but W-2145's are rare probably because they are still plenty fast. So the W-2145 is going to be my "new" gaming system. I already have an RX6800XT so that will go into that system. I bought it to upgrade the video card for my old FX8350 but it didn't get along with the motherboard so I pulled it.

 

[MrTeal]

The Quadro K2000 is a really bad gaming card, it's basically a lower clocked GTX 650 and that was a slow card even when it was released a dozen years ago. Your 7970 is going to be several times faster than that. Even something like a GTX950 is going to be a couple times faster.
Other than that, it all sounds pretty good.

 

[jamesdsimone]

The Quadro K2000 is a really bad gaming card, it's basically a lower clocked GTX 650 and that was a slow card even when it was released a dozen years ago. Your 7970 is going to be several times faster than that. Even something like a GTX950 is going to be a couple times faster.
Other than that, it all sounds pretty good.

The Quadro K2000 came with the HP i7-6700 Z240. If I use it in the E5-2695v2 it wouldn't be used for gaming at all. The only video task would be streaming and playing mp4's.

 

[jamesdsimone]

The Intel Haswell Refresh Review: Core i7-4790, i5-4690 and i3-4360 Tested

www.anandtech.com

Found this not sure if the 7970 or i7-4790 is the bottle neck.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

For old CPUs already on the struggle bus AMD is the best choice. Nvidia adds significantly more driver overhead. Paying more on top of that is adding insult to injury. ARC is a no go because the overhead is even worse, and it absolutely must have resizable bar support.

The 4790 can still play everything out there, the 7970 not so much. There is at least one game that won't start without at least a 4GB card. There will undoubtedly be more. The reduced resolution or upscaling puts more load on the old i7 too.

I also wouldn't pay more than pizza night money for Polaris. Could have seen action in both crypto booms, so who knows how much life the cards will have left when you get them. The performance per watt is terrible too.

I would keep an eye out for the 5500XT and 5600XT locally and in forums. Ebay prices are stupid bad. Between Ferengi and fees it's madness.

 

[jamesdsimone]

For old CPUs already on the struggle bus AMD is the best choice. Nvidia adds significantly more driver overhead. Paying more on top of that is adding insult to injury. ARC is a no go because the overhead is even worse, and it absolutely must have resizable bar support.

The 4790 can still play everything out there, the 7970 not so much. There is at least one game that won't start without at least a 4GB card. There will undoubtedly be more. The reduced resolution or upscaling puts more load on the old i7 too.

I also wouldn't pay more than pizza night money for Polaris. Could have seen action in both crypto booms, so who knows how much life the cards will have left when you get them. The performance per watt is terrible too.

I would keep an eye out for the 5500XT and 5600XT locally and in forums. Ebay prices are stupid bad. Between Ferengi and fees it's madness.

I know the 7970 will struggle with anything newer than 5 or 6 years but that's the best card I had laying around. It will run older games just fine to start. I'll give my friend suggestions for upgrading but leave it up to him how much money to spend. I've heard that Nvidia cards have more CPU overhead. I have used AMD cards for years because they have better price/performance.

 

[Shmee]

A good find on a used 5700XT may be a great option, should be able to find some for under $200 I would think. No RT support, but still a fast, powerful card, and should be supported longer than Polaris or Vega, do to being the first iteration of RDNA. Otherwise, look at RX 6600(XT) cards, new or used.

 

[jamesdsimone]

A good find on a used 5700XT may be a great option, should be able to find some for under $200 I would think. No RT support, but still a fast, powerful card, and should be supported longer than Polaris or Vega, do to being the first iteration of RDNA. Otherwise, look at RX 6600(XT) cards, new or used.

That is what I was going to suggest RX5500/6500XT low end, RX5600XT/RX5700 mid range and RX5700/6600XT high end depending on prices and his budget.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Scratch the 6500XT off the list for PCIe 3.0 systems. Performance can tank 30% or more, because it's only a X4 card and ends up bandwidth starved.

It makes me wonder what the hell is going on at AMD and Intel when their lowest budget cards are nerfed on ultra low budget systems. ARC sucks for old OEMs like yours' because it needs rebar, and the 6400 and 6500XT suck because they are 4X. SMDH.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Scratch the 6500XT off the list for PCIe 3.0 systems. Performance can tank 30% or more, because it's only a X4 card and ends up bandwidth starved.

It makes me wonder what the hell is going on at AMD and Intel when their lowest budget cards are nerfed on ultra low budget systems. ARC sucks for old OEMs like yours' because it needs rebar, and the 6400 and 6500XT suck because they are 4X. SMDH.

Good to know. Are the 5700/5700XT okay on PCIe 3.0?

 

[Shmee]

Good to know. Are the 5700/5700XT okay on PCIe 3.0?

Yes, they are fine generally. Though the GPU is much faster, you also get 16x PCIe lanes on the card, vs 4x.