Is the radeon 7850 too much for core i3 3250?

[Noo]

I'm just wondering if it's too much for the processor and I'm basically wasting money on a graphic card because I'm cpu limited.

It's the intel core i3 3250 3.5ghz with hyper threading.

 

[yepp]

Nope, if paired together the 7850 will probably get hit harder in most games than the i3 3250.

 

[Keysplayr]

Noo and YEPP. Gotta luv it. OP you should be OK with the 7850 with that CPU.

 

[crashtech]

No, not at all. In fact, a 3250 will run an HD 7970 fairly well. I know, I've done it.

 

[nwo]

I think a 7850 is a perfect match for an Ivy i3. Most games run on 2 main threads anyway, so 3.5GHz is going to be more than enough for those. The ones that use more often do not put a whole lot of stress on the other 2 cores so it's still really tough to fine a game in which there is anywhere near a linear performance scaling relationship between the # of CPU cores and % peformance difference.

 

[Rvenger]

R9 270 here with an i3-3220, works great.

 

[Noo]

R9 270 here with an i3-3220, works great.

While it may run smoothly, how do you know if the cpu that's limiting the frame rate you're getting?

 

[crashtech]

While it may run smoothly, how do you know if the cpu that's limiting the frame rate you're getting?

You don't, and depending on the game, you certainly will be CPU limited to some extent. But that's not the real point. What matters is that you have achieved high frame rates per dollar. For instance, your proposed 3250 + R9 270 retails at around $370. If you went with a 3570K ($230 retail), you would have enough left to buy an R9 260X. So which combo will get you the best framerates in general, the 3250 + R9 270, or the 3570K + R9 260X? I think the faster GPU is the winner, YMMV.