Minimum cpu needed for 5850?

[gplracer]

My son wants his computer upgraded for Christmas. I finally found a 5850 in stock for $309. What would be the best budget cpu for him. Most of his games are run at 1680x1050. Thanks!!!

 

[Arkaign]

Well good news for you. Given that this will be a new PC, I'd recommend getting a Quad, as more and more games are using the extra cores. Beyond that, stuff like i7 is overkill. Ideally : Phenom II Black Edition, and if not that, then perhaps an Athlon X4.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Yeah, I'd definitely go at least quadcore. Dual cores fast enough (and would need to be overclocked as well anyways) to justify it would likely price in the same ball park.

 

[edplayer]

My son wants his computer upgraded for Christmas.

do you only want to upgrade the videocard and cpu?

If so, you should tell us which motherboard he is using. I see an Opteron in your sig (as your son's pc)

 

[happy medium]

My son wants his computer upgraded for Christmas. I finally found a 5850 in stock for $309. What would be the best budget cpu for him. Most of his games are run at 1680x1050. Thanks!!!

Give him your 8800gt for 1650x1050, and buy the 5850 for your rig.

A hd5770, gtx 260, or hd4870 would be perfect for him at that resolution.
Save yourself a couple bucks.
If you can find a cheap 4890 that will do as well.

 

[gplracer]

Thanks for the suggestions:

1. He currently has an opteron running at 2910mhz., 2 gigs of DDR.
2. The above setup is going to my seven year old.
I woud love to have the 5850 but my son plays more games than me (I never thought I would say that) I play rfactor and it is pretty much maxed out with my own 8800gt.

I thought about getting a quad core AMD or the tri core 720.

 

[Patrickz0rs]

Thanks for the suggestions:

1. He currently has an opteron running at 2910mhz., 2 gigs of DDR.
2. The above setup is going to my seven year old.
I woud love to have the 5850 but my son plays more games than me (I never thought I would say that) I play rfactor and it is pretty much maxed out with my own 8800gt.

I thought about getting a quad core AMD or the tri core 720.

I have a 5850 on my AMD 720BE. Runs like a charm. 250FPS steady in Left 4 Dead 2 on 1600x900.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Any Phenom II processor should do the trick and is what I would recommend.

 

[faxon]

doublepost :whiste:

 

[faxon]

yea any phenom 2 quad would rock, if not one of them for budget reasons then look into an athlon 2 instead since they're pretty cheap ($105 quad). newegg has G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 kits on sale for $79.99 pretty much weekly right now (4GB, nothing less than 1600).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128397
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20DDR3%20SDRAM (pick one)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...46251&name=6MB
assuming you can get a $79.99 kit of DDR3, this gives you a $270-340 price range from an athlon 2 x4 620 to a phenom 2 x4 955 (thinking bang for the buck). the 2 boards i linked are ones we also sell at frys, and my first pick would probably be the MSI board because for the same price as the gigabyte board it gives excelent VRM and northbridge cooling over the gigabyte alternative. I personally have sold 35 so far with various CPUs and i have had no returns myself, customers from entry level HTPC users to budget overclockers all seem to love it :awe:

 

[gplracer]

Is there a big difference between the Athlon II and the Phenom II? Before I had considered the Athlon II quad for $99 and the Phenom x3 for $119. Thanks for your suggestions. I really appreciate it.

 

[yh125d]

The diff I think is the athlons have no L3, while that phenom has 1 less core. I'd go for the phenom II X3 instead of the athlon X4, and try to unlock the 4th core of the phenom

 

[Arkaign]

The diff I think is the athlons have no L3, while that phenom has 1 less core. I'd go for the phenom II X3 instead of the athlon X4, and try to unlock the 4th core of the phenom

Win/win The Phenom X3 BE have unlocked multi's, so even if the last core can't be unlocked, overclocking is a snap. With a $30 air-cooler, 3.6ghz or so is pretty easy. With the L3 and easy OC, it should come out on top, although there's nothing wrong with the bargain aspect of the Athlon X4.