Pair R7 260X 2GB with... Q9300 or G1610? G3258?

[VirtualLarry]

I recently (on a whim) bought a couple of XFX R7 260X 2GB GPUs. Was wondering which was the more appropriate platform to pair them up with.

I also picked up a couple of G1610 CPUs, to go with a pair of H61 boards I bought a while ago.

So, I've also got a pair of heavily-used (and OCed for most of their life, though no longer) Q9300 / P35 / 8GB DDR2 rigs, with PCI-E x16 v1.1.

I have kits of DDR3 for the G1610 / H61 rigs, the boards have two slots.

According to this TechSpot article, the G1820 is faster than the Q9650, in several popular games.
http://www.techspot.com/article/1039-ten-years-intel-cpu-compared/page5.html

I'm wondering if the G1820 is an appropriate proxy for the G1610, or if there is a significant performance difference between them for gaming purposes, and if the G1610 is faster than a 2.5Ghz Q9300 C2Q.

My G3258 CPUs are currently in H81 mobos, with 8GB of DDR3-1600 (which can only run a max of DDR3-1400 in that mobo), with 7950 3GB.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

That article did a massive disservice to the LGA 775 platform by testing it with 4GiB of slower RAM, all the other platforms had 8GiB of RAM. Not only that, they didn't test the minimum FPS where it's very likely the Core 2 Quads could have had a leg up on the Celeron and Pentiums especially once overclocked.

That being said, it really depends on the games you play. If I played a lot of multithreaded games I would probably take the Core 2 Quad and OC the hell out of it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

That article did a massive disservice to the LGA 775 platform by testing it with 4GiB of slower RAM, all the other platforms had 8GiB of RAM. Not only that, they didn't test the minimum FPS where it's very likely the Core 2 Quads could have had a leg up on the Celeron and Pentiums especially once overclocked.

That being said, it really depends on the games you play. If I played a lot of multithreaded games I would probably take the Core 2 Quad and OC the hell out of it.

The C2Q rigs (either the mobo, the PSU, or the CPU) are old and tired. They were OCed (IMHO, mildly) from 2.5Ghz (333FSB) to 3.0Ghz (400FSB), and before I mothballed them last year, I downclocked them to stock, because the one I was using for DC was freezing and hard-locking. So I'm afraid that OCing them to the moon isn't in the cards. Stock speed only.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

The C2Q rigs (either the mobo, the PSU, or the CPU) are old and tired. They were OCed (IMHO, mildly) from 2.5Ghz (333FSB) to 3.0Ghz (400FSB), and before I mothballed them last year, I downclocked them to stock, because the one I was using for DC was freezing and hard-locking. So I'm afraid that OCing them to the moon isn't in the cards. Stock speed only.

I think you answered your own question . A Core 2 Quad really needs to be at least 3GHz for it to be useful for modern gaming.

On the bright side those Celerons are still very capable and definitely faster for those less threaded games.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Maybe I'll take my current H81 micro-ATX boards w/G3258 (@ 4.0Ghz) out of my ATX cases, and put them in some micro-ATX cases, and add the R7 260X 2GB cards, and sell them off.

 

[Blue_Max]

Benefit of building on the 1155 platform NOW is that if you happen to snag an i3-i7 on the cheap down the road you won't have to gut the machine and deal with driver hassles.

You need multiple machines? (Like I do.)

 

[Blue_Max]

Maybe I'll take my current H81 micro-ATX boards w/G3258 (@ 4.0Ghz) out of my ATX cases, and put them in some micro-ATX cases, and add the R7 260X 2GB cards, and sell them off.

Heh... system building is fun but it's VERY hard to make any profits. Hope those 260X cards were on sale so you can sell them at "barely used" prices and not take much of a loss.

I've had better luck selling systems than parts, but it's always a hard sell and rarely a profit. Good thing I consider it a fun hobby that costs me very little in the long run.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Heh... system building is fun but it's VERY hard to make any profits. Hope those 260X cards were on sale so you can sell them at "barely used" prices and not take much of a loss.

I've had better luck selling systems than parts, but it's always a hard sell and rarely a profit. Good thing I consider it a fun hobby that costs me very little in the long run.

Yeah, I hear ya. If I could only get some of these sweet little rigs sold, that I build. I could use a few more customers...

 

[AtenRa]

@ Virtuallarry

You want to CrossFire two 260X on H81 ???? Because I dont believe H81 allows CF or SLI.

 

[VirtualLarry]

@ Virtuallarry

You want to CrossFire two 260X on H81 ???? Because I dont believe H81 allows CF or SLI.

No, I've got multiple H81 boards with G3258, and multiple R7 260X cards. One card per board.

Edit: That isn't to say that there couldn't be some H81 boards, with x16 / x4 PCI-E slots. x16 through the CPU, and then an additional x4 through the chipset / PCH, for Crossfire.

SLI is different, it requires that both slots support a minimum of x8.

 

[AtenRa]

No, I've got multiple H81 boards with G3258, and multiple R7 260X cards. One card per board.

Edit: That isn't to say that there couldn't be some H81 boards, with x16 / x4 PCI-E slots. x16 through the CPU, and then an additional x4 through the chipset / PCH, for Crossfire.

SLI is different, it requires that both slots support a minimum of x8.

Ok, then the 260X will be the limiting factor in most of the games. The CPU performance will be more important for MMOs and RTS. For those two Pentium G3258 OC will be the better option.