i5 Ivy Bridge CPU and a Radeon 7850 or an i3 Ivy Bridge CPU and a Radeon 7870?

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IrishJibber

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Apr 11, 2013
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Which would be a better combination for gaming? I will be playing a lot of games like Skyrim and Battlefield 3. I would not want the i3 to bottleneck the 7870 and I fear that the i3 may not accept future GPU upgrades because it is weaker, thus, is the i5 a safer bet because it is more future-proof? Or will the i3 be solid for years to come? I am considering the i3 setup because of the more powerful 7870 that I can afford with it and since the GPU is the most important component for a gaming build and the CPU has very little to do with it, it will run games better (please correct me if I am wrong). Any feedback will gladly be appreciated. Thanks
 
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edogawa

edogawa

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Jan 4, 2012
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I5 will be better for gaming and you can easily overclock it. The i5 will be more future proof too as well as much faster.

I3 is a dual core with HT(HT is useless for gaming) so I would not recommend it for gaming.

I5 is the gaming sweet spot
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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It depends.
As a rule, the graphics card is most important for gaming.
But, in this case, the 7850 and 7870 are not that different in capability.
If your BF3 play is single player, then opt for the stronger graphics card.
But in multiplayer, you will want a i5 quad because it becomes very cpu heavy.
Most other games can only make good use of 2,perhaps 3 cores.
On balance, I think I would go with the i5; the 7850 is still a very good card.
 
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edogawa

edogawa

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Who buys Battlefield 3 for single player? :p He will 100% want an i5 if he plays Battlefield 3.

Also I think Skyrim is CPU dependent too so the better processor will help, correct me if I am wrong about Skyrim though.


Edit:

CPU%20Core.png



And when you overclock:

CPU%20Clock.png



So an overclocked i5 will greatly benefit you for Skyrim, and B3 when there is 64 people on a server.
 
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