E8400 and HD5670 - good match?

LucoTF · Sep 24, 2013

Hi,

I was wondering if my current rig has a good balance, or is the GPU too weak for the CPU? Maybe the other way around?

HP DC7900 mini tower
4gb ram (is this enough?)
E8400 C2D 3.0 ghz processor
365w stock psu
HD 5670 512mb graphics card (gddr5)

I have a 16:9 monitor (up to 1920x1080) and I'm very much a casual PC gamer although I do play the occasional shooter / action adventure on whatever settings I can get away with. Would be willing to upgrade PSU if needed.

Thanks

FunSurfer · Sep 24, 2013

The E8400 can handle up to 7770, but it needs a 500W PSU with 19A on the 12V rails.

coozie7 · Sep 24, 2013

By 'mini tower' do you mean slimline? some people get confused.
For that res I'd actually think of bumping the card up a notch to the HD7790/GTX650Ti level would be better.
Yes, you'll need to get a better PSU, 450Watts with a single PCI-E connector (6 pin, 8 pin or 6+2 pin) from: Corsair, Antec, Silverstone, Seasonic, OCZ, Pc Power and Cooling or XFX will do the trick. If you pay >$50 (US) you're not trying hard enough

.

LucoTF · Sep 24, 2013

It's a convertible mini tower, bout the size of a small car? (Note, HP use the word 'convertible' and I found out what it means - it means you can use the tower standing up or on it's side lol)

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13029_na/13029_na.pdf

I'm in the UK, I've seen Antec 450w for about £35.

Thanks guys, I'll keep you posted

coozie7 · Sep 24, 2013

Must have been nice during our short summer-surfing the 'net, top down, shades on, wind in your hair

.
You probably know these but just in case here's a few places to look: Dabs, Overclockers, Aria, CCL, Pixmania, Scan, Ebuyer, Novatech and the ever popular Amazon.

Mousemonkey · Sep 24, 2013

FunSurfer :

It can handle more that that, I am currently running a 7790 with my e8400 and this is the replacement for the SLi'd 560Ti's that I was running on it.

jaguarskx · Sep 24, 2013

Your "convertible" PC is basically standard size short PC tower.

Your 365w PSU will actually be able to handle a Radeon HD 7770. A standard 300w Dell / HP PSU will be able to handle a Radeon HD 7750 without issue (almost 60w peak power). The Radeon HD 7770 should be fine on a 365w PSU; peak power usage is basically 75w for a stock speed HD 7770 and about 85w for an overclocked HD 7770.

AMD / nVidia general recommendation for power supplies meant to cover a wide variety of different PCs with different components. For example, if you had an AMD CPU, then I would definitely recommend you upgrade the PSU because AMD CPUs can use lot more power than Intel CPUs. Under full load the AMD FX-8350 uses about 95w - 105w more power than the Intel i5-4670k. That's with stock speed. If both CPUs were overclocked then the difference would be even larger. The E8400 does not use a lot of power. In other words, you are safe.

FunSurfer · Sep 24, 2013

Mousemonkey :

Sorry I wasn't clear enough, I was referring to gaming with stock E8400. User will experience some CPU bottlenecks with games at least as heavy as Crysis 1 with more powerful GFX. Of course this CPU will run just fine with dual Titans.
Example, Crysis 3:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-wolfdale-yorkfield-comparison,3487-18.html

Mousemonkey · Sep 24, 2013

FunSurfer :

I only tried Crysis 2 but that ran nice and smoothly @90+ fps, a CPU "bottleneck" would result in the game displaying a "glug glug" fashion where it runs normally then slows and then runs normally then slows etc. The term "bottleneck" gets used so often by people who haven't seen and have no idea where the phrase came from means that its now a pointless term that is just overused and misunderstood IMO.

FunSurfer · Sep 24, 2013

"Bottleneck" here is when the GFX can't operate in its full potential because the CPU will be holding it back. In the link I posted there are several games which are running on the same GFX (7970) and the lowest scores are coupled with the E8400, so buying that card for the E8400 is a waste of money.

Mousemonkey · Sep 24, 2013

FunSurfer :

I understand your usage of the term but it still isn't entirely the same as the first usage of the term and whilst an e8400 might not allow the card to run at its full potential it won't prohibit the smooth running of games.

FunSurfer · Sep 24, 2013

Mousemonkey :

FunSurfer :

I understand your usage of the term but it still isn't entirely the same as the first usage of the term and whilst an e8400 might not allow the card to run at its full potential it won't prohibit the smooth running of games.

Oh, so there is a constant bottleneck and a dynamic bottleneck!

Mousemonkey · Sep 24, 2013

FunSurfer :

Pretty much! A slow CPU will hold back the performance of a fast graphic card and whilst that can and is referred to as the bottleneck of the system the term was first used to describe what the user sees when the graphic card(s) actually overpowers the CPU and the visuals take on that "glug glug" effect that you would get from inverting a wine bottle full of liquid if you were to equate the flow of liquid to the smoothness of the graphical display.

LucoTF · Sep 24, 2013

Mousemonkey have you overclocked your E8400?

Mousemonkey · Sep 24, 2013

LucoTF :

I have OC'd it in the past but I currently run it at stock speed.

dsr07mm · Sep 24, 2013

I have exactly that combo on my old rig with 4gb ddr2 @ 800mhz. Unfortunately I have only 15" old monitor with 1024x768 native resolution so I can play even most recent games (saints row 4 etc).

LucoTF · Sep 25, 2013

jaguarskx :

I'd have to use molex though, my stock psu doesn't have a 6 pin. But I'm a little surprised to hear I could get away with a 7770 without a PSU upgrade.

jaguarskx · Sep 25, 2013

Generally, you should be able to with HP and Dell PSUs; especially Dells because they actually underrate their PSUs a bit so if a Dell PSU states 300w it may actually be around 320w or so. That info came from a former Dell tech support employee that used to lurk around this forum. I believe there were also a couple of review articles from a while ago that actually confirmed that statement.

Your PSU will be more than enough for a Radeon HD 7750. Kinda busy right now, but I believe Newegg is (or maybe was) selling a Radeon HD 7750 DDR5 1GB card for $65 - $70 after rebate.

hang-the-9 · Sep 25, 2013

A 7750 will be able to run on that power supply very easily and is a bit cheaper than a 7770, but is on the lower end of gaming cards. So if you upgrade the system, you will be stuck with that slower card (although it's not SLOW, just slow in gaming card land).

A 7770 should run fine on your stock power supply also, I've run that card on a 320 watt PSU, although I would not do that for long.

Overall, I'd get the 7770 for the fact that it would be faster in a future system, it should be just fine on a 365w power supply without stressing it too much.

LucoTF · Sep 26, 2013

I'm not concerned with getting a card that will transfer to a new system, I just want a good card for this one

With that said, I will probably go for the 7770. Thanks again guys and sorry that I can only pick one best answer

E8400 and HD5670 - good match?

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