Gaming CPU

[wuggi]

Hi there

I'm assembling a new gaming rig and so far I've decided on a pair of ATI Radeon HD 4770's and a P45 chipset motherboard.
What kind of CPU should I be looking for considering those parts and an average/slighty above average budget?

 

[hefox]

Why don't you go with AMD? My suggestion is to buy a 790 motherboard and Phenom II 940.

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums mate
If u want to CF 2 HD 4770s,then go for a X38 board instead because P45 support CF @ dual 8x mode compared to dual 16x of X38,and it may hit your performance.

 

[wuggi]

Hello and welcome to the forums mate
If u want to CF 2 HD 4770s,then go for a X38 board instead because P45 support CF @ dual 8x mode compared to dual 16x of X38,and it may hit your performance.

Thank you

That certainly sounds interesting. What kind of CPU would go well with a X38 board?

 

[mi1ez]

what sort of budget? what sort of games?

 

[wuggi]

what sort of budget? what sort of games?

As mentioned, a fairly moderate budget maybe a bit above. Not certain about games as I play a lot of different games both new and old. Well not so much new games at the moment, but that's what the new rig is for

 

[WR2]

As mentioned, a fairly moderate budget maybe a bit above.

US$1500~$2000?

 

[aford10]

A higher end dual core like the e8400 or e8500 are great gaming cpu's.

 

[hefox]

More and more games know tri-core at least so buying a dual-core isn't such a good idea.

 

[wuggi]

US$1500~$2000?

1500 seems about right.


How does a AMD 790 compare to the Intel X38?

Thanks for all the responses so far by the way. This certainly is one of the more helpful communities that I've come across

 

[WR2]

$1500 will get you a really nice AMD system, and it could even stretch for an entry level Core i7. Do you need a monitor in that $1500? Or what size monitor/resolution do you already have?

I think the 790 chipset has a better future upgrade path than the X38/X48 socket 775 motherboard.

For the 790 motherboards the X3 720BE or X4 940BE are good all round and gaming choices.

 

[hefox]

790 is the highend chipset for AMD socket AM2+ and AM3.
X38 was highend for Intel 775 socket.

 

[aford10]

More and more games know tri-core at least so buying a dual-core isn't such a good idea.

There aren't too many games YET that utilize more than 2 cores.

With that kind of budget, it wouldn't be too difficult to get into a i7 or phenom II x4 system.

 

[hefox]

Iford10, I think you should read this.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/multi-core-cpu,review-31567-11.html
If you have the budget to buy i7, than do it. Also you should buy a single powerful graphic card instead of 2 x 4770. That leaves you the option to have a CF / SLI in the future.

 

[aford10]

They tested 3 games. Not a huge sampling.

I simply suggested dual core b/c the OP was talking about p45 boards. The higher bus speeds on the high end dual cores will outperform the phenom x3 cpu's in some games. The e8500 will even outperform the i7 in some games.

 

[hefox]

Yes, the games that don't know more than 2 cores, of course. Clock per clock i7 is better than Core 2 duo so is not the case here.
Anyway you can deny this as much as you can but now all the new games know more than dual-core so I really don't see the point of buying a dual-core anymore except if you just need a office pc. Also you have to look for what future application will need, so quad-core is the way to go.

 

[aford10]

You may not see it, but there are many aspects that go into a build. Budget, application priority, future plans...

And your entire point is based on the fact that their are 2 uses for pc's: games or office. There's a lot more uses than those 2.

Your advice, perhaps is a little ahead of it's time. Games are moving that direction, but they aren't there yet.

 

[WR2]

Clock per clock i7 is better than Core 2 duo so is not the case here.

How about $ for $? E8600 $270 vs Core i7 920 $280
Crysis Warhead and FarCry2 benchmarks

 

[aford10]

^ +1

Even the e8400 beat out the i7 920, phenom II quad, and phenom x3

 

[Helloworld_98]

^ i'd still prefer the x3, maybe with the cash I save from paying for the e8600 I can buy some LN2.

 

[nightsilencer]

How about $ for $? E8600 $270 vs Core i7 920 $280
Crysis Warhead and FarCry2 benchmarks

What I get from those benchmarks is that my E8400 is still one hell of a beast!

Yeah, sure some Quads beat it, but by how much? 3 FPS? 5 FPS? Pfff...

E8400, still one of the best chips around.

 

[mi1ez]

I don't think there are any games around that recognise 3 cores that wouldn't see 4. the increase from dual to quad is probably down to windows processes being shifted to the 3rd core.

 

[hefox]

You may not see it, but there are many aspects that go into a build. Budget, application priority, future plans...

And your entire point is based on the fact that their are 2 uses for pc's: games or office. There's a lot more uses than those 2.

Your advice, perhaps is a little ahead of it's time. Games are moving that direction, but they aren't there yet.

Maybe you didn't see that he said clearly that we wants a gaming rig. My entire point was based on the games and I said about an exception for dual core. My suggestion to you is to read the entire article that I gave you and also you can check and see that are many similar. Also all the games from The tech report are shooter no strategy or other types of games.
Are you talking about bugdet? Maybe you missed that but he said the has around $1200 to spend. So no problem to go for i7 920.
Do you want to tell me that your E8400/8500 is future proof? I don't think so. I don't think that from now on the games will know less than 3-4 cores.

 

[nightsilencer]

Maybe you didn't see that he said clearly that we wants a gaming rig. My entire point was based on the games and I said about an exception for dual core. My suggestion to you is to read the entire article that I gave you and also you can check and see that are many similar. Also all the games from The tech report are shooter no strategy or other types of games.
Are you talking about bugdet? Maybe you missed that but he said the has around $1200 to spend. So no problem to go for i7 920.
Do you want to tell me that your E8400/8500 is future proof? I don't think so. I don't think that from now on the games will know less than 3-4 cores.

What the hell are you talking about? Are you trying to say, that ALL OF A SUDDEN, dual cores will be left to cry in the corner? :lol:

Seriously, Quads have been around for 3 YEARS! Yes, 3 years! And where are your Quad optimized games?

You need to get a reality check: More and more games will become multi-core aware, but that doesn't mean that suddenly Dual Core is the new stone age artifact.

Plus, you are totally ignoring the fact that multi-core is (at least it should) about performance scaling. And even right now, in some games, you see Quads being faster than duals, but you've never seen high-end Dual being a slow poke in ANY GAME.

High-end Duals have at least 2 years of life left in them, gaming-wise.

www.yougamers.com <- go here, and check how many games from 2009, so called "games of the future" actually require anything more than a measly Pentium 4 to run.

5% of them, TOPS. Yeah that's right. we're in 2009 and 95% of games only require a single core to run. And you're telling ME that from now on, games will only be Tri/Quad core pieces of software.

GET REAL.

 

[aford10]

^ exactly. Current games still don't tap out the dual cores, let alone 3 or 4. The programmers just aren't there yet.

When I mentioned budget, I was speaking in general, not about the OP in specific. You had mentioned there was no point for dual cores, hence the general response.

BTW, nothing is future proof. Technology changes too quick. Even the i7 and phenom II will soon be outdated. That doesn't mean they are useless.