Please help me decide

[noobie_89]

i am buying a pc and i have decide all the parts i want except for the gpu. i need you guys to tell me which is better to be used in my system. The system specs that i have chosen are

amd phenom 2 x4 965 be 3.4ghz
4gb RAM DDR3 1333mhz
500GB hdd
asus m4a785t-v evo
500watt psu

 

[hunter315]

What resolution will you be playing at? Whats your budget for the GPU?

Also what 500W PSU? There is a lot of variation, and a 955 would save you a bit while allowing you to OC to the same speed level easily, so that would be a bit more that can be spent on the GPU.

 

[noobie_89]

my whole budget is around $1000 and i am playing at 1920x1200

 

[noobie_89]

the psu is referring to the power supply unit

 

[hunter315]

I know what PSU stands for but i meant which one are you planning on getting as there is a lot of variation in quality between the various brands.

At that resolution you will want a 4870/5770/GTX260 or higher if you want to play on high detail levels. The 5770 wont affect the PSU too much, but the 4870 or GTX260 could push a cheapo unit over the edge.

 

[noobie_89]

i am planning on getting 2 hd5770 (crossfireX) or one hd5850 or one hd5870

 

[JDFan]

i am planning on getting 2 hd5770 (crossfireX) or one hd5850 or one hd5870

Good choices but still need to know the brand name of the PSU ! - Because those choices will al put a strain on anything but a high quality 500W unit so you may be better off getting a goood quality 650 or 700 Watt PSU and instead of the 965 get a 955 (they are the same chip just one clock setting lower) and using the savings there toward a better larger PSU.

OF the 3 choices you mention skip the 2 - 5770's if you can afford the 5870 or 5850 as it is better to get a single card now that is the best you can afford and then if needed later as game requirements increase add a 2nd of the same card instead of limiting yourself by buying 2 lower cards now !

The single 5850 is probably all you really need now and you could save the difference between it and the 5870 towards buying a 2nd 5850 when needed (another reason I suggest getting a good quality 700W PSU now so you do not have to replace the 500W one at that time !)

 

[hunter315]

you wont be running 2 5770s on any 785G chipset boards that i have seen, most of them run in a 16x/4x configuration which wont let the second one help out very much. A single 5850 or 5870 will stress all but a high quality 500W PSU. If you are going to spend that much on a card make sure you get a good 500-550W PSU like a Corsair 550VX or a similarly high quality unit from Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, or Antec. You want it to have atleast 40A or 480W on its 12V rails.

 

[JDFan]

you wont be running 2 5770s on any 785G chipset boards that i have seen, most of them run in a 16x/4x configuration which wont let the second one help out very much. A single 5850 or 5870 will stress all but a high quality 500W PSU. If you are going to spend that much on a card make sure you get a good 500-550W PSU like a Corsair 550VX or a similarly high quality unit from Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, or Antec. You want it to have atleast 40A or 480W on its 12V rails.

True - get a MOBO with the 790 chipset instead as the 790X and 790GX will run both in X8 mode which is fine or the 790FX will run both at 16x speed but are more expensive !

 

[noobie_89]

thanks guys. it seem that what i need to do now is to change my motherboard of choice to get more performance, change a 965 to a 955 to get better pricing, and for the psu i need to get one with 650 or 700watt, and then for the gpu its either 5870 or 5850. So, from what i understand here a 2 5770 is out of the question now and a 5850 is better in pricing than 5870 and for the performance it is trailing the 5870 by a considerably small margin, and have lower power consumption making it a better card of choice. Is my understanding here correct or not?

 

[JDFan]

soumds about right - while the 2 5770s will slightly outperform the single 5850 buying both now does not make much sense as it will limit your upgrade choices later (If you already had one 5770 and were looking to upgrade then getting another 5770 vs. buying a 5850 would be the correct choice as you'd get the same level performance by only spending $150 vs. $300 but buying 2 5770's @ $300 is not since it costs almost the same and later if you need to upgrade again you have to resell or dispose of the 2 5770's and buy 2 5850's while buying the single 5850 now gives the option later to add a second 5850 when needed !)

On the PSU that is correct if you get a 550W unit now it will be enough to run the single 5850 but when you decide to upgrade for better performance in a couple years you'll wind up needing to buy another higher power PSU and discard the 550W unit by getting a good quality 650 or 700W unit you provide yourself enough headroom to be able to run a second card if you decide to upgrade later (again like the video card it is better to spend just a bit more now to get the 700W than discard the 500W later and have to buy a new 700W at that time.)

FOr the CPU - correct the 965 and 955 are actually the same CPU (though the 965 may be able to be OC'd slightly higher since it was binned to run at a slightly higher stock clock) since you are not looking to be a hardcore OCer getting the 955 and changing your CPU multiplier up by 1x in the bios will have you running the 955 at the same performance level as the 965 for $15-$30 less.

And lastly on the extra $100 for the 5870 vs. the 5850 for a slight improvement is up to you but saving the $100 toward buying a second 5850 in a year or two seems tomake more sense - It will take that long for games to require more performance than the single 5850 gives you and by then the pricing structure will have changed so that adding a second 5850 will cost less and yet will provide a good amount of upgraded performance to last another couple years.