CPu - GPU combo for gaming

[just_me981]

Hey, looking to upgrade my system. I have 2 combos im thinking about.
Intel i5 750 with a hd5970
or
Intel i7 875 with GTX 460X2 in sli.

Hopefully, will get both cpu's oc to a stable 3.8-4.0ghz.
What combo would you recommend and why? Any other combo in the same price range?
As far as PSU, should i go for 1000? 700? 800? Any certain mobo you'd recommend?

Thanks alot!!! and sorry for all the questions

 

[Timop]

Why not i5-750(or 760) with 2 GTX460s in SLI and some cash in your pocket?

Games don't benefit from hyperthreading and you can OC both more or less the same.

Unless you want the upgradability, the GTX460 SLI would perform a bit better for alot less.

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
Well 2 GTX 460s perform pretty much like a single HD 5970(if not faster in some titles).
But like Timop said,why don't you go with i5 750 with 2 GTX 460s ? that way you can save some $ too.
As for motherboard,any P55 motherboard with dual 8x VGA support would be fine.
And for PSU,i recommend going with a good 750W+ one,Corsair HX750 would be good .

 

[just_me981]

Thanks for the welcome, and the feedback.
Yeah, i think you are right, the 750 (or maybe 760) would probably be best. As for the GPU, im still on the fence, though the gtx460 sli looks better and better to me.

 

[Maziar]

The only advantage that HD 5970 has is that it requires one PCI-E slot and has less power consumption,performance wise they are pretty much the same

 

[das_stig]

Make sure the motherboard supports x16-x16 on pci-e slots or your just wasting money, if it only supports x16-x8.

 

[Timop]

^P55 is limited to X8/X8, and unless its that 5970, the difference is only ~5-10%.

 

[Maziar]

That's 5-10% if the resolutions is like 2560x1600 or higher with AA/AF on, on lower resolutions the difference is even lower.

 

[Raidur]

And to think PCI-E 3.0 is around the corner...

Hell a 4x 2.0 only bottles the GTX480 by what, 7%?

 

[just_me981]

Will a single x16 slot be enough for a 5970?

 

[Maziar]

Yes its enough unless you play at resolutions 2560x1600 or higher

 

[just_me981]

Im not going anywhere near those resolutions, so ill be good.
One more question, i can get the i7 940 for only about 100$ more than than the i5 760, would that be a better choice, again obviously will be overclocking it (thinking overall performance, not just gaming)?
Thanks!

 

[MARSOC_Operator]

For gaming the i5 is a better bang for the buck, hands down. I'd get the i7 ONLY If I was going to do some extreme stuff like quad-SLI...

 

[Maziar]

Well that depends on the chipset that you want,X58 has 3 main advantages
1_6 core CPU support
2_Better Overclocking
3_Dual 16x PCI-E support(which doesn't have much of a difference with dual 8x)
On the other hand,the advantage of a P55 build is that it costs less.

 

[just_me981]

Like always, its down to the $$$ huh?!
Gonna think it through over the weekend, and hopefully get the parts on monday.
Thanks alot for all the info.

 

[Maziar]

No problem,you can't go wrong with either