I5 with ati 5850?

sirdumalot

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Jul 6, 2010
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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: End of July BUDGET RANGE: $1000 give or take

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Media

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Probably can scrounge up a keyboard, mouse, and speakers

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Usually newegg.com, but if there are cheaper places out there im open COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: I'm looking to build an i5 with a ati 5850 vid card

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe later on SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Probably not

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080 seems like a reasonable goal

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I would like it quiet, but thats not too important.

My main question was, I was looking at a lot of the recommendations here on TH and it looks like most of the time, people pair AMDs with ATIs and Intels with Nvidia. I heard that the Nvidia 4xxs are like space heaters and made me lean towards the 5850, but I like the i5s. Is there something wrong with pairing these two together that I just haven't read? Does the Intel chipset not play well wit ATIs? Something else I'm missing?

Thanks in advance
 
Solution
1) You can mix and match intel/amd cpu's and single nvidia/ati graphics cards in any combination. If you are interested in sli(nvidia) or crossfire(ati) then check your motherboard specs. Most allow either if you have two pcie-x16 slots, but some budget motherboards will will be restricted to just one type of dual card support.

2) For quiet computing, visit www.silentpcreview.com . Noise comes mostly from high fan speeds needed to cool hot components. Cooler components will be the 32nm intel i3/i5 dual core cpu's. Video cards like the GTX470 or 5850 use newer 40nm construction. They run relatively cool and quiet normally by downclocking their speed. The fans speed up under heavy graphics load when the full clock rate is...

cmcghee358

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No, Intel and ATI pair perfectly well together. It's just nVidia plays better with Intel when it comes to motherboards.

There is no performance difference choosing an i5 compared to an AMD processor in relation to GPU hardware.
 

Mark Heath

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Apr 28, 2010
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I think there's a little bit of a performance difference (Intel+ATI) and that little bit becomes a bit bigger when you crossfire on an Intel platform, but it's small enough to not worry.
 

cmcghee358

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Are you talking about a CPU bottleneck or simple PCIE bandwidth?

And I would argue that an i5 platform is only capable of 8x/8x where as an AM3 platform "could" be 16x/16x

But regardless, for name brand pairing, there isn't a significant difference when pairing Intel with ATI compared to Intel nVidia
 

Mark Heath

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They were talking about the fps difference and crossfire scaling between Intel and AMD, but as I have already said (twice now..) the difference is too small to bother with, i.e. virtually no and the matter is settled

I think we'd be better off starting to recommend some components rather than talking about something which we agree on. ;)
 

asteldian

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It works fine. In fact it is what I am using.

Intel i5 750
G Skill ECO 1600mhz CL7 RAM - 4gb
Gigabyte P55 US3L mobo. (cheap, no XFire ability)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500gb
ATI 5850
Corsair PSU 550W (but look at 650W to see if any good deals)
HAF 922 for a nice case, but can go cheaper
CPU cooler - someone else may have a good recommendation. The Hyper 212+ was popular but I think has gone up in price
Acer 23 inch monitor - $169.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009179&cm_re=23_inch_monitor-_-24-009-179-_-Product
 
1) You can mix and match intel/amd cpu's and single nvidia/ati graphics cards in any combination. If you are interested in sli(nvidia) or crossfire(ati) then check your motherboard specs. Most allow either if you have two pcie-x16 slots, but some budget motherboards will will be restricted to just one type of dual card support.

2) For quiet computing, visit www.silentpcreview.com . Noise comes mostly from high fan speeds needed to cool hot components. Cooler components will be the 32nm intel i3/i5 dual core cpu's. Video cards like the GTX470 or 5850 use newer 40nm construction. They run relatively cool and quiet normally by downclocking their speed. The fans speed up under heavy graphics load when the full clock rate is needed.

3) For 1920 x 1080 resolution, you should be looking at a 5850 or GTX470 class card to get very good gameplay. A i5-530 would work well. Read this study: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i3-gaming,2588.html
For games, the graphics card is much more important than the cpu. Spend an extra $100 on a GTX480 or 5870 before you spend it on a $200 cpu.
 
Solution

sirdumalot

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Jul 6, 2010
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Wow thanks all. I think I am just gonna stick with a cheaper system for now. When I get a real job I'll prob upgrade/buy a new tower. I do have a laptop (my only comp) for now so silence isnt a BIG deal. Still, I'll look into it. Thanks for the insight!

PS I think I've decided not to Xfire for now so theres prob no diff. I understand that LGA1156 doesnt have true x16/x16, but I guess that doesnt apply here. Again when I upgrade I'll come back to it. Thanks again =]