Better use of money for gaming: Crossfire or better CPU?

[Guest]

I'm in the process of building my first system. It will be used primarily for gaming and HD video editing. Given those tasks, would my money be better spent buying an x58/i7 system with one Radeon card, or a p55/i5 system with 2 radeons in crossfire? I realize that one option might cost a bit more than the other, but in general, which gives you more bank for your gaming buck? An i7 or crossfire?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

for gaming I'd say the i5 and crossfire
Moto

 

[1haplo]

Depends a HD5870 or HD5770?

What resolution? If you have 1920x1080 and a HD5870 then thats fine... Higher res or lower GPU then Crossfire.

 

[Guest]

Just one screen at full HD, so yeah 1920x1080 I think. And I was looking at the cheaper 5850. My thinking is that going for the faster CPU would provide a better upgrade path, as I could easily add another ATI card somewhere down the line and do crossfire with something newer and faster. The crossfire cards don't have to be identical, right?

 

[1haplo]

Here is a Crossfire configure chart from AMD
http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/images/crossfirex/CF_combo_chart.jpg

You can crossfire any brand, If you have a EVGA and a ASUS HD5850 they will work together fine

If you have a HD5850 and a HD5870 they will work also.

A HD5850 and 1080i will run most games great. If you can swing it get a SSD. That will make boot time and load times a lot faster. The can you get another HD5850 later if you want.

 

[Guest]

Thank you, great chart. I was thinking of getting a small, 60gb SSD. What files would you recommend putting on there? OS, program files, games, with all media files going to a separate mechanical drive?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

actually, instead of an i5/i7, if you're doing heavy video editing, I'd suggest a 1055t 6-core.

 

[Guest]

That looks like a great call. Sounds like hexacores are better for video editing. I'll look for some comparisons b/w the 1055t and the i7 950 (the other proc I was considering).