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Gaming CPU

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Over the last five years I've been gaming on an Intel Pentium 4 (3.46 ghz), 4 megs of ram, and a Nvidia 8800 video card (which recently died). It's time to plan my new PC!! I'd like the new PC to be capable of playing first person shooters (possibly in eyefinity), plus more fluffy stuff like Dragon Age II and MMOs.

The coming Sandy Bridge 2500/2600 CPUs have me hesitating. Plus I'm pretty curious about that AMD Bulldozer. I wish there wasn't so much mystery about it, so that I could know whether to hold off or not.

I'm curious about the timing of the Sandy Bridge release. I was wondering if the release is timed for after Christmas so that retailers' stocks of older Intel CPUs can be reduced before the new Sandy Bridge CPUs maybe push their prices down. Lolz, maybe I'm too cynical. :pt1cable:  :lol: 

I'm wondering whether I'll be better off gaming with a Sandy Bridge/AMD 6950 video card combo, or if I should still be considering the i7 950 processor with that same video card.

There's been some mention of Ivy Bridge CPUs some day. Will those Ivy Bridge CPUs work with 1366 motherboards? I'm imagining I might be able to update an i7 950 machine with an Ivy Bridge CPU.

Apparently games still only use between one and three cores. Would that mean that a gaming system with 6 cores like the AMD 1090 doesn't make sense? Isn't it better to get four faster cores than 6 slower ones? When will games start using more cores - is that a long time off?

Hope this isn't too jumbled - this techy stuff is a bit of a maze!! :hello: 

Cheers,

Heidi :wahoo: 

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CPUs Master
Gaming Expert

You can pay full price for sandy bridge or look for used combo bargains. You'll see alot of stuff unloaded in the hardware forums when sandy bridge comes out. I've found some i7 cpu/board combos for $300 recently. Anandtech is the best. The 950 for $199 at microcenter seems to be the best deal right now for a new cpu. This deal is posted periodically, not all the time.

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I think you should wait for the Sandy Bridge to come out (January 5) and buy that.

The only thing different in the K versions of 2500 and 2600 is that it can be overclocked, so if you are not into overcockling, get the non-K version.

Sandy bridge will use socket 1155 (instead of 1156) and socket 2011 (instead of 1366). None of Sandy Bridge CPUs will support 1156 socket, nor 2011. Socket 2011 CPUs will come out Q2-Q3 2011, so it's a long time to wait and my prediction is they will be quite a bit expensive than the 1155 CPUs(2500,2600 etc.).
If gaming is your only concern, get the 2500, if you do video editting and stuff like that - get the 2600.

It looks like 4 cores is the sweetspot right now. And yes, four faster cores is better than 6 slower ones, especially today and for gaming. I wouldn't consider an AMD CPU, unless you are on a tight budget. If your budget is $200 and more - Intel is the best.

You could get the i7 950 or i5 760 as well, especially if it's on sale (~$150 and lower)

Thanks for the input. :wahoo:  I'll wait on the Sandy CPUs. I suppose there'll be some reviews on them after launch. I'm leaning towards using Cyberpowerpc to build my computer, seeing that I'm certainly no techie and don't want to make any expensive mistakes during assembly. I hope they offer some good deals on their components. I'm assuming that Cyberpowerpc will stock up with the new Sandy Bridge stuff quickly. I'm okay with spending around $1700, so I hope that is enough. Is it worth getting the Killer 2100 card for MMO or multiplayer shooter gaming? Wondering how much of a frames per sec impact it really has.

Will check back after movies. :D 

Heidi
:lol:  :hello:  ;) 
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You mean the $500 dollar GPUs? Deffinetely not. What resolution will you be playing on? Does your $1700 budget include your monitor, or you already own one/will buy it with separate money and which one?

DivaGamer said:
Thanks for the input. :wahoo:  I'll wait on the Sandy CPUs. I suppose there'll be some reviews on them after launch. I'm leaning towards using Cyberpowerpc to build my computer, seeing that I'm certainly no techie and don't want to make any expensive mistakes during assembly.


A friend got a computer from Digital Storm and loves his... Just throwing that out there. I don't know how the prices compare, but ive always enjoyed jumping on their sites during sales :) .

I already have the monitor, though I've lowered the resolution to 1280 by 960 because my stand in video card is not so hot (Nvidia 8400 GS). ;)  The monitor is a Samsung, and seems okay. I also have a nice Asus gaming monitor, though I switched to this one because the Asus was so bright - even with tweaking the brightness etc I was getting headaches. With one of the new Ati video cards, I'm expecting that I'll be able to run on better resolutions.

Re Digital Storm - I'll check them out too. :hello:  :wahoo: 

Heidi
:pt1cable: 
CPUs Authority

Well, it looks like you're not an upgrader so waiting for new platforms simply to have more upgrade options latter probably doesn't make sense for you ^_^. If you want something now to play stuff in eyefinity then I say go with an i7 LGA1366 and a 6950 or 6870x2 CF. An i5 750 or 760 (LGA 1156 CPUs) is also a good option so long as your builder offers it overclocked and will still warranty it :D .

For your resolution these cards will be enough:

GTS 450 ~$120
HD 5750 ~$120

HD 5770 ~$135
GTX 460 768MB: ~$170

HD 6850 ~$185
GTX 460 1GB ~$185

The cards for ~$120 are enough for 1680*1050, but if you don't mind to spend the $300 for 6950 (this one is more for 1920*1200 and 2560*1600 resolutions), go for it...
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