6870 with AMD Athlon X2 5600+(2.9Ghz)

[mailpranshu]

Hi Guys,

I am facing a bit of a dilema. I will have a large chunk of cash that will flow in 6 months in the future. Using this I will assemble a new rig(AMD+Ati). At present I do have some money with which to pick up a new card though. I have the following rig right now. Its ancient so be warned.
- AMD Athlon X2 5600+(2.9 Ghz)
- Mo Bo : Asus M2A-VM
- 4 GB DDR2 RAM (800 MHZ)
- XFX 8600 GT(512 MB)
- Win 7 ultimate 64 bit

I will eventually be crossfiring the 6870 with another 6870 six months down. I also know that the CPU is a serious bottle neck here. But will I see an increase in perfomance with the 6870? I need to change my card because of the simple reason that I have OC'ed everything(RAM, CPU and GPU). This new card is just a stop gap. The 8600 sucks at present and is like an asthmatic kid without his inhaler. For example I get 35-37 fps for MW - Black Ops at low setting at 1440x900 post overclocking.

Consider crysis as a benchmark. Please advice guys.

 

[g00fysmiley]

you'll see come performance increace over the 8600gt... but you're right the card will be extremely bottlenecked by your system. really i'f suggest a 5670, or gts 450 max, however since your plans in the future will utilise the card it'd be a smart investment to go ahead and pick on up fo rnow then the res tof the system down the line

your black ops performance and gaming in general will definatly increase but not by leaps and bounds aty your resolution though i'd say everythign should look smooth

 

[re-play-]

you'll see come performance increace over the 8600gt... but you're right the card will be extremely bottlenecked by your system. really i'f suggest a 5670, or gts 450 max, however since your plans in the future will utilise the card it'd be a smart investment to go ahead and pick on up fo rnow then the res tof the system down the line

your black ops performance and gaming in general will definatly increase but not by leaps and bounds aty your resolution though i'd say everythign should look smooth

u are the man!, im using right know this AMD4450e 2.2 with HD4850 512mb
and i can tell u that i play not smothh but well, it will be the same for u
until next year i will buy maybe HD6950 and a SandyBridge cpu

 

[mailpranshu]

Hey I agree with the speculation. Still very very curious though. Can some one post numbers for popular games with modern cards please??Anything above a 5750 or a 460 will do. There was a good article with how cores affect GPU perfomance.

And thanks for the prompt replies. Toms hardware rules as usual.

 

[mailpranshu]

And g00fsmile....good to see our "classic" comps still around. feel proud actually.

 

[re-play-]

And g00fsmile....good to see our "classic" comps still around. feel proud actually.

his comp is not a classic in many latin american countries, including my own
Dominican republic xD

 

[mailpranshu]

his comp is not a classic in many latin american countries, including my own
Dominican republic xD

Hey agreed Replay. I stay in India but here the markets have picked up big time. Chill bro, markets will pick up there as well and prices will drop. It was the same here 5 years back man,

 

[g00fysmiley]

i build em cheap and i build em to last but i'm finally replacing mine to ..

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/299954-31-true-budget-build- shipped

build new one for 400 all parts shipped 500 if you include the OS

as for numbers i tried to find some benchmarks with a 6870 and an athlon II x2

there unfortunatly to my knowlage aren't alot of people who run benchmarks to show cpu and gpu bottlenecks

i even tried to find some with athlon II x3 or 4 and most all the benchmark stuff was with either a i5/i7 or phenom

 

[mailpranshu]

i build em cheap and i build em to last but i'm finally replacing mine to ..

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/299954-31-true-budget-build- shipped

build new one for 400 all parts shipped 500 if you include the OS

as for numbers i tried to find some benchmarks with a 6870 and an athlon II x2

there unfortunatly to my knowlage aren't alot of people who run benchmarks to show cpu and gpu bottlenecks

i even tried to find some with athlon II x3 or 4 and most all the benchmark stuff was with either a i5/i7 or phenom

Hey its typical man.. The intels are just more in number. We AMD guys are in a minority. But Toms should come up with a bottle neck article with old/new processors and old/new GPU's along with some benchmarks.

Majority of desktop guys keep upgrading in parts. Its still not an exact science. I wish some one could throw light on this by giving real data instead of the usual crappy trial and error.

Thanks a lot for the answer though.

And good build. Congrats. But how about not buying the GPU and buying a better mobo+proc. Then buying a new GPU after 3-4 months when you have some more money? Just a thought.

 

[re-play-]

Hey agreed Replay. I stay in India but here the markets have picked up big time. Chill bro, markets will pick up there as well and prices will drop. It was the same here 5 years back man,

Yes, but we can get the newest hardware here, but cost like 80%more, like a procesor cost 100 dollars here u get it for 180 XD
its not fair, and many ppl dont use pc here to play mostly to work
that why most ppl dont bother buying lastest hardware etc

 

[re-play-]

i build em cheap and i build em to last but i'm finally replacing mine to ..

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/299954-31-true-budget-build- shipped

build new one for 400 all parts shipped 500 if you include the OS

as for numbers i tried to find some benchmarks with a 6870 and an athlon II x2

there unfortunatly to my knowlage aren't alot of people who run benchmarks to show cpu and gpu bottlenecks

i even tried to find some with athlon II x3 or 4 and most all the benchmark stuff was with either a i5/i7 or phenom

i think many ppl commit to buy expensive CPU when u actually only need an Athlon x2 265 paired with a 6850 u will be just Fine to play
smoth
i dont see the logic buying 200+ 300+ 400+ dollars CPU

 

[g00fysmiley]

cause my 8500gt blew and the 4250 onboard is even worse. plus the asus TOP cu edition gts 450 will play everythign i want at max setting with my resolution sure i can't do 1080p but i don't plan on buying a 1080p monitor in the next year so i'll worrk abotu fgetting better graphics cards when i have a monitor that would use it, till then it'd be a waste

i usually look at bottleneck by lookign at tom's hiarchy for cpu and graphics card then as a rule of thumb compare 3 graphics tiers to one cpu tier... its served me pretty good so far with reccomendations and its also what i follow for my own builds

 

[re-play-]

cause my 8500gt blew and the 4250 onboard is even worse. plus the asus TOP cu edition gts 450 will play everythign i want at max setting with my resolution sure i can't do 1080p but i don't plan on buying a 1080p monitor in the next year so i'll worrk abotu fgetting better graphics cards when i have a monitor that would use it, till then it'd be a waste

i usually look at bottleneck by lookign at tom's hiarchy for cpu and graphics card then as a rule of thumb compare 3 graphics tiers to one cpu tier... its served me pretty good so far with reccomendations and its also what i follow for my own builds

ok for example u bought a hd6870 what amd procesor will u buy???

 

[mailpranshu]

ok for example u bought a hd6870 what amd procesor will u buy???

Makes sense to buy atleast a upper AthlonII x3 or a Phenom x4. Invariably 3 or more cores are needed for more games.
Personally, a PII X4 - 965 BE makes killer sense. The Athlon II 555 BE also has a lot of head room for over clocking. An X6 is a waste as no one needs to game, run a virus scan, play music and install files simultaneously.

 

[g00fysmiley]

well for a 6870 lets look.

graphics hiearchy

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850,2782-7.html

cpu hiarchy

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-athlon-ii-x4,2791-6.html

so amd match for the 6870 a 4th tier card is a tier 2 amd processor (amd has not tier 1 processors)

Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition, 1075T
Phenom II X4 Black Edition 970, 965, 955

i'd agree the x6 is a waste in a way but if you plan on it lasting more than 3 years we might have games using 6 cores by then... but probably not.

however a possible advantage of the x6 is that it automatically overclocks itself when using only 3 cores so it'll self adjust up durring most gamiing provided your'e not trying to multitask too much while gaming

*add* I'd still suggest a x4

 

[mailpranshu]

Have a look at this link re-play. Go throught the article as well.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-athlon-ii-x4,2791-6.html

 

[re-play-]

well for a 6870 lets look.

graphics hiearchy

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-radeon-hd-6870-radeon-hd-6850,2782-7.html

cpu hiarchy

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-athlon-ii-x4,2791-6.html

so amd match for the 6870 a 4th tier card is a tier 2 amd processor (amd has not tier 1 processors)

Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition, 1075T
Phenom II X4 Black Edition 970, 965, 955

i'd agree the x6 is a waste in a way but if you plan on it lasting more than 3 years we might have games using 6 cores by then... but probably not.

however a possible advantage of the x6 is that it automatically overclocks itself when using only 3 cores so it'll self adjust up durring most gamiing provided your'e not trying to multitask too much while gaming

*add* I'd still suggest a x4

man i like CPU under 100dollars, i have a AMD 4050E with HD4850 and i play just fine at 1280-1024 no anti. for example in Starcraft 2 my FPS are between 30-50 fps
most of the settings are medium.

what im trying to say is that u dont need a 200$ dollar CPU if u want to have a 6850 card
my next upgrade will be Athlon x2 265 with HD6850 or GTX460

i will play very well with that setting and will cost less

 

[re-play-]

Have a look at this link re-play. Go throught the article as well.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i3-athlon-ii-x4,2791-6.html

thanks