Would an i3-2100 bottleneck 6850 CF?

[skyscan]

I'm going to be building a PC soon, and this time I plan to go intel. The i3-2100 does fantastic in games for the price (beats out the $120 AMD equivalent), but what I'm worried about is if the 2 cores (even though it has L3 cache) will bottleneck 2 6850's. I plan to start off with one, and when I get a 1080p monitor get another one with it.

I'd rather not go the whole nine yard with the 2500k, even though OCing that would be amazing. I'm planning to spend around $450-500 on the CPU+MB+GPU. So if you have any good combinations other than the one's I've thought of, do tell.

 

[bilalwaseem]

As you knowthat core i3 2100 is a very fast cpu yeah it have 2 cores...and it will bottleneck but just a bit....go get a core i5 2400 which is only about 60$-70$ more in price hen i3 2100...and the 1 6850 will be fine...no need of two graphics card...your cpu(whetever you buy an i3 or i5) and 1 6850 will play most games maxed out...as you do not overclock as you mentioned above...intel dh67cl will be good for you you would also be able to upgrade from i3 to higher intel cpu in future...my whole system costs me rs 36000(450$0

core i5 2400 3.1ghz
intel dh67cl mobo
4 gb ddr3 kingston
intel hd graphics(i havent got a card yet)

my is a bit expensive according to my country but if you are from europe or america you would get these i bit cheaper....

 

[rickytrux11]

You will face bottlenecks. If i were you, i would have just got a i5 2400.

 

[bilalwaseem]

yeah i have it too ricky...

 

[cuecuemore]

It depends on the game. People like to talk as though it's a yes-or-no question, and that that answer will apply universally, but the answer for 95% of bottleneck questions (including this one) is "sometimes." What are you looking to play?

 

[bilalwaseem]

yeah rightly said cuecuemore....the ati 6800 series suites best with core i5 or a quad core cpu...

 

[rickytrux11]

If you want to play Games which require quad cores like BFBC 2 then you must go with i5 2400. And in dual core games like core games like Crysis, the i3 2100 will be fine and it will give same performance as i5 2400.

 

[bilalwaseem]

yeah....but quad core would be better and more future proof...because we didnt know what will came out...

 

[rickytrux11]

Yeh....obviously.

 

[pro-gamer]

of course it will bottleneck because i3 2100 has only 3mb of cache memory on the other hand the pair of 6850 is heavy for 2100 iam 99% sure that your fps in games will perform v.badly.

So you have only two options
1.install 1 nvidia geforce gtx 550ti
2.go for i5 2500k

 

[rickytrux11]

A i5 2400 with HD 6870 is the best choice. Go for 2500k if you want to OC. And to OC you will need a P67 mobo which will cost more than H61.

 

[ojas]

I'm not sure if it'll bottleneck 1 6850, but there's a strong chance it may hold back 2 of them. Plus if you're going to play at 1080p then i think you'll need a CF setup, one won't be enough at that reso, at least not maxed out graphics and stuff like that.

Though i think it'll be much more convenient if you'd get yourself a 6950 2GB or 6970 2GB (enough memory for 1080p), but two 6850s are thought of as being better in a lot of conditions, at the same time SLI may give you a smoother experience (do read up on that microstuttering article).

The DH67CL won't CF/SLI (need p67 or z68) and try getting CAS 8 DDR3-1600 too.

 

[skyscan]

Best answer selected by skyscan.