Hello there busterblue52

That is a pretty old PC. Compared to a Core i3-2100, the Pentium D 3.0GHz is about 30% - 35% slower. It will likely bottleneck the HD 6850.

Additionally, that old PC only comes with a 200w power supply (probably 150w on the 12v rail). The HD 6850 alone uses a max of 120w on the 12v rail. That does not leave enough power on the 12v rail to power things like the CPU. You would need to upgrade to at least a 400w good quality power supply.
 

e56imfg

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For $300, you could build a Sandy Bridge Pentium / Celeron system with a lower powered GPU that runs much better than that PC with a 6850
 

aqe040466

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It's a single core CPU is a thing of the past. It is not good for gaming. It is only good for browsing the web, MS Office 2003, even if you buy a good GPU like HD 6850, it will give you some headache.
 

e56imfg

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That's exactly what you're planning to do right now.
Cores and frequency don't matter (8150 proved that). It's usually the architecture and the IPC (which Sandy excels at).
 

loneninja

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Using an Nvidia GTX 280 which is weaker than the 6850, in these benchmarks I'm posting below a Pentium D cannot get playable results in games from 2010. The newest processors aren't even in this comparison but you'll see Pentium D has less than half the performance of last years Core I3 and other budget processors. YOU WILL NOT PLAY ANY MODERN GAME WITH A PENTIUM D. It's below required spec to run many games.

http://www.behardware.com/articles/778-12/giant-roundup-168-intel-and-amd-processors.html
 

Vettedude

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Its a nickname for Sandy Bridge. I have a 6850, in some games I get bottlenecked by my older Core 2 Quad. And that's a newer processor that's a QUAD. It would defenitly be bogged down by a dual-core Netburst-based CPU.
 
If I could recemmend something at the $ 300 price point I would go with a Llano based machine. I built two over the summer from newegg for around $ 280-300. If your smart you can get coupon codes to make the price cheaper. A Llano based machine will also be better for upgrading when you want to get a new graphics card.
 

e56imfg

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An Intel will be much better for a discrete GPU.
Llano excels at extremely budget-oriented users (like the OP) but it slows down once you put in anything higher than a 6670. Llano is just an enhanced Athlon II in terms of CPU performance.
But since this guy might be using a 6850, Intel is the way to go.
Llano is the other way if you want a completely, locked down PC with a 6670- which still performs well in many games.
 

aqe040466

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You are totally wrong, in games cores and cpu architecture matters, That Pentium D CPU will be useless for gaming specially BF3 which is a 3d game. Like I mentioned before Pentium D is only good for web browsing and MS Office.
 


What type of budget do you have to work with? Installing a HD 6850 means you will need to replace the power supply. Also, as I stated before, the Pentium D is roughly 30% - 35% slower than a current generation Core i3-2100 CPU which means the HD 6850 will be bottlenecked.

 

e56imfg

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I am not "totally" wrong. I just stated the most important things you should be looking for when buying a CPU.
Cores don't matter nearly as much as architecture since there are almost no single core CPUs selling. The i3 2120 outperforms the 8150 and some of the higher end Phenom IIs, even if it's a dual-core. There are almost no bottlenecks for the 2120 because of Sandy's IPC.
 

pentium Ds are much slower than that. IPC of sandy bridge is like 3x faster than prescott. 3.0ghz pentium D is like a 1ghz celeron.