CPU - AMD - FAST - HANDLE CROSSFIRE SETUP

[electricfirebolt]

Hey, im looking for a cpu that can handle possibly two hd 7870's in crossfire and be able to handle the latest games.

I've considered the FX 8150 but i keep doubting it...


What do you think I should go with?



Thanks

 

[electricfirebolt]

Bought motherboard, soz. It needs to be AMD.

 

[electricfirebolt]

Cooling: CPU Cooling not bought. 3X 120mm Fans.
PSU: Antec 900W PSU +

 

[electricfirebolt]

Yea, Case has been bought and PSU is installed and cable management has been attempted..

The case is a Full ATX Silverstone Case. Unsure on model although has Silverstone logo on front.

 

[electricfirebolt]

My Silverstone is full atx although is old case and therefore unfortunatley wont support watercooling :/


What AMD processor do you think would be best for the crossfire 6870 setup?

 

[electricfirebolt]

Ok so, Stick with the fx 8150 then -_-?

 

[electricfirebolt]

The motherboard is MSI FXA-GD80, also would Phenom II 1100T be an option or would bulldozer FX 8150 be better?

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

I run 1100t`s in all my gaming machines....

My main machine runs twin 5870`s (the very rare 2 gb versions) in Crossfire...

IF you can find an 1100T ...it will work fine with your crossfire 7870`s cards....

All the best Brett

 

[wr6133]

6 Core Phenom II's are great CPU's but if you can return parts at this higher price end i5 2500k is the sensible route

 

[maui67]

I would venture to say that the 7870's will be bottlenecked by the 8x-8x pcie slots on a 1155 motherboard before the Phenom II/FX processors will bottleneck the crossfire setup. The OP has 16x pcie lanes on that 990FX board which will handle the 7870s just fine.

I am looking for some links to backup my opinion and will post once I find some. Not finding anything out there on current GPUs and 8x vs 16x pcie lanes.

 

[Brett928S2]

6 Core Phenom II's are great CPU's but if you can return parts at this higher price end i5 2500k is the sensible route

Hi

I wish you would stop saying that in all your posts...particularly as its untrue....

There is NO game ANY i5 will beat my 1100t with crossfired 5870s....NONE AT ALL....

All the best Brett

 

[noob2222]

Ok so, Stick with the fx 8150 then -_-?

If your overclocking, get the 8120. no reason to spend $50 for nothing.

currently running 8120 @4.7 ghz with 2x 6970. Issues? only civ V won't run crossfire.

The 8120s can reach from 4.4 ghz to 4.8 ghz easily on all 8 cores.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hmm, i think you are incorrect there mate.
However the 5xxx series had really poor scaling, so it proberbly would not be huge in difference.

Hi

I run twin 5870`s....the hugely powerful 2 gb versions.... they outperformed all the 6000 series...they were EXTREMELY rare...most benchmarks miss them out as practically nobody could get them after the first month of release...

All the best Brett

 

[maui67]

x8 will not bottleneck.

It appears that my theory is unfounded: 8x slots should be fine.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2134562

These are 6950's in crossfire, but I would imagine 7870's should fair as well.

 

[wr6133]

Hi

I wish you would stop saying that in all your posts...particularly as its untrue....

There is NO game ANY i5 will beat my 1100t with crossfired 5870s....NONE AT ALL....

All the best Brett

I run AMD X6 myself. I have to disagree with your statement though. Visibly while gaming ok the X6 PII wont show much if any difference to the 2500k but we know the 2500k is usually managing a higher frame rate.

I love my AMD when i OC'd and unlocked it to 6 core i thought "awesome for £90 I NEARLY have 2500k performance. That was for £90 though. Find a Thuban Phenom II for that price these days. The only 1100T I have seen lately was £150 (even 960T's have gone over £110)... i5 is £159 for £9 its madness to suggest getting the AMD as good as it is, it's a simple proven fact gaming it's outclassed by the i5.

 

[aaronstyle]

Hi

I wish you would stop saying that in all your posts...particularly as its untrue....

There is NO game ANY i5 will beat my 1100t with crossfired 5870s....NONE AT ALL....

All the best Brett

With the fact that many games can't even utilize all the extra cores, I would have to firmly disagree. an i5 2500 at stock will beat most 4 and 6 core phenom II's even with an overclock.

One of my buddies runs a similar system to yours and other than the fact that my 955 phenomII 4 core is at 3.8 and I use a gtx 460, there isn't a vast difference. Okay, he can crank is AA, and Ambient occlusion, and other eye candy, but at 1920x 1080 higher AF translates into a better experience, while less taxing on the gpu. Being realistic, many games where you change everything from high, to ultra don't even warrant the extra power, and money spent.

That's just my opinion, as I would prefer a single card setup, and a rig that boasts excellent price vs performance.

But what you're trying to say is indisputable, the fastest stock phenom II 6 core will not beat a Sandy Bridge i5 2500. Even if you vastly OC your Phenom II, the i5 will keep up with little or no OC.