Please help me choose a CPU/GPU combo

[level99]

Hello,
I am looking for a good combination of CPU and graphics card within my budget. My options are:

Core i3-2100 with HD 6770
Pentium G850 with HD 6850
Pentium G620 with HD 6870

I plan to upgrade in a year or so to i5-2500K or Ivy Bridge and a better graphics card. I suppose a fourth option would be to just get 2500K now and just use the onboard graphics HD graphics 3000 for now.

I appreciate any help I can get!

 

[wrazor]

IMHO, go with the 3rd option. All those cpus are great for gaming. And, future titles that will ask for quads, you are getting an i5 then anyway. G620 will not bottleneck you 6870 and that will be a good gaming machine.

 

[ricardois]

if you plan on gaming, the best option is to take at least a quad core cpu, so yes i would keep the last option an 2500k or Ivy bridge because otherwise you will run into problems with cpu dependant games.

Also be warned that the Integrated graphics is crap, so for now you can use, some games you may be able to run at low graphics, but soon enough you can go for a 6870 or higher, 6950/6970 they will work great with the CPU;

 

[level99]

IMHO, go with the 3rd option. All those cpus are great for gaming. And, future titles that will ask for quads, you are getting an i5 then anyway. G620 will not bottleneck you 6870 and that will be a good gaming machine.

Thanks! Yeah I was thinking the graphics card would be most important but wasnt sure if the G620 would be good enough. Good to hear it will work and wont bottleneck!

 

[level99]

if you plan on gaming, the best option is to take at least a quad core cpu, so yes i would keep the last option an 2500k or Ivy bridge because otherwise you will run into problems with cpu dependant games.

Also be warned that the Integrated graphics is crap, so for now you can use, some games you may be able to run at low graphics, but soon enough you can go for a 6870 or higher, 6950/6970 they will work great with the CPU;

But considering that I plan to upgrade in a year anyway wont one of the lesser proccessors with a better graphics card do for the time being? I would like to be able to play some games now and in a year it would be either a proccessor upgrade or a graphics card upgrade so I would be spending the money either way.

 

[ricardois]

i think it is easyer to upgrade only the graphics card later, than changing everething, CPU/MOBO, etc...

and i would recommend at least a 4 physical Cores cpu for gaming nowdays.

you will face lag and throtlling at some games that are cpu dependant.

 

[level99]

i think it is easyer to upgrade only the graphics card later, than changing everething, CPU/MOBO, etc...

and i would recommend at least a 4 physical Cores cpu for gaming nowdays.

you will face lag and throtlling at some games that are cpu dependant.

I wouldn't have to change the mobo though. The pentiums and i3 are are LGA 1155 Sandy bridges just like 2500k. And supposedly ivy bridge will be LGA 1155 as well. I have an asrock z68 extreme 3 gen 3 mobo.

 

[ricardois]

Right, yes if you wan't to do that ok the graphics iS more important, but i would say go for i5, and wait a little soon there are coming new graphics card, maybe waiting worth your while new 7000 series and nvidia is also coming with 600 series.

 

[level99]

Best answer selected by level99.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey