What processors work well with Radeon HD 7850?

[Blalack77]

I'm almost definitely about to buy a Radeon HD 7850 and right now I just have a Core 2 Duo cpu. Would the bottleneck be signigicant? If so, I was wondering what processors work well with the 7850 to reduce bottleneck. It sort of crossed my mind to buy an APU, but I didn't know if it was worth it. Overall, I'm looking for something to work well with the 7850, probably something like a quad-core for around $100-150. For reference, I have 6gb of ram and a 750w psu.

 

[Gam3r01]

That processor will bottleneck it fairly hard, the lowest processor you can get without a bottleneck would be around a phenom II X4 965BE. That one wont bottleneck the card. The apu isnt worth it if you are getting a graphics card. But thats on an am3 or am3+ socket. So you would have to switch motherboards.

 

[Kaluditz]

What is your motherboard? Because you can't put a i5 on an old motherboard

 

[sarinaide]

I'm almost definitely about to buy a Radeon HD 7850 and right now I just have a Core 2 Duo cpu. Would the bottleneck be signigicant? If so, I was wondering what processors work well with the 7850 to reduce bottleneck. It sort of crossed my mind to buy an APU, but I didn't know if it was worth it. Overall, I'm looking for something to work well with the 7850, probably something like a quad-core for around $100-150. For reference, I have 6gb of ram and a 750w psu.

I am running off a APU system using a HD6970 which is very close to the HD7850's performance in gaming terms, The APU can drive the 6970 for the most to its limits with very few contemporary games bottlenecking. If you going that route consider the FM2 based Athlon 750/760K parts, alternatively the HD6800K or 6600K is sufficient for the HD7850.

For most gaming standards nowadays you want a quadcore minimum any i5 or AMD FX6300/4300 or older Phenom II x 4s/6s is plenty for today and tomorrows needs.

 

[Blalack77]

I've been looking at the FXs on newegg/tigerdirect, but I can't really seem to find any commonly available Phenom IIs. So basically, something in the FX quad core line would work pretty well?

FX 4100
Phenom II X4 970
Athlon II X4 (What's the deal with Athlon?)

Are these all considerable? And as above, Whats up with Athlon? Also, I have an old socket 775 mobo, I realize I'd have to switch.

 

[MajinCry]

I wouldn't bother with the Athlon.

If you're going for a quad-core FX proccy, the 4350 is the one to go for.

Between the 965 and the 4350, I say go for the FX. The extra L2 and L3 cache is worth the extra couple of dollars.

 

[sarinaide]

I've been looking at the FXs on newegg/tigerdirect, but I can't really seem to find any commonly available Phenom IIs. So basically, something in the FX quad core line would work pretty well?

FX 4100
Phenom II X4 970
Athlon II X4 (What's the deal with Athlon?)

Are these all considerable? And as above, Whats up with Athlon?

The Athlon monika is just a throw back to the old name, like FX was a throw back to FX in the mid 2000's, but it is quintesentially a A-Series APU with a disabled iGPU SIMD. The Athlon x 4 750K is the A8 5500 with no IGPU.

As for the rest of your options;

Phenom II X4 965BE
FX 4300
FX 6300

Avoid the Zambezi based parts, you want a Vishera based part.

 

[petermic]

It would bottleneck it pretty bad. I would go with at least a Core i5 3570k.

 

[sarinaide]

It would bottleneck it pretty bad. I would go with at least a Core i5 3570k.

yeah because these $230 3570K's cost $100-150

 

[logainofhades]

It would bottleneck it pretty bad. I would go with at least a Core i5 3570k.

A 3570k is unnecessary for a 7850.... I would go with at least and FX 6300 though. Which 7850 were you considering?

 

[8350rocks]

FX-6300 for $119.

 

[Blalack77]

This is the card I'm considering:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004

 

[petermic]

This is the card I'm considering:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202004

That is a very good graphics card. If you have the money, go for it!