i5+5850 or 550BE+5870

D

Daezuel

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Sep 27, 2009
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I sold off my old computer and only have a laptop currently so I need an all new set up. I'd like to go the dx11 route and I do game quite often though it is mostly MMO's. I run at 1920x1080. I am sort of wary about ATI as my 1800xt went bad and started artifacting non stop, while my 7950GT ran perfectly for 4 years.

I'm trying to keep my build under a certain dollar amount so this question has been tumbling in my mind ever since I found out about the 5800 series.

Question is, would you rather have an i5 750 with a 5850 or a 550BE with a 5870. (Assuming the the 550BE will get OC'ed)
 
really? a modern intel quad core paired with a 5850 versus a phenom 2 dual core strangling off a 5870? even if you overclocked the x2 the 5870 would still be thirsting for more from the cpu (unless you managed to unlock the 2 additional cores; highly doubtful), while a well overclocked i5 quad might give that 5850 all it can handle. don't be mean to your 58xx video card, give it a fast friend to play with.
 
Is it really that rare to unlock all 4 cores on the 550BE? I was under the assumption that its not. Also, even at 2 cores it should be able to hit 3.8 on air?

I realize its not in the same league as the 750, however the 500BE is $100+ cheaper where I live. Cheaper ram too? Just figured that money would go into the video card. At least, this is why I'm torn.
 
i5 750 gets my vote. This is even coming from an AMD fan. The i5 is simply a better CPU and it comes with 4 guaranteed cores.
Preliminary numbers puts the 5850 at around 85% the speed to the 5870. At the rez you play at you should still have plenty of power for a while.
 
try to keep the unlocking of phenom 2 cores in perspective. the people posting are the ones who are successful at unlocking the cores. you hardly ever hear from those who fail.
 
I have been leaning to the i5, just wish I lived near a Microcenter!! I just don't know if I can see myself paying $400 for a video card either, but just for once I'd like to have something top of the line! lol.

Thanks for the opinions guys.
 
Can we assume the i5 will get oc'd ? If it was me, I would lean towards having a more powerful CPU for MMOs any day.
 
Tbird87 said:
Can we assume the i5 will get oc'd ? If it was me, I would lean towards having a more powerful CPU for MMOs any day.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I want to OC the i5 right out of the box but eventually I'm sure I would. I'm taking a break from MMOs for the time being, but I'm definitely going to be picking up the KOTOR mmo when it comes out.

I'd like to catch up on all of the fps games I've been missing out on the last couple of years and it would be nice to play with no lag and all of the effects on at 1920x1080 for once. Definitely want to play the new Batman game.
 
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Daezuel said:
I sold off my old computer and only have a laptop currently so I need an all new set up. I'd like to go the dx11 route and I do game quite often though it is mostly MMO's. I run at 1920x1080. I am sort of wary about ATI as my 1800xt went bad and started artifacting non stop, while my 7950GT ran perfectly for 4 years.

I'm trying to keep my build under a certain dollar amount so this question has been tumbling in my mind ever since I found out about the 5800 series.

Question is, would you rather have an i5 750 with a 5850 or a 550BE with a 5870. (Assuming the the 550BE will get OC'ed)
Click to expand...

I think that would depend on what your going to be doing, as a simple gaming system I would go with the 5870. most games are still far more GPU then CPU dependent. As a rule of thumb you usually get more game per buck spending it on video cards. Rarely does a better cpu equate better game play. (this is to a point, clock speed is important here). Having said that I would go with a tricore over clocked.

Now if your doing anything seriously I would go with the i5. esp if you do a lot of high end tasks.
 
Having owned a 550, go with the i5. Its a great chip and all, but its really for low-end systems.
 
Depends on if you want to upgrade often, Intel is the King of killing sockets and chipsets
if you get a Core I5/I7 1156 board, even with the latest bios in a year, you might not beable to run the 1156B socket chips ect, also AMD boards usally start off with 2X16 2.0 slots and go to 3/4 @ 8x, intel boards with that much expansion are $$$, you could add 5870/5850 and fill up the slots over time, where Intel board might run 16x 2.0 or 2x 8x 2.0, and not much further!
=
Bet on AMD for the long haul, bet on Intel for out of the box speed
 
Well my last system was a 939 3200+ oc'd to 2.6 and a 7950gt for about 4 years if that is any indication. (never OC'd the 7950 because of my 1800xt crapping out on me) That said, I've been pretty unhappy with the performance on anything outside of wow and cod4 for a long time.
 
A 550BE + 5870 combo is just too much video card for a system, the GPU will be held back by the processor. The 750 + 5850 is much more balanced.
 
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