Min CPU for GTX 650 Ti

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Nov 26, 2006
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Ok so I have been holding off for a very long time, but I want to build a relatively budget minded gaming PC. I am wanting to build it around a geforce GTX 650 Ti. Now I want to save as much money as I can on other components but I also don't want to bottleneck the video card.

I would like to get some opinions (and benchmarks to back them up if possible) on what is going to be the minimum CPU for the task.

Right now I am eyeing the Pentium G2020 (2.9Ghz dual core) its about $65 which is a good price point for this build... but is it enough CPU?

Any help would be awesome.

P.S. I would like the choices to be current gen, so on intel's side ivy bridge, or on amd trinity or vishera.
 
I ran a Pentium G840 with my Titan for a little while waiting for new board and CPU to arrive, and it worked fine. You should be OK with that setup. Benchmarks like 3Dmark11 won't do well but games will play without issue.
 
Ok so I have been holding off for a very long time, but I want to build a relatively budget minded gaming PC. I am wanting to build it around a geforce GTX 650 Ti. Now I want to save as much money as I can on other components but I also don't want to bottleneck the video card.

I would like to get some opinions (and benchmarks to back them up if possible) on what is going to be the minimum CPU for the task.

Right now I am eyeing the Pentium G2020 (2.9Ghz dual core) its about $65 which is a good price point for this build... but is it enough CPU?

Any help would be awesome.

P.S. I would like the choices to be current gen, so on intel's side ivy bridge, or on amd trinity or vishera.

how much really its your budget?.. i'll really bet more for a i3 than a pentium... bit more expensive yes, but also more powerfull and that mean better performance for a longer time..
 
What resolution do you want to use?

I switched from a C2D E4500 to a C2Q8200 and get much better frame rates in SC2 @1080p

I'm thinking about going for a cheap i5, maybe a 2300.
 
What resolution do you want to use?

I switched from a C2D E4500 to a C2Q8200 and get much better frame rates in SC2 @1080p

I'm thinking about going for a cheap i5, maybe a 2300.
SC2 does not even effectively use more than 2 cores.

and the resolution does not matter if the cpu is a general limitation.

OP, it seems silly to build a pc around a lower end card. get a good cpu so when you upgrade the gpu later then you wont have to upgrade the cpu. IMO if you cant afford an i5 for a gaming pc then dont bother. games need good ipc and some games really need 4 cores so an i5 will get the job done now and for quite a while. in fact I have seen Crysis 3 nearly max out my oced 2500 so I cant imagine it running smoothly the whole time on any dual core.
 
Any Core2Duo or i3 will do just fine. Do not worry about bottlenecking the card, you will never have that issue.
 
A 650ti, it will hardly be a bottleneck. Games that would benifit from 4 cores will benifit but it wont bottleneck the card.
again that is wrong. you said he will never be bottlenecked with "Any Core2Duo or i3" but even the fastest stock Core 2 duo, nevermind the lower end ones, will most certainly hold back a gtx650ti. and if a game "benefits" from a better cpu then that means it was being bottlenecked so you are not making any sense.
 
again that is wrong. you said he will never be bottlenecked with "Any Core2Duo or i3" but even the fastest stock Core 2 duo, nevermind the lower end ones, will most certainly hold back a gtx650ti. and if a game "benefits" from a better cpu then that means it was being bottlenecked so you are not making any sense.

The point is that it would give him decent performance on a budget which is what he wants. He will be able to play most games. The 650ti isnt the fastest card out there. Im using a Q6700(3ghz) with a 7950 and i hardly see a noticable bottleneck. I see no reason why a Core2duo or i3 would be a huge bottleneck...
 
The point is that it would give him decent performance on a budget which is what he wants. He will be able to play most games. The 650ti isnt the fastest card out there. Im using a Q6700(3ghz) with a 7950 and i hardly see a noticable bottleneck. I see no reason why a Core2duo or i3 would be a huge bottleneck...
an i3 sure but not a core 2 duo. and its not like you get an alert saying you could have better performance. your gpu is basically even with my gpu but I guarantee that I blow your performance away in most games. you could have bought a 7870 and gotten the same playable performance as even that would be held back by quite a bit in many games from your older Core 2 quad at 3.0. a 2500k at just 2.2 or so would match your old Core 2 quad at 3.0 and there are games where I have to run my 2500k 4.0 just to get the most from my gtx660ti.
 
At least i know i will be good if i purchase a newer system. I usually tend to keep cards for 2 years at least so i prefer futureproofing.
 
At least i know i will be good if i purchase a newer system. I usually tend to keep cards for 2 years at least so i prefer futureproofing.
well you lose more money on the gpus. by the time you can get full use of that gpu a card with that performance will be 150 bucks. if you want to future proof then get a fast cpu that will last through many gpu upgrades. that makes way more sense because something like a 2500k or 3570k is only just over 200 bucks. i hate upgrading the cpu so that's why I went i5 instead of i3 when I built this pc 2 years ago. and even the 2500k has to be oced to keep up in some games now.
 
Any Core2Duo or i3 will do just fine. Do not worry about bottlenecking the card, you will never have that issue.

what are you saying?.. you don't know how much a Core 2 Duo [email protected] can bottleneck just a GTX 560?.. even the most powerfull C2D botteneck the 560nonTI and i know this cuz In my house one of the PC are that setup.. and i test many times... what can you think about a GTX650TI wich its a more powerfull card?.

well you lose more money on the gpus. by the time you can get full use of that gpu a card with that performance will be 150 bucks. if you want to future proof then get a fast cpu that will last through many gpu upgrades. that makes way more sense because something like a 2500k or 3570k is only just over 200 bucks. i hate upgrading the cpu so that's why I went i5 instead of i3 when I built this pc 2 years ago. and even the 2500k has to be oced to keep up in some games now.

^ totally agree..
 
btw i'm running gtx 660 with an old E5700 :).
In tomb raider 2013, the in game fps sometimes drop to 19 in high quality, no AA, no tressFX
is the i5 3570 or i7 3770 can keep the minimum fps above 40?
 
btw i'm running gtx 660 with an old E5700 :).
In tomb raider 2013, the in game fps sometimes drop to 19 in high quality, no AA, no tressFX
is the i5 3570 or i7 3770 can keep the minimum fps above 40?
even a stock 3570 or 3770 will keep you above 60 fps in that game as well as nearly any other. as it is now you are only getting about half of what that card is cable of and even worse than that when it comes to minimums as you already know. if you are wanting to upgrade the cpu then wait 2 weeks for Haswell though as it will keep the same basic price range so you will get a better cpu for the money.
 
Or the "other" cheap Alternative hand:

Refurbished Llano Quads starting @ 59.99 @ the Egg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113131

ASRock Mobo 49.99 @ The Egg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157332

I've personally tested a E6600 dual core against AMD X3 and X4. The AMD ran my old 260GTX/560Ti2GB both 33 percent faster. From my personal experience dual cores are antiques. You will lose like 10-15 percent going AMD on the Single Core perf over that Pentium Ivy but you get 2x the cores or almost 2x the multi threading of an Intel cheap Dual core, and a "bonus" integrated (better than Intel) GPU for shitz and giggles. If your gonna "someday" upgrade the CPU of the 1155 socket just bite the bullet and get an Ivy Quad 3750(k). Because hell your a gamer and a gamer needs a quad core imo, sorry no dual core recommendations coming from me. ;) Cheap Quad core or bite the bullet and pay almost 4x for the Intel Quad. Just my opinion don't freak out on me guyz.
 
even a stock 3570 or 3770 will keep you above 60 fps in that game as well as nearly any other. as it is now you are only getting about half of what that card is cable of and even worse than that when it comes to minimums as you already know. if you are wanting to upgrade the cpu then wait 2 weeks for Haswell though as it will keep the same basic price range so you will get a better cpu for the money.

yea I thought so.. thx for the info ;) . About Haswell, I think my enermax enp-650awt can't support the minimum current for Haswell power saving option..is it?
 
yea I thought so.. thx for the info ;) . About Haswell, I think my enermax enp-650awt can't support the minimum current for Haswell power saving option..is it?
I am not sure without doing a little research but even if your psu does not support it then you can simply disable the C6 and C7 states in the bios.
 
This is all good info guys... sorry I didn't get back sooner. Just a heads up though, I have no plans of upgrading this PC after I build it. That means two things, A: it does need to be good enough to last at least 2 years and B: I don't need to overkill on the CPU in order give myself upgrade room later... when it comes times to upgrade I will replace the entire computer.

Also I plan to build this as a mini-itx PC so space and cooling will be a constraint so I will be running all the components at stock clocks.
 
I'd personally recommend the Intel Core i3-3220, I think that's the cheapest available ivy bridge i3. The lack of the two extra cores as compared to an i5 isn't a big deal in gaming. The only issue is if you have the extra $60.

I had bottlenecking issues with a GTX 460 on my Core 2 Quad Q6600, especially in MMOs. That was not fun.
 
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