Opinions needed: CPU vs. GPU?

CPU vs. GPU - which would you choose?

  • e6400 with 8800gts

    Votes: 10 90.9%

  • e6600 with 7950gt

    Votes: 1 9.1%

  • other (please explain)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    11
S

saan44

Gawd
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
Messages
673
I'm trying to keep prices down on my upcoming C2D build and I've got just about everything laid out, but I'd like some opinions on the CPU/GPU choices. The computer will be used primarily for gaming with obvious other tasks (internet, ventrilo, downloads, burning, etc) as well.

I will be going with the evga 680i board and 2x1gb of ddr2-800 as well as the other assorted necessary components. What I'm confused on is whether it would make more sense to get an e6400 and an 8800gts* or an e6600 and a 7950gt. The prices of the two options are relatively close. Obviously the extra horsepower of the gts would help more in games, but I'm worried about losing the extra 2mb L2 cache. Based on all the reviews I've read, that's only about 10% right now (real world probably a bit less) but I was under the impression it was going to make more of an impact down the road. Also, I'll be upgrading from an A64 3200+ and an agp 6600gt so either way this is going to be a significant jump in power for me.

So if you had to make the choice would you skimp on the cpu to get a better gpu or vice versa?

* I don't do any gaming above 1680x1050 (with a gts I might go to 1920x1200) and I'm not an IQ whore so not having AA/AF maxed doesn't bug me at all thus the gts over the gtx.
 
you should be able to easily overclock that e6400 to e6600 speeds and you would have a way cooler graphics card
 
well considering with the 8800gts you get directx 10 and the e6400 will easily overclock to 2.8ghz+. Whereas the 7950gt can't get directx 10 and shitloads of graphical power.
 
Since this is a gaming system, go with the E6400 + 8800GTS. Gaming performance, in most games, is more GPU dependent. On the flip side, GPUs depreciate faster than CPUs, so when's your next planned upgrade? lol
 
enginurd said:
Since this is a gaming system, go with the E6400 + 8800GTS. Gaming performance, in most games, is more GPU dependent. On the flip side, GPUs depreciate faster than CPUs, so when's your next planned upgrade? lol
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Generally every couple of years give or take. Like I said, I'm currently running an A64 3200+ system I built a little less than two years ago. However, I have a real job now (was in college prior) so upgrading a GPU shouldn't be as big of a deal if necessity demands.

On a more global note, I was leaning towards the 6400/gts option and this is only making me a bit more set in my decision. I'll leave it open for a while to get more opinions, but it's definitely making me a little more confident in my thinking. One question though, does anyone have any information of possible future impact of not having the extra 2mb of L2 cache?
 
Most definitely side with the GPU in your case. Even if you aren't overclocking the 6400 will provide more than enough juice to power any GFX cards out today.
 
saan44 said:
One question though, does anyone have any information of possible future impact of not having the extra 2mb of L2 cache?
Click to expand...

Squat unless your doing heavy multitasking
 
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