[upgrade] prioritize CPU or GPU?

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PHANT0MSTRANGER

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So basically I have two choices to make.

I can either buy a Core i5 2400 & HD6970 or an AM3 x4 955 & Crossfire HD6870s

The choice is killing me. I've looked at as many reviews as I can and for games it seems that the CF 6870s walk all over the single 6970. The only reason I can afford to CF at all is that the store I'm near is doing a firesale on AM3 700 series boards (i.e $50 US for a 790FX CF board).

I'm not too fussed about how well the CPU performs in applications/compression/benchmarks because I don't really do any of that. From what I could see there isn't really that much difference when your browsing the web or watching movies? Also I cannot buy a decent CF/SLI LGA1155 board on my budget so adding a second 6970 is out the question.

My idea was to slowly upgrade my AM3 setup to Bulldozer. Motherboard first and then the CPU latter.


Any thoughts suggestions? I just want some reassurances as to what the right thing to do is :confused:
 
i5 2500k, 6950 flash to 6970. How about that? Ati drivers blow, I regret buying my 6850 if the drivers didn't blow it would be a good purchase. I can't recommend crossfire.
 
Gaming?

I'd say go for i5 and 6970. It's plenty powerful, and you can always add another one 6 months down the road when the 590 and 6990 pop up, driving the prices down.
 
I can't afford a K series processor. In my country they sell for $100 more than a 2400.

How exactly do ATI drivers suck? None of the reviews (pro or forum) seemed to have any problems with them :/ .

I cant flash a 6950 without voiding the warranty (in New Zealand anyway). I don't have a lot of spare money and if it did die and I had flashed it I wouldn't be able to afford another one :( . I'm basically putting every last cent I have into this upgrade and I need to last at least until this time next year.


@ Deluded - I can't afford a CF motherboard unfortunately. They are very overpriced for some reason; even the cheapest is at least 50% more expensive than the motherboard I could afford to purchase.
 
ATi drivers are good until Crossfire... but since crossfire isn't an option for you, there is no concern :)
 
jeremyshaw said:
ATi drivers are good until Crossfire...
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Ati drivers are pretty meh, games work fine but I have problems with my pc bsoding when going to sleep on the 10.12 drivers, the newer drivers fixed that but there have been constant little problems. Anything after 10.10 (all the hotfixes until I 10.12 the pylons in star craft 2 were missing. It's little stuff like that that makes them suck.

Others get some green screen bsod (i have never gotten this). The newer drivers don't handle old games well. They work fine most of the time but there are little bugs here and there. Nvidia has bugs but them don't seem as bad. Just reading over the forums here and you will get the general idea.
 
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I'm confused. How do these reviewers recommend them then? Doesn't make any sense to me :confused:

. In fact half the time people seem to be giving so many different types/variations of advice and opinions I may as well flip a coin on what to upgrade too :rolleyes:.


However I think I will stick with a 6970 as I can get it relatively cheap @ 7% more than a 6950 and the extra 2GB of memory should help with AA and such come Q3/Q4....I hope :p
 
I'd say the i5 2400 + HD6970 is a fairly well balanced system - tilted somewhat more towards graphics than my own i7 860 + HD5770 (the CPUs are fairly similar in overall performance, mine slightly lower).

I think dual 6870s would simply be a way of increasing the power usage and heat output of your system without significantly improving the performance unless you are playing one of the few games that struggles with a 6970.
 
PHANT0MSTRANGER said:
I'm confused. How do these reviewers recommend them then? Doesn't make any sense to me :confused:

. In fact half the time people seem to be giving so many different types/variations of advice and opinions I may as well flip a coin on what to upgrade too :rolleyes:.


However I think I will stick with a 6970 as I can get it relatively cheap @ 7% more than a 6950 and the extra 2GB of memory should help with AA and such come Q3/Q4....I hope :p
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The 6950 and 6970 have the same amount of ram. Unless you are talking about the newly released 6950 that has less?

They are good cards which is why they are recommended, it's the drivers that suck. For the most part they are good. But you will find little bugs here and there that are annoying.
 
well Magao that was why I was considering the 6870 crossfire setup. I have no Idea how hard Crysis 2 is going to be to run and then theirs Deus Ex 3/ Witcher 2 / RAGE / etc
 
Go with a single card setup, you'll save alot of headaches.

Getting a 6950 and flashing it to a 6970 is probably your best bet, if you're able to get ahold of one capable of it. The reference 6950 has a dual bios feature, it's like a switch in which one setting has the default bios and the other is your custom bios; if one doesn't work, it acts like a fail-safe and allows you to restore the default bios. You can't brick it very easily, and the success rate with an appropriate bios is quite high.

With the money you save from passing on the 6970, pick up a 2500K, and then proceed to overclock it to the moon and enjoy a seriously good gaming experience. I definitely wouldn't purchase a Phenom II nowadays.
 
Just posting from the 'I have crossfire and it works fine' camp here to mix things up a bit. Couple of minor bugs with the catalyst I use [10.12a] like a glitching cursor, but no crossfire problems to report. Huge gain in speed, no crashes, only have to disable CF for some older games, but that's not difficult to do.

I wouldn't go for the Phenom II either way, the Core i5 2400 will tear it a new one, let alone a 2500K if you overclock it. Even on the stock cooler you can get an i5 2500K to be more than double the speed of the Phenom II.
For the cards, HD6850 crossfire or an HD6950 unlocked to the 6970. 6950 route is cheaper and simpler, 6850CF route is faster.
 
PHANT0MSTRANGER said:
Any thoughts suggestions? I just want some reassurances as to what the right thing to do is :confused:
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Do not go for AMD now, they are end of the line.

Do not get a locked Sandybridge, that's like buying a Porsche then shooting out one of the tires.

Do not go for Crossfire if you can get what you need from one card. If 2 inferior CF costs same as 1 single card. Go single.

Do not buy end of the line new today in order to upgrade to new when new tech comes out. You lose 2x money. 1x for buying new now. 1x for buying new later.

Do buy a i5-2500k and overclock that

Do buy a HD6950 then unlock, then overclock.

My i5-2500k and unlocked HD6950 lets me play Crysis Warhead @ 1920x1200, 4xMSAA, all Enthusiast. WOOT!
 
I'd say go single GPU & 2400. I'd ignore the k people if you are paying +$100 for it.

Remember - if you ever want to use it for something besides gaming, the non-k processors have a greater feature set.
 
The 2500K is $30 more than the 2400, why wouldn't you buy it? Also, non-K CPUs don't have a greater feature set? Are you sure you're not comparing the i7 versions to the i5 versions?
 
samuelmorris said:
The 2500K is $30 more than the 2400, why wouldn't you buy it? Also, non-K CPUs don't have a greater feature set? Are you sure you're not comparing the i7 versions to the i5 versions?
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Pricing for him is different over there than here.

I'd say single card and the i5-2400. If you can afford it, get the i5-2500. Not sure about pricing over there. Single card is less of a headache than crossfire (I had crossfire 5770 before).
 
Where is "over there"? I'm actually from the UK but seeing a figure in $ I assumed he'd be american, or perhaps canadian, which makes little difference to prices.
Here in the UK it's an additional £38 ($50 before tax) for a 2500K over a 2400.
 
samuelmorris said:
Where is "over there"? I'm actually from the UK but seeing a figure in $ I assumed he'd be american, or perhaps canadian, which makes little difference to prices.
Here in the UK it's an additional £38 ($50 before tax) for a 2500K over a 2400.
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Read the thread? New Zealand.
 
Ah I looked for it in the original post, didn't think to check the others :/
The i5 2500K is only NZ$56 more at ascent.co.nz.
 
samuelmorris said:
Ah I looked for it in the original post, didn't think to check the others :/
The i5 2500K is only NZ$56 more at ascent.co.nz.
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But if the price difference really is too much where he lives (could be due to shortages), remember that all Core i5 and up models feature "limited" overclocking:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_11.html#sect0

You can overclock all operational modes of the processor 4 CPU bins above the top turbo. All you need is to make sure you buy a P67 chipset. This will not be as fast as a fully-unlocked overclock, but Sandy Bridge at 3.6 GHz will destroy any Phenom chip in existence (even overclocked).
 
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