TX 550Ti VS GTX 460 ?

Berneh · 17 May 2011 at 16:31

Hiya guys i have my eye on a couple of systems one has a phenom x4 and a 460
other has an i3 and a 550TI, and im totally stumped as to which one i should get :S

cheers guys
Bern

cmndr_andi · 17 May 2011 at 16:41

Is that an i3 nahalem (three digits in the model number) or i3 sandy bridge (four digits in the model number? Also, is the phemom X4 a Phenom 1 X4 or Phenom II X4?

As for GTX 460, is that the GTX 460 768MB or 1GB versions as the 1GB has more ROPs and a wider memory bus - as well as more video RAM.

As for the GTX 550 TI, if you look at this review it isn't as good as even the 768MB version of the GTX 460.

Berneh · 17 May 2011 at 16:45

cmndr_andi said:
Is that an i3 nahalem (three digits in the model number) or i3 sandy bridge (four digits in the model number? Also, is the phemom X4 a Phenom 1 X4 or Phenom II X4?

As for GTX 460, is that the GTX 460 768MB or 1GB versions as the 1GB has more ROPs and a wider memory bus - as well as more video RAM.

As for the GTX 550 TI, if you look at this review it isn't as good as even the 768MB version of the GTX 460.

its an i3 540 and a phenom x4 840 95w, and both the cards are 1GB matey

Randall8686 · 17 May 2011 at 16:47

Defo the 460 mate

cmndr_andi · 17 May 2011 at 17:08

So a Phenom II X4 840 and a GTX 460 1GB in the first system?

That's better configuration for gaming than an i3 530 + GTX 550 Ti.

Instead of buying a pre-build, have you considered building the system yourself?

Berneh · 17 May 2011 at 17:12

cmndr_andi said:
So a Phenom II X4 840 and a GTX 460 1GB in the first system?

That's better configuration for gaming than an i3 530 + GTX 550 Ti.

Instead of buying a pre-build, have you considered building the system yourself?

hmm if i do go the self build route would the i3 and a 460 be a good combo for my weak budget ?

cmndr_andi · 17 May 2011 at 17:19

An i3 2100 sandy bridge would be a good choice on a low budget (it costs about the same as an i3 540 new and is newer tech and a good deal faster in games).

May I ask what your total budget for your system is, what you will be mainly using the system for and do you need anything apart from the tower (monitor, mouse, speakers etc.)? With this info i'd be happy to put together a list of components that will all work together and you can assemble yourself.

Here is a well written guide to building a PC if you are interested.

Berneh · 17 May 2011 at 17:25

cmndr_andi said:
An i3 2100 sandy bridge would be a good choice on a low budget (it costs about the same as an i3 540 new and is newer tech and a good deal faster in games).

May I ask what your total budget for your system is, what you will be mainly using the system for and do you need anything apart from the tower (monitor, mouse, speakers etc.)? With this info i'd be happy to put together a list of components that will all work together and you can assemble yourself.

Here is a well written guide to building a PC if you are interested.

i have built pc's before but not for a long while, i think the basics should still be the same although i would have to get another anti static strap i suppose, i want a gaming machine really, the one im using now is terrible and wont even run dead space.

my budget would be roughly £500 or thereabouts

thanks in advance matey

cmndr_andi · 17 May 2011 at 17:37

How does this look?

If you can stretch the budget a bit then going for a quad core i5 like this instead of the i3 would be money well spent.

Berneh · 17 May 2011 at 18:01

ooh that looks perfect matey thanks a lot, i might have to get my building hat on then as i'm a bit rusty, and the i5 would be an extra £40 hmmm
yeah i'll probably do that then, will take me a few weeks to save the cash anyway, then i can look into maybe overclocking the cpu a touch, never done it before so i dont want to make any mistakes

thanks a lot andi

cmndr_andi · 17 May 2011 at 18:08

Yea, building it won't be too tough, if you have built PCs before then it hasn't changed much - apart from getting a bit easier (with tool-less cases and SATA connections instead of IDE).

As for overclocking, with sandy bridge overclocking is a bit complicated. The H67 and H61 boards can't be used to overclock the CPU at all, you need a P67 or Z68 board for overclocking. Even then, you really want a "K Series" CPU like the i5 2500K which has an unlocked multiplier to do proper overclocking. Non-K Chips can overclock a bit, but how how it goes is artificially limited.

That said, even if you don't overclock the sandy bridge CPUs are very fast already (as you can see in this review).

Phenomenologica · 17 May 2011 at 18:49

You can happily overclock the GTX460 as well for a bit of extra value for money. I'm not sure how good the cooler is on the OcUK one in the basket there, but on my MSI cooled one I can get it to 900Mhz stable using afterburner without temperatures becoming too obscene. Very nice bump up from the stock clock!

CrixxzeH · 17 May 2011 at 19:29

@cmndr_andi,
i woulden't even bother considering the i3 for gaming tbh, it's technically only a dual core, future games wont be able to take advantage of the other 2 threads.
i would suggest saving and getting the i5 deffinatly.

cmndr_andi · 17 May 2011 at 19:39

Aye, the i3 is only a hyperthreaded dual core - but the 2100 is a very fast hyperthreaded dual core and as you can see from these gaming benchmarks it holds up very well to quad cores in a range of modern games, so if the OP just can't stretch to an i5 then I would still go for the i3 over the Phenom II X4 840 (which is effectively an Athlon II due to the lack of L3 cache).

That said, I certainly agree that if the OP can stretch to afford the i5 sandy bridge quad core then it will be well worth it as it will be faster overall and hold up to modern games for longer due to using cores which are just as fast as the i3, but twice as many of them.

Berneh · 18 May 2011 at 18:39

ok i have been checking price differances and things like that and i'm the kind of guy that thinks "hmmm an extra £50 here and there could really help" like an idiot, so anyway i thought about adding these instead too the above build im just wondering if its compatible

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-361-IN
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-167-MS

also im not sure that board will let me use dual cards, if i wanted to use dual cards next year what would be the best and cheapest board (i know that best doesnt factor into cheapest)

cheers

cmndr_andi · 18 May 2011 at 18:44

Looks good, that board will picked can't do dual cards, but this one which is £10 more can -at proper x8/x8, plus it supports both SLI and crossfire (just make sure you get a PSU that will power both cards), it also support CPU overclocking. All-in-all a very nice board.

As for the CPU, I would strongly suggest going for this CPU, as it can overclock to the sky (aim for 4.5GHz) and is £5 less than the non-K 2500. The only problem is it doesn't come with a stock cooler - but if you go for this cooler then you will be able to keep it cool and quiet and overclock it pretty far.

Also, in terms of graphics card, the HD 5850 is now at £120 (same price as the GTX 460 1GB). This is how the two cards compare:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/313?vs=295

Berneh · 18 May 2011 at 19:47

cmndr_andi said:
Looks good, that board will picked can't do dual cards, but this one which is £10 more can -at proper x8/x8, plus it supports both SLI and crossfire (just make sure you get a PSU that will power both cards), it also support CPU overclocking. All-in-all a very nice board.

As for the CPU, I would strongly suggest going for this CPU, as it can overclock to the sky (aim for 4.5GHz) and is £5 less than the non-K 2500. The only problem is it doesn't come with a stock cooler - but if you go for this cooler then you will be able to keep it cool and quiet and overclock it pretty far.

Also, in terms of graphics card, the HD 5850 is now at £120 (same price as the GTX 460 1GB). This is how the two cards compare:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/313?vs=295

hmm the cpu looks awesome tbh but i really want an nvidia card because eveonline is working close with nvidia with physx and i want to be in on the ground floor with that one, also i think they put something in their game recently that favours nvidia over ati seeing as loads of people using ati cards are having new problems duel boxing clients

lol considering i started with a 500 budget im gonna be broke for the next few months to buy all this kit

Titchy · 18 May 2011 at 20:02

Berneh said:
hmm the cpu looks awesome tbh but i really want an nvidia card because eveonline is working close with nvidia with physx and i want to be in on the ground floor with that one, also i think they put something in their game recently that favours nvidia over ati seeing as loads of people using ati cards are having new problems duel boxing clients

lol considering i started with a 500 budget im gonna be broke for the next few months to buy all this kit

Hehe i always do the same , the budget gets blown out the water !
Deffo stretch for the i5 if you can though for reasons all ready mentioned.

cmndr_andi · 18 May 2011 at 21:00

Berneh said:
hmm the cpu looks awesome tbh but i really want an nvidia card because eveonline is working close with nvidia with physx and i want to be in on the ground floor with that one, also i think they put something in their game recently that favours nvidia over ati seeing as loads of people using ati cards are having new problems duel boxing clients

That makes sense - GTX 460 1GB it is then.

Berneh said:
lol considering i started with a 500 budget im gonna be broke for the next few months to buy all this kit

Lol, I know what you mean. However, you can justify it by saying "well i'm investing in slightly more expensive, but much faster kit - so I'll be saving money in the long-term as I won't need to upgrade for longer" - that's the way I justify my kit to myself anyway

Berneh · 18 May 2011 at 21:28

cmndr_andi said:
That makes sense - GTX 460 1GB it is then.

Lol, I know what you mean. However, you can justify it by saying "well i'm investing in slightly more expensive, but much faster kit - so I'll be saving money in the long-term as I won't need to upgrade for longer" - that's the way I justify my kit to myself anyway

lmao thats my reasoning exactly , i havent built a system for years so now im thinking "hmm so i dont have to do all this again and mither the fine dwellers of overclockers i best do the best i can now"