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A suitable gfx card for this build.
- Thread starter Jaypwns09
- Start date
Thanks, so the zotac 9800gt ok, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-135-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938 was recommended but which would be better? I'd rather go with the cheaper one saving me more money but yeah..
WoW should run fine, GTA4 will have to be played on low to medium settings, expect 30-50 fps average with lower settings.
I would stick with the quad, it's a bargain at that price and the PC will be more responsive with four cores compared to just two, GTA4 loves CPU cores and speed.
I would stick with the quad, it's a bargain at that price and the PC will be more responsive with four cores compared to just two, GTA4 loves CPU cores and speed.
Soldato
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- 23 Apr 2009
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From what I hear Wow is a rather CPU heavy game, but will run perfectly well on a dual core, GTA4 on the other hand basically requires at least a triple core CPU to run. Therefore I would strongly suggest against downgrading to a dualcore, especially when you are planning to get such a good quad core for a mere £110.
Personally, at that budget, I'd make the following change:
* drop the processor to an Athlon x4 or x3, for about £25 or £50 saving,
* replace the PSU with a 400W corsair for a saving of about £25
* use the money saved to get a more powerful graphic card, like a ATI HD 5770 or NVidia GTX 460 (if you can push that far).
While an Athlon will not perform quite as well as a Phenom II at the same speed, an Athlon + a 5770 will dramatically outperform a Phenom + a 4850, for gaming purposes. It won't be quite as powerful for non-gaming tasks, but will still be very good.
* drop the processor to an Athlon x4 or x3, for about £25 or £50 saving,
* replace the PSU with a 400W corsair for a saving of about £25
* use the money saved to get a more powerful graphic card, like a ATI HD 5770 or NVidia GTX 460 (if you can push that far).
While an Athlon will not perform quite as well as a Phenom II at the same speed, an Athlon + a 5770 will dramatically outperform a Phenom + a 4850, for gaming purposes. It won't be quite as powerful for non-gaming tasks, but will still be very good.
Soldato
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There's plenty of reviews around but in general the lack of cache on the Athlons does hurt performance and even when overclocked to PII levels it can still be 10% to 20% slower. Again I would check out some of the reviews of overclock Athlon II's and see what you think.
IMO you should get a Core i3/H55 LGA 1156 setup, faster at stock, overclock better, (again look at the reviews compared to the Athlons) and you can get a full Core i3/H55, 4Gb, Corsair 400 Watt PSU, Seagate 500Gb hard drive, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2, Coolermaster Elite 334 case, Opitcal drive and a Radeon HD5770 for £415 here at OCUK less shipping for so it comes in just £5 over budget.
Dual core with hyperthreading, but if you did go down the Intel route you'd be able to upgrade to an 8** series core i7 at a later date.
WOW uses about half a core on my 1055T
hyperthreading doesnt improve performance by much though the way some people go on you would think it doubled a cores performance.
It's true that in games the Athlon can be 20% slower than the Phenom. It is often much closer though.
So, what i suggested, is buying a graphic card that is 2x as fast (or faster), in which you'll lose maybe 20% of your power: so you are still MUCH faster than you would have been if you'd stuck with the pricier processor.
This guy is on a strict budget, and expensive CPUs that are only marginally more powerful than the alternative are not a good choice.
If he goes with my suggestion, the Athlon now, he can upgrade to phenom later if he needs to (though he probably wont) - even a 6 core one. But he gets outstanding gaming performance immediately.
Mind you, that's not a bad package, if it really can be built at that price. Still, I'd be wary of going dual core (even with hyperthreading). We are right now at the point where games are beginning to demand more than two cores.