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Best CPU for a 9800GT?

m1rk

m1rk

m1rk

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Joined
27 Nov 2008
Posts
22
Location
norn iron
Hello everyone. I've just treated myself to a shiny new 512Mb 9800GT to replace my aging 7900GS. I need to upgrade my CPU as well as the old 2.8GHz Pentium D I currently have is holding it back. I have a couple of questions about my upgrade path though...

1. What is the minimum processor I should be looking at in order to get the most out of my card? I was thinking of an 2.5GHz E5200 (which I can get for £71). Would I see a noticable benefit going with a E7300 (£93) or a E8200 (£123). If the difference is only a couple of FPS I don't think I'll bother. From looking at this article it seems like 2.6 Ghz is the sweet spot...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/cpu-gpu-upgrade,review-30828-12.html

2. I need a new mobo as well :) I was thinking of an MSI P43 NEO-F (£59). Is there any reason I should go for a P45 chipset instead? Is it likely to be a better overclocker for example?

3. And finally! I currently have 2Gb RAM installed. Is it worthwhile upgrading to 4Gb?

I'll be doing my gaming at 1280 x 1024

Thanks in advice for any tips / advice :)
 
m1rk said:
1. What is the minimum processor I should be looking at in order to get the most out of my card? I was thinking of an 2.5GHz E5200 (which I can get for £71). Would I see a noticable benefit going with a E7300 (£93) or a E8200 (£123). If the difference is only a couple of FPS I don't think I'll bother. From looking at this article it seems like 2.6 Ghz is the sweet spot...
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forums!

I'm a big advocate of spending twice the CPU cost on the graphics card for gaming so your thoughts are pretty much spot on - I'd go with the E5200. The extra money would be better spent on 4GB RAM

Re: Motherboard - there's not much improvement in the P45 over the P35 unless you are going to be overclocking to the bleeding edge or going with a Crossfire setup, but even then, the differences are not staggering.
 
try to look around for a used E7200...the E5200 is still good but you want all the cache you can get.

Also I agree going for 4gb ram.
 
E5200 is a fantastic chip. The MSI P35 Neo-F is a terrible board though. I had the misfortune of having one for a short time (it got returned). It is a cheap and nasty board built down to a budget. Spend a bit more and get a decent board.
 
depends on the game...some games benefit more than others.
personally i would get the e5200.
i bought one for about 52 quid which is fantastic value
 
Yeah it depends on the game....but you can get used e7200s for 50-70 if you look around...or even an E8200/E8300 for 70-80 would be better
 
Thanks all. I think I'm going to go with the cheap option and get the e5200. I don't want to spend too much as my next upgrade (prob an i7) will need a new mobo anyway :(
 
Installed my new bits and pieces over the weekend and I have to say the difference is amazing. My score in 3d mark has nearly tripled (!) and games like Company of Heroes have been transformed. Was a total breeze to setup. Very happy so far. Here's what I got...

Core 2 Duo e7300
MSI P43 NeoF
Extra 2Gb RAM (Now 4Gb in total)

Unfortunately I can't use 1Gb of the RAM as I'm still on a 32bit copy of XP. Nobody pointed that out to me! Just kidding ;-)

Thanks again to all who helped.
 
E8400. I recently upgraded to it and its very very good. No need to OC it either, stays cool, at 38c max on load in a case with good air ventilation. If you cant afford it though, then the E7200 is fantastic from what I hear. The E7200 wont bottleneck the 9800GT either so it's a good choice.
 
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