Graphics Card looking for CPU match!

[Dhansak]

Have a "planning for the future" type quandry but with a twist - so all advice appreciated.

I am a gamer currently using an AMD x2 4800+ and 9800gt(I know..). Then I was offered a good deal on a q6600 chip, P35 neo2 MB and 4Gb of Xreaper RAM.

I bought this from someone at work who was happy to let me test before paying etc. The deal went through ok and I built a PC that was stable for about 10 days then started to go downhill (endless messing around - think the MB is playing up - not even got to the stage of trying to OC). I've pretty
much had it now - have just run out of patience so am trying to assess the best way forward.

Anyway, in order to give the q6600 a nice environment, I bought a decent case and PSU plus a GTX560ti.

Given the CPU, I was only going to get a 460GTX but then talked myself into a 560 which turned into a 560ti lol. Now the Q6600 will be taken out of the picture....

So this is the quandry really - I have reasonably decent GPU that is looking for employment ... so do I

1) Transplant my current AMD + mb into the new case with good PSU and use the gtx560i. Is this CPU so old that the 560ti will be underdriven such that I can't tell the difference between it and the 9800gt?

2) Buy a new MB and CPU to go with the GPU.... what would be the "best fit" for this level of graphics card? (I really have no clue which gpu would bottleneck which cpu and vice versa)


The "future" part of this is that ideally I would like to give 3d gaming a go with Nvidia 3d vision. (I will be buying a supported 120HZ monitor later this year if this pans out ok)

So is there any way that this card could handle 3D with the right CPU behind it? If so - which CPU do you reckon? Hopefully this answer will sort of match the answer to (2) above... If it helps I don't mind dropping lots of eye-candy to get a decent frame rate if that's what it takes.

If its not possible, I will go with your "best fit" recommendations and get a non-120 Hz monitor later instead.

btw - budget is £300-350 fpr CPU+MB+RAM - though no complaints if the bill is lower!


Thanks

 

[Dhansak]

Have been looking through lots of forum sigs (here and elsewhere) and found that many people with the GTX 560ti seem to have the i5 2500k. Is this the sweet spot?

 

[Dhansak]

Excellent - thanks for that Ann1h1lat0r

My ignorance in the dependancy loop re CPU-GPU-3d capabilities (in the mid range budget) has made buying anything at all very entertaining! At least my bad luck with the 2nd hand q6600 system was useful in that it finally drew a line in the sand i.e. I bought a gtx560ti so I have to build realistic expectations and relevant hw purchases based around that.

Hence your comments are really helpful - knowing that the 2500k is good with the GPU is great. Was trying to decide between the I3 2120 and the 2500k. I realise the latter is a much better chip but couldn't suss whether the 560ti would be holding it back.

Thanks also for your comments re 3d - glad to know the 2500k and 560ti combo has got enough oomph for it. Again I couldn't determine which family of monitors to look at until it looked as if 3d was on on the cards or not.

Have been out of pc building for about 5 years too - prior to that was more regular since my first 8088 lol. Never been an overclocker though - so its encouraging that your experience with it has been so positive with knowledge gleaned from these forums.


Thanks again.

Of course any further tips/comments are welcome

 

[Dhansak]

Thanks beej - looks like a very nice shopping cart I won't be adding another GPU later so the list is just right. Not sure about oc a lot - but am amazed you can get about 4 with the stock cooler. My case is an Antec VSK-1000 - it seems fairly spacious so hopefully would fit a good cooler in if I go the proper oc route.

Idleman - I have an "XFX Pro Core Edition 80 plus Bronze" PSU. When I was looking into getting the 560ti initially, other forum members here advised it would be sensible to get a decent PSU to go with it. I plumped for this - hope it was an ok choice?

Thanks for your input guys - appreciated

 

[Dhansak]

LoL sechure thx - fortunately as long as we both meet our savings targets, my wife is ok with anything I spend. The thing is we're both so tight, that we have to convince each other to actually spend money on ourselves! This will be my 5 yearly out-of-hibernation outing for my wallet .... damn cobwebs...

RJC - cheers for noting the requirement for the cpu cooler in the magic sub £300 cart. If I decide to go for the full oc, will use the one in beej's cart or maybe the one OCUK use in their overclocked gaming mb/cpu/ram bundle.

Idleman - when I described my psu forgot to say it is 650w

Do you all reckon there is a significant performance increase in games (frames/sec i guess) from say a 4ghz oc on stock cooler setup vs a 4.5Ghz-ish oc on this chip with a specialist cooler? . You can probably tell from the question that I am a bit twitchy about pushing my luck as I have never oc before....

Thanks again all.

 

[Dhansak]

Thanks beej - am looking forward to the new build. Am probably working nasty hours for a while shortly - will reward myself with the new components afterwards

 

[Dhansak]

Hi all

Just a quick update after many moons! Long story short - finally got the following:

Intel Core i5-3570K
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD

All running well (after help from Stulid - have thanked him elsewhere!). Just wanted to say thanks to you all for your help in getting me up to speed and getting me to the point where I was informed enough to make sensible decisions.

Thanks for taking the time guys - much appreciated