What processor for a 7970?

[los]

So what processor would you recommend to go with a 7970? Also at what clocks?
I'm guessing maybe 8320/50 for AMD @ 4.5ghz, then a 4670k for intel also prob at about 4.5ghz?
Also what about 2 x 7970 would that need a 4770k or would a 4670k be ok?
This is for new games coming out, so I'm guessing as they should be able to use more cores 8320/50 and 4670k should be about on par?
Obviously the older games the 4670k will win.

 

[los]

Oh and I'm guessing an I3 or 6300 will bottleneck it?

 

[wazza300]

4770k @ anywhere from 4ghz+

 

[los]

Oh and what motherboard for the haswell is Z87 the best?

 

[los]

4770k @ anywhere from 4ghz+

is that for one or two 7970's?

 

[wazza300]

Yes,Pref one that supports xfire 16x8x

And Yh for xfire 7970 a 4770k,you could go 4670k but you'd lose hyperthreading

 

[los]

Nice one cheers

 

[joeyjojo]

Save yourself some money, Anandtech recommend an A8-5600K for 1, or an 8350/2500K/3570K for dual.

A CPU for Single GPU Gaming: A8-5600K + Core Parking updates

If I were gaming today on a single GPU, the A8-5600K (or non-K equivalent) would strike me as a price competitive choice for frame rates, as long as you are not a big Civilization V player and don’t mind the single threaded performance. The A8-5600K scores within a percentage point or two across the board in single GPU frame rates with both a HD7970 and a GTX580, as well as feels the same in the OS as an equivalent Intel CPU. The A8-5600K will also overclock a little, giving a boost, and comes in at a stout $110, meaning that some of those $$$ can go towards a beefier GPU or an SSD. The only downside is if you are planning some heavy OS work – if the software is Piledriver-aware all might be well, although most processing is not, and perhaps an i3-3225 or FX-8350 might be worth a look.

A CPU for Dual GPU Gaming: i5-2500K or FX-8350

Looking back through the results, moving to a dual GPU setup obviously has some issues. Various AMD platforms are not certified for dual NVIDIA cards for example, meaning while they may excel for AMD, you cannot recommend them for Team Green. There is also the dilemma that while in certain games you can be fairly GPU limited (Metro 2033, Sleeping Dogs), there are others were having the CPU horsepower can double the frame rate (Civilization V).

After the overview, my recommendation for dual GPU gaming comes in at the feet of the i5-2500K. This recommendation may seem odd – these chips are not the latest from Intel, but chances are that pre-owned they will be hitting a nice price point, especially if/when people move over to Haswell. If you were buying new, the obvious answer would be looking at an i5-3570K on Ivy Bridge rather than the 2500K, so consider this suggestion a minimum CPU recommendation.

On the AMD side, the FX-8350 puts up a good show across most of the benchmarks, but falls spectacularly in Civilization V. If this is not the game you are aiming for and want to invest AMD, then the FX-8350 is a good choice for dual GPU gaming.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6934/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-single-multigpu-at-1440p/9

 

[los]

Yeah I just read through that thanks, everywhere you look tells you different things lol.
I would never get a 2500k though as they are silly money a 3670k isnt much more new than tey go for second hand

 

[wazza300]

If your buying new go for haswell,no idea with amd,but there chips are usually slower than intels,and vice versa for the integrated graphics

 

[Martini1991]

If you're buying new, go for Haswell.

Lol at the a 5600K with a 7970 (I love the part about it being a 1440p review) Forgetting the ridiculous limited game choice, etc, etc.
And FX83 with Dual GPU is a no go, the i5 to be honest isn't a foolproof solution with multi-gpu either.
Bar Civ, the i3 isn't exactly choking in single GPU, and you'd be a nut case to pair it with a 7970.

If you've got a limited budget, the FX8320 option is okay, but it's not going to always 100% the card.
But don't base your purchase on JoeyJojo's link.

 

[teppic]

As you're looking at new games coming out, the 8320/50+ and 4770K will perform the best. I would not recommend an APU - if you needed to keep costs minimal the 6300 is the choice (it's cheaper than an A10, and performs much better). Game developers recommend for upcoming titles an 8350 over an i5, due to the way the new engines work (relying much less on single thread brute performance, and on several parallel threads).

Most new games will not be hammering all cores on a CPU. At the moment most become bottlenecked because of reaching the limit on a single core (which the new engines aim to resolve). If you look at benchmarks of core usage on some recent games you'll see one at 95-100% and the others often at 30-40%. New engines aim to reduce this as much as possible. Crysis 3 and Far Cry 3 are the first steps in this direction - the first big game doing it will be BF4.

 

[~>Dg<~]

game devs don't recommend amd cpus over intel lol.

people just say this because consoles use amd. they use amd because they budget for that and are cheaper than intel for decent performance.games will always run better on intel for the foreseeable future.

7970 i would use less than a 2500k oc or 8320 oc or 8350 i5 3570k or above . this is obviously single card you want double card only option is intel i7.

 

[teppic]

We approached a number of developers on and off the record - each of whom has helped to ship multi-million-selling, triple-A titles - asking them whether an Intel or AMD processor offers the best way to future-proof a games PC built in the here and now. Bearing in mind the historical dominance Intel has enjoyed, the results are intriguing - all of them opted for the FX-8350 over the current default enthusiast's choice, the Core i5 3570K.

.. but AMD has the potential to offer more performance at the same price-point - as Avalanche Studios' Chief Technical Office, Linus Blomberg, tells us.

"I'd go for the FX-8350, for two reasons. Firstly, it's the same hardware vendor as PS4 and there are always some compatibility issues that devs will have to work around (particularly in SIMD coding), potentially leading to an inferior implementation on other systems - not very likely a big problem in practice though," he says.

Secondly, not every game engine is job-queue based, even though the Avalanche Engine is, some games are designed around an assumption of available hardware threads. The FX-8350 will clearly be much more powerful [than PS4] in raw processing power considering the superior clock speed, but in terms of architecture it can be a benefit to have the same number of cores so that an identical frame layout can be guaranteed."

 

[almighty15]

Don't listen to that anandtech article... they're idiots....

If you play mostly single threaded games then you need an Intel i5, if you only play new games that are mutlithreaded then you can get a slower AMD chip.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Save yourself some money, Anandtech recommend an A8-5600K for 1, or an 8350/2500K/3570K for dual.





http://www.anandtech.com/show/6934/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-single-multigpu-at-1440p/9

You are taking that article out of context.

That articale is "Choosing a Gaming CPU: Single + Multi-GPU at 1440p, April 2013"

At the 2560 res it obviously gonna need lots of GPU power, and with just 1 GPU, the frame rate would have course drop to below an average, or low-end quad-core CPU.

For 1920 res or below, the A8-5600K would be quite a big bottleneck for even mid to high-end graphic card.

 

[joeyjojo]

Martini and others - the article may be out of date already, I forgot to mention that. I still think it makes a very good point which gets forgotten in this subforum - that most new titles at large resolutions are so GPU-bound (especially with all the effects up) that you can choose a fairly modest CPU and still have great FPS. I say most, as there are definitely a large minority which need a (sometimes extremely) fast CPU as well.

That articale is "Choosing a Gaming CPU: Single + Multi-GPU at 1440p, April 2013"
...
For 1920 res or below, the A8-5600K would be quite a big bottleneck for even mid to high-end graphic card.

What you've written contradicts what the article concludes. They found the A8 was NOT a significant bottleneck for a single 7970.

Clearly knowing the OP's monitor resolution and choice of games is essential!

Personally I'd go for an 8320 if I was buying new and OC it to 8350.

 

[Make]

Secondly, not every game engine is job-queue based, even though the Avalanche Engine is, some games are designed around an assumption of available hardware threads. The FX-8350 will clearly be much more powerful [than PS4] in raw processing power considering the superior clock speed, but in terms of architecture it can be a benefit to have the same number of cores so that an identical frame layout can be guaranteed."

How does the game know the difference between 8 threads (4770k) and 8 cores (8350) if they appear the same in Windows, and the one with 8 threads beats the one with 8 cores in performance in every possible calculation at the present time?

Sounds like manufacturer lobbing.

Edit: Also, why would the developers NOT optimize the games for both intel and amd, if roughly half of the users of high-end hardware are on one. Would they just ignore the other half and tell em to switch camp? I don't think so. It does make it easier to do it for AMD CPU's if it's a port from a console, but then again some devs have said that the console ones are ported from PC.

 

[los]

I'm at 1080 at the moment. Cant see it changing in the near future. It's mainly for the newer games that are coming out as in gta5 bf4 and the next gen games with the exception of wow and humble bundle games but my 6300 runs them Ok. Ideally I would like a new motherboard then one of the new amds when released but they might not be am3+ so would rather get a guaranteed performer, rather than buying a motherboard now then having to geta new motherboard and then a new motherboard and processor in the not so distant future.

 

[joeyjojo]

I wouldn't recommend buying a PC for games which aren't even out yet. Steamroller should be out this year AFAIK, and prices will only go down across the board.