Which route to follow?

yannis76 · 25 Jun 2013 at 15:08

Hello,

I am currently using in my HTPC an AMD Athlon x4 740 with a 7790 card and I can play everything at 1080p with medium - high settings depending on the game. However since the more you play the more you want to upgrade and playing on the big TV has really taken me away from the PC, I am thinking of my 2 options:

1) exchange my 7790 for a GTX660 or 7850/7870 and maybe later upgrade my CPU to the best FM2 that will exist at that time.
2) exchange my AMD CPU+mobo to a Z77/Intel CPU and keep the 7790

As it is now, it seems that the 7790 is a bit bottlenecked by the CPU, but I suspect that as I raise the settings, the CPU speed will affect less.

My purpose is to play at 1080p at almost highest settings but also remain silent and cool since this is for an HTPC (Silverstone GD04). Financially changing the GPU is much more feasible.

thx

yannis76 · 26 Jun 2013 at 07:00

No one???

arc@css · 26 Jun 2013 at 07:45

Although more of a sting to the wallet, I would go for the second option.

yannis76 · 27 Jun 2013 at 09:13

Why? Do you think I would see the most performance difference?
Athlon is not bad at all in everday use (movies, gaming etc) its just that I dont know whether it bottlenecks my 7790 (it probably is)

snips86x · 27 Jun 2013 at 09:55

The z77 with an i5/i7 is better than most AMD Chips with the exception of the 8350. However, AMD chips run hotter, more power hungry they don't overclock as well compared to Intel.

Recommendation would be to get a 3570k and a Gigabyte, MSI or Asus Z77 board, you will see a noticeable difference.

yannis76 · 27 Jun 2013 at 19:44

Please bear in mind its for a gaming htpc, so power and heat do play a role here. I initially chose Athlon because of 65w and low price. Same with 7790. Only 85w power consumption. However I couldn't imagine how much more i would enjoy gaming on the big tv on my couch vs the monitor.

So now i am trying to decide which would be the best thing to do...changing to 660/7850/7870 or changing platform (i would prefer to avoid that)

yannis76 · 6 Jul 2013 at 16:14

Just decided to test the 7790 with an Intel i5-3570 cpu...It seems that GPU speed is indeed more important than CP in 1080p:

Hitman Absolution 1080p high/ultra average fps:
i5-3570: 42/37, x4-740:26/24

Tomb Raider 1080p ultra/utimate average fps:
i5-3570:38/22, x4-740:37/19

Sniper 2 elite benchmark:
i5-3570:22, x4-740:21

As you can see ut clearly depends on the game whether you are CPU or GPU bound, but it seems that even a humble Athlon x4 740 is enough if coupled with a good GPU...