Suggested CPU + other questions - Modern Warfare 2 Forum: Free Call of Duty MW2 Community

Megika · 11-10-2010, 10:01 PM

So I'm looking at a new system to get a decent framerate/level of graphical quality on games like Bad Company 2, Just Cause 2, Crysis 2 etc.

Right now I'm thinking of buying a 460 GTX, and so my first question: is there a significant performance difference between the 768MB and 1GB versions? Is it worth ~$30?

With that I'm planning on ~4GB of DDR3 memory - would I benefit significantly from 6 or 8GB? Also, why would there be such as price difference between this and this?

What CPU should I buy with this?

Finally, what motherboard would be suggested for this - I really have no idea how to go about selecting one.

No specific budget, but lower is (much) better.

**abc** · 11-11-2010, 08:05 AM

Upon reading Bad Company 2, Crysis 2 etc the first question that needs to be answered is what resolution are you going to be using? A GTX 460 of any variation will handle those games at high (not completely maxed in the case of exceptions, such as Crysis games) but if you're using a very high res you'll need to aim higher in terms of GFX card.

The difference between the 786MB and 1GB version depends on money. The 1GB is something like 6.66% faster but 10% more expensive in the UK at least. Depending on where you live (relative prices are different in the UK compared to the EU, the US and AUS etc) The higher the res, the bigger the difference more video card memory will make. Given the entire cost of the computer, £15~ for another 5% FPS is quite attractive. For the CPU route, if lower cost = "much" better, then it simply has to be an i5, which would benefit from an ATI card as it'd give the option of crossfire (you can either buy a slower card now to make building it cheaper, and buy a second to cope with crysis 2 etc - OR you buy a good card now, and in 6 months "finish" your build by buying a second whilst they are still in production but prices have fallen significantly - If you're realistically never going to buy a second card then you may as well go the GTX 460 route because it's cheaper than the equiv. ATI card and nVidia is a better quality product.)

1600MHz etc is the speed at which the RAM operates. Those 9-9-9-24 etc numbers are the time it takes it to do individual tasks. Those numbers (9-9-9-24) work out at something like 0.00000000033 seconds. Needless to say this really isn't worth bothering with! If you overclock then lower timings can give you an extra 200MHz etc. The other difference between the cheap and expensive stuff is the heatsink, the dominator will be much cooler thus overclocking even better. XMS3 will be fine

on a 64bit OS, 6GB would be a fantastic compromise in terms of price/performance. By all means it can be done but you sacrifice some OC'ing potential (again depending on the user this may completely rule it out, or make no difference whatsoever)

As long as you get a CPU which is adequete, it then really doesn't matter what you do - you could go for a 6 core CPU that would be fantastic at video editting or just go with a Quad which would be better value for gaming and normal PC usage. Intel i5 760 is a recommended happy medium. Latest architecture (meaning it's extremely efficient. I.e. lots of performance per GHz) Quad core. 2.8GHz is quite fast anyway for a quad. Has a very successful "turbo mode" which OCs automatically a small bit when the temps/CPU-usage permits.

If you have to go AMD (usually works out a little cheaper) then it's got to be a phenom II. Just get whichever you can afford, 955, 965, the 970, 1075t etc. AMD architecture is not as efficient as Intel's (i.e. a 3.4GHz AMD performs the same as an Intel CPU at only 2.66GHz... it is quite a difference even though those numbers are approximate!) but the CPUs are a little cheap and they do affordable (well, compared to Intel's £500 or whatever) 6-core CPUs if you require one.

If you go for an i5 (If I were building a PC now it'd have an i5) there are only two types of MOBO which would actually work, the H55, H57 and P55. Each brand will make a few P55s each with slightly different numbers/types of connectors, RAM support & build quality etc. As you're building a performance computer then a "P55" motherboard would be greatly recommended. If you want CF capabilities, get a CF one. Otherwise they'll all support your 1600MHz RAM, they'll all have the features you'd want (surround sound etc) The more expensive ones have more of everything (e.g. 10 USB connectors instead of 4, or two GFX card slots instead of one) and are made from higher quality components so OC much better. As with everything if 4 USB slots is enough and you won't OC then the cheap one is fine.

The AMD 870 and 880 motherboards look very good. With motherboards it's always good to aim midrange in terms of price. The cheap 880s for example you may be better off with a high end 870, and the uber-expensive 880s you may be better off with a mid price 890.

Hope you've got a corsair CPU. If budget becomes tight, OCZ etc is acceptable but will reduce OC'ing potential by 15% say (again this may be irrellavent)

Olaf Vikingsson · 11-11-2010, 11:12 AM

Wow. That was amazing.

Cloud · 11-11-2010, 11:30 AM

Probably off the top of his head

Megika · 11-11-2010, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abc

Upon reading Bad Company 2, Crysis 2 etc the first question that needs to be answered is what resolution are you going to be using? A GTX 460 of any variation will handle those games at high (not completely maxed in the case of exceptions, such as Crysis games) but if you're using a very high res you'll need to aim higher in terms of GFX card.

1920x1080

The difference between the 786MB and 1GB version depends on money. The 1GB is something like 6.66% faster but 10% more expensive in the UK at least. Depending on where you live (relative prices are different in the UK compared to the EU, the US and AUS etc) The higher the res, the bigger the difference more video card memory will make. Given the entire cost of the computer, £15~ for another 5% FPS is quite attractive. For the CPU route, if lower cost = "much" better, then it simply has to be an i5, which would benefit from an ATI card as it'd give the option of crossfire

This implies that SLI isn't an option with an i5?

(you can either buy a slower card now to make building it cheaper, and buy a second to cope with crysis 2 etc - OR you buy a good card now, and in 6 months "finish" your build by buying a second whilst they are still in production but prices have fallen significantly - If you're realistically never going to buy a second card then you may as well go the GTX 460 route because it's cheaper than the equiv. ATI card and nVidia is a better quality product.)

The 6 series seems like it would be a good option for later CF.

1600MHz etc is the speed at which the RAM operates. Those 9-9-9-24 etc numbers are the time it takes it to do individual tasks. Those numbers (9-9-9-24) work out at something like 0.00000000033 seconds. Needless to say this really isn't worth bothering with! If you overclock then lower timings can give you an extra 200MHz etc. The other difference between the cheap and expensive stuff is the heatsink, the dominator will be much cooler thus overclocking even better. XMS3 will be fine

on a 64bit OS, 6GB would be a fantastic compromise in terms of price/performance. By all means it can be done but you sacrifice some OC'ing potential (again depending on the user this may completely rule it out, or make no difference whatsoever)

6GB it is then.

As long as you get a CPU which is adequete, it then really doesn't matter what you do - you could go for a 6 core CPU that would be fantastic at video editting or just go with a Quad which would be better value for gaming and normal PC usage. Intel i5 760 is a recommended happy medium. Latest architecture (meaning it's extremely efficient. I.e. lots of performance per GHz) Quad core. 2.8GHz is quite fast anyway for a quad. Has a very successful "turbo mode" which OCs automatically a small bit when the temps/CPU-usage permits.

i5 it (probably) is then.

If you have to go AMD (usually works out a little cheaper) then it's got to be a phenom II. Just get whichever you can afford, 955, 965, the 970, 1075t etc. AMD architecture is not as efficient as Intel's (i.e. a 3.4GHz AMD performs the same as an Intel CPU at only 2.66GHz... it is quite a difference even though those numbers are approximate!) but the CPUs are a little cheap and they do affordable (well, compared to Intel's £500 or whatever) 6-core CPUs if you require one.

No particular need for AMD.

If you go for an i5 (If I were building a PC now it'd have an i5) there are only two types of MOBO which would actually work, the H55, H57 and P55. Each brand will make a few P55s each with slightly different numbers/types of connectors, RAM support & build quality etc. As you're building a performance computer then a "P55" motherboard would be greatly recommended. If you want CF capabilities, get a CF one. Otherwise they'll all support your 1600MHz RAM, they'll all have the features you'd want (surround sound etc) The more expensive ones have more of everything (e.g. 10 USB connectors instead of 4, or two GFX card slots instead of one) and are made from higher quality components so OC much better. As with everything if 4 USB slots is enough and you won't OC then the cheap one is fine.

The AMD 870 and 880 motherboards look very good. With motherboards it's always good to aim midrange in terms of price. The cheap 880s for example you may be better off with a high end 870, and the uber-expensive 880s you may be better off with a mid price 890.

Hope you've got a corsair CPU. If budget becomes tight, OCZ etc is acceptable but will reduce OC'ing potential by 15% say (again this may be irrellavent)

Corsair do CPUs? Is that a typo?

SgtJoo · 11-11-2010, 07:04 PM

I think he meant PSU?

Megika · 11-11-2010, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SgtJoo

I think he meant PSU?

I figured so.

My current one is 550W (unsure of brand) - if I end up going with CF or SLI, what would I be looking at?

**abc** · 11-14-2010, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megika

My current one is 550W (unsure of brand) - if I end up going with CF or SLI, what would I be looking at?

Correct(ish) & I see where the confusion came from. There are maybe between 3 and 5 P55s (out of 100s?!?!) which can do SLI. All the rest ONLY do crossfire.

Each GFX card can get 75w from the PCIe lane and a further 75w from a 6 pin PCIe power connector. That puts two GFX cards @ 300w. A good rule of thumb is that no-name PSUs can only make half of their wattage (so 275w) Also factor in upto 140w for a CPU etc etc Get a better PSU for CF/SLI.

Beware of the HD6000 marketting scam. 6850 is slower than a 5850. 6870 is slower than a 5870.

R.E. RAM you may wish to get 2x2GB + 2x1GB instead of 3x2GB. Although if you're having 6GB because the lower OCing potential doesn't matter, then I guess you don't mind losing 1% performance by using 3x2GB over the 2x1 + 2x2 option because 3x2 is probably much cheaper.

Megika · 11-14-2010, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by abc

Correct(ish) & I see where the confusion came from. There are maybe between 3 and 5 P55s (out of 100s?!?!) which can do SLI. All the rest ONLY do crossfire.

Huh. Okay.

Each GFX card can get 75w from the PCIe lane and a further 75w from a 6 pin PCIe power connector. That puts two GFX cards @ 300w. A good rule of thumb is that no-name PSUs can only make half of their wattage (so 275w) Also factor in upto 140w for a CPU etc etc Get a better PSU for CF/SLI.

Something like a Corsair 750W sufficient/overkill?

Beware of the HD6000 marketting scam. 6850 is slower than a 5850. 6870 is slower than a 5870.

Yes, but looking at benchmarks the 6850 looks just about identical to the 460 GTX - each might have a one or two greater average fps than the other, depending on the game, and they're a very similar price.

R.E. RAM you may wish to get 2x2GB + 2x1GB instead of 3x2GB. Although if you're having 6GB because the lower OCing potential doesn't matter, then I guess you don't mind losing 1% performance by using 3x2GB over the 2x1 + 2x2 option because 3x2 is probably much cheaper.

Yeah, tiny performance loss isn't a concern. I can get another 2GB later (total 4x2), right?

Thanks for all the help! It looks like it'd cost me $65 for motherboard compatible with SLI - I'm guessing it's not really worth it?

Fandom Ruck · 11-14-2010, 07:40 PM

CF/SLI Performance Scaling

Quote:

Originally Posted by abc

Beware of the HD6000 marketting scam. 6850 is slower than a 5850. 6870 is slower than a 5870.

Yeah, the 6870 is a next gen 5770 & the 6950 will be the next gen 5850.

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