Best CPU for a GeForce GTX 480

[jgbathlon_guy]

Hi guys!
Long time reader first time poster. I got a GeForce GTX 480 the other day for dirt cheap. I am looking for a decent CPU to drive it. I have a Phenom II x4 840T (Zosma 4-core, non-BE) lying around and a Gigabyte 880G microATX board. Would that CPU be enough to drive it? I see it has a 3.2GHz boost-clock. Right now I'm interested in playing games I missed in college and after, games circa 2005-2014. Those are mostly single-threaded as I understand and I'm wondering if 3.2GHz is enough? But I also have a Phenom II x2 560 BE (Callisto 2-core) @ 3.3GHz which I can OC a bit. I'm thinking of going the dual-core route for extra single-threaded performance? What do you guys think? I plan on dual-booting XP and Windows 7. XP for the DX9.0c games and Fallout 3. Another gem I missed lol. I got a Thermaltake 850W 80+ Bronze PSU (single +12V rail @ 70A) and a Thermaltake 240mm CLC. 4GB RAM.
The point of this it to make use of the GTX 480. It will be used for gaming only. I want to post a log of the build here, but what is the proper way to do that?
Thanks guys!

 

[CountMike]

MB full model and version please. Here is a CPU list for one of the models for instance.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880G-UD3H-rev-1x#support-cpu

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

MB full model and version please. Here is a CPU list for one of the models for instance.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880G-UD3H-rev-1x#support-cpu

Thanks for replying CountMike! The board is a Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H.

 

[CountMike]

You can find exact version in the very left, bottom corner of the MB. It's important as higher versions support more FX processors.
v 1.5 https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-UD2H-rev-15#support-cpu
v 1.4 https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-UD2H-rev-14#support-cpu
v 1.3 and v1.0 https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-UD2H-rev-10#support-cpu

 

[mdd1963]

The GTX480 was a power sucking space heater, and, not really fast enough for too many games made in the last 4-5 years....

If playing older games, any cpu in the last 6-7 years should suffice as long as you know your GPU is severely limited...

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

You can find exact version in the very left, bottom corner of the MB. It's important as higher versions support more FX processors.
v 1.5 https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-UD2H-rev-15#support-cpu
v 1.4 https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-UD2H-rev-14#support-cpu
v 1.3 and v1.0 https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-UD2H-rev-10#support-cpu

Sorry, version 1.4. Thanks!

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

The GTX480 was a power sucking space heater, and, not really fast enough for too many games made in the last 4-5 years....

If playing older games, any cpu in the last 6-7 years should suffice as long as you know your GPU is severely limited...

Yeah I'm playing older games from circa 2005-2014. I got everything, including the right PSU. I hear that NVIDIA GPUs don't age as well as AMD Radeon GPUs??? Thanks guys!

 

[theonerm2]

The GTX480 was a power sucking space heater, and, not really fast enough for too many games made in the last 4-5 years....

If playing older games, any cpu in the last 6-7 years should suffice as long as you know your GPU is severely limited...

Yeah I'm playing older games from circa 2005-2014. I got everything, including the right PSU. I hear that NVIDIA GPUs don't age as well as AMD Radeon GPUs??? Thanks guys!

I know for a fact that these games work on a GTX 460 at 720p and they play good at the lowest settings. Tekken 7 Works at 1080p medium settings gets 60 avg fps, Rise of The Tomb Raider gets 55 avg fps at 720p lowest settings, ProjectCars only tested it at 720p lowest settings and it gets 179 avg fps, DOOM gets 87 avg fps lowest settings 720p, and Battlefield 1 gets 85 avg fps 720p lowest settings.

Now since the GTX 460 can play those games surely a GTX 480 can do the job even better. So I guess... Yes you can keep a graphics card 7 years and it still play a lot of the latest games as long as you don't mind lowering the resolution and settings.

But keep in mind I have 16GB of RAM and a very good CPU.

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

The GTX480 was a power sucking space heater, and, not really fast enough for too many games made in the last 4-5 years....

If playing older games, any cpu in the last 6-7 years should suffice as long as you know your GPU is severely limited...

Yeah I'm playing older games from circa 2005-2014. I got everything, including the right PSU. I hear that NVIDIA GPUs don't age as well as AMD Radeon GPUs??? Thanks guys!

I know for a fact that these games work on a GTX 460 at 720p and they play good at the lowest settings. Tekken 7 Works at 1080p medium settings gets 60 avg fps, Rise of The Tomb Raider gets 55 avg fps at 720p lowest settings, ProjectCars only tested it at 720p lowest settings and it gets 179 avg fps, DOOM gets 87 avg fps lowest settings 720p, and Battlefield 1 gets 85 avg fps 720p lowest settings.

Now since the GTX 460 can play those games surely a GTX 480 can do the job even better. So I guess... Yes you can keep a graphics card 7 years and it still play a lot of the latest games as long as you don't mind lowering the resolution and settings.

But keep in mind I have 16GB of RAM and a very good CPU.

How would a dual-core Phenom II x2 560 @ 3.3GHz base clock (and with a hopeful 300MHz OC ) do? Would it be able to drive the GTX 480? I'm playing 2005-2014 games and as I understand they are mostly single-threaded.

 

[theonerm2]

The GTX480 was a power sucking space heater, and, not really fast enough for too many games made in the last 4-5 years....

If playing older games, any cpu in the last 6-7 years should suffice as long as you know your GPU is severely limited...

Yeah I'm playing older games from circa 2005-2014. I got everything, including the right PSU. I hear that NVIDIA GPUs don't age as well as AMD Radeon GPUs??? Thanks guys!

I know for a fact that these games work on a GTX 460 at 720p and they play good at the lowest settings. Tekken 7 Works at 1080p medium settings gets 60 avg fps, Rise of The Tomb Raider gets 55 avg fps at 720p lowest settings, ProjectCars only tested it at 720p lowest settings and it gets 179 avg fps, DOOM gets 87 avg fps lowest settings 720p, and Battlefield 1 gets 85 avg fps 720p lowest settings.

Now since the GTX 460 can play those games surely a GTX 480 can do the job even better. So I guess... Yes you can keep a graphics card 7 years and it still play a lot of the latest games as long as you don't mind lowering the resolution and settings.

But keep in mind I have 16GB of RAM and a very good CPU.

How would a dual-core Phenom II x2 560 @ 3.3GHz base clock (and with a hopeful 300MHz OC ) do? Would it be able to drive the GTX 480? I'm playing 2005-2014 games and as I understand they are mostly single-threaded.

It should do very well on games from that time period.

 

[CountMike]

So, your CPU options are here https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-UD2H-rev-14#support-cpu
If you are after older, single threaded games, it's frequency that matters most. That MB can take a lot of OC so I would recommend a Phenom II x4 965BE. I had it going at 4.2 GHz just fine. Would need a decent aftermarket cooler though but like that, with 4 cores would be more universal.

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

The GTX480 was a power sucking space heater, and, not really fast enough for too many games made in the last 4-5 years....

If playing older games, any cpu in the last 6-7 years should suffice as long as you know your GPU is severely limited...

Yeah I'm playing older games from circa 2005-2014. I got everything, including the right PSU. I hear that NVIDIA GPUs don't age as well as AMD Radeon GPUs??? Thanks guys!

I know for a fact that these games work on a GTX 460 at 720p and they play good at the lowest settings. Tekken 7 Works at 1080p medium settings gets 60 avg fps, Rise of The Tomb Raider gets 55 avg fps at 720p lowest settings, ProjectCars only tested it at 720p lowest settings and it gets 179 avg fps, DOOM gets 87 avg fps lowest settings 720p, and Battlefield 1 gets 85 avg fps 720p lowest settings.

Now since the GTX 460 can play those games surely a GTX 480 can do the job even better. So I guess... Yes you can keep a graphics card 7 years and it still play a lot of the latest games as long as you don't mind lowering the resolution and settings.

But keep in mind I have 16GB of RAM and a very good CPU.

How would a dual-core Phenom II x2 560 @ 3.3GHz base clock (and with a hopeful 300MHz OC ) do? Would it be able to drive the GTX 480? I'm playing 2005-2014 games and as I understand they are mostly single-threaded.

It should do very well on games from that time period.

Now how would that compare to a Phenom II 840T (Zosma 4-core cut down from 6) @2.9 GHz with 3.2GHz boost? Would I be better off with the dual-core? I guess what I'm asking is, would running a dual-core for games of 2012-2014 bottleneck the GTX 480? Don't wanna run out of cores. It will be a game-only rig with no CPU cycles for other programs.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Definitely will want to upgrade if you want to go newer though. As far as Nvidia cards not aging as well, I would say that may be accurate. To give an example, I'm still running a 7950, those came out in 2012 I think. It can still run most things on medium/high if you turn down AA. I think it's roughly equivalent to a 1050 ti these days from what I can gather. Will soldier along until I can afford an upgrade in a few months. The new Ryzen 1600 and B350 board comes today

 

[CountMike]

Don't settle for 2 cores, otherwise it would be only old games machine and not much good for anything else. Only # of cores + frequency can be good machine.

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

So, your CPU options are here https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-880GM-UD2H-rev-14#support-cpu
If you are after older, single threaded games, it's frequency that matters most. That MB can take a lot of OC so I would recommend a Phenom II x4 965BE. I had it going at 4.2 GHz just fine. Would need a decent aftermarket cooler though but like that, with 4 cores would be more universal.

Definitely will want to upgrade if you want to go newer though. As far as Nvidia cards not aging as well, I would say that may be accurate. To give an example, I'm still running a 7950, those came out in 2012 I think. It can still run most things on medium/high if you turn down AA. I think it's roughly equivalent to a 1050 ti these days from what I can gather. Will soldier along until I can afford an upgrade in a few months. The new Ryzen 1600 and B350 board comes today

Whoa new Ryzen 1600 and B350? Tell me more lol

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

Don't settle for 2 cores, otherwise it would be only old games machine and not much good for anything else. Only # of cores + frequency can be good machine.

So the Phenom II x4 840T @ 2.9GHz boost 3.2GHz would be the overall better choice than Phenom II 560 x2 BE @ 3.3GHz?

 

[CountMike]

Yes definitely. Frequency could always be adjusted, cores can't be added.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Lol. Had an FX 6300 previously. I actually went to microcenter with a limited budget, bought an A320 board and Ryzen 1200. Not bad for a basic setup. But ended up getting a little extra cash in the budget, so am returning within their 15 day return period and going for the big gun lol.

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

Yes definitely. Frequency could always be adjusted, cores can't be added.

I appreciate your responses. Now, how good of an OC do you expect with the locked 840T @ base 2.9GHz? I have a Thermaltake Water 3.0 240mm.

 

[CountMike]

You are limited to OC by FSB only but few hundred MHz should be a breeze. Just go higher (than 200) on FSB and follow it by raising CPU and MB voltages as required but make sure PCIe frequency stays at 100 and Lower the multiplier for RAM because both will go up with FSB and may not be flexible enough. CPU temps shouldn't be a problem with that cooler. You'll hit the voltage wall well before heat wall.

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

You are limited to OC by FSB only but few hundred MHz should be a breeze. Just go higher (than 200) on FSB and follow it by raising CPU and MB voltages as required but make sure PCIe frequency stays at 100 and Lower the multiplier for RAM because both will go up with FSB and may not be flexible enough. CPU temps shouldn't be a problem with that cooler. You'll hit the voltage wall well before heat wall.

All right I'll do just that. Thanks so much for the help CountMike.

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

Lol. Had an FX 6300 previously. I actually went to microcenter with a limited budget, bought an A320 board and Ryzen 1200. Not bad for a basic setup. But ended up getting a little extra cash in the budget, so am returning within their 15 day return period and going for the big gun lol.

Nice. I'll be getting Ryzen 5 1600X soon. I got the Gigabyte AX370 Gaming K7 motherboard @ Amazon a few days ago for $169.99!!!! Reg price was like $209.99!!!!

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Check into the 1600 instead. Guys on youtube and reviews I've been reading suggest the 1600 is 30 dollars cheaper, and comes with a cooler, whereas the 1600x does not. But that the 1600 should clock to about the same levels as the 1600x.

 

[jgbathlon_guy]

Check into the 1600 instead. Guys on youtube and reviews I've been reading suggest the 1600 is 30 dollars cheaper, and comes with a cooler, whereas the 1600x does not. But that the 1600 should clock to about the same levels as the 1600x.

I like the fact I'm guaranteed the 4.1GHz XFR boost clock, I think I read somewhere the silicon is binned for the XFR chips. And it's only $30 more, I'll skip eating out for a month. My games and my jeans will thank me lol.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Ha. Just remember you need a cooler too. No eating out for 2 months lolol. Maybe pair it up wtih one of these.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/373900/Hyper_212_EVO_Universal_CPU_Cooler

Grab an extra 120mm so you can do push pull airflow. Ought to keep it happy for a while.