Core i7 860+ GTX 480 (or HD 5870) or Core i5 750+HD 5970?

[blu3flannel]

My budget has increased and I just want to know which is the better deal. I will be mainly gaming along with Photoshopping, encoding, and schoolwork. What do you guys think?

 

[samdsox]

what is your res, budget, ect use sticky but personaly i would go for 5870. 5970 is over priced and i don't like nvidia. lol

 

[blu3flannel]

Resolution- 1080p
Budget- $1300 (I have everything else picked out, I just want to know how to config the graphics card and processor)

 

[blu3flannel]

Personally, i dont plan on doing eyefinity, its out of my price range and id rather put the cash into hardware.

 

[brennon7]

I guess you're right.. you will never have enough money in the future to buy two more monitors......(slaps forehead).

 

[eloplayspolo]

I guess you're right.. you will never have enough money in the future to buy two more monitors......(slaps forehead).

hahaha

As far as your question - get the 5970 with the i5 - bigger diff in gaming and u will notice it more and more in the future with this set up.
just wondering what your running for 1300 if you get a 5970.... that leaves u at most 650 for the rest of your parts.

 

[blu3flannel]

Im getting some parts paid for so i have more cash to put into other stuff, an i just wanted to know if the 5970 was actually worth it now or if i could just get a 5870 now and crossfire later.

 

[asteldian]

If your comp is a standard 1920 x 1080 I would go with the 5870, the 5970 is overkill for that kind of monitor resolution. So unless you are going the Eyefinity route that 5970 is a whole lot of power for very little reason, seems like a lot of money spent without the benefit

 

[brennon7]

If your comp is a standard 1920 x 1080 I would go with the 5870, the 5970 is overkill for that kind of monitor resolution. So unless you are going the Eyefinity route that 5970 is a whole lot of power for very little reason, seems like a lot of money spent without the benefit

Very true...I did have one 5850 with an i5 750 and I could MAX out every game with AA at 1080p. The only one I couldn't was Crysis.

So...I would get a the cards in this order 5970...GTX 480....5870...GtX 470...5850... But all those will be fine at 1080p

 

[whatelsematters]

nvidia cards should not be even be an option for your build. they have a terrible combination of price/performance, while ati has three excellent performers at three different price points. the ati cards are quieter, cooler, and use much less power.

also the i7-860 is a bad choice. the i5 has better performance for gaming and is cheaper, and if you need hyperthreading the 930 is a small bump in price and much faster.

in the end, the i5 with a 5870 or a 5970 will be great for games at your resolution. if you decide to go with the 5870 you may be able to fit in an i7-930 into your budget.

good luck with your build!

 

[eloplayspolo]

nvidia cards should not be even be an option for your build. they have a terrible combination of price/performance, while ati has three excellent performers at three different price points. the ati cards are quieter, cooler, and use much less power.

also the i7-860 is a bad choice. the i5 has better performance for gaming and is cheaper, and if you need hyperthreading the 930 is a small bump in price and much faster.

in the end, the i5 with a 5870 or a 5970 will be great for games at your resolution. if you decide to go with the 5870 you may be able to fit in an i7-930 into your budget.

good luck with your build!

the only part of this i agree with is the nvidia part...

the 860 is an amazing processor, and seeing that he doesnt need 6gb of Ram, he has no reason to go to it, hes gonna spend more money for things he will see 0 difference in.

The i5 and i7 are both pretty future proof for gaming, they will last you prob 3-4 years. if your budget allows it get the 5970, it will last you prob 3-4 years as well and when you buy that card, you hvae the comfort of knowing, it cant get better than this, i can play anything i want with everything turned up and its gonna look better than anything around.

 

[whatelsematters]

here are some gaming numbers for the i7 860 vs the i5 750. there is a tiny difference here.

the reason why the 860 is not a good choice is because it is nearly $100 MORE than the i5 750, for a very tiny performance increase.

so no, the 860 is NOT an amazing processor, at least when it comes to gaming.

 

[blu3flannel]

I do do encoding and Photoshopping as well as video editing, thats why i have the i7 860 in there.

 

[whatelsematters]

and i'm saying if you need hyperthreading, you'll get much more "bang for your buck" or whatever if you buy a 930. you don't NEED 6gb of ram and a faster processor, but it's a much more logical choice than an under-powered and still expensive 860. but whatever, it's your money.

 

[blu3flannel]

You do realize that it's an extra $200 to get a decent X58 motherboard and a set of triple channel memory modules, right? I just don't have that kind of money, and unless you can cook up a CPU/mobo/RAM combo that can fit my budget, I'll kindly eat my words.

Edit:

Eating my words, I found an X58 setup that's within my price range... Now to decide what graphics card to pair it with... Any suggestions? GTX 480? 470? HD 5870? 5850? (The addition of the X58 setup now rules out the 5970, plus it was just pointless anyway)

 

[whatelsematters]

i would get the 5870 if you can fit it in to your budget. the 5850 (which i have!) is great also if you don't feel that the speed increase is worth the price difference. i run 1900x1200 (with an i5-750) and i can max almost every game. metro 2033 is an exception, but then again i haven't overclocked my video card at all, either.

once again, the nvidia cards are overpriced, use tons of power, and are loud and hot. unless they come down quite a bit in price the ati cards are just a better value at the moment.

 

[foxmulder13]

go with i7 860 and 5870!

 

[blu3flannel]

True, I've only heard bad things about the GTX 4xx cards, but this YouTube video kinda scared me a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XdsEblVhkc

 

[whatelsematters]

the 5870 remains the better choice for the reasons i've already mentioned. the nvidia cards are hotter, louder, less power efficient, and the cost isn't justified by their performance.

 

[cangle]

I would go with the i5-750 and the xfx 5870 black edition if your main use is gaming since video games now are almost 100% gpu dependent. The 5970 is overkill and extremely priciy unless you want to play crysis with all settings maxed out and get high fps. If you will be spending more time with Photoshop and encoding, then an i7 860 or an i7 930 would be a better choice for you.

 

[blu3flannel]

I will be spending some amount of time with PS and encoding, but it's predominantly gaming and overclocking. Is there that much of a difference between the i7 860 and the i7 930 (is it worth forking up the cash for a more expensive mobo and triple channel memory?)?

 

[whatelsematters]

I will be spending some amount of time with PS and encoding, but it's predominantly gaming and overclocking. Is there that much of a difference between the i7 860 and the i7 930 (is it worth forking up the cash for a more expensive mobo and triple channel memory?)?

yes, because you're talking about a totally different socket. the 1156 socket, which is the socket for the 860, doesn't really have much of a future. intel has, as least as far as you will be concerned upgrade-wise, ended its development on this socket. the 930 is based around a 1366 socket, which is better for several reasons, including full 16x/16x gpu support and intel's new hex-core processors. basically, it's a good option for future upgradeability (which you sacrifice by going with 1156) and excellent performance now.

 

[blu3flannel]

Dude, youre on fire; this the second best answer im giving you. Im just gonna go with an i7 930 and 5870 and upgrade to another. Thanks for talking me out of the GTX 480, i looked up some other stuff and found it wasnt really all that great for the price. If anyone else wants to post feel free, but ive pretty much made up my mind.

 

[blu3flannel]

Best answer selected by blu3flannel.

 

[ares1214]

uhh, yes everything he said is right, but the 1366 socket is likely going to be replaced lol...so no future proof, you would have to do the amd 1090T for a lot of future proofness. and yeah, 1090T+ 5870 would probs be the best.