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?

 

[a4mula]

Let's see. 860 out performs 930 @ stock speeds. 860 is 95w tdp vs 130w tdp. 860 runs cooler, overclocks easier, costs less, has more agressive turbo boost.

I'm sorry how exactly is 860 a waste?

Oh, upgradeability, and 8x/8x...

1156 supports 16x/16x if you pay for a premium mobo, and it'd still be cheaper than 1366.

Upgradeability? Sandybridge?

1366 is a waste.

 

[blu3flannel]

Haha, nice. But should I cut down on my graphics card (480 to 470) to be able to SLI at 16x/16x? I mean, I would get another, but I would also get another 480 down the road as well. Should that factor into it?

 

[a4mula]

I'll leave Nvidia for people that know Nvidia. I bought a 5870 then the 5870 Eyefinity 6 and never looked back. I honestly have no idea about the Fermi.

 

[blu3flannel]

I still dunno, I like the stability of Nvidia drivers and it doesn't seem like ATIs cards are very stable. Anyone care to object?

 

[strongdc]

Since you will be upgrading in 2-3 years, putting money in 930, 1366 seems a waste to me. Better go with 750 or 860 if you get it cheap like a4mula pointed out.

Luckily neither me nor my friends who have ATI have stability problems.

 

[blu3flannel]

I might just get a GTX 480 now and SLI when I can afford both a new card and a better PSU. Well, do I really need something over 750w to run two GTX 480s in SLI?

 

[blu3flannel]

Okay, so I just decided to go with a Core i7 930 (X58 so I can do full SLI) and a GTX 480 now (adding another one in a couple of months). Any objections or flaws?

 

[coldsleep]

Just be aware of your power requirements.

According to: www.slizone.com, 2x 480s needs at least a 950W power supply. The smallest power supply certified for 3x 480s is 1200W.

 

[blu3flannel]

Yeah, I have a Kingwin Mach 1 lined up to buy, that should be fine, right?

 

[coldsleep]

The 900W and up are on the approved list for dual-SLI.

 

[foxmulder13]

the 860 isa b etter gaming chip....it's faster in benchmarks then the 920