HD 4670 Bottleneck?

[Schip]

Hi,
I'm building a new system based on the Radeon HD 4670 Graphics card because the reviews I've read have suggested that this card will mostly handle 1280x1024 resolutions (and I already got a nice deal for it on ebay ). I'm not interested in maxing out this card, but my question is, Which is the mimimum AMD processor (cheapest) that will mostly not bottleneck this graphics card. I'm thinking maybe a 4850e OC'ed to 2.8 or maybe kuma. What do you guys think? thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Outlander_04]

kuma , but if you can stretch your budget then Phenom X2 250

 

[skora]

If you have a HSF, the OEM 7550 is $45. If you can afford another $20 and don't have a HSF, then grab the 7750 retail. Since the older brisbanes aren't going to save you any, stick with the newe chipsets. Don't forget to see if a combo works for you too on those chips.

 

[skora]

kuma , but if you can stretch your budget then Phenom X2 250

I'm assuming he already has a mobo. Will the AM3 Athalon II work in a AM2+ board? Not familar enough with these chips to know myself.

 

[Schip]

Sounds like the Kuma won't be a major bottleneck, but probably ought to avoid the 65nm athlon x2 series . Will the PHII X2 250 provide a substantial benefit over the overclocked kuma. If not I'm thinking Kuma 7550 (for $45) plus the XIGMATEK HDT-S963 92mm for another $25. I'm going to use the ECS A780GM-A Ultra Black Series Motherboard, cuz its cheap and a decent oc'er.

 

[Outlander_04]

I'm assuming he already has a mobo. Will the AM3 Athalon II work in a AM2+ board? Not familar enough with these chips to know myself.

am 3 processors run in am2+ mb's

but am2 processors dont run in am3 mb's

slightly confusing but it does let people upgrade their processor


X2 Phenom is stronger than the kuma
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3572

but an over clocked kuma would probably be faster ..... unless you overclocked the X2 phenom

 

[Schip]

Looks like the ECS A780GM-A Ultra is AM3 ready, but again, I'm only looking for the min processor to drive the HD4670 vid card with out large bottleneck.

 

[Outlander_04]

then the 7750 will be fine

 

[Schip]

Thanks Everyone! And thanks for the link outlander, looks like if I can get the kuma up to 3Ghz it should perform almost identical to PHII X2 250. Kuma it is. Thanks everyone!

 

[rambo117]

nooo, dont get kuma, get at LEAST the athlon II x2. its only 20 bucks more and will overclock soo nicely and remove bottleneckage a ton. the kuma will be hotter, slower, and die sooner.

DONT get the kuma core.

 

[Schip]

True Rambo, the new athlon II x2 will definitely run cooler and over clock better, but I'm not sure it can be verified that it will die substantially sooner. According to the link posted by outlander, a 2.8Ghz kuma is right behind the athlon II x2 250 both of which are driving a GTX280 with out falling way behind a Ph II x4 940 . Can you post a link to suggest a 3.0Ghz Kuma will severely bottleneck the hd 4670, which in turn would suggest that an OC'ed athlon II x2 250 would be much better? If not, remember, all I'm trying to avoid is a substantial bottleneck (as in, >10-15%) on the 4670, and I'm only gaming at 1280x1024, all while remaining as cheap as possible. Thanks for the input bro and for anymore that is to follow. Cheers!

 

[rambo117]

im not saying that the kuma will cause any substantial bottleneck, all im saying is that the athlon II is the better, more efficient buy.
but yes, a 65nm part runs much hotter, uses more energy, and its own heat will kill it faster than a 45nm athlon II(which doesnt even have to be OCed since stock clock is 3ghz which also means that it will take advantage of AMD's Cool n' Quiet technology)
sure, the kuma can make it to 3ghz, but really, its your money to spend. A wise invester would go for the newer architecture, even if its a little more $$$

 

[Outlander_04]

The x2 250 is likely to overclock much higher than a kuma , its also going to run cooler but its a fair bit more expensive

But the Kuma is a good enough cpu for your build and the price is great

 

[rambo117]

if thats the way he wants to spend his money, thats fine but looking at the future, he may want a little more horsepower from his CPU that his 7750 aint gonna give. Athlon II can provide that need incase he decides to upgrade his graphics card.

building cheap is a bad thing to do. i learned that the hard way when i thought id never utilize more than one graphics card and bought a mobo with only one pci express lane. i had to upgrade my whole damn system because i was thinking too small.

 

[Schip]

You make some good points Rambo. I also kind of forgot that cool 'n quiet was not very great until PhII (and subsequent processors). I suppose my biggest reservation at this point is the fact that this is only going to be my machine for six to eight months, at which point I plan on building a decent gaming rig (~1200-1300) with a new HD monitor and the works (I'm donating plasma to get the money ). Right now I'm just trying to get past a sempron le-1200 (see my sig) and hd-3450. But this rig is also something I plan on tweaking quite a bit (homemade water cooling set-up possibly), so that's why I'm so interested in building cheap. Rambo, Thanks for your time and helping me too remember my perspective. Thanks for your help too outlander and skora.

 

[rambo117]

no prob, here to help ya with your purchase!
ohh ok, well if your keepin your rig for only that long than sure, just slap a cheapy kuma in there and keep the pocket change

hope ya have us help you with your next system too

 

[Schip]

Heck ya! It's going to be much more exciting though