I need opinions.

[Gaby Ioan]

Hello,

I have a monitor with the max. resolution of 1440x900, so it's not full hd.
Now I need opinions about which of the following CPU+GPU will be better if I'm gonna use the pc for gaming (games such as War Thunder, LoL, Smite, BF3 and a bit BF4).

FX 6300 + r7 260x oc 2gb+8 ram
OR
i5 4440 + gtx 750 oc 1gb+4 ram

As you can see, both are budget builds and I don't want to play these at ultra. At least medium with 40+ fps.

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

I'd go for the first build. The extra 4gb of ram will really help. Also, check out World of Tanks if you haven't already.

 

[maddogfargo]

The first build on a good board with good power will OC well and get close to i5 performance. But the i5 will be slightly faster in some games.

I'd still go for the FX 6300 for the 8GB of RAM personally.

 

[TheTurtleTitan]

If you have to choose between only these two systems I'd recommend the first one.
Since you're not gonna play anything like Crysis 3, the extra 4gb of ram and the more powerful gpu are superior to the processor.

 

[Mason678]

The first option would work fine. (maybe not 40Fps but good enough)

In my opinion you should look into the A10-7850K, the newer AMD APU's can supposedly play games like Battlefield right off the integrated GPU. Therefore you don't have to buy a graphics card. if you go with this option be sure to get a motherboard with a PCIe 3.0 slot so if you have to upgrade to a graphics card in the future.

 

[Ninjamilez]

I can't give you a super-specific answer because I'm not that experienced as some people on Tom's but I will give you the advice that I have read. I've done HOURS of reading for my own first build over the past few weeks.

For a 1080p monitor the recommended VRAM for a GPU is 2GB. That will be just good enough for most games of today but a 3GB or 4GB card will be better since 2GB has been the standard for the LAST couple of years and we don't really know how much will be standard for the NEXT couple of years.

From that I'd say that 2GB will probably be fine for yor 900p monitor. Furthermore, if you need to make the decision to spend more on the CPU or GPU I would definitely recommend favouring the GPU.

As for RAM 8GB is deemed enough for gaming but personally I'm playing it safe with 16GB on my 1080p monitor. Bear in mind that with my system I'm aiming for very high specs.

Again, from that I'd say that 8GB would be enough for your system, maybe even 6GB.

Therefore I would say that the AMD FX6300 and R7 260X with 6GB/8GB RAM is your best bet.

REMEMBER: Don't take what I say as final since I've only got into PC building seriously over the past few weeks. That's not to say I'm a total newbie to the technical side of PCs. Have a look around and take advice from multiple sources before you commit to buy.

 

[Ninjamilez]

The first option would work fine. (maybe not 40Fps but good enough)

In my opinion you should look into the A10-7850K, the newer AMD APU's can supposedly play games like Battlefield right off the integrated GPU. Therefore you don't have to buy a graphics card. if you go with this option be sure to get a motherboard with a PCIe 3.0 slot so if you have to upgrade to a graphics card in the future.

I forgot about integrated GPUs for a second there.

If you can wait until Broadwell (which is what I'm doing) the Iris Pro intergrated graphics on those chips will be enough to play Battlefield 4 on 720p at medium settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCqlEd4qEDU

If you put everything down to minimum, I'd say you would probably be okay on 1440x900.

 

[TheTurtleTitan]

Ninjamilez dude I don't think that's a good idea broadwell won't be released untill like Christmas!

 

[Ninjamilez]

Ninjamilez dude I don't think that's a good idea won't be released untill like Christmas!

He may not want to wait until then but, personally, it's what I've decided to do since I was originally planning on building around September time until I heard that Broadwell would be out until Christmas. I can wait a few months.

I'm building around that time because that's how long it will be until I have the money for the build.

 

[TheTurtleTitan]

Well then good luck mate
In fact this convinced me to wait too xD

 

[Ninjamilez]

Well then good luck mate
In fact this convinced me to wait too xD

Haha, I'm glad I helped out.

Are you building an entirely new PC or just upgrading the CPU? If you are, what are you planning?

I'm also waiting for Maxwell. The Iris Pro integrated graphics on the Broadwell chips will be enough until I get my graphics cards.

 

[TheTurtleTitan]

An ENTIRE new pc!!!
Ive had this one for like 9/10 years now xD!
I've listed my components in my own post: need advice on Case for compact gaming/oc build check them out.
But now the motherboard and the CPU have to be changed since I'm gonna go for broadwell.
Ps: sorry for not quoting, I'm on my phone.

 

[Ninjamilez]

An ENTIRE new pc!!!
Ive had this one for like 9/10 years now xD!
I've listed my components in my own post: need advice on Case for compact gaming/oc build check them out.
But now the motherboard and the CPU have to be changed since I'm gonna go for broadwell.
Ps: sorry for not quoting, I'm in my phone.

It's fine, you don't need to use the 'quote' feature. I've just got into the habit of using it when I'm on a thread with where lots of different users are contributing and I need to directly address someone without any confusion.

I've found your thread. I'll post something there when I've finished the post I'm writing in another thread

 

[TheTurtleTitan]

OK!

 

[Ninjamilez]

OK!

I literally just replied now!

 

[Gaby Ioan]

Wow! I wasn't expecting so many answers so fast! I would rather chose the parts for my pc, but like Ninjamilez, I have also just got into PCs, and I think I'm not yet ready to build one myself.

 

[Ninjamilez]

Wow! I wasn't expecting so many answers so fast! I would rather chose the parts for my pc, but like Ninjamilez, I have also just got into PCs, and I think I'm not yet ready to build one myself alone.

I'm lucking in the fact that I know someone who can help me build.

To be honest though, I think I could probably build it myself now. YouTube is full of brilliant channels that have really good PC building guides. Yeah, there are things here and there that you will need to figure out for yourself but those things will be small. Even if you have a problem that you don't know how to fix then come back to Tom's and ask on the forums.

If you do end up building it yourself the I would recommend taking a look at a few different YouTube channels and finding one that has PC building videos and settling on the channel that you like the most.

I posted this in another thread for someone in the same position as me and you.

"LinusTechTips: https://www.youtube.com/user/LinusTechTips
Techquickie: https://www.youtube.com/user/Techquickie
NCIX.com: https://www.youtube.com/user/NCIXcom

Those three channels are managed by one guy, Linus Sebastian. He knows what he's talking about!

OC3D TV: https://www.youtube.com/user/TimeToLiveCustoms

I'm a new subscriber to this channel as of yesterday but I really like this guy. Probably because he's British, like me I'm not sure if he manages the OC3D forums but he's definitely one of the main people behind it. Definitely check out the OC3D forums if you like the channel; they do focus on over-clocking a lot but they probably have some sticky threads on PC building.

https://www.youtube.com/user/razethew0rld

I haven't had a look to see if this channel has any PC building guides but I'd be surprised if they didn't.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bryaneasy

One of my favourite tech-related channels. I would tell you to have a look at his £xxx PC builds but you've already bought all your stuff so there's no need. Again, I don't know if he has any PC building videos but, just like the last channel, I'd be surprised if he didn't."

 

[Shodoman]

I can't give you a super-specific answer because I'm not that experienced as some people on Tom's but I will give you the advice that I have read. I've done HOURS of reading for my own first build over the past few weeks.

For a 1080p monitor the recommended VRAM for a GPU is 2GB. That will be just good enough for most games of today but a 3GB or 4GB card will be better since 2GB has been the standard for the LAST couple of years and we don't really know how much will be standard for the NEXT couple of years.

From that I'd say that 2GB will probably be fine for yor 900p monitor. Furthermore, if you need to make the decision to spend more on the CPU or GPU I would definitely recommend favouring the GPU.

As for RAM 8GB is deemed enough for gaming but personally I'm playing it safe with 16GB on my 1080p monitor. Bear in mind that with my system I'm aiming for very high specs.

Again, from that I'd say that 8GB would be enough for your system, maybe even 6GB.

Therefore I would say that the AMD FX6300 and R7 260X with 6GB/8GB RAM is your best bet.

REMEMBER: Don't take what I say as final since I've only got into PC building seriously over the past few weeks. That's not to say I'm a total newbie to the technical side of PCs. Have a look around and take advice from multiple sources before you commit to buy.

Your off to a good start but still. Resolution and vram are related -> higher resolution means you need more vram if you plan on playing only on a 1080p monitor and games will have textures appropriate to this resolution then you probably won't need more then 2 GB ever. Also there is no future proofing especially in the gpu market which is evolving very fast in our days. Get a 4 GB videocard now with 6000Mhz speed and when 4 GB cards become mainstream and they have 9000Mhz memory speed you'll have a 33% handicap. And you've payed a lot more for it.

From what i know you can get 6gb of memory only from 3 sticks of 2 GB, that means having triple channel support and there are few motherboards that have this feature. Get 8 (2x4GB) or 16 (2x8GB) in dual channel, though the latter is not really necessary for gaming at the moment.

Also i noticed in your later comments that you await Broadwell for the Iris pro. I own an Ivy Bridge and trust me in 2 years i've used the integrated video twice, first time to install dedicated graphics and when i had rma dedicated graphics. And i've got VirtuMvp which can help put both graphic resources to good use (kind like sli or crossfire) and it's more of a headache. Also guess where from does integrated graphics get it's memory

I would get the first build also, get a decent cooler and do some overclocking - after you've read some guides about it. If you could squeeze in your budget a R9 270, that would be great.

 

[Ninjamilez]

Your off to a good start but still. Resolution and vram are related -> higher resolution means you need more vram if you plan on playing only on a 1080p monitor and games will have textures appropriate to this resolution then you probably won't need more then 2 GB ever. Also there is no future proofing especially in the gpu market which is evolving very fast in our days. Get a 4 GB videocard now with 6000Mhz speed and when 4 GB cards become mainstream and they have 9000Mhz memory speed you'll have a 33% handicap. And you've payed a lot more for it.

From what i know you can get 6gb of memory only from 3 sticks of 2 GB, that means having triple channel support and there are few motherboards that have this feature. Get 8 (2x4GB) or 16 (2x8GB) in dual channel, though the latter is not really necessary for gaming at the moment.

Also i noticed in your later comments that you await Broadwell for the Iris pro. I own an Ivy Bridge and trust me in 2 years i've used the integrated video twice, first time to install dedicated graphics and when i had rma dedicated graphics. And i've got VirtuMvp which can help put both graphic resources to good use (kind like sli or crossfire) and it's more of a headache. Also guess where from does integrated graphics get it's memory

I would get the first build also, get a decent cooler and do some overclocking - after you've read some guides about it. If you could squeeze in your budget a R9 270, that would be great.

Thanks for telling me something I didn't know. Like I said, I'm still learing

About the integrated graphics. I know that even Broadwell's integrated graphics will still be total garbage compared to any current generation dedicated graphics card. My reason for suggesting it was basically because of budgeting. If the OP isn't bothered about high graphics settings or high FPS then the improved integrated graphics will be okay for this generation of games and MAYBE the next generation as a push, that is if DirectX 12 can help improve the performance of a graphics setup.

I still stand by my recommendation of the AMD FX6300 and R7 260X with 8GB of memory, though.

The reason I'm waiting for Broadwell is because I'd like to wait for Maxwell. I reckon that I could use the Iris Pro iGPU until Maxewll is released. I play a lot of old games so the integrated graphics on the Iris Pro should be enough for that.

 

[Ninjamilez]

Also, regarding VRAM. I've read in a lot of places that Skyrim can use over 3GB with a lot of mods. I know it's an older game now and some people aren't going to be playing it anymore. It's one of the reasons I want cards with at least 3GB of VRAM.

Believe it or not, I've had the game since release and have never been able to play it since my 5 year old laptop can only just barely play it on minimum settings. Back then I wasn't as big of a gamer than I am now so I wan't going to spend a massive amount of money on a gaming PC just to play a few games.

 

[Shodoman]

Also, regarding VRAM. I've read in a lot of places that Skyrim can use over 3GB with a lot of mods. I know it's an older game now and some people aren't going to be playing it anymore. It's one of the reasons I want cards with at least 3GB of VRAM.

Believe it or not, I've had the game since release and have never been able to play it since my 5 year old laptop can only just barely play it on minimum settings. Back then I wasn't as big of a gamer than I am now so I wan't going to spend a massive amount of money on a gaming PC just to play a few games.

Yes well, that's a moded game. I have a 7870 2gb and it;s not enough to get 60+ all the time in oblivion heavily moded, and that's a 8 year old game now. But that's because the game is not optimized. Usualy games come out with optimized textures. On a 1080p screen a 1080p potato will look as good as a 4k potato, but the 4k potato will load slower and take up more vram. You see?

 

[Ninjamilez]

Yes well, that's a moded game. I have a 7870 2gb and it;s not enough to get 60+ all the time in oblivion heavily moded, and that's a 8 year old game now. But that's because the game is not optimized. Usualy games come out with optimized textures. On a 1080p screen a 1080p potato will look as good as a 4k potato, but the 4k potato will load slower and take up more vram. You see?

Yeah, I know that a bigger resolution generally means more VRAM is required.

OP should be okay playing the games that they've listed with 2GB of VRAM at 900p. (War Thunder, League of Legends, Smite, Battlefield 3 and some Battlefield 4.