My friend updated his old computer with an AMD Phenom II x6 1090t and...

[JQB45]

He wants to know what is the most powerful graphics card he can use with it. What is the best video card he can use before bottlenecking outweighs the cost of the graphics card.

Also what is the ideal memory arrangement for the 1090t hexacore CPU. He wants to know if 4 sticks of DDR3 1600 will cause it to revert to single channel mode. Versus Dual Channel.

His wallet is burning a whole in his pocket so quick responses are needed.

Thanks in advance, and the most logical answer gets picked.

Jeff

 

[ryon137]

He wants to know what is the most powerful graphics card he can use with it. What is the best video card he can use before bottlenecking outweighs the cost of the graphics card.

Also what is the ideal memory arrangement for the 1090t hexacore CPU. He wants to know if 4 sticks of DDR3 1600 will cause it to revert to single channel mode. Versus Dual Channel.

His wallet is burning a whole in his pocket so quick responses are needed.

Thanks in advance, and the most logical answer gets picked.

Jeff

Honestly he should sell that computer and build his own. Anything AMD is not something I would invest in. At least for processors.

 

[JQB45]

Follow Up. I suggested an AMD 63xx, 8GB DDR 1866 and a nvidia 970 but he is deaf apparently

 

[Azn Cracker]

I wouldn't spend more than $200 on a gpu with that old cpu.

Maybe a r9 280x for $190. It is OC'ed and a relatively big card. Make sure the power supply is good enough and case is big enough.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131533&cm_re=r9_280x-_-14-131-533-_-Product

If not you can opt for the EVGA gtx 960 for $180

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487091&cm_re=gtx_960-_-14-487-091-_-Product

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You can use 4 sticks. It will still be dual channel because they run in pairs

 

[soldier5637]

At max, a GTX 960. I myself have an AMD CPU in my gaming rig, The FX 6300. It works good...but just. It only JUST doesnt bottleneck my system for games, and thats with it OC to 4.6 GHz. That old phenom would bottleneck very easy and he might have trouble playing a few games with it.

 

[JQB45]

Thanks Azn. soldier and ryon.

 

[coozie7]

I'll assume a single 60Hz 1080 display.

There's a lot of power still in those old parts: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,review-32901-5.html your friends Phenom sits one tier above my old i5 750 setup and I know full well THAT can run even modern, demanding games very well at 1080 rez if you're realistic with game settings.

My suggestion: Something around the R9 280 for value or the R9 280X for a little more eye candy while the 'new' R9 380 is a little quicker than the R9 280 and a little slower than the R9 280X.
Nvidia only have the GTX960 in this performance category and its about on par with the R9 280 but TBH you'd need to run benchmarks and check the results to see the difference.
If he really wants to push it I would suggest the R9 290, but check the prices carefully, I'm only making this suggestion because some are being heavily discounted, at full price they're still too close to the far superior GTX970 which is pushing that bottleneck you are worried about (the R9 290 will be restricted a bit, but it SHOULD be cheaper than a GTX970 making the bottleneck a bit easier to live with ).
Be aware, the AMD cards can draw a fair bit of power (especially the big R9 290) so check the power supply can handle your card of choice and that it will fit the system case ( should be no problems with the R9 280, R9 380 or the power sipping GTX960).

Stick to matched pairs of memory modules and the MB should run them all in dual channel mode at the same speed, try not to mix base speeds ( DDR 1600 and DDR 1866 for example) and don't worry about the timings unless he's going to get into overclocking.

 

[AS118]

I agree with those who recommend a 380 or a 280x or 280. The 4gb 380 is better than the 2gb 380. I don't recommend the 960, it only has 2gb of 128-bit ram, and isn't as powerful as the 380 or 280x. If your friend wants to try out Freesync later, the 4gb 380 supports it, while the 280's do not.

 

[JQB45]

I know this is an old thread but in the end he chose a 980ti with a blower style fan because he seemed to dislike the concept of 2 or 3 fans. He also claims that if a laptop needs more then 1 fan then its not done right...