What is an inexpensive CPU that would pair well with a GTX 650?

ldelporte

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Mar 31, 2009
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Hello,
It's been a while since I've looked into purchasing a CPU.

A friend of mine gave me his old GTX 650 2GB video card. I have a media center PC that I made from my old PC parts. I would like to use the new GTX 650 in it, but I think it could use a new CPU and motherboard - so that the video card isn't bottle-necked by the existing setup.

I currently have a Intel Pentium E5200 (overclocked to about 3.34 GHz).

Anyways, what would be the cheapest CPU I could buy that would pair well with my GTX 650? I want to get something good enough that my GTX 650 isn't bottlenecked. However cheap I can accomplish that is best.

I thought I probably should get a quad core... but is that necessary? Would a modern dual core with 4 threads suffice?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
Not if you overclock it, but that will require a CPU cooler and more expensive motherboard. However, Intel cores are still more powerful.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($111.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi B85S3+ Ver. 6.x Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($58.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $169.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-05 19:28 EDT-0400

vs

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($59.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M EXTREME4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $142.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-05 19:30 EDT-0400
 
Thanks for your advice. I've opted for the 860K. I will see how it goes without over-clocking... If I'm dissatisfied, I will try to overclock it. $60 is just too tempting of a price.

I still have my office PC which has an i5-2500K and a 560 Ti. So, if a game doesn't run well enough on my media PC, it's not like I can't play it.

Anyways, Thanks again.