What is the best CPU/GPU for this motherboard?

[kardinin]

I'm resuscitating my older computer. Well, maybe just wholesale organ transplanting, actually. I have this motherboard: gigabyte P55-UD4P motherboard (yeah, I know. old). Would it make sense to pair it with a Radeon 280??

 

[Alpha3031]

If you still have your CPU and it's a overclockable i5 or i7 (which I think all of them are), sure.

 

[kardinin]

Now I currently have an i7-860. Do you know what the best i7 chip would work on this board....?

 

[synphul]

It might do ok with the 280, but it might be bottlenecked a little depending what cpu you have for it. If you need a cpu for it, either you might get lucky and find one fairly cheap used - or you might consider ditching the motherboard for a new setup. Looking at places that still sell 1156 cpu's, they're nearly the same price as a brand new i5 4690k and/or more expensive than an i5 4460. If that's the case it wouldn't be worth it in my opinion. The r9 280 is also a pcie 3.0 card and that motherboard only supports up to pcie 2.0. Not the end of the world but might further limit it's capabilities a bit.

An i5 760 new runs $196.70 and it's 3dmark (futuremark) score is 4830. A new i5 4690k (the latest i5) runs $219 with a 3dmark (futuremark) score of 7000.

If it were a sandy bridge i5 2500k I'd say it would do just fine with the 280 but I think the i5/i7 on that motherboard is going to be a bit of a bottleneck. If I'm wrong maybe someone can correct me.

 

[synphul]

If it's the i7-860 it won't be bad no. By your original question I thought you had just the board and needed a cpu yet to go with the 280.

 

[Alpha3031]

Yeah, just keep your CPU and get the 280. What's your PSU by the way? You may have to replace that.

 

[kardinin]

Yeah, I currently have an i7 860. I have a set of crossfired 5850s that I'm hoping to replace w/ a single discrete card (CF quibbles finally annoying me enough to try a single card setup). My power supply shouldn't be an issue; I've done dual cards for the last 5 years now...

 

[Alpha3031]

Ahh, yes, shouldn't be a problem then. But by another 5 years and the capacitors will have decayed enough to warrant getting a new one anyway. Should be enough for 1 or 2 upgrade cycles though.

EDIT: On the other hand, I don't believe the 280 will be too much of an upgrade. Perhaps you can save more money, wait a few months and look at the GTX 960 or R9 285X, both rumored to arrive this quarter.

 

[kardinin]

Yeah, thanks for all the suggestions. I know the 280 isn't much of an upgrade, but it did cut down on some microstuttering. I'm quite pleased with it and have it locked on 1080p stuff and can do most of my games at 60fps with most things maxed (usually turn down SSAO down a notch and remove fancypants stuff like tesselation and tressFX, and everything runs buttery smooth at 60fps).