Video card and i5

[Discombobula]

I have a i5 and I was considering getting a 6870, I told one of my guild members and they freaked about it. I'm wondering why he thought the idea of having a Radeon HD 6870 and a i5 2500k was a bad idea?

He kept saying "A computer works as a whole" and "The computer is only as fast as its slowest component"

Any ideas? He wouldn't explain it to me.

[Adappy]

Hes probably one of those people who thinks only i7 s are high performance... While the 2500k has virtually the same performance in games.

You'll be fine with that gpu

[dapperedodo]

I got this combo and it's fine for gaming.
An i7 is overkill for gaming anyways and the hd6870 is more then enough for the recent games.

[Discombobula]

That what I said and then he changed to how the MB was the most important part of the computer. I was confused the entire time :/.

[taekvideo]

That what I said and then he changed to how the MB was the most important part of the computer. I was confused the entire time :/.

he's a poser who doesn't know what he's talking about

[Deleted]

he's a poser who doesn't know what he's talking about

I wouldn't go that far. The MB is important, just not for performance.


The friends have a point about the components though.

The i5-2500 is a high-end gaming CPU
The Radeon HD 6870 is a mid-range GPU
__________________________________
In total, they'll leave you with good, but not high-end performance, as the I5 is slightly bottle-necked by the GPU. Not by much and you probably won't notice it in WoW, but it's true.

Generally we say that an i5-2500 needs at least a Geforce GTX 560 Ti or a Radeon HD 6950 to feel comfortable.



Building a balanced gaming PC is not unlike the bank vault heist scene from Fast and Furious 5. If you have two differently powered cars, one will always have to slow down to accommodate the other, meaning you won;t get the most bang for your bucks. Think about it, you're combining a 200 USD CPU with a 150 dollar GPU.

[taekvideo]

I wouldn't go that far. The MB is important, just not for performance.


The friends have a point about the components though.

The i5-2500 is a high-end gaming CPU
The Radeon HD 6870 is a mid-range GPU
__________________________________
In total, they'll leave you with good, but not high-end performance, as the I5 is slightly bottle-necked by the GPU. Not by much and you probably won't notice it in WoW, but it's true.

Generally we say that an i5-2500 needs at least a Geforce GTX 560 Ti or a Radeon HD 6950 to feel comfortable.



Building a balanced gaming PC is not unlike the bank vault heist scene from Fast and Furious 5. If you have two differently powered cars, one will always have to slow down to accommodate the other, meaning you won;t get the most bang for your bucks. Think about it, you're combining a 200 USD CPU with a 150 dollar GPU.

The 6870 won't be bottlenecking anything in wow... you can max wow on a 5770...
For other games yea the 6870 is the bottleneck, but gpu's are usually the bottleneck in games.

[Discombobula]

Well the only use of this computer will be SC2, WoW,Diablo 3(when it comes out) and make SWTOR if I feel like giving it a go. I would have loved to buy the 6950 but no cash but I do understand what you are saying, thank you.

[Arisfarreach]

Well the only use of this computer will be SC2, WoW,Diablo 3(when it comes out) and make SWTOR if I feel like giving it a go. I would have loved to buy the 6950 but no cash but I do understand what you are saying, thank you.

i5-2500k and HD 6870 will crush those games on max/ultra (they're saying SWTOR won't be incredibly demanding, but we'll see). No need to worry about wasting any more money.

Also, 6870's Crossfire like champs, so if down the road you feel that you're lacking performance, purchase another and you'll be able to max out just about anything.

Think about it, you're combining a 200 USD CPU with a 150 dollar GPU.

Using price to gauge a product's performance is ridiculous.

[Deleted]

The 6870 won't be bottlenecking anything in wow... you can max wow on a 5770...
For other games yea the 6870 is the bottleneck, but gpu's are usually the bottleneck in games.

True, but then again you don't need two 800 HP cars to tow a 10 tonne vault.

But at some point in time, it might be useful to tow a 50 tonne vault at that's when the extra HP come in handy.

[Musta Kyy]

He kept saying "A computer works as a whole" and "The computer is only as fast as its slowest component"

He doesnt have a clue.
This might only be partially true if some game required a lot from your GPU and not much from your CPU, but generalizing it like "The computer is only as fast as its slowest component" is just BS.

HD 6870 wont be holding you back in the games you listed, and even in few years, if you just cut back on few of the most GPU demanding settings in games, you will be fine on high settings.

And as someone already said, you can later on buy another HD 6870 for crossfire, it will be cheap and nice upgrade later on.

Btw, you could keep searching for good deals, Ive seen HD 6950 go as cheap as HD 6870, even though you wouldnt see much difference between those any time soon, it is always nice to get something little bit better for same price.

[Deleted]

Using price to gauge a product's performance is ridiculous.

In general, yes, but in this case it actually works quite well because GPUs and CPUs are similarly priced.

We have a budget range around 100 bucks
We have a mid-tier range around 150 bucks
We have a top-end range around 200 bucks
We have an enthusiast range around 300 bucks
and finally a "I have money to burn" range above.

For a balanced comp, you'll want to pick components from roughly the same tier. This may be coincidental for this current generation but that doesn't make it untrue.

[Deleted]

Whatever this guild member thinks he is on to, he is not. Don't worry, buy that video card (I personally would recommend a 6950 since it's more power in a reasonable price increment from the 6870 at least in my country, but I saw your reasoning and it's up to you)

[Cantii]

In general, yes, but in this case it actually works quite well because GPUs and CPUs are similarly priced.

We have a budget range around 100 bucks
We have a mid-tier range around 150 bucks
We have a top-end range around 200 bucks
We have an enthusiast range around 300 bucks
and finally a "I have money to burn" range above.

For a balanced comp, you'll want to pick components from roughly the same tier. This may be coincidental for this current generation but that doesn't make it untrue.

Realize that the i5-2500K is, in fact, a mid-range CPU. Intel's high-end CPUs won't be released until later, and even those will be mid-high end until LGA2011 is released. Yes, the i5-2500K is faster than most of last generations CPUs, it's still mid-range, it's just the evolution of the CPU.

[Deleted]

Realize that the i5-2500K is, in fact, a mid-range CPU. Intel's high-end CPUs won't be released until later, and even those will be mid-high end until LGA2011 is released. Yes, the i5-2500K is faster than most of last generations CPUs, it's still mid-range, it's just the evolution of the CPU.

Intel's High end CPU's (Sandy Bridge-E) will use the LGA2011 socket.

[Deleted]

Realize that the i5-2500K is, in fact, a mid-range CPU. Intel's high-end CPUs won't be released until later, and even those will be mid-high end until LGA2011 is released. Yes, the i5-2500K is faster than most of last generations CPUs, it's still mid-range, it's just the evolution of the CPU.

LGA2011? Won't the new Ivy Bridge CPUs still use socket 1155? Or will the new socket be like 1156 as in practically useless and soon to be obsolete for your average user?

[Deleted]

LGA2011? Won't the new Ivy Bridge CPUs still use socket 1155? Or will the new socket be like 1156 as in practically useless and soon to be obsolete for your average user?

As I said above, LGA2011 will be the new Enthousiast socket, and Ivy will continue to use LGA1155.

[Deleted]

LGA2011?

Enthusiast: 1366 → 2011
Standard: 1156 → 1155

Ivy bridge is a separate set of Processor updates (22nm processors); which will make appearances on both sockets.

[Cantii]

Intel's High end CPU's (Sandy Bridge-E) will use the LGA2011 socket.

That's essentially what I said, I just didn't say Sandy Bridge-E specifically

[Deleted]

my 6870 hasn't bottlenecked any game i've tried to play at current gen. it can even play crisis with maximum settings and AA at over 30 fps, which is smooth to the eye. just depends what aftermarket card you get and if you decided to overclock it, as it is incredibly easy to get 10% more speed out of it.