7870+i3=good?

[brownninja97]

so ive got an i3 2120. I was wondering how much an 7870 would be bottlenecked and however a 7950 would be bottlenecked. I would get an i5 but its money so i dont want to spend more money. How much difference would i get if i stayed with the i3?

[Steowd]

im not 100 % sure about bottlenecks , but i think the 7870 would be ok but the 7950 would be bottlenecked , i would say save up and get the 7950 with a 3570k it you want to overclock your cpu 

[Dim]

i3 + 7870 is a pretty nice combination. In gaming, you won't see much of a difference (a few frames, ten at the most). You might see more in applications, though.

[TechFan@ic]

What's your total budget for the motherboard, CPU & graphics card?

[wansie]

I've build a budget gaming PC in september 2012 for a mate of mine. Had a i3 ivy bridge in it with a 7870, It still is working great for him.

 

If you don't want to spend allot of money, an i3 is a good way to go. Maybe go for µATX and a small case, you will save a couple of bucks there too.

[XiaoPigs]

I would personally go for a 3570k but if you don't mind the slightly lower frames, sure stick with the i3

[killerx525]

Toms Hardware did test on whether a 7970 and 680 would bottleneck a i3 to which their conclusion was it did bottleneck, so the 7870 should be just fine.

[mvitkun]

on this forum somebody posted an i3 3220 with a 7870 LE unigine valley benchmark,and I was shocked to see how much it was bottlenecked.the 7870 LE ended up performing significantly worse than a GTX 480,which it should easily surpass.

(would link it but the post got lost in the transfer from VB)

I would think you should lose around 5-10% ,max, in performance from the 7870.

[killerx525]

It shouldn't be that much of a loss and it's only a Uniengine benchmark which doesn't represent real world performances.

[xAcid9]

on this forum somebody posted an i3 3220 with a 7870 LE unigine valley benchmark,and I was shocked to see how much it was bottlenecked.the 7870 LE ended up performing significantly worse than a GTX 480,which it should easily surpass.

(would link it but the post got lost in the transfer from VB)

I would think you should lose around 5-10% ,max, in performance from the 7870.

I think it just a simple case of overclocking without raising the board power limit because in the same thread, someone's with a 7950 and Phenom 2 X4 scored pretty similar to mine.

[mvitkun]

It shouldn't be that much of a loss and it's only a Uniengine benchmark which doesn't represent real world performances.

ummm.......I'm pretty sure the bottleneck represented would similarly manifest itself in real world scenarios as well.

the 7870 LE scored something along the lines of 950 points,whereas my gtx 480 scores 1208.

the 7870 LE ,out of the box,should score around 1400,the same as a stock 7950.

 

those 500 points....I'm pretty sure that they represent significant loss in real world performance that would be seen in real gameplay.

[brownninja97]

well my other computer has an i7 2600 and took the radeon 6770 out of that and the fps difference is about 5 on bad company 2. The i3 is better on minecraft fro some odd reason as well. Incase your wondering the i7 belongs to my father so i cant have it 

[mvitkun]

I think it just a simple case of overclocking without raising the board power limit because in the same thread, someone's with a 7950 and Phenom 2 X4 scored pretty similar to mine.

as far as I remember the 7870 LE was @ stock clocks,and I remember your post,you were the one who was asked repeatedly "how can you OC it so high stably" or atleast I'm pretty sure you were. lol

[TechFan@ic]

I think it just a simple case of overclocking without raising the board power limit because in the same thread, someone's with a 7950 and Phenom 2 X4 scored pretty similar to mine.

I was actually going to recommend going with a Phenom II X4 955 & upgrading the graphics card to a 7870 Tahiti LE or a 7950.

 

To BrownNinja97

You can't expect to play upcoming games on a dual core i3 especially with all the next gen consoles being equipped with 8 core CPUs, you will need more threads.

The Phenom II X4 955 can be bought brand new for under 90$, it's a quad core with fantastic overclocking potential (stock 3.2Ghz, can be overclocked to 4.0-4.2Ghz)

AM3+ moptherboards are also quite cheap, & going with this platform will allow you to upgrade the CPU in the future to an 8 or 6 core Steamroller CPU (upcoming CPU generation from AMD) & even possibly Excavator in 2015.

With the money you save on the CPU & the motherboard by going with the Phemon II you can get an even more powerful graphics card, like a 7870 Tahiti LE or a 7950.

[mumbojumbogumbo]

on this forum somebody posted an i3 3220 with a 7870 LE unigine valley benchmark,and I was shocked to see how much it was bottlenecked.the 7870 LE ended up performing significantly worse than a GTX 480,which it should easily surpass.

(would link it but the post got lost in the transfer from VB)

I would think you should lose around 5-10% ,max, in performance from the 7870.

That's total BS. I have an i3 3220 w/ a Sapphire 7870 XT and I always score above 1300 in Valley. This was with very old drivers and no overclocking at all.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1360884/official-top-30-unigine-valley-benchmark-1-0-fill-the-form-single-and-multi-monitors/0_100

I'm number 454. Besides, why use benchmarks like these when real-world gaming benchmarks are available?

I see other 7870 XT users with 3570K score above 1600.

[mvitkun]

That's total BS. I have an i3 3220 w/ a Sapphire 7870 XT and I always score above 1300 in Valley. This was with very old drivers and no overclocking at all.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1360884/official-top-30-unigine-valley-benchmark-1-0-fill-the-form-single-and-multi-monitors/0_100

I'm number 454. Besides, why use benchmarks like these when real-world gaming benchmarks are available?

I see other 7870 XT users with 3570K score above 1600.

okay I guess that the user was having some other issue then,thanks for correcting me  :rolleyes:

although if users with better cpu's are scoring significantly better than you it still means that the cpu is bottlenecking,just not nearly as much.

[brownninja97]

I was actually going to recommend going with a Phenom II X4 955 & upgrading the graphics card to a 7870 Tahiti LE or a 7950.

 

To BrownNinja97

You can't expect to play upcoming games on a dual core i3 especially with all the next gen consoles being equipped with 8 core CPUs, you will need more threads.

The Phenom II X4 955 can be bought brand new for under 90$, it's a quad core with fantastic overclocking potential (stock 3.2Ghz, can be overclocked to 4.0-4.2Ghz)

AM3+ moptherboards are also quite cheap, & going with this platform will allow you to upgrade the CPU in the future to an 8 or 6 core Steamroller CPU (upcoming CPU generation from AMD) & even possibly Excavator in 2015.

With the money you save on the CPU & the motherboard by going with the Phemon II you can get an even more powerful graphics card, like a 7870 Tahiti LE or a 7950.

interesting anyways i also got a phenom x4 965 black power thingie. To get to the the does worse on that then on my old e8400 core duo. Its at 3.9ghz at the moment but i dont like it 

[TechFan@ic]

interesting anyways i also got a phenom x4 965 black power thingie. To get to the the does worse on that then on my old e8400 core duo. Its at 3.9ghz at the moment but i dont like it 

I have a core 2 duo E8400 overclocked to 3.4Ghz & the X4 965 was definitely faster than my processor in almost every single game I tried O_O .

[brownninja97]

I have a core 2 duo E8400 overclocked to 3.4Ghz & the X4 965 was definitely faster than my processor in almost every single game I tried O_O .

might just be my processor well nothing can be done about that and anyways the i3 beats it in everything espeically in editing which i do as a side job every now and then.

[JujuShinobi]

I would personally say get a Phenom II X4 965 or get an i5. Should have no problems with major bottle necks at that point

[mrthuvi]

Get an i7 is better. Think it this way, 590 was an 1000$ GPU, now 680 almost has the same performance as it and half the price. Compare an 990 extreme with latest processors, you get maybe 10-20% performance increase, with the same price tag. Invest in a good CPU, it lasts you at least 5-6 years. Invest in a good GPU, you get maybe 1-2 years, and 700 gen from Nvidia is coming so you get ~3 months, half a year max before 700 gen widely available with reasonable price.

[orangecat]

There is no reason why the core i3 should bottleneck your system its just fine for gaming.

[gasho]

I have a i3 2120 with a 7870 OC from sapphire and I'm pretty much happy.

 

bioshock on 1080p, ultra settings without ambient occlusion on average 72 Frames... Maybe its a few frames slower then a i5 but I think we are still good to go with the i3

[brownninja97]

Im swaying to the i5 3470 as its £30 less then the 3570k and im not overclocking so it should be fine

[Opsilon]

that's all nice but maybe go for a FX6350 or what ever new 6 core is coming out, oc it and you will still be able to use a 7870, and not to mention you will have a better framerate, and not spend a lot of cash