5870...is it really worth it?

RavenXXX2 · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:05

i5 you said, i5 you get..

kylew · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:08

RavenXXX2 said:
i5 you said, i5 you get..

An i7 920 is a lot better than an i5 750 to be honest.

Especially when working to a budget of £900.

Couple that with a better motherboard, more RAM and the prospect for even more RAM when the price of DDR3 drops and the DIMM density goes up.

i5 isn't worth it in my opinion. Not when you can get a lot more for not loads more.

That's also an OEM CPU, there would need to be a cooler with it too.

RavenXXX2 · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:20

Nah its not, unless your going for some sweet benchmarks, i5 is all you need, and my suggestion is excellent value for the performance your getting, the case is mint and not a budget part in sight.

Cooler added.

kylew · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:24

RavenXXX2 said:
Nah its not, unless your going for some sweet benchmarks, i5 is all you need, and my suggestion is excellent value for the performance your getting, the case is mint and not a budget part in sight.

Cooler added.

An extra £80 for a much better CPU motherboard and an extra 2GB of RAM? It's definitely worth the extra £80.

TAC4U · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:29

kylew said:
An i7 920 is a lot better than an i5 750 to be honest.

Yeah, but not when it comes to gaming. The i5 750 stands up to the i7 920 and even wins in some benchmarks. Considering that it's much cheaper it makes more sense going for the i5.

kylew · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:38

TAC4U said:
Yeah, but not when it comes to gaming. The i5 750 stands up to the i7 920 and even wins in some benchmarks. Considering that it's much cheaper it makes more sense going for the i5.

If it was much cheaper then I'd agree, but it's not actually much cheaper at all.

The spec I made comes with more RAM, take that out of the equation and the price difference between them is around £50.

i7 is definitely worth £50 more than an i5 set up.

£50 isn't "much" cheaper when your budget is £900 and my spec is still less than £900.

TheRealDeal · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:44

Personally i like kyle's setup as you are getting x58 v p55, i7 v i5, 6gb ram v 4gb ram plus a more powerful psu for not much more money.

OrphanBoy · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:47

Btw for those considering a 5850 vs a 5870 - it's not just the memory and GPU clocks which are different: there are fewer shaders and texture units too.

kylew · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:48

TheRealDeal said:
Personally i like kyle's setup as you are getting x58 v p55, i7 v i5, 6gb ram v 4gb ram for not much more money.

Plus, an X58 motherboard would be much better for multiple GPUs than a P55 board as I'm sure they're all limited to 8x/8x for multiple GPUs, where as the X58 is 16x/16x.

It's just a demonstration that i5 hasn't lived up to what intel said it was for.

It's supposed to be a more affordable version of i7, and while it's cheaper, it's not worth the difference in price.

If you're buying high-end, then £50 is nothing for the features you get.

Last_Human · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:48

I'm speccing up a similar system with a budget of around a grand and think the 920 is the way to go, though going to need an after market cooler to do better than the i5.

The i5 turbo is much better than the 920 so at stock speeds the 920 would lose out a lot.

kylew · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:50

OrphanBoy said:
Btw for those considering a 5850 vs a 5870 - it's not just the memory and GPU clocks which are different: there are fewer shaders and texture units too.

Indeed, most of us have know this quite a while now

.

Differences aside though, the 5870 isn't currently worth the extra £100.

kylew · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:51

Last_Human said:
I'm speccing up a similar system with a budget of around a grand and think the 920 is the way to go, though going to need an after market cooler to do better than the i5.

The i5 turbo is much better than the 920 so at stock speeds the 920 would lose out a lot.

920 is definitely the way to go, you can get a good socket 1366 HSF for relatively cheap.

rubin1961 · 28 Sep 2009 at 19:56

Agree with Kylew all the wayyyyyyy

D13 · 28 Sep 2009 at 20:00

I think the main pros for going lynnfield is the superior turbo mode, if you are not inclined to overclock then it is imo 100% the better choice.

If you are willing to overclock then you have every reason to go bloomfield.

Randell · 28 Sep 2009 at 20:03

Fireblade2K4 said:
I've just completed a new build and looking for a new card to upgrade to, my trusty old 1900XT is now beginning to struggle quite a lot lol, can the 5850 be clocked easily to achieve 5870 performance?

As I understand it both cards are physically identical just different clock setting on the GPU and RAM.

Stu

you've got an 1900XT and you're worried whether the 5850 can be clocked to 5870 levels??

OrphanBoy · 28 Sep 2009 at 20:23

kylew said:
Indeed, most of us have know this quite a while now .

Haha yeah, I just figured there was a post on the previous page which was thinking that it was just a down-clocked card

off topic: you're not keen on the i5 750 - if you were spending £300-400 on the machine instead (CPU/RAM/motherboard) would you still not consider it? I'm thinking about doing this myself and would like your opinion.

kylew · 28 Sep 2009 at 20:35

OrphanBoy said:
Haha yeah, I just figured there was a post on the previous page which was thinking that it was just a down-clocked card

off topic: you're not keen on the i5 750 - if you were spending £300-400 on the machine instead (CPU/RAM/motherboard) would you still not consider it? I'm thinking about doing this myself and would like your opinion.

Well personally, the motherboards based on X58 appeal a lot more to me due to the 16x slots as well as the 6 RAM slots too.

It looks like the current P55 boards support a max of 8GB RAM which is a big let down to me as I'm on socket 775 and already have 8GB of RAM.

I'd prefer to go higher, I'd get an i7 set up with a 920 and 24GB of RAM if I could.

For the relatively small difference in price, the benefits Socket 1366 and an i7 920 are definitely worth it.

It's like my opinion of the 5870, it's a great card, but it's not worth its asking price at all 50% more expensive than a 5870 for about 15-20% more performance. If i5/1156 was cheaper then I'd be willing to recommend them, but I wouldn't dare recommend it over i7 when there's £50 difference with a budget of £900.

djkav · 28 Sep 2009 at 21:20

Come on guys/gals, CPUs, Motherboards and RAM all have their own forums for discussion. Its going wayy off topic

Russu_cs16 · 29 Sep 2009 at 00:24

not its not off topic....

anyways thx Kyle for you spec but as someone said if ur not overclocking go for i5...imnot going to overclock it for sure...

speaking of Ram... i would love to have 6gb instead of 4gb

PCI speeds- doesnt matter i guess i will only use 1 card...

And i need a modular PSU i am noob, it will be my first build lol

dont know what to do :confused:

kylew · 29 Sep 2009 at 00:44

Russu_cs16 said:
not its not off topic....

anyways thx Kyle for you spec but as someone said if ur not overclocking go for i5...imnot going to overclock it for sure...

speaking of Ram... i would love to have 6gb instead of 4gb

PCI speeds- doesnt matter i guess i will only use 1 card...

And i need a modular PSU i am noob, it will be my first build lol

dont know what to do

The spec I made up for you will be the best you'll get for your monies, or there about.

The i7 set up is more expensive, but I can't stress how it's much better value.

The motherboard and extra RAM is far better.

The PSU is modular too.

PCI-E speeds do matter though as a second card can be a cheap upgrade in the future when prices have dropped significantly.

It's your first build too, I guarantee that you will get the overclocking itch sooner or later.