GTX 580 on Phenom II X4 965BE?

[Madpistol]

Since I'm about to graduate from college, some members of my family have asked what I wanted as a graduation present. Since I'm fairly content with most of the stuff I have already, I'm trying to figure out if it would be worth while to upgrade to a GTX 580 on my current system. I know the 965BE isn't nearly as fast as an i7 processor, so I guess it could be a bottleneck. I'm really not sure.


The other option would be to get either 2 6870's and a set of monitors for Eyefinity, or a couple of 6950's in crossfire and maybe a few monitors for that setup. This option is obviously dependent on the cards actually being decent without huge drawbacks. I've got a crossfire enabled motherboard, but I cannot use SLI.


Budget is around $1000.


Any ideas? I'm pretty torn on this decision.






EDIT: New idea!!!!

GTX 580 + 120hz LCD monitor + Nvidia 3D kit


Please advise on what parts I should get!

[Maverick123w]

at 3.8 Ghz it's not going to be a huge bottleneck. Go big

[Redeemed]

Originally Posted by Maverick123w

at 3.8 Ghz it's not going to be a huge bottleneck. Go big

This.

If you're thinking of Eyefinity, then I'd wait for the 6900's as likely those will offer far more than enough performance.

Gonna' be a sweet setup, dude.

[Madpistol]

New idea!


GTX 580 + 120hz LCD monitor + Nvidia 3D kit


Please advise on what parts I should get!

[Rollo]

Originally Posted by Madpistol

Since I'm about to graduate from college, some members of my family have asked what I wanted as a graduation present. Since I'm fairly content with most of the stuff I have already, I'm trying to figure out if it would be worth while to upgrade to a GTX 580 on my current system. I know the 965BE isn't nearly as fast as an i7 processor, so I guess it could be a bottleneck. I'm really not sure.


The other option would be to get either 2 6870's and a set of monitors for Eyefinity, or a couple of 6950's in crossfire and maybe a few monitors for that setup. This option is obviously dependent on the cards actually being decent without huge drawbacks. I've got a crossfire enabled motherboard, but I cannot use SLI.


Budget is around $1000.


Any ideas? I'm pretty torn on this decision.






EDIT: New idea!!!!

GTX 580 + 120hz LCD monitor + Nvidia 3D kit


Please advise on what parts I should get!

First of all, I would not say a Phenom X4 at 3.8GHz is a "bottleneck" for GTX580:

http://www.legionhardware.com/articl...d_5970,24.html

However when clocked at 3.0GHz and beyond, the Phenom II X4 really picked up the pace, and in many cases was able to outclass the Core i7.

My GTX580 is on my Phenom 965 box, works well for me.

Second, on your Eyefinity idea:
Look first at the games that are compatible with Eyefinity before you consider this route, because not all games support the resolutions necessary for 3 panels:
http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/...-software.aspx

Last, as a person with both, I'd rather have 3d Vision than 3 panel. 3D Vision is supported by 100s of games, and the effect really adds to immersion. 3 panels is very nice also, but it's what I'd give up if I had to give up one.

[ragejg]

Wow, sheesh, that Legionhardware article was insightful. ... Beating a 4ghz i7 920 in HAWX, Battleforge, Far Cry 2, MW2 & Wolfenstein, tying in Crysis Warhead, a 4.0ghz PhII x4 (a speed attainable even by the less-expensive Phenoms out there) is no small feat. Kinda gives me a warm & fuzzy about my x6 @ ~4ghz.

AMD's AM2+/AM3 tech really has longer legs than most had originally thought, I think.

I'd like to see x3 scaling info. Yeah, I know that most that would buy a GTX 580 wouldn't have an x3, but it'd still be interesting, especially given the fairly high-profile findings by Tom's and some other sites regarding the "dark horse"-ish performance of the red-headed stepchildren of the Athlon/Phenom family.

[Johnny C]

Originally Posted by Rollo

First of all, I would not say a Phenom X4 at 3.8GHz is a "bottleneck" for GTX580:

http://www.legionhardware.com/articl...d_5970,24.html

My GTX580 is on my Phenom 965 box, works well for me.

Second, on your Eyefinity idea:
Look first at the games that are compatible with Eyefinity before you consider this route, because not all games support the resolutions necessary for 3 panels:
http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/...-software.aspx

Last, as a person with both, I'd rather have 3d Vision than 3 panel. 3D Vision is supported by 100s of games, and the effect really adds to immersion. 3 panels is very nice also, but it's what I'd give up if I had to give up one.

Excellent Post! Very informative.

[Zeta]

Makes me feel good about my decision to go with the X4 965.

[wheeljack12]

for your gtx 580vid card, I would go with the ones that have lifetime warranties. there are 3 afaik. pny, evga and zotac. my first choice would be evga. as for monitor and 3d vision you can go two ways. One is the cheapest 3d vision monitor out there, the acer gd235hz and a 3d vision kit. The vid card, monitor and 3d vision will put you at the $1000 mark. Or you can go with asus' 3d vision monitor which comes with the 3d vision kit. It's a little cheaper than buying monitor/3d vision seperately.

[gstanford]

Originally Posted by ragejg

Wow, sheesh, that Legionhardware article was insightful. ... Beating a 4ghz i7 920 in HAWX, Battleforge, Far Cry 2, MW2 & Wolfenstein, tying in Crysis Warhead, a 4.0ghz PhII x4 (a speed attainable even by the less-expensive Phenoms out there) is no small feat. Kinda gives me a warm & fuzzy about my x6 @ ~4ghz.

AMD's AM2+/AM3 tech really has longer legs than most had originally thought, I think.

I'd like to see x3 scaling info. Yeah, I know that most that would buy a GTX 580 wouldn't have an x3, but it'd still be interesting, especially given the fairly high-profile findings by Tom's and some other sites regarding the "dark horse"-ish performance of the red-headed stepchildren of the Athlon/Phenom family.

A 965BE should easily cope with a single GTX580. I reckon it would cope with 2x GTX580 also. I'm running 2x GTX460 + 1x GTX460 SE as PhysX on a stock 965BE.

Check out the articles linked below for how various CPU's scale across various graphical setups and workloads.

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=22167

http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=13034