Budget Gaming PC for 40K

[theserpent]

^^ i3 doesnt give a good gaming performance.

 

[desiJATT]

rabjabber, thanks for suggesting but I won't be going for that rig, its underpowered for my needs.

Bumping to get a reply for my following query.

Ok vickybat, thanks for your advice...Here's an updated config-

phenom x4 965 BE - 6.6k
g skill ripjaws 1600 mhz 1.6k
gigabyte 880gm usb3 - 5.2k
hdd 500gb - 2.8k
cd drive - 1.1k
keyb/mouse - 1k
monitor Benq 22inch led - 6.9k
speakers 1k
gpu hd6950 15k or hd7850 15k
case nzxt source 2.2k
power supply fsp saga 2.2k

45.6K



Well, i may go with it, but is it stable at that unlock? Do i have to invest in a new cooler for that? How much performance gain would it result into? Will it be at any par with the Phenom X6 CPUs?



Jaskanwar, could please explain it to me a little bit? At low resolution it will bottleneck? You mean at low res my card won't perform well or the cpu won't perform good? I didn't get it.

 

[whitestar_999]

i3 gives a good gaming performance.it is just that for the price of i3 you can get a phenom quad core & i5 is much costlier so i3 is not recommended here.

@desiJATT,when playing at lower resolutions than full HD,say 1280*720,even if graphics card is capable of producing say 100fps in a game because of weak cpu it will only give 70fps because weak cpu can only calculate game logic sufficient for 70fps so cpu is limiting fps.also at full HD max load is on graphics card so even a weak cpu is enough for most cases because usually cpu game logic calculations load is usually lower than load on graphics card.so at full HD if the same weak cpu is calculating game logic sufficient for 70fps graphics card can only give 60fps because of high load so in this case gpu is limiting the fps.

those games which utilize more than 2 cores the load on dual core cpu will be more than a quad core cpu.again for games which use 2 cores a faster dual core will have less load than a slow quad core.to give you an idea as of now a pentium G620 2.6GHz can easily handle any game at full HD coupled with a powerful graphics card like 6950.even at lower resolutions G620 will easily achieve ~60fps or above on almost all games with a 6950.

 

[desiJATT]

i3 gives a good gaming performance.it is just that for the price of i3 you can get a phenom quad core & i5 is much costlier so i3 is not recommended here.

@desiJATT,when playing at lower resolutions than full HD,say 1280*720,even if graphics card is capable of producing say 100fps in a game because of weak cpu it will only give 70fps because weak cpu can only calculate game logic sufficient for 70fps so cpu is limiting fps.also at full HD max load is on graphics card so even a weak cpu is enough for most cases because usually cpu game logic calculations load is usually lower than load on graphics card.so at full HD if the same weak cpu is calculating game logic sufficient for 70fps graphics card can only give 60fps because of high load so in this case gpu is limiting the fps.

those games which utilize more than 2 cores the load on dual core cpu will be more than a quad core cpu.again for games which use 2 cores a faster dual core will have less load than a slow quad core.to give you an idea as of now a pentium G620 2.6GHz can easily handle any game at full HD coupled with a powerful graphics card like 6950.even at lower resolutions G620 will easily achieve ~60fps or above on almost all games with a 6950.

I couldn't have found more detailed answer to my query even on the wikipedia! I now get it crystal clear, and good thing is, m getting an HD monitor, so i can be now assured that there will be no bottlenecks whatsoever. Thank you, +rep for your post!

 

[coderunknown]

@desiJATT, try this config:
AMD Phenom X6 960T - 7K
Gigabyte GA-880GM-D2H - 3.8k
Corsair 4Gb DDR3 - 1.1k
Dell LED 22 inches - 8K
500 GB WD Blue - 2.8K
Corsair CX500W - 3.3k
Logitech MK200 - 0.7k

TOTAL: 26.7k

now wait for HD7850 else grab HD6870 which is sufficient for now.

 

[ajaymailed]

i3 gives a good gaming performance.it is just that for the price of i3 you can get a phenom quad core & i5 is much costlier so i3 is not recommended here.

@desiJATT,when playing at lower resolutions than full HD,say 1280*720,even if graphics card is capable of producing say 100fps in a game because of weak cpu it will only give 70fps because weak cpu can only calculate game logic sufficient for 70fps so cpu is limiting fps.also at full HD max load is on graphics card so even a weak cpu is enough for most cases because usually cpu game logic calculations load is usually lower than load on graphics card.so at full HD if the same weak cpu is calculating game logic sufficient for 70fps graphics card can only give 60fps because of high load so in this case gpu is limiting the fps.

those games which utilize more than 2 cores the load on dual core cpu will be more than a quad core cpu.again for games which use 2 cores a faster dual core will have less load than a slow quad core.to give you an idea as of now a pentium G620 2.6GHz can easily handle any game at full HD coupled with a powerful graphics card like 6950.even at lower resolutions G620 will easily achieve ~60fps or above on almost all games with a 6950.

Very interesting things about CPU Load when games are played.
There is no doubt about what you said on CPU has higher chances to become a bottleneck at lower resolutions, while at HD Its GPU which takes heavy load and will be limiting the FPS.

In some other thread there was talk about Phenom II X4+6950 1 GB and Core i5 2500+6850. (Both combinations have approx similar costs.)
what you said about this was the difference in FPS won't be as high as expected at lower than HD resolution. while at HD Resolution Phenom II X4+6950 will clearly outperform. As displays are getting cheaper, its easily affordable for gamers to get 22inch displays or more allowing them to enjoy HD Gaming. So if its for gaming purpose @ HD what combination would you be willing to suggest?

also i understand that at lower resolutions, Core i5 will be outperforming Phenom II X4 but with those GPU combinations i am not sure how much the difference of FPS will be there at even lower resolutions. Even if there is a big difference, would that really offset the gains of Phenom II X4+6950 at HD Resolutions.

what i want to really know is that
price difference of Phenom II X4 and Core i5 is 4k - 5K. For a gamer playing @ HD Resolution, is this 4K - 5K well spent on Core i5 or GPU? strictly in FPS terms, which config will be the winner?

 

[vickybat]

Spoiler

i3 gives a good gaming performance.it is just that for the price of i3 you can get a phenom quad core & i5 is much costlier so i3 is not recommended here.

@desiJATT,when playing at lower resolutions than full HD,say 1280*720,even if graphics card is capable of producing say 100fps in a game because of weak cpu it will only give 70fps because weak cpu can only calculate game logic sufficient for 70fps so cpu is limiting fps.also at full HD max load is on graphics card so even a weak cpu is enough for most cases because usually cpu game logic calculations load is usually lower than load on graphics card.so at full HD if the same weak cpu is calculating game logic sufficient for 70fps graphics card can only give 60fps because of high load so in this case gpu is limiting the fps.

those games which utilize more than 2 cores the load on dual core cpu will be more than a quad core cpu.again for games which use 2 cores a faster dual core will have less load than a slow quad core.to give you an idea as of now a pentium G620 2.6GHz can easily handle any game at full HD coupled with a powerful graphics card like 6950.even at lower resolutions G620 will easily achieve ~60fps or above on almost all games with a 6950.

That's a nice and simple explanation whitestar999.

A cpu also has to compute physics calculations that are part of x86 codepath. Almost every game engine nowadays has a physics engine. There are other logic that a cpu handles ( AI is one example). But the rendering part is completely handled by the GPU.

Nowadays a good quadcore cpu is generally recommended as an all round gaming processor so that it can optimally feed the gpu its share of data. If the synchronization between cpu and gpu is disturbed by a weak cpu i.e its not fast enough to compute its share of calculations to give the gpu, the latter has to wait resulting in reduced output and in this case reduced framerates.

Thus a cpu bottlenecking occurs. In fullhd or higher resolutions, as you said, workload on a gpu increases and it takes more time to render and this gives the weak cpu to compensate. Lets say in lower resolutions, it took the gpu to render 60 frames in one second, at fullhd, it will take 40 frames in one second. Say the cpu was not able to compute logic (AI and other stuff) for 60 frames but is capable of delivering to 50 frames in one sec. So the overall drop. Now for 40 frames, the same cpu is capable enough without any resulting loss. So bottlenecking disappears.

 

[whitestar_999]

what i want to really know is that
price difference of Phenom II X4 and Core i5 is 4k - 5K. For a gamer playing @ HD Resolution, is this 4K - 5K well spent on Core i5 or GPU? strictly in FPS terms, which config will be the winner?

member jaskanwar is running a 6950 unlocked to a 6970 with athlon II x4 at full HD with no problems so a phenom II is more than enough for any graphics card & at full HD gpu is the most important factor so any extra cash should be spent on graphics card.of course if you have the budget to afford an i5 along with graphics card then that would be best but if not then for gaming at least there is no problem.

cheapest i5 can be get for ~9500 in nehru place,delhi/lamington road,mumbai while cheapest phenom II costs ~6000-6500(depending on place).a decent amd mobo will cost ~3500 with no extra features like usb3,sata3 while DH67CL costs ~5400 with all these features.difference in processor price is ~3000 but performance gain is significant.difference in mobo price is ~2000 but you are getting extra & useful features.(amd mobo with same features will cost almost same as DH67CL).

 

[ajaymailed]

cheapest i5 can be get for ~9500 in nehru place,delhi/lamington road,mumbai while cheapest phenom II costs ~6000-6500(depending on place).a decent amd mobo will cost ~3500 with no extra features like usb3,sata3 while DH67CL costs ~5400 with all these features.difference in processor price is ~3000 but performance gain is significant.difference in mobo price is ~2000 but you are getting extra & useful features.(amd mobo with same features will cost almost same as DH67CL).

How about Phenom II X4 840 which is closer to 5k price. I hope some decent quad core will come in the place of Athlon II X4 at 4 to 5K, that will be gr8 for budget gamers. But AMD is replacing entire line with APUs adding more n more GPU performance and jacking up prices. Its hard for budget gamers in future to choose either these APUs with low per core efficiency or costly Intel quad cores & compromise with less powerful GPU.

BTW, out of above two CPU-GPU combinations, which one might go obsolete first? by obsolete i mean "being unable to meet minimum gaming requirements of a future game".
one would definitely like his config to last as long as possible, would be even ready to play at low resolutions, low settings.

 

[desiJATT]

I would request the moderators to *NOT* lock this topic after the discussion ends because if i want to ask about something, i have a place to ask in, atleast i don't have to make a new topic for it. Also, after my buy, ill be updating this thread with pics and most probably will do a review about the products I bought.


Now ontopic, So i have decided to ask my brother to get HD 7850 from Dubai if he gets it. If he doesn't, ill probably wait for 1-2 weeks if it releases in india, but if it doesn't ill go with the HD 6950 2GB version. Ill be replying to individual posts by quoting as soon as i reach home. Writing from a mobile. Thank you guys for the help, ill let you know my last config.

Very interesting things about CPU Load when games are played.
There is no doubt about what you said on CPU has higher chances to become a bottleneck at lower resolutions, while at HD Its GPU which takes heavy load and will be limiting the FPS.

In some other thread there was talk about Phenom II X4+6950 1 GB and Core i5 2500+6850. (Both combinations have approx similar costs.)
what you said about this was the difference in FPS won't be as high as expected at lower than HD resolution. while at HD Resolution Phenom II X4+6950 will clearly outperform. As displays are getting cheaper, its easily affordable for gamers to get 22inch displays or more allowing them to enjoy HD Gaming. So if its for gaming purpose @ HD what combination would you be willing to suggest?

also i understand that at lower resolutions, Core i5 will be outperforming Phenom II X4 but with those GPU combinations i am not sure how much the difference of FPS will be there at even lower resolutions. Even if there is a big difference, would that really offset the gains of Phenom II X4+6950 at HD Resolutions.

what i want to really know is that
price difference of Phenom II X4 and Core i5 is 4k - 5K. For a gamer playing @ HD Resolution, is this 4K - 5K well spent on Core i5 or GPU? strictly in FPS terms, which config will be the winner?

i5 is useless for me mate, i qn't be doing any CPU intensive tasks except for gaming. I will be developing in Java and C++ which doesn't really require any raw power, so I am pretty happy with going with Phenom X4 960.

Also, I wanted to ask, that the motherboard i am opting for supports Sata3. The HDD i am buying is Sata2, will Sata3 give me a real performance boost, i don't care on spending a few more bucks for getting another hdd other than i specified. Please let me. Also, If i get the HD7850 from Dubai, will i get the warranty cover here?

BTW, my *almost* final config is this --

Phenom X4 960 --- 6957
Gigabyte GA-880GM USB3 --- 5200
G-skill F3-10600CL9S-4GBNT 4Gx1 --- 1200
500 GB HDD --- 2800
NZXT Source 210 --- 2500
FSP Saga II 500W --- 2200 Corsair CX430 --- 2500
Optical Drive --- 1100
KB/Mouse --- 700
Speaker --- 1000
Monitor Benq G2222HDL --- 7600
HD 6950 2GB or HD 7850 2GB ~ 15000

Total 46,457

 

[coderunknown]

go for Corsair CX430W instead of FSP unit. the 400W have extremely short length for the 12V EPS cable. the 500W may have longer cable still better go for CX430W. 1yr extra warranty for a little more and can easily power 6950.

 

[desiJATT]

Ok Sam, wrote that down, but will it be able to handle future overclocking of CPU and GPU?
My CPU is unlocked as u know, and i might unlcok HD 6950 to 6970 after some time to get performance gains, so will it blend?

 

[thetechfreak]

Ok Sam, wrote that down, but will it be able to handle future overclocking of CPU and GPU?

Unlocking yesm but not overclocking sadly

 

[desiJATT]

Unlocking yesm but not overclocking sadly

You mean i can unlock HD6950 to HD6970 with this but can't overclock my CPU? Be clear please.

 

[coderunknown]

Ok Sam, wrote that down, but will it be able to handle future overclocking of CPU and GPU?

for that you'll need a 500-600W PSU. when overclock, or unlocked, Phenom II power draw shots up. so if you can, go for Seasonic 520W unit. you can always postpone the GPU purchase till Fermi is launched which should guarantee pricedrop across all AMD GPUs.

My CPU is unlocked as u know, and i might unlcok HD 6950 to 6970 after some time to get performance gains, so will it blend?

don't expect current HD6950 to be unlocked to 6970. i read (or was told) that AMD now laser cuts the die so you get HD6950 only. so there is almost no chance that it'll unlock. but HD7850 "may" unlock to HD7870, if it has any switchable bios.

 

[desiJATT]

Sam, now i'm really, i mean really thinking about postponing the GPU because so many people have advised me to wait, and i don't want regret that later when 6950 lurks around at 10-13k. (I have always regretted when i tried to fight with the world regarding my own decision, because they told me not to do so, and I don't want it to happen again)

And I read HD 7850 DOES NOT have bios switch So no unlocking, just overclocking the clocks. Also, i won't be overclocking CPU anytime before 1 year.

But please, can someone confirm WHEN, i mean on some particular week in April, is the New 7800 series launching? And when is nVidia Fermi Kepler (i guess sam you got it wrong )going to be released? My final config depends on this release.

 

[coderunknown]

Sam, now i'm really, i mean really thinking about postponing the GPU because so many people have advised me to wait, and i don't want regret that later when 6950 lurks around at 10-13k. (I have always regretted when i tried to fight with the world regarding my own decision, because they told me not to do so, and I don't want it to happen again)

other too will say the same thing. as current 6950 have almost no chance of unlocking, there is absolutely no use getting it for now. also HD7850 should be priced at 13-15k. i think you can manage a month on IGP.

And I read HD 7850 DOES NOT have bios switch So no unlocking, just overclocking the clocks. Also, i won't be overclocking CPU anytime before 1 year.

so unlocking is not recommended. you may end up with a perfectly unusable GPU. though it can be done by Xfiring another 7850 and flashing bios on first GPU. but first need to know if anyone have unlocked 7850 or any safe procedure. for now this doesn't makes any sense.

And when is nVidia Fermi Kepler (i guess sam you got it wrong )going to be released? My final config depends on this release.

yup. that was a nasty typo

Even when Kepler is launched, it will be launched in stages. so a 7850 competitor mayn't appear till summer. or Nvidia may start by targeting 7850

 

[desiJATT]

So, after some research i have found that the HD7800 series will get launched on 19th March, I will be buying the PC in the 1st week of April, and if it isn't released yet, ill be waiting for it to be released because if i tend to save some money on the GPU (7850 will be around 13-14K) ill probably invest it into Phenom X6. So the verdict now is, I'll wait until the new HD7800 is released and *then* finalise the config.

I would request the moderators to please let this topic remain open, as i would be posting my future queries here. I am very thankful to all those who helped me in this thread, i have repped all the posts which i did find useful and informative. Thank you for you time!

 

[a2mn2002]

^^desiJATT : Dude am from amritsar and am in the same boat. Would you plz tell me any Good shop in Jalandhar city which sells the PC in reasonable rates ????

aNd besT of lucK for your 12th boarDs !!!!!

 

[desiJATT]

^^desiJATT : Dude am from amritsar and am in the same boat. Would you plz tell me any Good shop in Jalandhar city which sells the PC in reasonable rates ????

aNd besT of lucK for your 12th boarDs !!!!!

haha a2mn2002 22 ji, Jalandhar has many computer shops, but none of them sells any high end component! You can't even find an i5 in Jalandhar! They say, they assemble PCs with total budget of 12000 and you are asking us for a processor which costs this much? They are stunned, fortunately, as you might know, my friend Harpreet has opened a gaming launge, NxGT Gaming Launge, and he is the ONLY one in Jalandhar who can get you ANY component which you want, and that too at good rates! Best of luck, and PM me if you want more info, ill give you my number if you ever need to come to Jalandhar