• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

I7 870 VS I5 2550K

Don't invest in old hardware. Either grab it for a steal or don't grab it at all. This isn't a steal - its a ripoff at 160 bucks.

- Age / degradation starts to kick in (you're looking at 6-8 years age, well in the danger zone)
- platform support is gone or going
- OS support is gone or going
- you're basically 'saving' money for abysmal performance + having to upgrade again faster by going for old stuff

You can't win here with this budget. Save up, get an entry level, current day or last-gen platform+CPU. The best path would be a Ryzen gen 1, or Haswell build. Aim for that, and get it as cheap as you can - thát should be your bottom line budget wise. Anything else is probably being worse off, unless, again, you can get it nearly for free (< 100 bucks for board+RAM+CPU).
 
Everyone is correct. That budget is pretty bottom of the barrel and it’s crazy to invest in a old plateform with no decent upgrade path making you have to upgrade again much sooner.

Either save up more or go with a used i3 Haswell or up, or a New gen Pentium like I suggested before.

It’s the best possible options with a upgrade path, better support, newer extensions, and better features (ie USB3.0/C, PCIe 3.0, M.2 etc..) Plus Lower TDP
 
So do you really think guys i should go for a new pentium G CPU ???
 
So do you really think guys i should go for a new pentium G CPU ???

If you want my 2 cents... no. I think you should aim for a Ryzen 3 4c/8t, or a 2400g (this option can give you decent gaming on JUST the CPU, until you can afford a faster GPU - you could sell the 750ti to clear up budget, handing in some FPS for a short time), or a recent i3, or a Haswell 4c/8t. In that order of preference as well.

Here's some nice comparisons for you:
https://www.techspot.com/article/1590-build-a-pc-used-graphics-cards/

The key word being 4 physical cores, and any extra threads are very welcome. A Pentium G would be the more cost effective choice but any kind of GPU upgrade and you will find it to be a limiting factor - so I would not recommend this. Platform upgrades are best done as little as possible; and GPU upgrades as many as possible and useful on a single platform. That's the most bang/buck every time.

A Haswell i7 for example; board+CPU should be possible at 200 bucks. Add some 8GB DDR3 on top, 250-275 total. That way you have a system that will easily last 4-5 years and can handle GPU upgrades up to GTX 780ti/970 level easily. Its well worth it for just 100 bucks over your current budget in every way. But, if you up the budget to ~350,-, you can go the Ryzen route and have a NEW system - I think its reasonable to say 75 bucks for your current rig minus the GPU is a price at which it'll sell.

When it comes to GPU upgrades further down the line, a reasonable step forward would be moving to a GTX 970.

Going this route has advantages in budget later:
- You can upgrade on AM4, saves money on a new board in the future, and Ryzen CPUs are more likely to be found second hand
- You have decent hardware to sell for a bigger upgrade
 
Last edited:
i'm also backing a budget ryzen build if you're going new. Nothing stopping you putting a better CPU in a few years time (current ryzen boards are supported until 2020), on the intel side things get incompatible a lot faster.
 
Get a Ryzen 3 2200 or a i3 8100.
 
whats the difference between ryzen 3 2200g and the 1200 ?
 
The 2200g is worse, but has a good integrated gpu.
 
whats the difference between ryzen 3 2200g and the 1200 ?

2200G has a decent GPU. Check the link, it has benchmarks comparing it to 750ti. Its slower. But you can sell the GPU to get the budget, and then you have a recent quad core which is going to do well.
 
You may find the new Ryzen 2500X interesting. Don't get 2200G, you're paying for the same level GPU as your 750Ti (or worse) and a subpar CPU, it's only got half of L3 cache of 2300X/2500X.i3 8100 would be good too.
 
and the obvious thing people forget to mention, all ryzens are unlocked and can overclock to some extent on every board - even the cheap ones
 
Here’s a brief comparison of Ryzen, Pentium, and i3

All are good options indeed but with such a crappy budget you can’t beat the performance of the Pentium

And the test was performed with a GTX 1080 Ti so you know it’s not GPU limited


D4F081E7-E81F-4E48-9C78-8B24DCE3E71A.jpeg
 
and the obvious thing people forget to mention, all ryzens are unlocked and can overclock to some extent on every board - even the cheap ones
Although you're forgetting to mention that OC capabilities on Ryzen are puny and they don't amount to more than a few percent perfromance improvement. Ryzen is a great valure CPU,but not thanks to its OC.
 
The GPU on the G versions of Ryzen overclocks decently.
 
The GPU on the G versions of Ryzen overclocks decently.
why would he want an APU when he has got a 750Ti and will buy a 760.

btw OP don't buy a 760, get sth newer, maxwell based (970)


 
Around 160$ (without a gpu , only a mobo , ram , and a cpu). There will be a specific budget for a GPU , but now i am not thinking about it.
I am not familiar with prices in Saudi Arabia, but at least in my area $160 might be enough for a decent used Haswell combo: I bought an H97 board w/ i5-4440 and 8GB RAM for around $190 almost a year ago, so it should be even cheaper now with current situation in crypto-mining and upcoming next-gen CPUs etc.
3rd gen Intel is also dirt-cheap nowadays (pretty much on-par with 2nd gen, cause of age).

Anyway, if I were in your shoes, I'd sell ALL of your crap (incl. GTX750Ti), and bought a brand new Ryzen 5 2400G with an entry-level board and at least one stick of 8GB DDR4. I know it's almost double your budget, but it's 100% worth it in the long run (warranty+upgradeability). Otherwise you are just playing lottery with used hardware and basically trading crap for crap.
 
Yep. Selling what you've got and buying into a modern platform is the way to go, even if graphics wise it's a sidegrade.
 
Yep. Selling what you've got and buying into a modern platform is the way to go, even if graphics wise it's a sidegrade.
Yes selling stuff for a newer downgrade is really smart.
 
The GPU in the Ryzen is only about 10% slower. Plus I can almost guarantee that Core2Duo is throttling the system in some ways. He can always buy a cheap modern GPU such as the 2050 when it releases, and then he'll have the benefit of DX12/Vulkan multi GPU usage. Plus, the integrated graphics can be OC'd to achieve parity with the 750ti. You are of course completely ignoring the fact that he's moving to a CPU platform that's literally 3x faster and has support for all sorts of modern features. Perhaps try to look at the big picture?
 
Although you're forgetting to mention that OC capabilities on Ryzen are puny and they don't amount to more than a few percent perfromance improvement. Ryzen is a great valure CPU,but not thanks to its OC.
*trumpvoice* WRONG!
It is true on the ryzen high end side, there you will only gain like 200MHz = a couple %. Memory OC is more profitable there.
BUT on the lower end ryzen chips you can go from stock 3.1 GHz to 3.6-3.7 without trouble. That is more then 'a few percent' and I don´t think OP is aiming for a 2700x at his budget...

Edit: Just checked some benches, with e.g. the R3 1200 you can gain more then 10% from OC.
 
OP is in Saudi Arabia...Its not like he has a microcenter two towns over or an Amazon/Newegg with USA prices to order off of.
 
Honestly just ignore Tucker, he's wrong in so many ways he's either stupid, ignorant or just a troll.
 
And maxwell GPU can't be oc'd ? 750Ti stock is faster than the iGPU on Ryzen, plus it overclocks really well. Either get a new,proper CPU, like Ryzen 2 (non-G) or i3, or forget it. Ryzen APU is the stupidest thing he can do now, the iGPU is slower and the CPU is nerfed compared to non-G Ryzens.
 
The GPU in the Ryzen is only about 10% slower. Plus I can almost guarantee that Core2Duo is throttling the system in some ways. He can always buy a cheap modern GPU such as the 2050 when it releases, and then he'll have the benefit of DX12/Vulkan multi GPU usage. Plus, the integrated graphics can be OC'd to achieve parity with the 750ti. You are of course completely ignoring the fact that he's moving to a CPU platform that's literally 3x faster and has support for all sorts of modern features. Perhaps try to look at the big picture?
Idk what reviews you have read but the Vega 8/10 GPUs are more than 10% behind the GTX 750 Ti. They barely keep up with a GT 1030 which isn’t even a gaming dGPU

It’s stupid to downgrade GPU performance when he has other better options to go with along with his GTX 750 Ti
 
Back
Top