Planning a PC for Civ5

[V. Soma]

I know it is kind of early now, but:

I am about to buy PC this year - for Civ5, mainly
Can anyone tell me if there's a better option than

Core i5 750 + Radeon 5770 512MB for the money this pairing costs?
What motherboard would fit best?

Thanks for any input...

 

[Fëanor]

How much are you looking to spend? And will you keep your current monitor? if so what is the native resolution of that monitor?

 

[V. Soma]

monitor is a 19 inches Belinea* (5 years old) and can have 1920x1200 as best,
now is on 1152x864 with a Radeon 9600 (5 years old)

EDIT:
*I like it

And I am to spend ca 1000$ value money (Hungary, so ca. 200 000 HUF)

 

[GVBN]

A bit too early to say, it comes out in 5 months

 

[Fëanor]

I haven't read any specifications about Civ5 but i guesstimate that Radeon 5770 512MB might be a little underpowered to run the game with Max Settings@1920x1200 (although you will probably be able to run it with either Max Settings and lower Resolutions or Medium settings and Max Resolution)

For €240,-You can get Radeon HD 5850 1GB and while that is practically 1/3 of your €750 budget it could be done since you want to keep your monitor.

However you best option would be waiting for a couple of months for nVidia to release its Mid-level cards and hopefully fill that huge gap between the €120 HD5770 and the €240 HD5850, hopefully also forcing ATI to drop prices on its awfully overpriced HD5830 which at makes no sense at its current €220 price.

Is your Radeon 9600 AGP or PCIe?

Also, are you sure your monitor can run 1920x1200? i thought no LCD Monitor under 23 inches was made to run that resolution and CRT monitors usually are 1600x1200 since they were 4:3 and not 16:10. Im just saying this because if native resolution is lower it might make more sense to get the HD5770.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I seriously doubt Civ 5 will need much more than an HD4870 for max settings on 1920x

Its not Crysis ffs, their engine is made to be more accessible to more people. Therefore, the requirements are going to be on the lower side.

You are right in that the HD5850 is a better choice. As of right now, it offers the best value on the market.

 

[V. Soma]

However you best option would be waiting for a couple of months for nVidia to release its Mid-level cards

Well, yes, I think I will wait - now I am just trying to get the picture

Is your Radeon 9600 AGP or PCIe?

AGP - but it doesn't matter much, as I will purchase a total new PC.

Also, are you sure your monitor can run 1920x1200? i thought no LCD Monitor under 23 inches was made to run that resolution and CRT monitors usually are 1600x1200 since they were 4:3 and not 16:10.

This is LCD Belinea (was rather expensive when I bought it 5 years ago),
and my Catalyst driver 3.11 says it has this 1920x1200 capability as max.
(also WinXP says this )

 

[V. Soma]

I have a "headache".

Should I buy Intel 2010 machine (say i5 570),
or do an AMD (AM3) build (cheap CPU and GPU) and put Bulldozer/Llano in it in 2011?

 

[Fëanor]

I believe that the next gen AMD CPU's will not be fully compatible with AM3 motherboards (To be precise, they probably will be mechanically compatible but the current motherboards will not be able to utilize the GPU on the new chips)

As for Intel, they currently have pretty bad value/performance so they are not a good choice for a gamer on a budget, plus they will release a new socket late this year (barely a year after their last mainstream socket) so from an upgrading perspective they are much worse than AMD (whom at least will supposedly be partially compatible)

 

[V. Soma]

I believe that the next gen AMD CPU's will not be compatible with AM3 motherboards (To be precise, they probably will be mechanically compatible but the current motherboards will not be able to utilize the GPU on the new chips)

As for Intel, they currently have pretty bad value/performance so they are not a good choice for a gamer on a budget, plus they will release a new socket late this year (barely a year after their last mainstream socket) so from an upgrading perspective they are much worse than AMD (whom at least will supposedly be partially compatible)

I read on the net that AMD's Bulldozer based CPU named Zambezi will be AM3 comaptibel (This is only CPU). As for Llano, thing are unsure as of now, but rumors say it could be also AM3...

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I read on the net that AMD's Bulldozer based CPU named Zambezi will be AM3 comaptibel (This is only CPU). As for Llano, thing are unsure as of now, but rumors say it could be also AM3...

If you read closely what Feanor said, you will see that he's saying that the sockets may be AM3, but they might not be compatible. Its not entirely about whether or not the sockets match physically anymore. There's some other compatibility issues to consider.

 

[Fëanor]

(Added "Fully" to my previous post to make it clearer)

To see an example of what AMD will probably do we just need to look at their last socket upgrades, AM2/AM2+ and AM3.

AM2 and AM2+ processors are both forward and backwards compatible*
AM2/AM2+ processors are not forwards compatible with AM3 motherboards
AM3 Processors are backwards with AM2/AM2+ motherboards*

So its there is a very good possibility that rumors that the next gen AMD processors will be backwards compatible* are true, allthough this time its a completely new architecture so calling it "Socket AM3+" might not be the best PR move.

*with the obvious limitation and depending on each motherboard manufacturer's implementation, to quote WIKI:

Many manufacturers, such as Dell in the case of their Inspiron 531, have yet to (and may choose not to) release BIOS updates that would enable this compatibility. As a result, some consumers are unable to upgrade their PCs with AM2+ CPUs despite this being technically possible, and are instead forced to buy a new PC to upgrade the processor. MSI has simply stated that their AM2 motherboards are not compatible with AM2+ processors

 

[civ_king]

(Added "Fully" to my previous post to make it clearer)

To see an example of what AMD will probably do we just need to look at their last socket upgrades, AM2/AM2+ and AM3.

AM2 and AM2+ processors are both forward and backwards compatible*
AM2/AM2+ processors are not forwards compatible with AM3 motherboards
AM3 Processors are backwards with AM2/AM2+ motherboards*

So its there is a very good possibility that rumors that the next gen AMD processors will be backwards compatible* are true, allthough this time its a completely new architecture so calling it "Socket AM3+" might not be the best PR move.

*with the obvious limitation and depending on each motherboard manufacturer's implementation, to quote WIKI:

isn't that why you get a geek to build it for you?