Athlon X4 740/750k vs Phenom 945/956

Quigs Snr · 18-11-2012 12:51AM #1

Trying to build budget PC for indoor bike VR training software. Dont want to spend big bucks, hardware requirements vague (4 core cpu, 8gb ram, 1gb gfx). I have heard reports of it running full settings on an athlon II 645, with a radeon 6850.

It will only be used for this purpose, so I am thinking one of the aforementioned processors and whatever the cheapest board available for them on hardwareversand is.

I was thinking 7850 1gb for GFX... possible overkill ? 550 ti and 7700 good bit cheaper.

Finally, case and PSU.... Tempted by the cheapo HKC's with the allegedly 420 watt PSU. Useless ? Do I really need to get a cheapo case and add a better PSU instead ?

Thanks

Tea_Bag · 18-11-2012 07:40AM

I'd be looking at the low end socket 1155 Pentium CPUs instead of an athlon. dual core but will run circles around an athlon quad. paired with a h77 board.

I doubt GPU has anything to do with it, but a HD7750 will cover you. what's your budget and where are you located?

Monotype · 18-11-2012 10:49AM

What about the AMD Trinity APUs?

Can you give a link to this software?

Quigs Snr · 18-11-2012 03:26PM

Specs for tacx tts4 software:

The minimum specs
Processor: Dual Core 2,5 Ghz
ATI or Nvidia card of at least 256 Mb
Memory : 3 Gb
OS: Vista and W7 (no xp)
32 Bit or 64 Bit system

Recommended
Processor: Quad Core 2,5 Ghz or I5 / I7 processor
Graphics: ATI or Nvidia discrete 1 GB video card (latest GPU)
Memory : 8 Gb
OS: Vista and W7 (no xp)
64 Bit system

Bit vague. Currently running on low settings fairly smoothly on my old laptop, Core2duo 2.5ghz, 4gb ram, Geforce 8600 GT (Mobile) at 720p.

Want to run at 1080p, full settings. A 3ghz Athlon II X4 with a radeon 6850 1gb accomplishes this according to a guy running it on their support forums. Another guy running with an I7 2600 but a radeon 5670 runs on highest also but only gets 30 fps or so. Not surprising with that card.

Don't really want to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut if I can avoid it as this is all this particular PC will ever do.

Monotype · 18-11-2012 07:36PM

Looks kind of like GTA without people and other interactions. GTA is a resource hog but there's a lot less going on here even it happens to be the same engine.

As far as I can find, the integrated 7660D of the 5800K is a reasonable bit faster than the 5670.

On the other hand, a 2600 would be faster in terms of CPU. I presume that we can assume that GPU>CPU here as it's running well on the 6850 + Athlon x4 3GHz.

I think that it could probably be done with the 5800K by itself. It could be overclocked if needs be - the GPU element overclocks by quite a bit in the tests I've seen. You could fit the whole thing in a fairly smallish case.

If you don't like that route and want to be sure, a 7770 should be plenty.

Quigs Snr · 18-11-2012 09:38PM

Monotype wrote: »

On the other hand, a 2600 would be faster in terms of CPU. I presume that we can assume that GPU>CPU here as it's running well on the 6850 + Athlon x4 3GHz.

Thats what I was thinking. The requirements suggest that CPU is important up to a point, but really with the I7 and low end card struggling compared to the low end chip with mid level card then it looks like the GPU is doing the heavy lifting.

I can use a generic HKC case / cpu, DVD drive, 500gb HD along with the Athlon X4 750K (apparently an A10-5700 with disabled GPU cores), mobo, 8gb ram, Radeon 7850, USB wifi for around 450 euro from hardwareversand.

Although I am debating a phenom 965 instead of the X4 750k because I can't see a single benchmark or review for it anywhere (a benchmark of the athlon x4 740 would suggest the 750 is around A10-5800 levels).

Monotype · 18-11-2012 10:57PM

I'd expect the 740K to be much the same as the FX-4300 underclocked by 0.4GHz.

If you weren't going to use the integrated graphics element of it, I'd be thinking of AM3+ instead. Mind you, the 740K is considerably cheaper, but I suppose they need to make the platform attractive for dedicated cards as well.
It should be better than the phenoms at the same speed. The older Bulldozers weren't but this generation are a good replacement.

There's not that much point in being overly scabby with the case. You could still get a reasonable PSU for €40 (superflower amazon 450W). Heck, even the Antec basiqs are a better option than a case PSU. In the interests of safety at the very least on top of quality of power and keeping your components from being fried.

Quigs Snr · 19-11-2012 01:47AM

Monotype wrote: »

I'd expect the 740K to be much the same as the FX-4300 underclocked by 0.4GHz.

If you weren't going to use the integrated graphics element of it, I'd be thinking of AM3+ instead. Mind you, the 740K is considerably cheaper, but I suppose they need to make the platform attractive for dedicated cards as well.
It should be better than the phenoms at the same speed. The older Bulldozers weren't but this generation are a good replacement.

There's not that much point in being overly scabby with the case. You could still get a reasonable PSU for €40 (superflower amazon 450W). Heck, even the Antec basiqs are a better option than a case PSU. In the interests of safety at the very least on top of quality of power and keeping your components from being fried.

Thanks, ordered that stuff. Dumped the cheapo HKX Case / PSU combo picked up generic case and the PSU you mentioned. Thanks for the help.

Athlon X4 740/750k vs Phenom 945/956

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