CPU/GPU pairings - i7 or 15 ? Team Green or Team Red ?

[juneau]

In order of preference:

1) Hardcore Gaming
2) Normal Gaming
3) Casual Gaming

So a quad core is pretty much useless then?

[Duke{CLR}]

So a quad core is pretty much useless then?

Well a quad core processor is part of the recommended specs of BC2 so there may be future games that will utilize this power.

[WalkinTarget]

Juneau = lifetime card carrying member of the quad core haters fan club.

Duke = hopelessly addicted to PC hardware now that he's built a few rigs.

OK, so the dude's Mom (she's a secretary at school here) called me to say that her son and I are now officially BBF since I helped him spec this build out.

She doesn't think buying a piece of PC hardware for him is a good gift, and I vehemently disagreed, but we settled on a gift cert. from the Egg to make it more palatable for her.

That way he can change his mind and still buy gear, so all is good. Sorry, no pics since he is living in FLA, but I can try and get him to join here and we may even get to shoot him in-game !! Always good fun.

Side note: When my future wife and I were just dating, I would ask for a video card every B-day. She did that two years, then year 3 said she wasn't buying them anymore, so I buy my own now. Besides, at that time, I bought $150 cards. The last two have cost me $400+, so its good she doesn't know !!

[Duke{CLR}]

Well I may be going after a DX 11 card to celebrate BC2 if it looks like that will be agreat game. I will also be looking closely at EVGAs offerings to see if the step up program will work for me. So I guess i'm addicted.

[juneau]

Juneau = lifetime card carrying member of the quad core haters fan club.

Duke = hopelessly addicted to PC hardware now that he's built a few rigs.

OK, so the dude's Mom (she's a secretary at school here) called me to say that her son and I are now officially BBF since I helped him spec this build out.

She doesn't think buying a piece of PC hardware for him is a good gift, and I vehemently disagreed, but we settled on a gift cert. from the Egg to make it more palatable for her.

That way he can change his mind and still buy gear, so all is good. Sorry, no pics since he is living in FLA, but I can try and get him to join here and we may even get to shoot him in-game !! Always good fun.

Side note: When my future wife and I were just dating, I would ask for a video card every B-day. She did that two years, then year 3 said she wasn't buying them anymore, so I buy my own now. Besides, at that time, I bought $150 cards. The last two have cost me $400+, so its good she doesn't know !!

LMAO! I'm not a Quad Core hater. I just have common sense. But you should know this by now WT.

[Zantheus]

So a quad core is pretty much useless then?

All depends on what he will be playing...I know OPDR supports the i7 as I have both, and if he is into FSX or anything like that, Quad is the way to go. Im a FSX addict and cant imagine running it on anything other then my i7

[juneau]

All depends on what he will be playing...I know OPDR supports the i7 as I have both, and if he is into FSX or anything like that, Quad is the way to go. Im a FSX addict and cant imagine running it on anything other then my i7

The thing is though, what's the chance that he's interested in all of the QuadCore enbaled games out there, which to put it bluntly is what? 5?

DualCore is enough for any game. Even ones that are Quad enabled.

Imo Quads should only be needed by people that do serious multitasking, video/image/audio editing.

But heck, it's not my money, and even if he does like FSX or is possibly interested in BC2, then he'll be pretty much doing the same as buying a PS3 and only one game..... ever. Because by the time even 50% of the games he buys become QuadCore enbaled his i5 or i7 will be out of date junk.

[Furryappleseed]

Take a look at this article: Building a Balanced Gaming PC

Gives you combinations of cpu/gpu and shows how much a quad can or can not matter at a range of resolutions.