Is the i7 3770 and RX 580 a Good Gaming Combination?

When considering whether the Intel Core i7-3770 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 is a viable gaming setup, it's important to evaluate their combination in terms of performance, compatibility, and the overall gaming experience. This article breaks down the compatibility and performance of these components, along with insights into the broader context of old CPU revisit videos on YouTube.

Performance Breakdown

The Intel Core i7-3770 was released in 2012 and features 4 cores and 8 threads, with a base clock speed of 3.4 GHz and a turbo boost of up to 3.9 GHz. While it holds up well for many applications and games, it may struggle with CPU-intensive tasks that require more cores.

The AMD Radeon RX 580, launched in 2017, is capable of handling 1080p gaming at high settings in many games and can also manage some 1440p gaming with adjusted settings.

Bottlenecking and Compatibility

In most scenarios, the RX 580 may be slightly bottlenecked by the i7-3770 in CPU-intensive games, especially those that utilize more than four cores. However, for many games, performance should be balanced enough to provide a good experience.

Real-World Gaming Performance

For gaming at 1080p, you can expect good frame rates in a wide range of titles, particularly if you’re willing to tweak settings for newer or more demanding games. If you're looking to play more recent AAA titles, you might need to lower graphics settings to achieve smooth performance.

Compiling Old CPU Revisit Videos on YouTube

When looking at YouTube, there are plenty of somewhat recent videos of 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation i5 processors being pitted against the same generation i7 processors, along with newer Intel and AMD Ryzen processors. What I've seen is that these old i7 processors have blown past the old 4c/4t i5 processors, even an old Core i7–2600k still performs somewhat decently with an RX 580.

One factor that actually helps these old processors is running them with higher speed RAM. In some games, the performance boost with higher speed RAM isn't all that great, but in other games, it provides a noticeable difference.

Way back in the day, when the i7 processors were first released up until about 2016, there was almost no difference between the i5 and i7 in gaming. There are plenty of release-day gaming benchmarks where the i5–2500k was ahead of the i7–2600k in a few games, or the i5–3570 is a couple FPS ahead of the i7–3770k in a small handful of titles. The old 4c/4t i5 was the smart pick for a gaming rig. Around 2016 is when a few games came out that made use of the extra threads Hyperthreading provides.

YouTube channels that have done comparison videos of old processors include Gamers Nexus, RandomGaminginHD, The Good Old Gamer, TechYesCity, and many other smaller channels.

Conclusion

Overall, the i7-3770 and RX 580 can work well together for a budget gaming setup, especially for playing older or less demanding games. However, if you're looking to play the latest titles or run more intensive applications, you might consider upgrading to a newer CPU and GPU combination for better performance and longevity.