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Which CPU for GTS260 OR 5770?
- Thread starter olibb
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Associate
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My 4200 does 2.6ghz stable with a budget mobo (only allows +0.05v) so I'd give overclocking a bash if you know what you're doing, then run a few tests with Fraps to see if the CPU really is holding you back.
Soldato
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He's planning on getting a new graphic card. But the problem is due to his slow CPU, in some games the data will not be transferred over to the graphic card fast enough (such as in mmorpgs when there are lots of people in screen doing lots of things at the same time), leading to the CPU bottlenecking and the GPU only processing whatever they are receiving and not using its processing power to 100%.
olibb, I believe your motherboard should be a AM2 board, and the fastest CPU you can get should be X2 6400+. However the old Athlon X2 platform run a lots hotter and slower and not as overclockerable as most more recent dual-core such as Core2Duo, Phenom II X2, and even the re-established Athlon X2 such as 240/250.
With that said, you should still get a 5770 or similar level card. They are still the best performance for the price and there's no reason you should get a slower or even low-end graphic just because you got a slow CPU.
This is what you should do- get the graphic card now, and save up and upgrade to better/more modern motherobord/CPU/RAM when you got money to spare.
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+1 marine's comments
There is nothing to suggest from your post that you are AM2 so more specs would be nice, what motherboard have you got? The 4200+ was released on the s939 platform and AM2 platform, one is an easy upgrade, the other is basically a complete rebuild.
With a 5770 or a GTX 260 you are, without doubt - going to want to look at upgrading that CPU, with so many mmo's being cpu bound you are likely to gain more performance out of a cpu upgrade than you are a gfx one (assuming that you are cpu bound now).
If it were me I would be looking at a cheap AM2 or second hand core 2 upgrade, if your AM2 already your laughing all the way to the bank, a £50 Athlon 2 will walk your current 4200+ by quite a substantial margin.
Finally if your 4200+ is 939 then the chip will demand a premium on the second hand market as if I remember correctly it was the flagship s939 chip.
Edit: Just looked the 4800+ was the flagship s939 chip, however that had a 110w tdp, the 4200+ was the fastest 89w s939 chip and this is probably partly why they do so well on the second hand market.
With a 5770 or a GTX 260 you are, without doubt - going to want to look at upgrading that CPU, with so many mmo's being cpu bound you are likely to gain more performance out of a cpu upgrade than you are a gfx one (assuming that you are cpu bound now).
If it were me I would be looking at a cheap AM2 or second hand core 2 upgrade, if your AM2 already your laughing all the way to the bank, a £50 Athlon 2 will walk your current 4200+ by quite a substantial margin.
Finally if your 4200+ is 939 then the chip will demand a premium on the second hand market as if I remember correctly it was the flagship s939 chip.
Edit: Just looked the 4800+ was the flagship s939 chip, however that had a 110w tdp, the 4200+ was the fastest 89w s939 chip and this is probably partly why they do so well on the second hand market.
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Soldato
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I was under the impression that majority of the s939 only support AGP...no?
That's why I assume he got a AM2 board since he got a 4200+ and is looking at the PCI-E graphic cards as upgrade.
Guess we'll need to hear back from olibb to confirm which board he's got.
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Soldato
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ok, thanks for clearing that up. I'm not too familiar with the 939.
Putting that side, if I was on a AM2 board and want to upgrade the CPU, I'd rather spending may be around £160 on getting a Athlon X2 240/250 (around £45-50) overclock to 3.5GHz+, AM3 motherboard (around £50) and 2GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 RAMs (£60), than grabbing a top CPU for £50-£60 for a AM2 (dead-end) board with no room for future upgrade.
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haha cheers for clearin that up marine. but yeah he could do with an upgrade in cpu especially if wanting to play MMORPG's which rely just as much on CPU as GPU i believe?
but oblib could still do with stating his overall budget in order to enable us to provide the best possible solution
but oblib could still do with stating his overall budget in order to enable us to provide the best possible solution
Soldato
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I too in the pass (when I was still a novice in hardware stuffs) had a slow CPU and thought upgrading to a fast graphic card will hugely boost my frame rate, and I found out the hard way that graphic card alone is not miracle cures for low frame rate. Have a well-balanced system is more important and improve overall performance than throwing hundreds of pound on a single high-end hardware.
Soldato
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Soldato
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What is the exact motherboard model? It says it supports phenom, but not Phenom II (which is what you really want).
Soldato
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Well, there are a few Phenom II for am2+ socket, and if I'm not mistaken, the highest spec one is a Phenom II X4 940...which is a quad-core.
I set up a Phenom 2 955 be in a sapphire am2+ board not long ago. Depending on the board you should be fine with most if not all amd cpu’s, for information on AM3 cpu compatibility backwards with AM2+ take a look at anand's review of the AM3 955.
The review explains better than I can about the ddr2 and ddr3 memory controller in the AM3 cpu which allows it to work on both platforms - providing the board you are using is AM2+ and supports it with a bios update.
Either way your board by the sounds of it still has some life left in it, clearly once you’ve confirmed this your choice of graphics card should not be limited by the cpu compatibility of your motherboard. In the short term you may be cpu bound but once the next upgrade (your cpu) comes along, you will unlock the potential in the card. Somebody correct me if I am wrong but this situation also means you can throw on more AA and AF to stretch your cards legs for no frame hit.
The review explains better than I can about the ddr2 and ddr3 memory controller in the AM3 cpu which allows it to work on both platforms - providing the board you are using is AM2+ and supports it with a bios update.
Either way your board by the sounds of it still has some life left in it, clearly once you’ve confirmed this your choice of graphics card should not be limited by the cpu compatibility of your motherboard. In the short term you may be cpu bound but once the next upgrade (your cpu) comes along, you will unlock the potential in the card. Somebody correct me if I am wrong but this situation also means you can throw on more AA and AF to stretch your cards legs for no frame hit.
thats a decent mobo and it supports all the latest cpus. A good idea would be to get a phenom x2 555 and opverclock it. There is also a high probability that you could unlock it to a quad core but thats not guaranteed. A 4200 would definately hold back any new card.