Is my Phenom X6 seriously hindering my performance?

azazin · 17 Jun 2012 at 13:54

Hi guys,

I currently have a Phenom X6 in my rig, was wondering if you guys think it's affecting my gaming performance?

I game at 1080P and I am also planning on making a jump to a WQHD (2560x1440) monitor, will my CPU still be a bottleneck then?

Might plan on making the jump to I5 2500K depending on what you guys say.

Maybe also change my 7850 2GB for a 580 GTX depending if that's recommended because of the resolution of the monitor.

Thanks guys!

P.S. My Phenom X6 unfortunately doesn't overclock past 3.1ghz.

PorkPieCat · 17 Jun 2012 at 14:36

at 1440p the cpu isn't the limiting factor but the gpu. as such the cards you've listed can't game at the full potential of such a high resolution, so i wouldn't worry about the cpu bottleneck (which exists, but isn't major for those cards afaik).

also try and get the 3gb 580; 1.5gb vram would be pushing it at that res. alternatively it might be smarter to save money and overclock the 7850 - it's very ocable. edit: actually just oc the 7850, it can overclock up to 50% higher, which more than doubles the gap up to the gtx 580

Martini1991 · 17 Jun 2012 at 14:42

PorkPieCat said:
at 1440p the cpu isn't the limiting factor but the gpu. as such the cards you've listed can't game at the full potential of such a high resolution, so i wouldn't worry about the cpu bottleneck (which exists, but isn't major for those cards afaik).

also try and get the 3gb 580; 1.5gb vram would be pushing it at that res. alternatively it might be smarter to save money and overclock the 7850 - it's very ocable

Oc'ed 7850 is better than a GTX580 by quite a margin.

PorkPieCat · 17 Jun 2012 at 14:42

lol you beat me to my edit. i just remembered since the 7850 was my first choice before the 7970 way back, and people were raving about overclocks

azazin · 17 Jun 2012 at 14:47

Thanks for the replies guys, so what do you recommend I do, keep the CPU or change it?

Also I understand the 7850 is better than the 580 GTX when it's overclocked however what about when the 580GTX is overclocked too?

Thanks.

Orcvader · 17 Jun 2012 at 14:49

Keep the CPU and overclock it to 4ghz.

The 7850 has a massive amount of overclocking headroom compared to the 580, so it's best to buy the 7850 over the 580.

EDIT: What CPU cooler are you using? A bit weird that it can't go over 3.1ghz.

Martini1991 · 17 Jun 2012 at 14:50

Orcvader said:
Keep the CPU and overclock it to 4ghz.

The 7850 has a massive amount of overclocking headroom compared to the 580, so it's best to buy the 7850 over the 580.

1055T, he'd need a decent board for the bus speed, a lot of cheaper boards would struggle getting it above 3.2

Orcvader · 17 Jun 2012 at 14:51

Martini1991 said:
1055T, he'd need a decent board for the bus speed, a lot of cheaper boards would struggle getting it above 3.2

Fair enough, might be best to jump to the 3570K then.

HangTime · 17 Jun 2012 at 14:59

At 2560x1440 I can't see the cpu being the bottleneck unless you went with a dual-gpu solution. As mentioned if you did go for a GTX580 then steer clear of the 1.5GB variant.

azazin · 17 Jun 2012 at 15:01

Orcvader said:
Keep the CPU and overclock it to 4ghz.

The 7850 has a massive amount of overclocking headroom compared to the 580, so it's best to buy the 7850 over the 580.

EDIT: What CPU cooler are you using? A bit weird that it can't go over 3.1ghz.

Currently using the Coolermast Hyper 212 Evo, temperatures are fine when gaming and idle, never goes above 40 ish degrees celsius (when gaming)

Martini1991 said:
1055T, he'd need a decent board for the bus speed, a lot of cheaper boards would struggle getting it above 3.2

I currently have the GA-MA770T-UD3 if that's of any help, also using a 550W Corsair PSU.

azazin · 17 Jun 2012 at 15:03

Orcvader said:
Fair enough, might be best to jump to the 3570K then.

Might have to look into that, price for the 3570K looks good and it seems to be using the same 1155 chipset as the 2500K so I can purchase the same type of motherboard for it? (e.g. Z68 mobo)

HangTime said:
At 2560x1440 I can't see the cpu being the bottleneck unless you went with a dual-gpu solution. As mentioned if you did go for a GTX580 then steer clear of the 1.5GB variant.

I see, thanks for the advise, although I don't think I will be going for the 580 as it doesn't seem to be much of an improvement based on what the guys have said.

Orcvader · 17 Jun 2012 at 15:05

Yes, the 3570K is the best chip for price/gaming currently and can be used with any 1155 socket board. Get a Z77 chipset board, these are the best boards to have so far.

Combat squirrel · 17 Jun 2012 at 15:15

I use my 1055T at 4ghz with a 6970 2gb to game at 2560x1600, and it all runs just fine with no problems on all games, infact im now changing to a 3770K for my photography/editing PC and moving this PC downstairs as my HTPC gaming PC.

azazin · 17 Jun 2012 at 15:30

Orcvader said:
Yes, the 3570K is the best chip for price/gaming currently and can be used with any 1155 socket board. Get a Z77 chipset board, these are the best boards to have so far.

Thanks for the great replies

Just one last thing, how does the I7 2700K compare to the I5 3570K, some places are saying I5 is better, some are saying I7, not sure which to decide on to be honest.

Combat squirrel said:
I use my 1055T at 4ghz with a 6970 2gb to game at 2560x1600, and it all runs just fine with no problems on all games, infact im now changing to a 3770K for my photography/editing PC and moving this PC downstairs as my HTPC gaming PC.

I would love to be in the same position as you however my 1055T won't overclock past 3.1GHZ, the SB/IV really sound better and slightly more future proofed.

Davedree · 17 Jun 2012 at 18:19

You are doing something wrong with your overclocking then that board at minimum would get you to 3.6ghz at 1.25-1.3vcore with a nb-cpu sped of 2500-2800.

I'm willing to bet you havent downclocked your ram or something silly is out of spec when ht ref is pumped up.

Can you upload some screen prints of cpu speeds +memory settings within cpu-z,with your current overclock.

Martini1991 · 17 Jun 2012 at 18:52

Davedree said:
You are doing something wrong with your overclocking then that board at minimum would get you to 3.6ghz at 1.25-1.3vcore with a nb-cpu sped of 2500-2800.

I'm willing to bet you havent downclocked your ram or something silly is out of spec when ht ref is pumped up.

Can you upload some screen prints of cpu speeds +memory settings within cpu-z,with your current overclock.

Lots of boards struggle to let their NB get pushed at all, seen it countless times in "good" boards.

Davedree · 17 Jun 2012 at 20:09

Martini1991 said:
Lots of boards struggle to let their NB get pushed at all, seen it countless times in "good" boards.

nope not true at all im afraid. Especially the ma 770ud3's (from my own experience). Weak link is the 4+1 vrm phases aren't heatsinked.
The 1055t's did have weaker cores than the 1090t's so it maybe be just a bad cpu in azazins case.

The nb-cpu link as long as it isn't tied with the ht link like on some budget boards will clock to 2200 sometimes even 2400 on standard 1.175v. Sometime the nb-cpu voltage needs a lil bump to 1.2v or more for higher clocks.

Other factors that determine the nb-cpu stability are amount of ram modules.
More than 2 ram modules can stress the imc so a higher nb-cpu v is sometimes required. Especially true on earlier c2 steppings.

Also ram speed/timings and the command rate of cr1 can sometimes cause stability issues when the nb-cpu is overclocked

Fact, the nb-cpu is one of the things so many aren't even aware of when overclocking their cpus.Its also a main factors to why people struggle with stability once the core speed hits around 3.8-4.2ghz but still have good core temps and reasonable v-core,

I managed to get an x4 620 c2 stepping to 3.9ghz. + an x2 555 c3 on an am2+770ud3 unlocked to a quad at 4.2. 2800nb @1.52v on ddr2. both on air cooling using a titan fenrir and cool and quiet on.

Although my efforts werent with thuban i know that they can have both the ht link and the nb-cpu clocked where as Deneb you can only clock the nb-cpu. Whilst power draw of an x6 will be higher than a deneb, You should still be able to hit 3.6ghz on the e0 stepping with around 1.35v core to not stress the vrms.

Martini1991 · 17 Jun 2012 at 20:30

Motherboard NB, not CPU-NB, you're on about something different.
That 1055T to be clocked properlly needs a decent board that can do like 280 bus etc. I used to run a 1055T using my CH IV's bus speed at 350MHZ using a lower multi, managed to get some rather high clocks.
My maximum with a 1055T was 4.375GHZ.

Davedree · 17 Jun 2012 at 20:44

Martini1991 said:
Motherboard NB, not CPU-NB, you're on about something different.
That 1055T to be clocked properlly needs a decent board that can do like 280 bus etc. I used to run a 1055T using my CH IV's bus speed at 350MHZ using a lower multi, managed to get some rather high clocks.
My maximum with a 1055T was 4.375GHZ.

You are wrong my friend. no no not motherboard nb i never mentioned once just the nb so dont say i am on about something different, you dont touch that.
I am on about the nb-cpu/(cpu-nb) speed.

This controls the l3, Memory Controller and the htt.

That board will support over 300+ ht ref. I know I used it to get my x4 620 upto 3.9 ghz. 13 x 300.

Your overclock with the 1055t is very good fair play.

Martini1991 · 17 Jun 2012 at 21:22

Davedree said:
You are wrong my friend. no no not motherboard nb i never mentioned once just the nb so dont say i am on about something different, you dont touch that.
I am on about the nb-cpu/(cpu-nb) speed.

This controls the l3, Memory Controller and the htt.

That board will support over 300+ ht ref. I know I used it to get my x4 620 upto 3.9 ghz. 13 x 300.

Your overclock with the 1055t is very good fair play.

You're misunderstanding me so much it's frustrating, I know you're on about the CPU NB, but when you originally "corrected" me, I was talking about the motherboards NB (The HT Reference clock) when you started talking about the CPU-NB.

And a normal board like that doing 300+ on the NB? Unlikely, the Gigabyte 890FX wasn't doing 300 in reviews (From what I remember)

If yours did, then you've obviously got some magical power.