955 amd worth upgrading?

slim01

slim01

slim01

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Hi guys, got a friends amd 955BE system that needs repairing & fresh w7 install, but thought it might be a good time to upgrade to one of the new intels & newer pci-ex 3.0 mobos (as its for gaming and is 2-4 years old).

my research leads me to believe though that the new intels are almost no improvement over the old 2500k... so not a huge difference to the 955 for the huge £260+ it would cost?
http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1158&page=14

current specs are...
amd 955 BE
(will update mobo model soon)
6gb DDR2 OCZ platinum
gtx 560ti
be quiet 550w psu

So... Do you guys think there will be much of a difference upgrading to i5 (or new amd) with pci-ex 3.0/DDR3 system now?
or hold out if theres anything new coming out soon from intel/amd that will make a bigger difference?

Also, do you know if SSDs still perform well on an old sata2 connection? I think maybe this will be a better upgrade for now lol.
 
i upgraded from a 965 be to 8320, and yes it has made a big difference!
people have said with pcie 3 theres not much in it from the pcie 2 and as for ssd on sata2 yes you will see a difference but not the full potential of it
what you will need is new cpu, mobo, ram and you can get a gfx and ssd at later date if you wish
 
There's pretty much nothing from Intel/AMD this year for that end of the market.

The rig you're talking about is pretty balanced as it is, upgrading the CPU would be somewhat pointless as you'd be GPU limited, and if you upgraded the GPU too much you'd be CPU limited.
 
wow those fx amds are STILL using am3+ socket type? i wonder if it would take an 8350? any idea how that fares up against the intels (eg 2500k, theyre all the same)
 
slim01 said:
wow those fx amds are STILL using am3+ socket type? i wonder if it would take an 8350? any idea how that fares up against the intels (eg 2500k, theyre all the same)
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mate what mobo do you have? and i would go for the 8320 not the 8350 as they are basically the same chip and the 8320 will easily overclock to 4.0ghz if you have a decent enough board but there again im not so sure about the ddr2 ram!
 
OvEr_KiLL said:
mate what mobo do you have? and i would go for the 8320 not the 8350 as they are basically the same chip and the 8320 will easily overclock to 4.0ghz if you have a decent enough board but there again im not so sure about the ddr2 ram!
Click to expand...

just trying to get the board details now, its about 4 years old from 1st release i think. im assuming some sort of bios update would be required to drop in a chip this new, cheers for the advice though mate, didn't realise they were basically the same chip!! :rolleyes:

im exited at my next build maybe being an amd, theyve finally caught up and in some cases overtaken intel on price/performance from what i read. hooray! some competition for intel again! what do you guys think?

also, is there much difference in ddr2 > ddr3 memory? from what i know about memory i doubt it.
 
AM3+ isn't AM3.

You're getting confused between AM3 and AM3+.

I don't consider AMD viable for high end performance yet myself, I upgraded from a 2500K to a 4670K, both clocked around 4.8GHZ, there was a decent 15% improvement, but I opted for a 4770K in the end.
 
Martini1991 said:
AM3+ isn't AM3.

You're getting confused between AM3 and AM3+.

I don't consider AMD viable for high end performance yet myself, I upgraded from a 2500K to a 4670K, both clocked around 4.8GHZ, there was a decent 15% improvement, but I opted for a 4770K in the end.
Click to expand...

i think youre right... maybe am3+ wasnt out when his board came out.

how did you get a 15% increase?? increase in what? are you using sli/crossfire at all?
ive seen this benchmark

that thread shows the i7 on a single card setup with small amounts of increase, but dual gpu setup much bigger %.
the guy aint using dual gpu, we both dont like the hassle lol
 
How did I get a 15% improvement? Well, it might be more, handbrake encoding was quicker on the 4670K, DOWII was achieving much higher frame rates etc.

There is a 15% improvement, but that's not always going to translate into FPS due to the GPU bottleneck.
 
Running almost the exact same spec (955BE @ 3.6ghz but with 12gb DDR3 with 560ti 448) and wondering the same thing as you. I already have an SSD however. The SSD was probably one of the biggest upgrades i've experienced I hate going back to normal HDD based machines now. The cost of an intel upgrade is a lot seeing as I'd need a new cooler too (lost my bracket for my current cooler) and considering I probably only get in 5 odd hours of gaming a week tops I'm struggling to justify intel prices. However I look at the 8320 and can't decide if it's worth it.
 
skippy2421 said:
Running almost the exact same spec (955BE @ 3.6ghz but with 12gb DDR3 with 560ti 448) and wondering the same thing as you. I already have an SSD however. The SSD was probably one of the biggest upgrades i've experienced I hate going back to normal HDD based machines now. The cost of an intel upgrade is a lot seeing as I'd need a new cooler too (lost my bracket for my current cooler) and considering I probably only get in 5 odd hours of gaming a week tops I'm struggling to justify intel prices. However I look at the 8320 and can't decide if it's worth it.
Click to expand...

its a tricky one, but from what ive gathered, if your happy with your current performance, wait for new cpus with better gains, if not... buy a bigger gpu

lol
 
They're huge gains to be made upgrading from a 955, however if you're not a hardcore gamer and are happy with what it's current performance, don't bother.

My old 965BE & 6950 2GB, run BF4 @ Medium/High 1080p at 60fps.
 
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