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GPU for AMD X4 975 3.6

bgl.valk

bgl.valk

bgl.valk

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Joined
18 Aug 2015
Posts
6
Hey Guys,

I have recently purchased myself an AMD X4 975 to replace my X3 720. I didnt want to upgrade my MB etc because I dont really game as much as I used to so didnt see the point.

I currently am running with 8GB RAM which is more than enough for what I am playing and a Radeon HD 6850.

I am looking to upgrade my GPU but I wanted an opinion on the best I can get without it Bottlenecking. (Looking at 660Ti or HD 7950 atm, but is there better??)

I am playing games atm such as Alien Iso, Evil Within, Fifa 15 and will look to move onto Witcher 3 and Battlefront when I am done.

I DO NOT want to overclock anything so that is out the window as my case aint huge and I cba to put a Hyper EVO cooler in it.

Also shall I upgrade my Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus 460W before installing anything new? I have not put my new CPU in yet as at max load with my current GPU it will be around 419W.
 
bgl.valk said:
Hey Guys,

I have recently purchased myself an AMD X4 975 to replace my X3 720. I didnt want to upgrade my MB etc because I dont really game as much as I used to so didnt see the point.

I currently am running with 8GB RAM which is more than enough for what I am playing and a Radeon HD 6850.

I am looking to upgrade my GPU but I wanted an opinion on the best I can get without it Bottlenecking. (Looking at 660Ti or HD 7950 atm, but is there better??)

I am playing games atm such as Alien Iso, Evil Within, Fifa 15 and will look to move onto Witcher 3 and Battlefront when I am done.

I DO NOT want to overclock anything so that is out the window as my case aint huge and I cba to put a Hyper EVO cooler in it.

Also shall I upgrade my Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus 460W before installing anything new? I have not put my new CPU in yet as at max load with my current GPU it will be around 419W.
Click to expand...

The 720 can sometimes unlock to a quad core, did you try that?

The 7950 would walk all over the 660ti.

Yes, it'd be best to replace the PSU with a good quality unit. I wouldn't trust that as far as I could throw it.
 
You might not game much, but some of the games you mentioned are pretty GPU intensive.

What resolution is your monitor? I guess you could try 720p to keep the framerate up.
 
I have not tried to unlock the core, but I have the X4 975 anyway already.

In regards to those games I know they are GPU intensive thats why i want the best I can. So far people have mentioned the 7950 to me over anything else, it seems to perform pretty well for the games I mentioned.
 
There isn't much in it between a 7970 and a 7950 really, and the 7970 will still outperform the 7950 regardless of an underperfoming CPU.

You could pair a Fury X or Titan X with your CPU, you'd still see gains at higher resolutions, just not as large as with a decent CPU.

CPU "bottlenecks" aren't a hard performance wall.

I'd probably lean towards nVidia with your weak CPU as the dx11 driver gives far more draw calls than the AMD dx11 driver. The gap is closed under dx12, but there are no dx12 games yet.

If you had a high end CPU, it wouldn't matter, but for you every CPU cycle counts.
 
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Ok well here is an example with the 7970.

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Says bottleneck CPU but I have no idea how bad that would be.

If you agree its fine then between GTX 670 and HD 7970 what would be best?
 
Between those two I'd probably go for the 7970.

The website is right - you will be held back by your CPU, and your minimum framerates will be impacted.

But, your overall performance will still be better with that than a 7950. Even if 90% of the time the CPU is holding it back, the remaining 10% the GPU will still be faster. You'll see higher average FPS with a 7970.
 
Do bear in mind Star Wars: Battlefront will support Mantle which should give you a nice boost in performance. Agree with others that the 7970 is the best card for your CPU.
 
thebennyboy said:
Do bear in mind Star Wars: Battlefront will support Mantle which should give you a nice boost in performance. Agree with others that the 7970 is the best card for your CPU.
Click to expand...

Will it? Obviously BF4 did but Mantle is kind of dead now so will they bother with it? Or go DX12?
 
How bad of an impact will it have on my FPS roughly?? I dont really have an understanding of bottlenecking so i dont know how much of an effect it will have
 
bgl.valk said:
How bad of an impact will it have on my FPS roughly?? I dont really have an understanding of bottlenecking so i dont know how much of an effect it will have
Click to expand...

Load varies and fluctuates by time. Depending on what's on the screen, from an open landscape, to lots of trees, to waving grass, to lots of characters, to a dungeon and lighting effects, at any moment a game could have hardly any demands on a CPU, but loads on the GPU, or the opposite.

In situations where there is a high CPU demand, an i7 might be fine and you'd still hit the limit of the GPU. Your CPU might be limited, and struggling to keep up with your GPU.

Turn 180 degrees, and you might find suddenly there is little demand on the CPU and your performance is limited by your GPU, and suddenly the FPS is as high as it would be if you had an i7 as the CPU isn't under load anyway.

Nobody can tell you exactly how many FPS you will lose due to your CPU, as it will vary not only by game, but by exactly what is happening in the game at the time. There is no formula to calculate it.

That said, in general, expect there to be lower "minimum" fps and more stutter than you'd see with a better CPU. But a weaker more "balanced" GPU wouldn't alleviate that in the slightest - just reduce your maximum and average FPS too.
 
Ok so that is that issue potentially resolved. No then I need a new PSU for all of this now would a Corsair VS550 ATX/EPS Vs Series 550 W 80 Plus do the job? Currently Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus 460W
 
rtho782 said:
Will it? Obviously BF4 did but Mantle is kind of dead now so will they bother with it? Or go DX12?
Click to expand...

Yup, Star Wars will use the Frostbite engine which has full mantle support. Your CPU shouldn't bottleneck a 7970 that badly anyway. Mantle will help you squeeze out a little bit more performance.
 
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