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AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz experience?

simsim

simsim

simsim

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Joined
22 Jan 2010
Posts
31
Has anyone got one of these in a budget gaming rig? I was looking at
AMD Phenom X4 965 BE Quad Core 3.4GHz but they seem to have been around forever? I've been put off going for a bulldozer so my question is has anyone any experience of this processor coupled with a discrete graphics card?

I'm only gaming on a 22" screen at 1920x1080, with a XFX 5850 xxx. My current processor is AMD Phenom 9500 @2.2Ghz which is struggling these days in certain games. Il get a new inexpensive mobo to go with which ever choice.

I'm happy to stick with AMD now and its only to last the next 18 months before complete upgrade to bigger screen gaming.
 
I have it on my server so can't really comment, but it seems nice and quick!

Stock cooler was a bit whiney so ugpraded and now it's silent :)
 
Your title suggests you mean a A6-5400k BE, which I would not suggest getting for a gaming rig.

The 965 however is a superb CPU and will be a marked improvement over a 9500, possibly even twice as fast (especially since you can clock them close to 4GHz just by raising the multiplier and voltage!).
 
Thanks for the advice. I guess im struggling to see how a chip thats been around a good while would perform better than the fx4100/6100 or the new Trinity.
 
simsim said:
Thanks for the advice. I guess im struggling to see how a chip thats been around a good while would perform better than the fx4100/6100 or the new Trinity.
Click to expand...

I am running an i5 760 and that performs better and that was released in 2010.

The x4 965 would be a good upgrade over your 9500, especially when overclocked.

More than enough processor for a 5850.
 
simsim said:
Thanks for the advice. I guess im struggling to see how a chip thats been around a good while would perform better than the fx4100/6100 or the new Trinity.
Click to expand...

It's more the stagnation in processor speed. Intel has been going for lower power consumption and AMD has been increasing the core count. If you compare say an i5 760 clock for clock to an ivy bridge CPU, it's really only 15% slower, which for about 3 years difference is not very much. In 2000 we had the first 1GHz CPU and by 2003 we had 3GHz processors, which were literally 3x faster.

What you will see however is that a modern notebook can kick the ass of a desktop from a couple of years ago whilst running on battery power - that's where the gains have gone to.
 
You motherboard will support the new CPU, however you will almost certainly need to perform a BIOS update for this to be the case. The general procedure for this is to copy the BIOS file to a USB thumb drive and set the system to boot from USB. You'll probably should do this /before/ you put the new CPU in but from past experience I've found that socket compatible AMD processors will still boot even if the motherboard doesn't support them, albeit at low default frequency.
 
Ive just upgraded to the Phenom X4 965 and its got to be said ....Impressed
bf3 runs so sweet now with my ati 5850 & 4gb ddr2
4yr old system aswell :)
 
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