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Cheap Phenom CPU upgrade?

Merlin5

Merlin5

Merlin5

Soldato
Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
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Location
Finchley, London
I'm thinking about a cheap upgrade from my Phenom x2 550BE just to give some extra horsepower along with my 5850 for 3D gaming, since I receive a 3D monitor tomorrow. I was considering a Phenom X6, but it looks like my motherboard doesn't support X6.

GA-MA770-UD3 (rev. 2.0)
'Support for AM3 / AM2+ / AM2 processors (Note1): AMD Phenom™ II X4 processor/ AMD Phenom™ II X3 processor/ AMD Phenom™ FX processor/ AMD Phenom™ X4 processor/ AMD Phenom™ X3 processor/ AMD Athlon™ X2 processor/ AMD Athlon™ processor/ AMD Sempron™ X2 processor/ AMD Sempron™processor'


If I was to get a Phenom quad core, would it make enough difference? My concern is not being able to get playable framerates with 3D on my current setup, and I'm making the assumption that the CPU will play a large part in that? I'm wondering, would a Phenom X4 plus some slight overclocking of my GPU increase framerates by any considerable amount? 3D apparently really eats into available power. But I cant afford the £400 GFX cards, and to get an i5 would be too expensive because it means changing motherboard and god knows what else. So I'm looking for an easier route, only if it's worthwhile. Thanks.
 
Does your 550BE not unlock?
I'd get the Phenom II X4 if not, you won't need the X6 for gaming and your limiting factor would be your 5850.
 
Martini1991 said:
Does your 550BE not unlock?
I'd get the Phenom II X4 if not, you won't need the X6 for gaming and your limiting factor would be your 5850.
Click to expand...

I've tried a few times, just cannot unlock mine.

I'm glad you said that, because the X6 aren't as cheap as I was hoping.
Which X4 should I be looking out for, the 940 @3GHz? I agree, my 5850 will be a bottleneck, but will the X4 upgrade make a significant difference? Example, if I was only able to get say 15fps using Tridef software to play 3D games, would a X4 increase framerates considerably? I obviously won't know what kind of FPS I'll get till tomorrow, but from what someone with an i7 and 7970 and 3D was telling me, I'll be struggling.
 
The 960T is worth considering. More than likely to unlock to x6 but even if it doesnt it has the same mem controller as the 1090's etc

Quite easily got mine to x6 @ 4GHz, 2600 NB
 
Merlin5 said:
I've tried a few times, just cannot unlock mine.

I'm glad you said that, because the X6 aren't as cheap as I was hoping.
Which X4 should I be looking out for, the 940 @3GHz? I agree, my 5850 will be a bottleneck, but will the X4 upgrade make a significant difference? Example, if I was only able to get say 15fps using Tridef software to play 3D games, would a X4 increase framerates considerably? I obviously won't know what kind of FPS I'll get till tomorrow, but from what someone with an i7 and 7970 and 3D was telling me, I'll be struggling.
Click to expand...

Do you use afterburner? what % of the card do you use? If it is 99% then no bottleneck, the less % the more the CPU bottleneck.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Look around - the 95W Phenom II X6 1045T can be had for under £95.

However,you can get the 125W TDP Phenom II X4 965BE for under £80 delivered.
Click to expand...

Which would be my choice of CPU from AMD.

Merlin5 said:
I've tried a few times, just cannot unlock mine.

I'm glad you said that, because the X6 aren't as cheap as I was hoping.
Which X4 should I be looking out for, the 940 @3GHz? I agree, my 5850 will be a bottleneck, but will the X4 upgrade make a significant difference? Example, if I was only able to get say 15fps using Tridef software to play 3D games, would a X4 increase framerates considerably? I obviously won't know what kind of FPS I'll get till tomorrow, but from what someone with an i7 and 7970 and 3D was telling me, I'll be struggling.
Click to expand...


Honestly couldn't tell you on the frame rate stuff.
 
Last edited:
frank_grimes said:
Do you use afterburner? what % of the card do you use? If it is 99% then no bottleneck, the less % the more the CPU bottleneck.
Click to expand...

I do yes, just for OSD of temps and FPS, but it's now saying expired/corrupted, so I'm redownloading another version. When it's reinstalled, how/where do I check for the %?




CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Look around - the 95W Phenom II X6 1045T can be had for under £95.

However,you can get the 125W TDP Phenom II X4 965BE for under £80 delivered.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'd like to know which places you found those prices, they're really good.

Well I just found some CPU's fairly close to those figures. A brand new AMD Black Edition AMD Phenom II X4 965/3.4GHz Quad Core Processor Socket AM3 8MB for £87, free delivery and 3 year warranty. And an AMD Phenom II X6 1045T Six Core Processor (2.70 GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket AM3, 95W, 3 Year Warranty, Retail Boxed) for £98.93 free delivery.

Martini1991 says he prefers the X4, so is that better to go for than the X6 for £12 more?
 
If you're overclocking the 965 would go further, the 1045t on your board would be a pain to overclock.
At stock in gaming the Phenom II X4 with its vastly higher clock speed would be much better.
 
Martini1991 said:
If you're overclocking the 965 would go further, the 1045t on your board would be a pain to overclock.
At stock in gaming the Phenom II X4 with its vastly higher clock speed would be much better.
Click to expand...


Sorted then. I'll see how my system holds up to the 3D, and then if I decide it needs a new CPU, it'll be the 965. Cheers.

The Phenom II X4 980 @ 3.6Ghz from what I can see is the top of the range X4 Phenom that was ever made, correct me if I'm wrong. So the 965 could effectively be O/C from stock 3.4 to 3.6 and match the 980?
 
Merlin5 said:
Sorted then. I'll see how my system holds up to the 3D, and then if I decide it needs a new CPU, it'll be the 965. Cheers.

The Phenom II X4 980 @ 3.6Ghz from what I can see is the top of the range X4 Phenom that was ever made, correct me if I'm wrong. So the 965 could effectively be O/C from stock 3.4 to 3.6 and match the 980?
Click to expand...

I thought they made a 3.7GHZ Phenom II, I could be wrong.

A Phenom II 965 C3 should be able to do 3.8GHZ on stock voltage (Or a little nudge) quite easily.
Still wouldn't come close to current Intel CPU's, but meh.
 
Merlin5 said:
I do yes, just for OSD of temps and FPS, but it's now saying expired/corrupted, so I'm redownloading another version. When it's reinstalled, how/where do I check for the %?






Interesting. I'd like to know which places you found those prices, they're really good.

Well I just found some CPU's fairly close to those figures. A brand new AMD Black Edition AMD Phenom II X4 965/3.4GHz Quad Core Processor Socket AM3 8MB for £87, free delivery and 3 year warranty. And an AMD Phenom II X6 1045T Six Core Processor (2.70 GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket AM3, 95W, 3 Year Warranty, Retail Boxed) for £98.93 free delivery.

Martini1991 says he prefers the X4, so is that better to go for than the X6 for £12 more?
Click to expand...

Go for the Phenom X4 965. However,it does have a higher 125W TDP than the 95W Phenom II X6 1045T.

BTW,Kindle!!:p
 
Martini1991 said:
I thought they made a 3.7GHZ Phenom II, I could be wrong.

A Phenom II 965 C3 should be able to do 3.8GHZ on stock voltage (Or a little nudge) quite easily.
Still wouldn't come close to current Intel CPU's, but meh.
Click to expand...

You're probably right, I'm only going from my particular mobo's support list, so it probably just isn't listing some other X4 chips. http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3097

Believe me, I'd love to have an Intel i5! There was a time when I was going to do a full upgrade to it, but I can't really afford to, plus cba with the hassle of swapping out the motherboard and doing a rebuild.

If as frank grimes mentioned that afterburner shows hardly any GPU usage and it's a CPU bottleneck instead, then I hope that the 965 will make a significant difference. I have a horrible feeling though that my 5850 will be mostly the guilty party. It's cheaper for me to upgrade the CPU than buying a new graphics card (I'm considering a 6950).
 
If you upgraded your GPU then your 550BE would be an even bigger bottleneck, if you updated your CPU then your 5850 would be a bottleneck in 3D.

You're at an awkward cross road where you're going against the norm, and in doing so you really need the hardware for it.

The 5850 in 3D for example, I really don't know how well that would perform.
How would you be doing 3D? You need to pay for Tridef or iz3d anyway.
 
Martini1991 said:
If you upgraded your GPU then your 550BE would be an even bigger bottleneck, if you updated your CPU then your 5850 would be a bottleneck in 3D.

You're at an awkward cross road where you're going against the norm, and in doing so you really need the hardware for it.

The 5850 in 3D for example, I really don't know how well that would perform.
How would you be doing 3D? You need to pay for Tridef or iz3d anyway.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I might have to consider upgrading both. :(

Hopefully afterburner will give me some idea when I test some games later.

The monitor I bought is this (while it was much cheaper, £154 with VAT back) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-168-SAck)

It has built in 2D to 3D conversion with zero performance hit apparently. But it's Tridef that gives true 3D which will hit performance a lot. It comes with licensed Tridef full software, so nothing to pay.
 
I like Tridef, but it's moot with my GTX680 using anaglyph.
I was considering one of those 120HZ monitors, but couldn't justify it to myself.
See how things are when your monitor comes, and then go from there.

Speaking of CPU upgrades, I WANT A 3570K :(.
 
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