CPU bottlenecking?

[Orch]

I'm a bit of noob so excuse me if I'm asking a stupid question.

My humble little rig does me quite well, but you know how it is, we always want more Was experimenting last night as noticed that the FPS difference on Crysis 2, running the maldohd4.0 mod, between min and max graphics settings was not much at all, maybe 10FPS at highest. I noticed similar with BF3 a while ago.

Does this mean my CPU is bottle necking? It's only a little FX4100 so I know it's not great.

Also, and I appreciate this might be difficult to answer unless someone has tried it specifically, but if I upgraded to a Haswell i5 for example, would I see some extra performance unlocked from my 7850?

The 7850 is OC'd to 1200/5600 by the way if that makes any difference.

 

[Orch]

Thanks for the answers, very helpful.

Not sure which rev, will have to check the box when I get home later.

Dropping a 6300 or 8320 would be a damn site cheaper than jumping over to intel. The games I play are mainly big name FPS as well, like BF3, BF4 when it gets here, Crysis etc so perhaps more cores would make sense?

I'm thinking dropping one of these in now or soonish, then upgrading mobo and GPU next year might be a good? Then I can decide whether to get another 7850 and crossfire, or just go for a better single GPU.

 

[Orch]

Hmm, from what I tell the only Vishera chip supported is the fx8300 and that's a bit old now isn't it?

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Gigabyte/GA-78LMT-S2P(rev._3.1).html

Looks like a new board might be on the cards sooner rather than later then.

 

[Orch]

Ha, beaten to it!

Yeh I think 8320 & new board is the best idea. Then it leaves my options open GPU wise going forward.

 

[Orch]

Thanks for all your help guys, a plan is formed.

 

[Orch]

New mobo and 8350. Make a decision on GPU next year.

 

[Orch]

8320 sorry.

 

[Orch]

Yeh I was looking through them earlier and realised I know sod all about mobos. I'll be back to ask advice on that when the funds are ready. Thanks again.

 

[Orch]

Ah if that's your board, then yea the FX-8300 with the 95W TDP is probably the highest CPU you could get. From the looks of it the board's VRM is not good enough to handle the TDP 125W FX8320 and FX8350, so that's why they ain't listed in the support list. However, I don't think there's any retailer selling the 95W FX8300 in the UK. There are some people selling it on the famous auction site, but it's at £135.

Also, I don't think the 95W TDP FX8300 will overclocked as high as the 125W TDP FX8320/8350.

Yeh I had a quick search for an 8300 and quickly came to the same conclusion. I think it would be wasted on my board anyway like you say.

 

[Orch]

Definitely get the 8320 if your not looking to spend a lot, but just so you know, i upgraded from a FX4100 @4.8 to a 4770K @4.6 and the performance difference has been absolutely incredible.
I ran a highly overclocked gigabyte 7970 Ghz edition when i had the fx and while for the most part games ran fine, it always felt like it wasn't able to stretch it's legs.
I get higher fps now than i ever did with my old system.
Best of luck in what ever you get pal.

That is good to know, thanks!

Whilst the 7850 isn't much special, it has overclocked really well and likewise I think it's being help back a bit.

I should have researched more before getting the fx4100 to be honest but hey ho, lessons learned. Gave me some good first OCing practise anyway!

Impressed you got 4.8hz out of yours, mine hit the wall at 4.4, then again I haven't tried it again since getting an aftermarket cooler. Maybe I'll give it some more abuse, if it fries, I'll just have to upgrade earlier!

 

[Orch]

Haswell is extremely tempting. I'm wondering whether the games I play BF3/BF4 etc would benefit from the extra cores on the 8320 though?