CPU upgrade advice needed

[Charliej]

Hi

Im currently running an AMD Phenom XII 560 overclocked to 3.9Ghz on the stock cooler and an Asus M5A78L-M LX motherboard with the XFX HD 6870 1Gb graphics card and using a 700W power supply, got the 6870 overclocked to 950Mhz 1150 Mhz and whilst its stable its not really getting the performance upgarde I thought I would get changing from a 1Gb HD 6450. Am I getting bottle necked by the CPU.

My question is , considering I'm on a relatively limited budget, would upgrading to the AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60 Ghz or try and find a Phenom II X4 965 and if so should I upgrade the stock cooler too?

Thanks in advance

 

[iBSOD]

3.9GHz stock cooler? What temps are you getting?

Have you also tried unlocking any cores?

 

[jkkc313]

i will not personally go for the bulldozer... is a upgrade from what you have but not great, i say save up a bit then maybe a ivy bridge system in a few months?

 

[Charliej]

3.9GHz stock cooler? What temps are you getting?

Have you also tried unlocking any cores?

Highest I've seen so far is 64 degrees C with a max operating temp stated to be 70, but usually sits there in the mids 50s this is with one side of the case renoved to aid cooling too.

Tried unlocking cores and had no luck with that.

 

[Charliej]

i will not personally go for the bulldozer... is a upgrade from what you have but not great, i say save up a bit then maybe a ivy bridge system in a few months?

Well as I previously stated I'm on a relatively limited budget and need an upgrade to last me until I can save for one of the new ivy's and a whole new system really at that point.

 

[bridder]

Hi Charlie, you may see an increase in some games if you switched to a quad core as some games make use of more cores but for the most part, I would have thought, a dual core Phenom II overclocked to 3.9Ghz will be fine for gaming. I'm amazed that you haven't seen a virtual doubling of performance going from a 6450 to a 6870...

What were you expecting? Do you have any numbers or scenarios before and after that you could highlight that do not meet your expectations...

regards,
J.

 

[Charliej]

Hi Charlie, you may see an increase in some games if you switched to a quad core as some games make use of more cores but for the most part, I would have thought, a dual core Phenom II overclocked to 3.9Ghz will be fine for gaming. I'm amazed that you haven't seen a virtual doubling of performance going from a 6450 to a 6870...

What were you expecting? Do you have any numbers or scenarios before and after that you could highlight that do not meet your expectations...

regards,
J.

WEll this is the issue I was expecting a virtual doubling of performance in both the games I play most of which are Runes of Magic and Rift, and I have seen some improvement and fps is more stable but not really the amount of improvement i was expecting, on the other hand Skyrim runs fine for me on ultra and Unreal Tournament 2004 is incedibly smooth and fast, to the point I have had to slow down the mouse response for it. I don't know where I'm going wrong , or if I am.

 

[valkynaz]

I'm using the same CPU as you and I can tell you now this thing suffers A LOT from CPU intensive games.

Like you, I can run Skyrim on ultra @60fps, but when it comes to games such as Rift and BF3, this thing falls flat on its face. Sometimes in BF3 I will experience frame rates I can count with my fingers.

My advice to you is if you are going to be upgrading to Ivybridge, you may as well not bother upgrading at all until then and wait it out. I too was considering upgrading to a BD/X4 processor as it would be a lot cheaper but in the long run it would be a better investment to stick it out until I can afford an upgrade that will last me a few years.