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How much CPU bottleneck is there with a Phenom II X4 955?

DELETED_83755

DELETED_83755

DELETED_83755

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I have recently been considering this and I'm struggling to answer this question looking at reviews and other benchmark.:(

Current Spec:

Phenom II x4 955 @ 3.2 ghz (c2 stepping- poor overclocker)
4Gb Ram
AMD 6950 2gb @ stock


As an example, I have seen a few benchmarks of Crysis 3 wih various CPU's which has shown that there is a lot of frames to be had with newer processors. However the game was tested with a GTX 690. :D

My questions

1. Assuming I keep the same graphics card (HD 6950 2 GB) and changed the CPU, will I see a tangible improvement in games? Or I'm I pretty balanced with CPU and GPU at present and to see tangible benefits, will need a new CPU + GPU?

2. As with the next gen consoles being x86, will game resources be better optimised, so much so that newer games may actually be smoother and easier on the CPU that it is not worth changing the CPU or GPU at all.

3. If I choose to upgrade the GPU to a 290X for example (I wish:D), how much performance will I be losing if I kept my current CPU?
 
You haven't got a massive bottleneck currently, even if you could only get your CPU upto 3.8GHZ, it'd help to elevate it, even though it's only small.

It's a fairly balanced combination.

An R9 290X would be entirely pointless, as you'd be fairly bottlenecked, someone with an R9 290 and better CPU would be posting much higher results.
 
I've got a C2 955 that i've been running at 3.7GHz (all mine will give reliably) and upgraded from a 6950 2GB to a GTX 780. The upgrade has been huge across the board but in things like crysis 1/2/3, assassins creed IV and a few benchmarks you will certainly see the cpu limiting things. Surprisingly, I've scored higher than a lot of people running i5's and even i7's in some of the benchmark threads which really foxes me. (although i do have the lowest score for a 780 in the sleeping dogs benchmark)

Overclocking the cpu nb will help, even if it's just up to 2400mhz. Mine would run at 2662MHz with 1.3V but it would occasionally blue screen so i dropped it back to 2400 with 1.2V. (I have had it up to 2898MHz with 1.425V when i was doing 8 packs superPi 4ghz challenge, but to get 4GHz needed the full 1.55V and the poor 1600 kingston hyperx genesis ram was copping 2.0V to get it to run at 7-8-7-18-2T @ 1656) Been contemplating trying to get hold of an X6 thuban in the hope that it clocks better, but an FX83xx would probably be the better choice.
 
Thanks for the input kei. I think it doesn't help that I have a Hyper 212+ and not watercooling. Mine does 3.6 ghz @ 1.4v by just adjusting the multiplier. However, this appears to disable cool n quiet and that just increases noise from fan at idle. Are you having any plans on updating your rig any time soon?

I guess just updating the CPU will not bring out that much difference for myself but noticing these frame rate drops in crysis 3.
 
I agree with comments, you are nice and balanced, i'd try clocking both cpu and the cpu-nb and your gcard.
Unless its home made water cooling or a chiller than don't bother with the h60,80s etc. They aren't worth the money.
C2's need a lot of juice but you should be able to get 3.6-3.8 providing temps are good.


Farcry 3. x4 b55 3.2 stock and a 7950 overclocked to 1050 1600.
3.2 stock




3.6 stock cpu-nb


4.3 cpu-nb 2666



Just to note that game starts when the orange memory line is maxed so inline with the second major peak on the gpu usage.
As said there are big gains from the clocking the cpu-nb
 
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you got about a perfect cpu balance with that card i know i had same.

oc to 3.7-3.8 on a c2 c3 4.0.

i wouldn't go any higher gpu on that cpu even oc.


if you going for a 290 get a 8320 and oc or i5 or i7
 
I had a Phenom 2 940 and it bottle necked my 5770s in Crossfire.

I really wouldn't go any higher from a GPU perspective as you'll just be pouring perfume on a pig tbh.
 
teddy3578 said:
Thanks for the input kei. I think it doesn't help that I have a Hyper 212+ and not watercooling. Mine does 3.6 ghz @ 1.4v by just adjusting the multiplier. However, this appears to disable cool n quiet and that just increases noise from fan at idle. Are you having any plans on updating your rig any time soon?

I guess just updating the CPU will not bring out that much difference for myself but noticing these frame rate drops in crysis 3.
Click to expand...
Cool 'n' quiet worked ok on mine after a bios update which helped. I think it does depend on the motherboard whether it remains working once you overclock. I ran exactly the same settings on the cpu prior to my move to watercooling. I had a prolimatech megahalems which kept the cpu under 60. (3.72GHz @ 1.456V cpu nb 2.4GHz @ 1.2V, this is with a 241MHz fsb) No idea how a hyper 212 compares with a megahalems though.

Officially, I've been looking into upgrading but I don't want intel and I want better than piledriver. (And it must have more than 4 physical cores) So really the answer is no, not going to change cpu until it becomes a necessity, by which time I'd hope something new is finally on the market from amd. I will admit to being tempted by a 2nd hand x6 thuban (1090t or 1100t) but they seem a tad rare and the benefits probably aren't worth the money it would cost.

Tbh, I haven't found a game that doesn't play sufficiently well yet. Everything tends to sit at the 60 fps vsync limit except those mentioned in my previous post. Crysis 3 can be run at maximum settings + smaa 4x with drops to low 30's possibly high 20's but average is mid 40's. (On my 6950, that was basically a slide show ~10 fps) But this is a game that can use lots of cores and is known to be cpu limited. Most games saw a big improvement though, going from 25-35 fps with the 6950 up to 65-75 fps on the 780.
 
Here's how mine behaves with the 780 in crysis 3. Frame rates seem fairly good, but the frame times are poor. Feels ok for the most part but there are occasional stutters. Settings are very high textures, 2x SMAA, 16x AF, low motion blur and everything else set to high.

This is during the first level towards the end.
11953496156_6f1e8394ac_o.jpg


This is welcome to the jungle.
11953496106_6f1e8394ac_o.jpg


Here's some test's done by pcgh and gamegpu, showing how much difference the cpu makes.
 
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