Possible upgrades

times_champion · 20 Oct 2011 at 00:55

Hi guys. I built my PC with the help of a friend a couple of years back fairly cheaply, It has performed well, but with the new waves of games coming out I think its time for a change. Currently im running;

Athlon 64X2 6000+
Radeon 4850

Im planning to upgrade to;

Phenom II Quad Core 965
GTX 560

I will also increase my RAM from 3gb to 4gb. My question is whether I will see a significant improvment to justify the £200 or so cost? My monitor is only 19" 1600x900 for now (hoping to upgrade to a 22" 1980x1080 but not for 6-12 months) so would the likes of Skyrim play well with my new setup? Im hoping it will then last me for the next couple of years without major upgrading. Cheers!

Doomedspeed · 20 Oct 2011 at 09:14

It may be a good improement, those two (965 & 560) will ply skyrim for sure.

Im just wondering about your motherboard; does it accept AM3 Processors and DDR3 RAM, or will you be using DDR2.

Im guessing you PSU is good enough, as it runs the 4850.

TheNameIsJambo · 20 Oct 2011 at 09:28

I don't think the specifications have been officially released, but my guess is the minimum spec for Skyrim would be (similar to BF3), nVidia 8800 or GTX460 with a Core2Duo.

You should be fine with the GTX 560.

Wait a little close to the time of the release and see if any deals pop up??

pastymuncher · 20 Oct 2011 at 10:37

What make and model are your psu and motherboard?

times_champion · 20 Oct 2011 at 16:14

My mate bought and installed the MB but I remember checking and it does support the Phenom II I believe. Is there any quick way to check? Also my memory is currently DDR2.

times_champion · 20 Oct 2011 at 16:16

Just ran a scan - my MB is a M3N78 PRO.

Will that support my chosen upgrade and DDR3 memory?

Adam_101 · 20 Oct 2011 at 16:20

could be mistaken but almost certain that mobo support x3/x4 chips!

Clav · 20 Oct 2011 at 16:20

Your board will support the 965 BE but you may need a BIOS update. The latest C3 stepping chips need bios version 1301 from Asus website. You are stuck with DDR2 memory though as it is an AM2+ board, so you'll have to stick with what you got or try and find some cheap DDR2.

Your boards product page is here

times_champion · 20 Oct 2011 at 16:36

Thanks - would the difference in games performance between DDR2 and DDR3 be a large one?

Adam_101 · 20 Oct 2011 at 17:26

in test I've done a while back I noticed that ddr3 doesn't bottleneck like ddr2 would (depending on what programs etc you use) def notice abit of increase in performance!