Should I upgrade?

[Adisan]

I've had the Phenom x6 II 3.2ghz for a year now.. It seems fine, but some games can be laggy, even though I have a decent graphics card (HD7970)
Will upgrading my CPU help?
Thanks

 

[Dom86]

Have you tried overclocking your cpu? you should be able to get a decent amount of performance from it still.

 

[shuffle]

Hi what game causes laggy graphics?
Good CPU, great graphics card - what could be the problem?

 

[shuffle]

Hi what game causes laggy graphics?
Good CPU, great graphics card - perhaps cooling could be a problem. What cooling/case do you use?

 

[Marine-RX179]

Hi what game causes laggy graphics?
Good CPU, great graphics card - what could be the problem?

CPU intensive games using low number of threads/cores thus bottlenecking his 7970 comes to mind.

OP should definitely try overclocking his CPU...it would reduce the bottleneck, but probably not completely remove it.

 

[Adisan]

I tried overclocking it, but it seems to get quite loud and heat rises a lot.. I don't know if I need a better cpu cooling, my current cooler is: arctic cooler freezer 13

 

[Alkalinepro5]

Just OC what you have. Nothing on the market will provide you with any worth while performance boost real world. Complete waste of money upgrading ATM.

Could you tell me which games lag BTW?

 

[Adisan]

Just OC what you have. Nothing on the market will provide you with any worth while performance boost real world. Complete waste of money upgrading ATM.

Could you tell me which games lag BTW?

Far Cry 3 on ultra everything from what I remember.

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Try overclocking first, if you are still CPU limited, then get a new CPU

 

[Adisan]

Try overclocking first, if you are still CPU limited, then get a new CPU

I do have it running 3 screens.. while playing far cry.. could that be why?
But my CPU get's quite hot while it's overclocked, so I don't know if I need a new cooler.

 

[Alkalinepro5]

I do have it running 3 screens.. while playing far cry.. could that be why?
But my CPU get's quite hot while it's overclocked, so I don't know if I need a new cooler.

lol you wont be able to run 3 screens on 1x7970

 

[Adisan]

Yes my middle monitor I play the main game, the left and right and used for skype and other programs, it's not 1 game spread over all 3

 

[Dom86]

Overclock your cpu first then if it's still not giving the performance change it.

 

[Suarez7]

I went from a Phenom 2 955 at 4ghz to an i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5ghz and the difference is night and day. Minimum fps rose substantially.

 

[Adisan]

Alright, thanks for the help .

 

[Gibbo3771]

Far Cry 3 on ultra everything from what I remember.

Being fair I have not heard from a single person that Far Cry 3 runs smooth all the time, people always blame their build but i think it's the game.

Some people report micro stutter, fram drops, random spikes, freezes etc etc.
I really think it's the engine, what other games?

 

[Adisan]

Being fair I have not heard from a single person that Far Cry 3 runs smooth all the time, people always blame their build but i think it's the game.

Some people report micro stutter, fram drops, random spikes, freezes etc etc.
I really think it's the engine, what other games?

That's the only game from what I remember, but I was told beforehand that my processor might be bottlenecking my gpu