Upgrading Motherboard/CPU combo

simsim

simsim

simsim

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22 Jan 2010
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Looking to upgrade from a AMD Phenon X4 2.2ghz processor (1st gen Phenom) as it appears to be bottle necking? on some games

I have a fast HDD etc and a AMD 5850 XXX I play at 1920x1080 on a 22" screen. Saw this bundle on amazon today:

AMD Bulldozer FX-8120 8 Core 3.10GHz - Asus M5A78L-M USB3 HDMI Motherboard - 8GB DDR3 RAM Bundle

vs

AMD Bulldozer FX-6100 6 Core 3.3Ghz, ASUS M5A78L-M USB3 Motherboard & 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM Bundle

My question is for mostly 'high end' gaming, will the 8 core and 8GB Ram benefit me more? Theres only a few pounds in it and appear to be pretty good deals after shopping around and although I'm not a complete beginner, I would prefer the prebuilt and tested gear. Any input would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards

Simsim
 
It'll mostly be the clock speed that'll help with the gaming side of things mate.

6 cores is plenty.

I'd definatly spend the extra £20 and go for Piledriver over Bulldozer though.

Consider the 6300/8320
 
if gaming, 4 cores is still plenty, no game supports more than 4 cores as of yet, any that say that it supports 6 or more cores shows no gains in fps for using them, but what happens in the next year is any ones guess
 
Is there still the big performance gains of core i5/7 over the AMD processors? I was only thinking of spending around £200 on a combo for now and I've always used AMD products. I think for what I am going to use it for I won't need to spend that kind of cash?
 
simsim said:
Is there still the big performance gains of core i5/7 over the AMD processors? I was only thinking of spending around £200 on a combo for now and I've always used AMD products. I think for what I am going to use it for I won't need to spend that kind of cash?
Click to expand...

Intel is known as the KING of CPU's. Preference of AMD is down to the individual, I got it as it was cheap. An Intel i5 3570k, would be your perfect CPU for gaming & multitasking, 6+ cores are really for rendering, encoding and VM environments.

Does this help?
 
Yeah it does thanks for the advice. Like I said I've stuck with AMD but regardless of my choice I have to change the Mobo. I'm struggling to move away due to the big price difference between the two.

As long the AMD is plenty good enough for 22" screen gaming then I'm happy with that. Another 18 months and i'l be getting a larger screen and a new gpu so will probably build a high-end system from scratch, I just can't be doing with poor performance on some games and with the AM2+ mobo I don't think even the most powerful compatible cpu will be good enough?
 
I have 3 computers, one of them in my sig and another which is built very similar to your set up (untill i had to change my MOBO).

It was a AMD fx8150 WITH your motherboard and 8gb of ram.

Change your CPU from bulldozer to piledriver, i have both and i can tell you the Piledriver is worth the tiny bit of extra cash!

As for whether 6 or 8 core, i would think of it like this. If you got 2x4GB sticks now and an 8core, you can always get 2 more sticks later and have the better of both. You might not NEED 8 core now, but to be honest i very much doubt you will need the full 8GB let alone 16gb.

I used the bundle your using and the problem with it is that the 6/8 core fx chip drain quite a lot of power and the motherboard seems to be unstable at high load. My core voltage would jump up and same with the bus speed, itd go from anywhere between 180MHz and 248MHz (have a funny screen of it at 240MHz with Vdrop to make your jaw drop). Change your motherboard if your getting a fx 6 core or 8 core chip, these MOBO's dont seem suited to their power drain. I changed my MOBO and i no longer get stupid Vdrop or bus speed varience.

Ill post a full size image link so you can see the Voltage

http://postimage.org/image/ugvn3kit1/

Proof of my MOBO before i needed to scrap it:
http://s8.postimage.org/85g9mq9k5/2012_11_23_23_59_25.jpg
 
Thanks for the advice il check out the mobo. Looking at what people have said by the sound of it there is no need to go for the 8 core and if its just gaming then itl probably be the 4-6 core. with 8gb RAM
 
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