Upgrading to new AM3+ mobo

Trojan Horse

Trojan Horse

Trojan Horse

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Hi,

need help in choosing a decent upgrade from my ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 motherboard.

I basically just want this new one to have 2 gfx card slots, and sata 3. dust proofing suggestions would be ideal :)

my budget is £100 and under. is spending 200 on a gaming motherboard really worth it? what are its advantages?

i am running a phenom ii x4 965, hyper 212 evo, 8gb corsair veng, and a 6950 (dual bios). the cpu is clocked @ 3.9GHz so its not an extreme overclock.

Thinking about this extremely cheap one: 990XA-GD55 http://uk.msi.com/product/mb/990XA-GD55.html

heard MSI is an extremely good brand as well, most prefer it over ASUS?

edit just looked and found that the GD55 has a FSB/hyper transport bus for FX.. will my cpu still be compatible?
 
I'd wait until Steamroller's out and about before you change motherboard for AMD.

Two GPU's with your current CPU will bottleneck anyway, so you may's well wait till we know the full story.
 
Thanks for the prompt response,

Nah I wanted two GPUs because I was going to purchase a 7970 in a few months, and then upgrade my cpu as the board is AM3+ and AMD boards rarely need changing out with newer CPUs.

Sorry what do you mean steamrollers? I've got to exchange the board within 45 days so will it be out before then?

Thanks
 
7970 Crossfire will still bottleneck on an FX8350 in the vast majority of games.

Steamroller is AMD's new CPU iteration, and the 8 cores are due Q1 2014 as far as I know.
I won't comment on AMD and sockets, because there's a crap ton of ignorance around it.

Steamroller could well be AM3+, but it could quite easily be a new socket if AMD throw one in, we've just started to see some FM2+ stuff, and the base spec of that is higher than that of AM3+, which is why I'm sceptical about AM3+'s longevity.

So in my opinion, it wouldn't be wise to buy an AM3+ board right now, rather wait until AMD shows its hand with its new CPU (Which may be a decent improvement on Piledriver)
Right now, for dual GPU, AMD isn't the better choice.
 
Thanks for the info,

what do you mean theres a lot of ignorance around AMD? please explain further

Hmm, I really need to upgrade my motherboard now though (old one is faulty) so I'm going to have to get one for the time being mate, and possibly upgrade again in the forseeable future, so don't mind if steamroller would require a new mobo.

unless my cpu starts immediately going faulty i dont think id switch to intel either so thats not an option

please advise on a decent AM3+ mobo (1 gfx slot is OK then)
 
Can't you pick up a cheap second hand one for the time being? It's probably your easiest option, it'd set you back 20-30 quid.

At the very least if Steamroller does go AM3+ there's bound to be a new chipset for native PCI-E 3.0 (At least, you'd hope)
 
I like to buy things from a retailer so if anything goes bad instand refund/replacement.
Tbh mate will a 7970 bottleneck a II X4 965 at 3.9? if so by how much

how long will steam roller take to release?

discarding all those things aside would the GD-55 be good?
 
A 7970 will bottleneck on a Phenom II X4 965 even at 3.9GHZ, how much? Depends on the game, but a 7970 can gain about ~30% over its stock performance overclocked so you'd bottleneck your potential GPU performance by quite a significant amount.

Steamroller is meant to be Q1 2014, that's anywhere from 3-6 months, but it could be quite a gain over Piledriver.

The MSI GD-55 I haven't really got anything to say about, I'd go with one of the Asus ones personally, I know Asus have rolled out some PCI-E 3.0 with third party chips, so I'd go after one of those if I absolutely had to right now, but I wouldn't be investing in AM3+ right now.
 
Q1 is the first quarter of 2014.

You'd still bottleneck a single 7970 with an FX8350, not in every game (The later games for example, but then I've never seen any tests done with a fully clocked 7970)
BF3/BF4/Crysis 3 etc are all fine FX8350 and a 7970, but I'd hope you play more than 4 games.

And buying an AM3+ board and an FX8350 right now means you've invested money into a platform with an unsure future, to want to go Crossfire which will bottleneck.

Either, get a cheap AM3/AM3+ board for your Phenom II and wait and see what happens, or go 1150.
 
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Lol that's really funny

I play for about an hour a day and usually 3-5 days a week because i'm pretty busy now and the only games i play that would need a good card IS bf3 and soon bf4, if it helps im going to be getting another monitor soon anyway and well...


When you say bottleneck how much of a bottleneck in FPS terms should I be expecting
2 x 1920x180 screens is what i play on (soon anyway) and because i've heard the card is so good it reaches above 60fps in most games on highest settings, seeing as my monitors are 60hz will these differences be something i will not likely see anywya
 
If you're playing multi screen, the bottleneck won't really be there, as your FPS will be limited to what your GPU can pump.

I can't given a blanket figure on the bottleneck, as it differs game to game.

But if you're buying a new board and CPU, there's no reason not to consider Intel.

You could just get a 35 quid board for your Phenom II X4 brand new, and then weigh your options when it comes to 2014.
 
MSI doesn't have a great AMD reputation. You're better off generally with Asus and Gigabyte. I wouldn't spend over £120 on an AM3+ board because it's not really necessary unless you want 5GHz+ overclocks on an 8350/93xx.

If you want to upgrade the board to the latest and use your current CPU I would get this board:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-559-AS

It's compatible with Crossfire/SLI, but as above in many games your CPU won't be able to keep up.
 
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