what in the world, no solid CPU gains lately? Upgrades?

[mizzou]

Was just bumming around the internets to see if there were some cheap upgrades for my PC:

my specs;
-CPU Phenom X4 B55 3.6ghz (it's an OC and unlocked X3)
-AMD 5850
-2gb DDR3 1333 x 2 (4gb total)
-Win 7 64bit
-1920x1080 monitor


Was surprised that my CPU is still considered high entry level for gaming

Even my video card isn't really at the bottom of the barrel.

Anyway, I don't get the best performance in games like BF3 and Arma 2, but it's GOOD performance I guess.

Maybe a memory upgrade could be a good jolt?

I feel like last time I upgraded, the performance gains to my new specs were outrageous

 

[Eeqmcsq]

Yup. Good enough computing, no competition between Intel and AMD, market is swinging towards smart phones and tablets. It's a boring time to be a computer enthusiast.

 

[ElFenix]

without the major clockspeed increases that used to accompany new uarch and process tech, overall gains on general apps has slowed to a crawl. intel has been focused on perf per watt with their uarch changes, having recognized that speed has been good enough for several years so they need to improve battery life more than anything else. and process tech is also less about the Hz and more about the power consumption as well.

 

[JimmiG]

I upgraded from a Phenom II X4 @ 3.6 GHz to my current 4770K. Massive difference even at the stock 3.5 GHz. Well worth it. Same with my old GTX 460 vs the 670 OC.

If you bought a new Intel system in 2011 or later, there really isn't anything better out though.

 

[hackerballs]

Yes. You could use 8 gigs RAM in your PC. The extra 4 gigs will make a difference in gameplay.

The 5850 with a bandwidth of 128.0 GB/s is still OK but getting long in the tooth. Should still be able to play all games on high. Ultra will be a problem with some new games. Will your MB let you have 2 gpu's in crossfire? You should be able to pick up a second card cheap. Don't do this if it reverts to x 4, only x8/16 is acceptable.

Bottom line:
Ram----Yes
GPU-----Not needed yet unless you get a great deal. That card balances your system with the AMD...you could wait for the next build you do

 

[mizzou]

Yes. You could use 8 gigs RAM in your PC. The extra 4 gigs will make a difference in gameplay.

The 5850 with a bandwidth of 128.0 GB/s is still OK but getting long in the tooth. Should still be able to play all games on high. Ultra will be a problem with some new games. Will your MB let you have 2 gpu's in crossfire? You should be able to pick up a second card cheap. Don't do this if it reverts to x 4, only x8/16 is acceptable.

Bottom line:
Ram----Yes
GPU-----Not needed yet unless you get a great deal. That card balances your system with the AMD...you could wait for the next build you do

yeah its crossfire capable...I'm always wary of buying cards with no return policy any alternative places to look? It's out of stock alot of places

i see some for sale on amazon for $95 used

EDIT: OOPS, it is NOT x-fire capable, was thinking of my older mobo

 

[SlickR12345]

For games its mostly the GPU that is the bottleneck, but you also have very low memory, so upgrading to 8gb memory will have huge impact on your performance in games and overall.

I wouldn't change the processor yet, it has at least a year left in it, and the GPU the same as well.

I'd just wait for example 1 or 2 years to then buy a completely new system. For now upgrading to 8gb ram will do the job.

 

[erunion]

For games its mostly the GPU that is the bottleneck, but you also have very low memory, so upgrading to 8gb memory will have huge impact on your performance in games and overall.

not for arma and bf3 multiplayer, those games definitely need fast single threaded performance

 

[StrangerGuy]

I thought people would be happier spending LESS money on PCs...

 

[frozentundra123456]

Is your cpu the original Phenom or a Phenom II? You probably would see the best improvement from a gpu upgrade and more ram, but you would probably also see a good increase from a phenom or even Phenom II to has well, especially with a mild over clock. If you prefer the 8350, it is pretty good for BF3, but Intel performs better in Arma II.

Is it worth it? That is hard to say. Depends on how unhappy you are with your current system I guess. I don't see any major improvements on the horizon for high end cpus, but when the 20nm gpus come out there should be considerable gains.

 

[mizzou]

Is your cpu the original Phenom or a Phenom II? You probably would see the best improvement from a gpu upgrade and more ram, but you would probably also see a good increase from a phenom or even Phenom II to has well, especially with a mild over clock. If you prefer the 8350, it is pretty good for BF3, but Intel performs better in Arma II.

Is it worth it? That is hard to say. Depends on how unhappy you are with your current system I guess. I don't see any major improvements on the horizon for high end cpus, but when the 20nm gpus come out there should be considerable gains.

Phenom II X2 555 black edition oc 3.2 to 3.6

I bought it December of 2010 D:


yeah I think I'm going to drop in some more RAM and wait it out

 

[mizzou]

The years have flown by quite fast...I am surprised that I am not in the stone age of computing! (Although I should be very excited lol)

 

[witeken]

Yup. Good enough computing,

There's no such thing as good enough computing. If Intel makes a 50% faster CPU, there will be a market for it. See data center.

no competition between Intel and AMD,

Irrelevant.

market is swinging towards smart phones and tablets.

Irrelevant as well; Intel makes more than $30B from the PC space. Further, the PC space makes use of Core, which is also designed for the still healthily growing data center (15% CAGR through 2018).

 

[Yuriman]

There are real gains to be had over what you have, but it isn't like the 90's, where speeds doubled every year or two. Personally, I'm very happy that my current high-performance desktop is effectively silent and 1/4 the size of PCs I've had in the past.

 

[mizzou]

There are real gains to be had over what you have, but it isn't like the 90's, where speeds doubled every year or two. Personally, I'm very happy that my current high-performance desktop is effectively silent and 1/4 the size of PCs I've had in the past.

I suspect my CPU performs similar to a phenom II x4 955....that CPU is still fairly modern in gaming standards according to Toms Hardware.

That was 5 years ago! Heck, the AM3 platform is still around. I suppose this is a good thing...but I've noticed some of my favorite games are not playable at high settings, but I don't want to bother with an upgrade unless it will seriously boost performance.(I don't want to stay in the sinking ship of AM3+ or the sailing ship of Haswell)

 

[TurtleCrusher]

not for arma and bf3 multiplayer, those games definitely need fast single threaded performance

ARMA, sure, but BF3 utilizes 6+ cores on PC. You can run it well on three cores with medium CPU settings.

 

[mizzou]

There are real gains to be had over what you have, but it isn't like the 90's, where speeds doubled every year or two. Personally, I'm very happy that my current high-performance desktop is effectively silent and 1/4 the size of PCs I've had in the past.

What do you think

Radeon R9 280X 3GB
i5-4690 Haswell


vs

-CPU Phenom X4 B55 3.6ghz (it's an OC and unlocked X3)
-AMD 5850


How huge of a difference would that be? I bet it would be quite significant...but I think I could cut my new system cost in half if I wait for the next generation of Desktop CPU's to hit the market.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I suspect my CPU performs similar to a phenom II x4 955....that CPU is still fairly modern in gaming standards according to Toms Hardware.

That was 5 years ago! Heck, the AM3 platform is still around. I suppose this is a good thing...but I've noticed some of my favorite games are not playable at high settings, but I don't want to bother with an upgrade unless it will seriously boost performance.(I don't want to stay in the sinking ship of AM3+ or the sailing ship of Haswell)

Is your board AM3+?

If it is, the 95w FX-8310 hits $90 often. There's many of us on here who use FX-83xx for both gaming and work and it works superbly. NBA 2K15 wouldn't even run 60fps (necessity in that game) except on low settings on a 2.8GHZ C2Q, yet I can run it maxed on my desktop with no dips at all. Most new games utilize many cores and the performance is almost always more than what my monitor will show me (60fps).

 

[Ramses]

Yeeeahh... pretty much.

I took a vacation from PC's for a few years as a hobby and went from my long time 955be to a 1090t, an 8350, a 9590, and now a 4790K in the space of two or three years I guess. More ram was nice so I could leave whatever I wanted open, faster GPU's helped in games, SSD's were a huuuuge improvement. Past the 8350 there has really been jack for improvement ime. They are faster and all that, but for moderate gaming and heavy office/internet use, same same. My i7-4510u laptop with an ssd and 16gb does everything I do short of some gaming just as well too and I honestly wish I'd just kept using it and not blew a bunch of money on desktops.
If I buy anything else it's going to be because it's interesting, not to get something faster.
Like dual xeons or if AMD comes up with something neat in the next year or two maybe.
Unless actual VR becomes consumer and needs a bunch of horsepower or something.

But yeah, ain't what it used to be in a lot of ways if one has been jerking around with this stuff for fifteen or twenty years. Lot of stuffs cool but eh..

 

[mizzou]

Is your board AM3+?

If it is, the 95w FX-8310 hits $90 often. There's many of us on here who use FX-83xx for both gaming and work and it works superbly. NBA 2K15 wouldn't even run 60fps (necessity in that game) except on low settings on a 2.8GHZ C2Q, yet I can run it maxed on my desktop with no dips at all. Most new games utilize many cores and the performance is almost always more than what my monitor will show me (60fps).

NOPE Its just a plain AM3 unfortunately The latest processor I can put in there is a Phenom II X6, which is stupidly expensive on Amazon.

 

[Ramses]

NOPE The latest processor I can put in there is a Phenom II X6, which is stupidly expensive on Amazon.

I know, I bought one on craigslist for $35 and sold it for $100 on ebay or something close to it. Crazy..

 

[Yuriman]

What do you think

Radeon R9 280X 3GB
i5-4690 Haswell


vs

-CPU Phenom X4 B55 3.6ghz (it's an OC and unlocked X3)
-AMD 5850


How huge of a difference would that be? I bet it would be quite significant...but I think I could cut my new system cost in half if I wait for the next generation of Desktop CPU's to hit the market.

i5 4690 will be about 50-75% faster than your current CPU. R9 280x is around twice as fast as your 5850, maybe a bit more.

Here's 280x vs 5870:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1062?vs=1041


Thing about the CPU upgrade is, if you're not CPU limited, you'll not see any FPS improvements, and you can always crank up your graphical settings until you're GPU bottlenecked. However, if that CPU bottleneck is causing you to go into the 30's or 20's in a FPS, it's probably worth an upgrade.

In the games you enjoy right now, you can test for a CPU bottleneck by cranking graphics settings up to max (or keep them at whatever you're running presently) and turning the resolution way down, and anti-aliasing off. At this point, whatever FPS you're getting is what your CPU is able to deliver. If you feel that's insufficient, you're due for an upgrade.

EDIT: Anand's bench is rather lacking in charts that cover both CPUs, but here's what they have on Phenom II vs Haswell i5:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/102?vs=1261

 

[Dave2150]

Was just bumming around the internets to see if there were some cheap upgrades for my PC:

my specs;
-CPU Phenom X4 B55 3.6ghz (it's an OC and unlocked X3)
-AMD 5850
-2gb DDR3 1333 x 2 (4gb total)
-Win 7 64bit
-1920x1080 monitor


Was surprised that my CPU is still considered high entry level for gaming

Even my video card isn't really at the bottom of the barrel.

Anyway, I don't get the best performance in games like BF3 and Arma 2, but it's GOOD performance I guess.

Maybe a memory upgrade could be a good jolt?

I feel like last time I upgraded, the performance gains to my new specs were outrageous

Your PC is fine for gaming, at 1024x768, or even 800x600.

It's not fine for anything else though... very long in the tooth and generally a turd compared to what's available now.

 

[jpiniero]

Your PC is fine for gaming, at 1024x768, or even 800x600.

It's not fine for anything else though... very long in the tooth and generally a turd compared to what's available now.

You'd be surprised. The 2 GB of memory would be killer but you could probably do med 30ish fps @ 1080p.

 

[Yuriman]

You'd be surprised. The 2 GB of memory would be killer but you could probably do med 30ish fps @ 1080p.

Indeed. A 5850 is faster than a 260X (I think), which runs most recent games at 1080P medium settings.