Hey guys, i got quick question regarding upgrade of my CPU or GPU. Specs are: XfX 4890 in Crossfire 850W PSU Phenom II x3 720 BE (Unable to OC anymore, running stock 2.8) 8Gb 1333 Mhz DDR3 RAM Mobo: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 AM3+ (got as replacement for Crosshair IV due to heat problems) This mobo is the most expensive piece in my rig right now, but its not working the way i hoped it to. When i had the Crosshair IV formula i could unlock the 4th core and overclock to 3.5 ghz, but not anymore. Unlocking the 4th core on this new Gigabyte mobo just gives me bluescreen, even an OC of 200 mhz (with only 3 cores) crashes the system. Was waiting for the bulldozer CPU all this time, but it turns out to be quite a dissappointment, so i decided to get Phenom II x6 instead and save some money. Now before i do anything though, i would like some input regarding the upgrade, im playing FFXIV the most right now, and am getting horrible fps at higher settings, as well as in games like Dues EX and the Witcher II, all at 1920x1080 res. Bottom line: Is my CPU bottlenecking my system, or are the GPUs getting too old for these new games? Overclocking it is no longer an option.
from my experience, 3.2Ghz and above it's what you need i play most modern games no problem , but at stock cpu clocks I loose >10 fps
Thx for the reply, but like i said, i am no longer able to OC this processor at all, 2.8 is as far as it goes if i want to avoid blue screens :x. But if my GPUs are good enough for now, then i guess upgrading the cpu is the only way to go.
I can't say the 720 is a good overclocker, compared to intel solutions i don't see any phenom II a good overclocker....but to not be able to overclock it at all...i find that impossible..but if you can't really overclock it at all than by all means, buy a new CPU.
For the price of 720 if you unlock one more core and overclock it from 2.8 to 3.6, I think this is good.
I have a Asus M4A79 Deluxe. A few years ago I tried unlocking the 4th core with hacked bios, but it constantly crashed. When BF3 beta came out, I anticipated needing to upgrade the cpu to a 1090T etc., so flashed the bios to latest Asus release, and viola!, unlock 4th core was built in. I have GSkill DDR2 8 gb ram (4 sticks), run at 4-4-4-12 2T @800 mhz. At those timings it runs just as fast as 1066. I tried in vain to get it to run at 1066 while oc'ing, then finally let everything run on Auto (just so I could say it was at 1066) until checking around and discovered the 4-4-4-12 works great at 800. But the last few weeks required me to turn up the speed due to BF3. First at 3.2, but cpu ran too hot. I ordered a Hyper 212 EVO hs/fan and oc to 3.6 @1.52 44c but will need to wait until BF3 retail to test. I'd suggest trying to run 200 FSB and the memory at 800 at low timings (whatever it may be for your ram) like I did. Then just use the multiplier to oc. At this point I see no need to spend another $180 to gain a few more FPS. NB 1.3 SB 1.35 HT 1.24 IMO, unlocking the 4th core did nothing for other games, but according to EA a 4 core processor is recommended for BF3.
i will say to get a new cpu and video card, the pII x6 are awsome.... mine is running 4.1ghz stable for a week or so....
Thank you for all the input people, much appriciated! Regarding the overclocking; I have tried every setting possible in bios (just flashed to F6), followed guides step by step, tweaked voltages, heck even tried to overclock via amd overdrive. Nothing works beyond stock, sure i can boot to windows at 3.6, but as soon as i open an application i get a bluescreen. Unlocking the 4th core (i have the option in bios) makes my PC unusable even at stock. Like i said earlier, when i had the crosshair IV formula, i had the 4th core unlocked and overcloked at 3.5 stable, something i am unable to do with this newer more expensive mobo. I am a poor student, i can't afford to upgrade everything, that is why i ask for advice on what my bottleneck is since i can only afford one uprade.
Phenom II X4 Black Edition 980...Stock Clock is 3.7 GHz...Benchmarks Show this is AMDs best for Gaming...http://www.guru3d.com/article/phenom-ii-x4-980-be-processor-review/15
Before you decide to go with the PII X4 980 140w make sure your motherboard supports it, mine is one lower than your board and it sure as hell dont support it. Ahh i just checked. And it does not. http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=3880 Id say go for a X4 975 @ 125w. Also another note. It could be your board is fubar. Might be worth looking into.
As i was going back from town to order my new cpu, i got stopped and had to pay a massive fine for sneaking on the train, so now i cant afford to upgrade my cpu at all lol. :bang: What i need help with now is overclocking this damn thing. I have given up on running x4, and am running x3 cores for the moment. I have upped the vcore to 1.55 and tried increasing the speed slowly all the way up to 3.6 ghz, allthough i can boot into windows, i cant run any applications without my PC just freezing. U can hear the HDD and other stuff working in the background like normal though. In Bios I have; C1E, C&Q and Virtualization disabled, along with fans sat to max. Overclocking with 3 cores, i have had it stable (couple rounds of starcraft II) at 3.0 Ghz, anything above and it just freezes without any warning and i have to restart. Am i missing something here in BIOS settings? Should i downclock my RAM to 1066 or something? I Have an unlocked CPU, and was OC'ing just by raising multiplyer and incrasing vcore, while leaving other options to default or auto.
Yes, that CPU is almost certainly a bottleneck. I had that same CPU and it even bottlenecked my single GTX 560Ti in many games, even when overclocked to 3.72 GHz. Overclocking a couple hundred MHz won't make too much of a difference, unfortunately. I needed just short of 1.6V to get that stable, lol.
