• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

BUDGET upgrade needed!

X

XenatR

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 13, 2012
Messages
183
hi all, im in need of an upgrade as battlefield 3 multi doesnt really run well on my stock q6600 (this chip overclocks VERY poorly so i havent bothered with it)

i currently have
Q6600
Intel XBX2 mobo
G.skill Black 4x1GB

i have already purchased an AMD Phenom ii x4 955 BE for £50 delivered, but it will mean having to buy a new motherboard (likely the Gigabyte 970A-UD3 for its overclocking potential and 8gb ddr3 ram - an extra £120) - (i felt amd might be a nice route to take as the AM3+ sockets will be used in next gen Steamroller chips, when i would probably get the top of range 8core at the time of release... when i then have more money)

would i be better off simply buying a Q9550 (for approx £90), putting it into my current system and trying to oc slightly?

i will likely sell the q6600 system or chip depending on which route i take i really think these are the only two options as they seem the lowest cost for performance!!
 
XenatR said:
i have already purchased an AMD Phenom ii x4 955 BE for £50 delivered, but it will mean having to buy a new motherboard (likely the Gigabyte 970A-UD3 for its overclocking potential and 8gb ddr3 ram - an extra £120) - (i felt amd might be a nice route to take as the AM3+ sockets will be used in next gen Steamroller chips, when i would probably get the top of range 8core at the time of release... when i then have more money)
Click to expand...
Unfortunately AMD is not a solid upgrade route as CPU support is entirely dependent on the motherboard manufacuturer and their ability and willingness to certify new CPUs for their motherboards. I have the GA-890GPH-UD3H rev 2.1 AM3 motherboard. Even though AMD's Bulldozer and Vishera CPUs work on AM3 motherboards, Gigabyte did not update the GA-890GPH-UD3H rev 2.1 to support those new AMD CPUs. So unfortunately I cannot upgrade to any of the new FX CPUs if I wanted to. Hence why I would not put that much faith, belief, or stock into AMD's future upgrade capability.

XenatR said:
would i be better off simply buying a Q9550 (for approx £90), putting it into my current system and trying to oc slightly?
Click to expand...
No, not really. The Q9550 doesn't offer enough of a performance increase to justify the cost. Maybe if it was £30 to £35, yeah it would be totally worth it. But at £90? That's just a ripoff considering the age of the CPU.

Honestly, considering the age of the system and the general overpriciness of older Intel CPUs, you might as well get an entirely new CPU, mobo, and RAM.
 
Danny Bui said:
Unfortunately AMD is not a solid upgrade route as CPU support is entirely dependent on the motherboard manufacuturer and their ability and willingness to certify new CPUs for their motherboards. I have the GA-890GPH-UD3H rev 2.1 AM3 motherboard. Even though AMD's Bulldozer and Vishera CPUs work on AM3 motherboards, Gigabyte did not update the GA-890GPH-UD3H rev 2.1 to support those new AMD CPUs. So unfortunately I cannot upgrade to any of the new FX CPUs if I wanted to. Hence why I would not put that much faith, belief, or stock into AMD's future upgrade capability.


No, not really. The Q9550 doesn't offer enough of a performance increase to justify the cost. Maybe if it was £30 to £35, yeah it would be totally worth it. But at £90? That's just a ripoff considering the age of the CPU.

Honestly, considering the age of the system and the general overpriciness of older Intel CPUs, you might as well get an entirely new CPU, mobo, and RAM.
Click to expand...

wouldnt an am3+ socket mobo likely be compatible with Steamroller? is Gigabyte not a company to go for then if the are 'unwilling' to update bios for new cpu's?

the Q9550 will likely end up costing me around £55 as i would sell my q6600 to recoup some money
 
i dont need a crazy upgrade.. perhaps only 10-15fps more would be nice as it can dip down to 25-30fps low settings on large maps with a lot going on
 
XenatR said:
wouldnt an am3+ socket mobo likely be compatible with Steamroller? is Gigabyte not a company to go for then if the are 'unwilling' to update bios for new cpu's?
Click to expand...
Yes an AM3+ has a higher chance of being compatible with Steamroller. However that does not mean that all AM3+ will be compatible with Steamroller due to reasons I've already stated above. All of the major motherboard manufacturers, Asus, MSI, AsRock, etc, are guilty of not always updating their older motherboards to support newer CPUs.

XenatR said:
the Q9550 will likely end up costing me around £55 as i would sell my q6600 to recoup some money
Click to expand...
Still a tad pricey.
XenatR said:
i dont need a crazy upgrade.. perhaps only 10-15fps more would be nice as it can dip down to 25-30fps low settings on large maps with a lot going on
Click to expand...
An increase of 10FPS is about the max you'll get with the Q9550 at stock. In addition, looking up your motherboard, if you have the D975XBX2 (assuming thats what you meant by "Intel XBX2 mobo"), then the Q9550 may not work with that mobo as the 975 chipset never officially supported Yorkfield based CPUs like the Q9550. In fact, there's no mention of the Q9550 here:
http://processormatch.intel.com/COMPDB/SearchResult.aspx?Boardname=d975xbx2

So even if you got the Q9550 for a good price, you still wouldn't be able to use it with your motherboard.
 
Danny Bui said:
Yes an AM3+ has a higher chance of being compatible with Steamroller. However that does not mean that all AM3+ will be compatible with Steamroller due to reasons I've already stated above. All of the major motherboard manufacturers, Asus, MSI, AsRock, etc, are guilty of not always updating their older motherboards to support newer CPUs.


Still a tad pricey.

An increase of 10FPS is about the max you'll get with the Q9550 at stock. In addition, looking up your motherboard, if you have the D975XBX2 (assuming thats what you meant by "Intel XBX2 mobo"), then the Q9550 may not work with that mobo as the 975 chipset never officially supported Yorkfield based CPUs like the Q9550. In fact, there's no mention of the Q9550 here:
http://processormatch.intel.com/COMPDB/SearchResult.aspx?Boardname=d975xbx2

So even if you got the Q9550 for a good price, you still wouldn't be able to use it with your motherboard.
Click to expand...

damn!! no point in that route then!!

so.. as ive already purchase the x4 955, what u recommend i do? sell it for small (if any) profit, or make a new system with it using the motherboard i suggested (and overclokog, or simply find the cheapest one possible?) + 8gb ddr3 (is speed important when gaming using dedicated gfx?)
 
XenatR said:
so.. as ive already purchase the x4 955, what u recommend i do? sell it for small (if any) profit, or make a new system with it using the motherboard i suggested (and overclokog, or simply find the cheapest one possible?) + 8gb ddr3 (is speed important when gaming using dedicated gfx?)
Click to expand...
Sell it if you can. Then build a system with a cheap Core i3 + cheap socket LGA 1155 mobo + cheapest 8GB 1.5V RAM you can find. RAM speed does not noticeably affect gaming performance with current Intel platforms. So you'll be fine with either DDR3 1333 RAM or DDR3 1600 RAM.

If you can't sell the CPU and want to overclock, what case, PSU, and HSF do you have? Those three, in addition to the motherboard, are key to how well and how high you can overclock.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top