Need more fps in BC2 - Phenom II X4 840, what chip would you upgrade to?

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SHiZNiLTi

Gawd
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I'm strictly an Intel guy so I was hoping I could get some help from the AMD section of [H]

My friend currently has a Phenom II X4 840, 64gb SSD, 8gb DDR3, and a gtx460 on a 120hz LCD setup. It performs decent, but he wants more fps and doesnt want to drop under 120fps.

With using medium graphics settings MSI Afterburner shows his card @ ~75% usage, but the performance monitor shows his 840 CPU to be close to 99% usage. His fps drops down to the 80's... This indicates that his CPU is bottlenecking his performance.

In BC2 being able to achieve high FPS all comes down to CPU power.

His Phenom II X4 840 doesn't have any L3 cache and it's considered to be the low end of the AMD chips...

What would the best chip for the moeny to drop into his mobo that would be give him a good performance upgrade?
 
Will this board support a 125watt chip?

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE

Looks like the bios has some overclocking features. Where would you start with this chip?

Would anyone be able to assist in helping me OC this X4 840?

http://motherboards-reviews.com/motherboards/ASUS/M4A78LT-M_LE/ASUS_M4A78LT-M_LE_BIOS_screens.html

ASUS_M4A78LT-M_LE_PCIe_Turbo_Key_small.jpg
 
Says it supports AM3 so I would venture to say that it most likely does support 125W CPUs. And after further searching, it does not support 125W CPUs since I just noticed that it's a 780L which I believe is one of the budget chipsets. Also there should be a sticky thread with everything you need to know about OCing an AMD processor.
 
asus.com said:
AMD Socket AM3 ;Phenom™II /Athlon™II /Sempron™ 100 Series Processors
Support 45nm CPU
Support CPU up to 95W
Click to expand...

looks like overclocking is about your only option, however your eyes cannot tell a difference between 90 and 900 fps. it runs it fine now and would be a waste of money to upgrade it soley for bf:bc2. is there any games he place where his fps is in the 30's?
 
mrbigshot said:
looks like overclocking is about your only option, however your eyes cannot tell a difference between 90 and 900 fps. it runs it fine now and would be a waste of money to upgrade it soley for bf:bc2. is there any games he place where his fps is in the 30's?
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Actually his fps in BC2 I just found out tonight in a full server drops to 48fps, so on his 120hz gaming LCD it's def noticeable.

Also, that statement about how ur eye cant tell a difference of anything over 90hz is a lie.

I've had tests ran on me at a LAN where I've had doubters about being able to see past 60hz, I had them switch my CRT's refresh rate on me in COD4 without me seeing what it was changed to, it ranged from 60hz, 85hz, 100hz, 170hz. I was able to tell them what refresh rate I was running at each time. I can see a difference between 100hz and 170hz on my $1800 CRT's. But anyways that's another entire new topic. I'm just saying what I saw.

Omegas said:
here ya go!

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1327003

The thread is old but the concept is the same.
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cool, thnx for the link!
 
mrbigshot said:
looks like overclocking is about your only option, however your eyes cannot tell a difference between 90 and 900 fps. it runs it fine now and would be a waste of money to upgrade it soley for bf:bc2. is there any games he place where his fps is in the 30's?
Click to expand...

stop with the wrong info.

your eyes can tell the difference from 30FPS to higher and it has been proven time and time again, of course varies from person to person. 90- to 120 people can tell and so on, just because you cant doesn't meant others cant.
 
Why did your friend get a 120Hz when he had a system like that? Either get a full P2 and overclocked to the fullest on top of getting a new vga. Otherwise you will not see a constant 120+ FPS.
 
§·H·ï·Z·N·ï·L·T·ï;1037747673 said:
I'm strictly an Intel guy so I was hoping I could get some help from the AMD section of [H]

My friend currently has a Phenom II X4 840, 64gb SSD, 8gb DDR3, and a gtx460 on a 120hz LCD setup. It performs decent, but he wants more fps and doesnt want to drop under 120fps.

With using medium graphics settings MSI Afterburner shows his card @ ~75% usage, but the performance monitor shows his 840 CPU to be close to 99% usage. His fps drops down to the 80's... This indicates that his CPU is bottlenecking his performance.

In BC2 being able to achieve high FPS all comes down to CPU power.

His Phenom II X4 840 doesn't have any L3 cache and it's considered to be the low end of the AMD chips...

What would the best chip for the moeny to drop into his mobo that would be give him a good performance upgrade?
Click to expand...

overclock it to 3.4Ghz it should solve the cpu limitation problem.. that or tell him to crank up the graphics higher to take some of the load off the processor. as far as him holding 120fps, it ain't going to happen so he better get use to 60-70fps.
 
MrGuvernment said:
stop with the wrong info.

your eyes can tell the difference from 30FPS to higher and it has been proven time and time again, of course varies from person to person. 90- to 120 people can tell and so on, just because you cant doesn't meant others cant.
Click to expand...
Read his post again. He said most people can't tell the difference between 90-120 fps. He asked if op's friend was playing near the 30fps range.

Technically you are both right on that issue. People can see differences in frame rates at high speeds. However, you would need a CRT or high hz LCD to even see the difference. Most (but not all) LCD's are stuck at 60hz. That's 60 times a second the screen is refreshed. That means the max fps you would be able to see directly correlates to the refresh rate. That being said, you would still be able to detect the fps difference if the minimum rate and maximum rate fluctuated constantly.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Most (but not all) LCD's are stuck at 60hz. That's 60 times a second the screen is refreshed. That means the max fps you would be able to see directly correlates to the refresh rate. That being said, you would still be able to detect the fps difference if the minimum rate and maximum rate fluctuated constantly.
Click to expand...

First post clearly says 120 Hz LCD ? ;)
 
eastmen said:
I would think he'd want a faster gpu before a faster cpu .
Click to expand...

Not in the case of the OP's friend. Who is specifically asking about BC2, which from the OP is clearly limited by CPU.

But you are right to some degree, with a 120hz monitor the guy's specs are lacking.
 
upgrade it to a phenom II x4 980 and swap out the mobo to one that supports 125w chips
 
Korben Dallas said:
Not in the case of the OP's friend. Who is specifically asking about BC2, which from the OP is clearly limited by CPU.

But you are right to some degree, with a 120hz monitor the guy's specs are lacking.
Click to expand...

I'd try the gpu before the cpu , esp if a friend has a faster gpu to put in. I have friends using the same cpu and a 6970 and are staying solidly above 100fps
 
BC2 is very CPU depended unlike most other games, so it's very possible that the 840 is bottlenecking him.

But unfortunately for him that motherboard doesn't support 125W CPUs so he pretty much have to get a new mobo if he wants more fps. Time for sandy bridge.
 
Ask him if he can hold out til the end of October, when the new AMD cpus come out.

Not necessarily to buy the new, but to get a good discount on the old. (New chips = lower prices on the older stuff.)

That motherboard is limited. I suggest a new board and cpu. I hope you have a Micro Center near you:
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/AMDbundlePROMO.html
Though I would not go with the "buy cpu get a free motherboard" route, micro center's prices are close to internet prices, and you dont have to wait. Besides, from what I gathered from a sales associate, they give a discount when you buy many cpu and board combos, not just the ones listed.

So. IF he HAS to upgrade NOW: Get him a socket AM3+ motherboard and a good inexpensive cpu. (AM3+ = upgrade to the newer cpu later)
 
I love my 120Hz gaming :)

X4 840 has a 16x multiplier, my Rana 455 has a 16.5 but i drop it to 16x and boost the MOBOZ FSB to 250 and crank the CPU Voltage to 1.60000V. Tell your friend to do that and he'll be @ 4.0 GHZ on a quad core. Shouldn't be all that CPU limited then. He can even raise the Hypertransport bus for a couple more performance percentage points. (That shits all in the bios) hold delete or a [F]unction keyboard button to get there, and tweak.

I'm also thinking a 460GTX couldn't even hold a constant 120+ in Team Fortress 2. He will need a 5xx or 6xxx series for that IMHO or another 460GTX in SLI to achieve the 120 he wishes. Good luck bro.
 
teletran8 said:
I love my 120Hz gaming :)

X4 840 has a 16x multiplier, my Rana 455 has a 16.5 but i drop it to 16x and boost the MOBOZ FSB to 250 and crank the CPU Voltage to 1.60000V. Tell your friend to do that and he'll be @ 4.0 GHZ on a quad core.
Click to expand...

Worst advice ever for a board rated at 95W with a weak VRM section/no VRM cooling. He needs a new board to get any noticeable boost in performance, unless he wants to risk melting his current one.
 
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cerwinvega said:
Worst advice ever for a board rated at 95W with a weak VRM section/no VRM cooling. He needs a new board to get any noticeable boost in performance, unless he wants to risk melting his current one.
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I disagree. It's an ASUS... it will OC + it has as much VRM Cooling as my ASrock board. I run my triple core 95 watts + 4 GHZ, sadly it has never melted on me and never will with temps between 20's and 50 degrees. :(
 
actually no, the asus will just downclock the multiplier if his VRM's get above a specific temp (can't remember what the temp is)
 
teletran8 said:
I disagree. It's an ASUS... it will OC + it has as much VRM Cooling as my ASrock board. I run my triple core 95 watts + 4 GHZ, sadly it has never melted on me and never will with temps between 20's and 50 degrees. :(
Click to expand...

:confused:

Your board has a VRM heatsink.

His does not.


Omegas said:
actually no, the asus will just downclock the multiplier if his VRM's get above a specific temp (can't remember what the temp is)
Click to expand...

Well, if that's true I guess that's good and all, but the point still remains. Trying for a 24/7 stable 4Ghz OC with that board, while possible, is asking for trouble.

It's one thing for people to do this with their own equipment, quite another to make recommendations to someone else.
 
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oh I wasn't argueing for him to do it. I actually OC'ing a board similar with a 1055t and it would do just that, scream for a minute and then downclock till the VRM's cooled off, rinse/repeat.
 
And I disagree with you, your board is a higher quality, the board in question has no VRM cooling, and 1.6v into the CPU .... i doubt you use that much on your Tri-Core


teletran8 said:
I disagree. It's an ASUS... it will OC + it has as much VRM Cooling as my ASrock board. I run my triple core 95 watts + 4 GHZ, sadly it has never melted on me and never will with temps between 20's and 50 degrees. :(
Click to expand...
 
xBanzai89 said:
Why did your friend get a 120Hz when he had a system like that? Either get a full P2 and overclocked to the fullest on top of getting a new vga. Otherwise you will not see a constant 120+ FPS.
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He plays at the competitive level for CS:S and COD4, I'd say he plays those games 75% of the time and can get a steady 120fps. Ya BC2 is gonna be hard to get that kinda performance unless you run DX10 with medium settings and shadows on low.

He said the monitor has made a huge difference in his quick scoping once he got used to the faster response he was getting.

sirmonkey1985 said:
overclock it to 3.4Ghz it should solve the cpu limitation problem.. that or tell him to crank up the graphics higher to take some of the load off the processor. as far as him holding 120fps, it ain't going to happen so he better get use to 60-70fps.
Click to expand...
Ya we are gonna try to see what we can do with the current board he has now, at least try for 3.4ghz and go from there.
 
I recently picked up a brand new 1090t on eBay for $120. They're out there, you just gotta look. I'd go with that over any other mentioned processor.
 
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