Should I replace my motherboard?

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lightbound

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Mar 20, 2013
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I've been using an Asus M4A88T-M motherboard for my first gaming computer build for about a year now. With it, I have a Phenom II x4 975 BE processor, a 600w PSU, 8 gigs of RAM, and until recently a GTX 550 Ti graphics card. I just upgraded my graphics card to a GTX 670 and performance hasn't changed all that much. Frame rate's just a little bit higher, but there's lots of stuttering and moments where the frames per second just take a nose dive from around 50 or 60 to around 10. After a bit of goggling around the web and doing research, I managed to get things running a little bit better, but performance is still not much of an improvement over my 550 Ti. Is it time for a motherboard/cpu change?

I really don't want to replace anything unless I absolutely have to so I'd just like to be absolutely sure.

Also would like to add that I've currently got my processor overclocked to 3.8ghz. Any higher and my system just blue-screens after playing a game for about twenty minutes.

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
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groundrat

groundrat

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Dec 11, 2012
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If your happy with the performance you are getting stay put. When your experiece starts to degrade and you find yourself not being able to play games at the settings you want, then its time to spend some money.

I'd wait a few months for hazwell to make Ivy less expensive. I know you like AMD, but a mid level i5 with a z77 chipset and your current GPU will blow the doors off your current system. just sayin.
 
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lightbound

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Mar 20, 2013
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Well the thing is that I'm not happy. I just paid the most I've ever paid for a single piece of computer hardware and I expected it to do so much better. Maybe my expectations are just really high. I dunno.

Admittedly, I was thinking that if I had to replace my motherboard, I'd go Intel and replace the CPU with an i5-3570k. From what I hear, it's a great processor for gaming. But as I said, I wanna make sure that I've done what I can before giving up.
 
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groundrat

groundrat

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Actually the best CPU (for the price) when overclocked the 3570 performs on par with much more expensive i7's, which is why we love them so.

I think your micro stuttering comes from a very good PCIe 3.0 card saturating your motherboards PCIe 2.1 buss. Dial back the settings a bit and I think you'll have much better frame rates without the stutter. It’s a balancing act and I can't predict what your settings will be.

The good news is that you didn't waste your money. A good Z77 motherboard can be had fairly cheap at $100 or so. If you catch the 3570K on sale you'll spend around $200. Your existing memory and hard disk, case, etc. should transfer well. Like I said, I'd stabilize your setup with good frame rates by dialing back the settings a bit so you can play in the mean time and wait for hazwell to affect ivy bridge.
 
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