Upgrade help on am2+ board

[petsi]

I have a XFX nforce 750a AMD SOCKET AM2+ DDR2 model MD-A72P-7509 mobo with a amd phenom 9500 quad core 2.2. I am having horrible fps in PLanetside 2 and the game is reporting the cpu is the problem. I want to upgrade JUST THE CPU on my rig but need some help. I have been out of the comp building world for 5 years and not sure what I could upgrade to. I have read that I can use an AM3 on my mobo but also read only some work.

I DO NOT want to change mobo, ram or vid cards, I just want to know what my options are.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Onus]

Check the QVL list for your mobo; hopefully it has been updated. You will probably need to flash the BIOS to a newer version.
The Athlon II X4 640 is really cheap on Newegg right now; if your BIOS will support that, it's probably your cheapest option. A Phenom II 955BE or 965BE may also work, BUT in particular make sure your board supports 125W CPUs.

 

[thently]

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-XFX/MDA72P7509.html

This is the official support list but read the last line on the page seems like you can put phenom 2 on there...

 

[fbbam]

The phenom 2 series are very good upgrades from your CPU and they work well in AM2+ boards try the phenom 2 965 quad core

 

[thently]

Found a newer list make sure you update you bios with old chip in then it might give you more options.

http://mediafiles.xfxforce.com/xfxcpucompatibilitylist-amd.pdf

This board ONLY supports 95watt chips so shop carefully

 

[Onus]

The XFX Support page is "under construction," but does provide an email address for support questions. Perhaps they can tell you what that mobo will accept.

 

[fbbam]

i think there is a 95 watts phenom quad core can't remember the model number, but you could as well get the athlon 2 quad cores they are no slouch either compared to your present cpu

 

[JD88]

Before you upgrade, it is important to note that PlanetSide 2 is a very CPU intensive game as there can literally be hundreds of people and vehicles in a very small area at any given time.

I have a friend who has a Phenom II 965 running at 3.8 Ghz and he still sees frame rate dips into the low 30's and high 20's pretty regularly in big battles and that's with a 7950 playing at 1080 so it's not GPU related.

The Core i7 3630qm in my laptop also drops into the mid 30's and is on the very edge of what I would consider playable.

Only the Core i5 2500k that I have overclocked to 4.5 Ghz on my main rig seems to give me totally smooth game-play.

The point is, I'm not sure any upgrade would help you without a more significant investment.

 

[petsi]

Thanks all for your time and effort in this. I appreciate it very much.