Upgrading from 955 BE to FX Series

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LoGAReTM

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Sep 24, 2011
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hello guys

I've hit a wall on which upgrade plan should I take next, however here is my system specs

CPU : AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE @ 3.7Ghz @ 1.365 V
MOBO: ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0
GPU : SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB Vapor-X @ 1100/1250 Mhz Core/Memory Clock @ 1250 mV
Cooler : Thermaltake Contac 29 dual fans
Case : Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
PSU: XFX 650W ProSeries
Memory : G.skill Ripjaw-X (1x8GB) 1600 Mhz @ 1.499 V

It performs well in games, but I think the CPU is bottlenecking the GPU plus The heat is unbearable, I live in egypt and it's pretty hot in here ( 30C ).

Few things to consider :
1- I'm a gamer and occasionally use photoshop and after effects.
2- My Screen Size is 20' and resolution is 1680x1050.
3- I record gameplay and that's the problem with my CPU.
4- Will not change the platform to intel, and I don't think I would get another GPU and go for crossfire.
5- Budget is 350$.
6- hard to upgrade the PSU.

Well the first Plan which I think is more reasonable:

CPU -----> FX-6300
Cooler -----> Antec Kuhler H2o 620
Case ------> Corsair Graphite 600T

The second one :

CPU ----> FX-8350
Case ----> Corsair Graphite 600T
Cooler ----> none ( until I get enough money ).

Note that the prices is a bit different here ( like +20$ more on everything).

I Know gaming performance between FX-6300 and FX-8350 Is close enough that doesn't justify the extra $$ at stock speeds but If I overclocked the 6300 to let's say 4.0 Ghz I would get a better performance for money.

the catch is that I don't know if the 8350 will fit with the 7950 on the 650W ? and if it did, how much headroom do I have, I tried several wattage calculator and they were around 600w ~ 650w exactly. which option do you guys recommend, would you recommend another option ? and if you may, why ? I want a value , performance and Future Proofing.

thanks in advance
 
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ingtar33
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swifty_morgan

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8350rocks

8350rocks

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If you were going to go with the FX series...you might want to look at the FX6350, if you can, simply because it has a higher clock to start with (higher binned silicon) and would overclock even farther than the 6300.

I think you would get great mileage out of the 6300 though. You should be able to hit about 4.5 GHz stable OC on that with good cooling. Also, the extra cores would make life easier as you could set core affinity on your recording to say...2 cores, and then you could set your core affinity on your game to the other 4 and you would likely realize better performance.
 
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LoGAReTM

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Sep 24, 2011
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@swifty_morgan The problem in recording started in BF3 it took a great hit in performance while tomb raider almost no drops, in BF3 the CPU Temps reach over 60, usage sometimes reach 100%.

@8350rocks , yes I would pick 6350 Right away, only if it was available, I mean seriously we have the Haswell Imported and not the 6350, but would getting the 6300 be an upgrade ? the 8350 isn't much better gaming wise, however like you said setting affinity would help big time.
 
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ingtar33

ingtar33

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Dec 17, 2012
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ok... a couple of thoughts...


  • ■ no problem with grabbing a fx6300... there should be a moderate improvement in performance for you. however 100% of your problem will be solved if you...

    ■ GET A VIDEO CAPTURE CARD - Spend $150 on a video capture card, and you'll no longer notice any issues while streaming your game footage, even on your PhII x4 955

    ■ get a 2nd stick of matching ram. AMD systems really benefit from 2 sticks of ram... particularly with overclocking. Furthermore, you'll gain a little performance bump by getting a 2nd stick of ram...

    ■ the 8350 will fit fine with the 650W psu. figure the gpu and cpu, when overclocked will run at around 400W-450W power draw. should be enough headroom left on your psu to deal with that.

    ■ you'll see no difference between the fx6300 and fx8350 in single threaded tasks... however, the 8350 will be approximately 25%-33%% stronger in multithreaded tasks.

    ■ the fx6300 will overclock to 4.0 with ease... generally speaking the whole fx lineup will hit 4.7-4.9 without much work. Around that point things get tricky (heat/power) and it starts to become a lottery if you can get the cpu to 5.0... some will make it, some don't. Since you're in a hot climate, it might be harder for you to get up over 5.0 then most... likely you'll end up settling back between 4.5-4.8ghz.

    ■ RE the case - very nice case; good choice.

Finally... I would get the 6300 if it means getting a better cpu cooler. Just don't expect miracles. Your hot climate will effect your overclocks something massive no matter what cpu cooler you have. Overall, 99% of your problems can be solved with a good video capture card. I would definitely head down that road first before replacing half your machine.
 
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