Will phenom ii x4 965 bottleneck a R9 280x oc?

UsedSeat · Nov 16, 2013

I was planning on upgrading my graphic, from a 5850 to a 'Sapphire TOXIC R9 280x'

and overclock my Phenom II X4 965 processor to around 3.7-4.0Ghz - while, of course, upgrading the stock cooler to a lovely Noctua NH-L12.

I've been told that my CPU will bottleneck my new gfx.. is that true? even though i oc my cpu?

I have little knowledge regarding CPU's, so please enlighten me.

- Thanks in advance.

skitz9417 · Nov 16, 2013

u may be bottlenecked if u oc ur cpu to 3.8 or 4ghz u should be fine

airplanegeek · Nov 16, 2013

yes. you cpu is too old for something as powerful as a 280x. consider a fx 6300 or switching to intel i5 if you got the money

airplanegeek · Nov 16, 2013

skitz9417 :

clock speed doesnt do much if you inital cores are too weak. you'd need 6 ghz to match the power of an i5

CaptainTom · Nov 16, 2013

Yes unless you can overclock it to 4.5 GHz. But really your should just buy an FX-8320 and wait a month for the GPU... Or the otherway around

UsedSeat · Nov 16, 2013

I got the cash for a new processor - but, is it easy to replace such?
and which should I get?

I got 6Gb ram, SSD and 750W power supply on an unknown Gigabyte board.

Correction - It's a GA-770TA-UD3 board.

UsedSeat · Nov 16, 2013

bouncedk :

I'm on a Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 board.

airplanegeek · Nov 16, 2013

fx 8 cores not worth the money. thats why tomshardware best cpus for the month never have them. an entry level i5 is better

Guest · Nov 16, 2013

I agree with bouncedk, with a 3.7/3.8 overclock there might be a small bottleneck in some games. Since you are upgrading your GPU anyway, try the 'Sapphire TOXIC R9 280x' with your Phenom II X4 965 and see if it performs to your expectations. If it does , great. If not get a stronger CPU. You may find that the GPU is all you need to improve your gameplay.

arrpee

UsedSeat · Nov 16, 2013

Thanks for the answers so far guys.

But, it's apparently only a AM3 board, and not AM3+ compatible, so I'm quite limited if I proceed to find a CPU.

Any AM3 compatible suggestions?

Guest · Nov 16, 2013

airplanegeek :

bouncedk :

+1

UsedSeat · Nov 16, 2013

bouncedk :

I'll buy the R9 280X and the CPU-cooler I've been looking at, overclock the shit out of my Phenom II X4 965, and then see how much my GPU is bottlenecked.

If it can't run anything, I'll get a new motherboard as well.

Which board/CPU do you guys recommend? And I'll need to reinstall Windows, if I get a new board, right?

poleimechanos · Nov 22, 2013

UsedSeat :

Even if you get the fastest CPU currently available, it will certainly NOT always be the fastest, so a time will surely come when that "extremely fast" CPU in today's terms will be severely bottlenecking the GPU beasts of tomorrow, as more powerfull GPUs come out all the time.

That being said, going the Intel (Haswell i7 4770K) route for now is the best (and most costly) choice in terms of performance and longevity, if you're about to change both your MB & CPU, as it will provide you with the minimum risk of possibly bottlenecking your top-line GPU(s) in the future (which will DEFINITELY happen some day).

I personally recommend the MSI Z87-G45 GAMING board for Haswell:
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z87-G45-GAMING.html#overview

Grab this board and an i7 4770K and overclock it and you will NOT look back.

Of course that doesn't mean that the AMD FX-83xx (or even the Phenom II) is not a good chip. In fact it's a solid performer at a very good price, BUT it is more likely to bottleneck your top-line GPU(s) in the near future, especially if you plan on running a multi-GPU setup.

FX 8350 vs i7 4770K:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUBE9xNz_mQ

If you decide to stick with AMD, any 990FX AM3+ board will do the job nicely.

As far as your having to reinstall Windows (assuming you have Windows 7 64 bit installed) with the new board, the short answer is NO, you don't really have to. The system will boot right into your Windows desktop and you will only have to install your new board's drivers and reactivate your copy of Windows 7.

However, there are folks out there that would strongly suggest you to reinstall everything from the beginning in order to get the maximum out of your new system, especially if it's been a long time since you last did a fresh install of Windows.

UsedSeat · Nov 23, 2013

poleimechanos :

UsedSeat :

Even if you get the fastest CPU currently available, it will certainly NOT always be the fastest, so a time will surely come when that "extremely fast" CPU in today's terms will be severely bottlenecking the GPU beasts of tomorrow, as more powerfull GPUs come out all the time.

That being said, going the Intel (Haswell i7 4770K) route for now is the best (and most costly) choice in terms of performance and longevity, if you're about to change both your MB & CPU, as it will provide you with the minimum risk of possibly bottlenecking your top-line GPU(s) in the future (which will DEFINITELY happen some day).

I personally recommend the MSI Z87-G45 GAMING board for Haswell:
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z87M-GAMING.html#overview

Grab this board and an i7 4770K and overclock it and you will NOT look back.

Of course that doesn't mean that the AMD FX-83xx (or even the Phenom II) is not a good chip. In fact it's a solid performer at a very good price, BUT it is more likely to bottleneck your top-line GPU(s) in the near future, especially if you plan on running a multi-GPU setup.

FX 8350 vs i7 4770K:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUBE9xNz_mQ

If you decide to stick with AMD, any 990FX AM3+ board will do the job nicely.

As far as your having to reinstall Windows (assuming you have Windows 7 64 bit installed) with the new board, the short answer is NO, you don't really have to. The system will boot right into your Windows desktop and you will only have to install your new board's drivers and reactivate your copy of Windows 7.

However, there are folks out there that would strongly suggest you to reinstall everything from the beginning in order to get the maximum out of your new system, especially if it's been a long time since you last did a fresh install of Windows.

Thank you very much for this reply.

This thread has been bookmarked, and I will get in touch when i decide what to buy. Again, thank you.

TyetoniousIV · Jun 17, 2015

I am also looking at getting a new GPU! i have the 965 OC'd to 3.89 ish 216 X 18. i have a 6850 sapphire vapor-x and was thinking of the 280x but wasnt sure if my cpu would cope :S but sounds like it would maybe according to Skitz?

nathanboughan · Aug 18, 2015

TyetoniousIV :

I've got a 965 black edition and just switched from a msi 270x to a powercolor 280x and i can't get any game to run without skipping. Im worried the card was overheated mining or something but now im considering switching out my processor.

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