Could an AMD Phenom II x4 955 be used for gaming these days?

Blake_24 · Jul 13, 2017

I have most the parts for a build left over from a previous build that could possibly be repurposed for a friend to get his first desktop build. Could this CPU really play much these days. I know it won't play really any AAA games but mostly for things like rocket league and overwatch. It will most likely be paired with a GTX 660 or GTX 760 anyways so it doesn't need to keep up with really fast GPUs

TheFluffyDog · Jul 13, 2017

yeah its fine. My first PC has a Phenom II x4 and its paired with a 1GB 6950 and it plays those titles well and it gets used mostly for my brothers GF when they play Ark together. ITs not the fastest thing, and its may see a few dips in frames here or there, but if your trying to let someone experience the PC on receycled parts, that processor with one of those listed GPU's should suffice. You'll have to keep settings turned down though but hey, its jsut some recycled parts.

However, I wouldnt make anyone pay for that kind of hardware. better off just giving it as a freebie

RCPG · Jul 13, 2017

I'm still using a Phenom II X4 965 (OC'd to 3.9 GHz) and play games like Quake Champions 1080p, max settings just fine. But I have a Radeon R9 390 8GB and 16GB os system RAM. My brother is supossed to get a Ryzen so I'll receive his FX 8370 which is better.

Blake_24 · Jul 13, 2017

TheFluffyDog :

I would definitely not make anyone pay for this hardware lol. I just currently have a motherboard, cpu, heatsink, and power supply laying around that could hopefully suck my college roommate into the pc gaming world until he can get money built up for a proper build

jaslion · Jul 13, 2017

Blake_24 :

The phenom II struggles a bit with overwatch from my experiences and others but is fine for rocket.

Blake_24 · Jul 13, 2017

RCPG :

What kind of cooler do you have on it for that overclock?

spdragoo · Jul 13, 2017

Blake_24 :

You should be fine for Overwatch -- minimum is a Phenom X3 8650 (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/7636), & it's supported all the way back to GeForce 400 series GPUs (minimum being the GTX 460). Just make sure you're running 64-bit Windows (7 or higher). That CPU is 5 tiers higher (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html). You may not be able to get near the 150-200FPS mark with your hardware, but I would imagine that 60+FPS performance is more than doable (& quite possibly even available with high quality settings).

Rocket League is probably similar. If it can be played with the Core 2 Quad Q6600 (https://www.techspot.com/article/1313-intel-q6600-ten-years-later/page3.html), which is 2 tiers below your Phenom II, then you should have no problems.

Basically, as long as you meet the minimums for a game, you should be fine. I wouldn't expect too much from AAA games of the past year, as they finally started getting to the point of requiring FX CPUs for AMD systems, but other than that you are probably OK.

Blake_24 · Jul 13, 2017

jaslion :

Blake_24 :

The phenom II struggles a bit with overwatch from my experiences and others but is fine for rocket.

What settings do you use when playing overwatch?

RCPG · Jul 13, 2017

Blake_24 :

Deepcool Gammaxx 400. Very nice budget CPU cooler. Very quiet, nice cooling performance. You can see the Tom's Hardware review here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/deepcool-gammaxx-400-slim-tower-cpu-cooler,4460.html
It is on the list of reccomended coolers here at Tom's.
It cost me around 25€ (I cannot find it at that price anymore. now it hovers between 30-40 €). By the way, I live in Portugal.

jaslion · Jul 14, 2017

Blake_24 :

Low, normal scaliing 1600*900. 50-60 when there is no fight going into the 25-40's when in a fight (ults kill it).

It has:

Phenom II 920 at 3.3 ghz
8gb ddr3 1033 mhz
some random asus board
hd 5870.

-Fran- · Jul 14, 2017

For games that tend to cover a *very* wide range of audience, they usually deal (to this day) really well with Phenom II and Core 2 CPUs. If you try anything newer that is compiled to make good use of AVX, the Phenom II (and Core 2 as well) will drop the ball hard. That would be my only word of caution.

This is to say, and speaking broadly, there will be a time where Blizzard and Valve (producers of games that can run on microwaves) will move on from classic SSE and onto AVX as a minimum requirement for decent gameplay and the Phenom II will have to be swapped. Chances are low, but the time will come. Just like it happened with MMX

Cheers!

Blake_24 · Jul 14, 2017

jaslion :

Blake_24 :

Low, normal scaliing 1600*900. 50-60 when there is no fight going into the 25-40's when in a fight (ults kill it).

It has:

Phenom II 920 at 3.3 ghz
8gb ddr3 1033 mhz
some random asus board
hd 5870.

Do you know if it is the CPU or the GPU that is causing the FPS to drop?

YoAndy · Jul 14, 2017

It will struggle a lot with new AAA Tittles and it wont be able to play at higher resolution.

Rakanyshu · Jul 14, 2017

For resolution the limiting factor is the GPU not the cpu, That phenom has still some life in it my brother run it and he even plays witcher 3 at 1080 above 30fps average 40 he has a GTX 960 chances are you Will be more limited by the GPU.

-Fran- · Jul 14, 2017

Rakanyshu :

Sorry to say, but a 30FPS *average* is far from a good gaming experience. I'm not saying you're incorrect in the broader sense, but the Phenom II is not a good practical solution for *today's* games when a cheap Intel platform (and probably Ryzen) can give you a *much* better gaming experience for very little money comparatively.

Cheers!

YoAndy · Jul 14, 2017

Rakanyshu :

Are you sure the CPU doesn't play a good part on that? So you are telling me I can go ahead to ebay and buy a used phenon II X4 955 and Put my 2x GTX 980 Ti's and play games in 4K? So why are we (gamers and consumers) buying new cpu's every few years?, we must be really stupid right? It can't even get decent FPS or above 60fps with world of thanks at 1080p with a GTX TITAN. Even the newer FX-8350 will bottleneck the GTX TITIAN

Rakanyshu · Jul 14, 2017

The op said is a recycled pc for a fríend for free, so yeah he can go and buy a x299 platform pc or a cheaper z270 with a 7700k and game everything with ultra settings and it Will be an awesome experience. But for a gift That cpu Will be enough and 30 fps is what consoles deliver. So imo That phenom si great for a cheap solution since the guy wont have to buy everything from scratch and can still play some of the New AAA games at low settings as somewhat playable fps. And yes there are bottlenecks but still cpu plays minor in resolution it delives or it doesnt the GPU by the other han is what get taxed at higher res. There is no point in arguing this stuff here or an almost free gaming machine the phenom is still good imo. If uilding New the r5 1600 is Best Bang for buck followed by i7 7700k again imo.

YoAndy · Jul 14, 2017

Rakanyshu :

Well you can't argue with free stuff.

But What consoles are you talking about?Nintendo and Wii?. The PS4 Pro can run some games at native 4k resolution. the new Xbox One S can do most games at 60fps 1080p and upscale to HDR 4k at 60fps and the Xbox One X codenamed Scorpio is going to be released by the end of the year (christmas) it can do native 4k at 60fps. Times are changing fst.

Cheers

Blake_24 · Jul 14, 2017

YoAndy :

Although you do have a point about the console debate, my friend is not expecting any ground breaking performance out of this. He is currently using a jenky "desktop" setup using his laptop. He needs a build to get through about a year until he can have the chance to get a proper build. This setup will mostly just be used for school work and light gaming, mostly rocket league.

YoAndy · Jul 14, 2017

Blake_24 :

YoAndy :

Although you do have a point about the console debate, my friend is not expecting any ground breaking performance out of this. He is currently using a jenky "desktop" setup using his laptop. He needs a build to get through about a year until he can have the chance to get a proper build. This setup will mostly just be used for school work and light gaming, mostly rocket league.

So he should be fine then, just drop a GTX 760 or similar and he will be able to play some games at medium and less demanding games at high settings at lower resolutions

Adec001 · Oct 14, 2017

jaslion :

I have the same cpu at 3.4Ghz and it runs overwatch on 900p with 60fps 99% of the time. Lowest details ofc, its fps game. Paired with rx 460 2gb

Could an AMD Phenom II x4 955 be used for gaming these days?

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