9850? E8400?

[gjt86]

I recently put together a new build over the holidays for mainly gaming and a bit of programming and web design. However, after doing a bit of reading I am wondering if I should RMA the 9850 for an E8400 and my M3A78 Pro 780G Mobo for perhaps a P45 board. I experience a bit of low FPS when playing WoW, but most other games seem fine. Would I be gimping myself by switching or would I see a decent increase in performance overall? I am new to overclocking so I am just starting to experience with it. Any advice would be awesome, thanks in advance.

My current build:

ASUS M3A78 Pro AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
G.Skill 6GB DDR2 800 PC2 6400 240-Pin
COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RS-650-ACAA-A1 650W
AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz

 

[conflict5]

It's up to you but the system looks fien for payign wow. one thing tho your ram is a bit slow the 9850 support pc8500 1066 ram... I am sure others will have some good points.

 

[gjt86]

Yeah the RAM will be upgraded within the next few weeks, that is not a problem. I usually upgrade overall about once a year or so. ATM though I only get around 40-50FPS average and like 20 or 30 in Dalaran, which seems relatively low. Like I said though my other games seem to run fine and I like the fact that I can have 2 games and some other apps running np. I don't plan on going extreme or anything with water cooling anytime soon, but would I just be better off trying to OC the quad to like 3.0 if possible? I don't really want to start messing with it yet as I have just started looking into it. Things will be running stock for a few weeks.

 

[roofus]

with your setup WoW should play fine. any gains you may get from an e8400 would be no different than going from an Intel quad to a dual. I would try a modest overclock and order some 1066 RAM and then re-evaluate.

 

[gjt86]

I have a x2 5200+ Windsor 2.6, should I try using that as an OC'er? What are some pointers to OC'ing? Any type of software used etc?

Edit: Is going from 2.5 to lets say 3.0 GHz really that much of a visual difference that I will be able to tell? In terms of my quad? I sort of thought that perhaps 3.0 on dual might be better than 2.5 on quad. At least since WoW only sees what, 2 cores? I really don't want to go through a ton of trouble just to get the best performance on a game that I should be blowing apart.

 

[roofus]

i never use software for overclocking a CPU. i am a bit removed from AMD overclocking as i havent done it in a while so i dont want to give you bad advice. there are plenty of folks here that could guide you on that though.

 

[gjt86]

So could it possibly be that my RAM is slowing me down in WoW, not my CPU? Would be a lot more comfortable if that were the case, that way I wouldn't feel as bad perhaps about my choice.

 

[gjt86]

Anyone? Fallout 3 also seems to run very fine, only WoW is the problem atm.

 

[firestormcomputers]

Personally, I would buy an E8400 and a P45 motherboard, but it's your choice. The RAM should not affect the performance, just OC the RAM to 1066. I think overall the E8400 is much friendlier, especially on water.

 

[roofus]

WoW shouldnt bring his 9850 to its knees. I was hoping someone who has an overclocked AMD would post some help for the dude.

 

[firestormcomputers]

Well, that is true, my friend has a 9950 but that's totally different. Now that I think about it the 9850 is a better choice, once the quad-threaded games come out. Get a 9850, I am.