Is my Phenom X4 9950 outdated?

[Diamons]

I tried to play Call of Duty Black Ops on max settings the other day and it started spiking every few minutes. IT was unbearable.

I tried to play an online game called Vindictus on max settings, it's not exactly smooth. I want it to be super smooth with not a single hitch in the graphics at all. I believe maybe my CPU is holding me back? Can anyone assess this?

BTW I'm playing games at 1280 X 1024.


CPU: Phenom X4 9950 BE
GPU: Radeon 4850
RAM: 2 GB
MB: M3A79-T Deluxe
HD: 80 GB

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

buy a new gpu..and tell us your psu..I dont play games but maxing your setting if i am correct would definitely put your gpu to work and your gpu isnt that good in comparison to other high end ones..
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

[Diamons]

550W PSU


Uhm, I'm going to hold off on buying a new GPU...I'm playing at 1280 X 1024, I'm fairly certain a Radeon 4850 should be able to handle the latest games. The card's only 3 years old.

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

But playing at max setting should could give that gpu some problems..

 

[Diamons]

GPU hits 44% usage max during Black Ops with all settings on maximum. If I just stand there for like 5 minutes, it plays really smooth. But after I move around a bit, once I get to a new area like every hallway I go to it locks up for a second over and over.

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

i cant tell you alot about this..But i am sure a few other guys would..You will hear from them soon.But i do agree it might not be your gpu.

 

[Phoenixlight]

Play on medium settings, problem solved.

 

[pepperman]

HD: 80 GB

How old is your HDD? If you're noticing slow downs when going to new areas, it could be due to a slow HDD.

 

[Diamons]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822144318

About 7 years

 

[pepperman]

I recommend upgrading that; pretty much any modern HDD will give you a significant performance boost, and thus should make your gameplay a lot smoother.

 

[pepperman]

This one for example would do nicely:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

 

[tacoslave]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145299
or get this one my samsung hardrive crashed alot and i only had it for 2 years and then it finally died on me. In my other build that ive had for 5 years i have a hitachi hardrive that never gave me any problems so i tend to trust them more than other hardrives.

 

[whooleo]

COD BO has a problem with it that causes horrible stuttering regardless of hardware I heard they're going to patch it but your Phenom is fine for most games except for more demanding games perhaps and there is nothing wrong with that gpu for Black Ops as it is not graphically demanding.

 

[Diamons]

I'll wait til Black Friday I guess. Damn, guess I have to shell out some money ;\

 

[jj463rd]

Yeah I agree with the others replace your HD with a new model.
Also your memory seems a little low too (especially if your using Vista or 7).
I would double it although with XP (the 32 bit version) you won't see the full 4 gigabytes of RAM.By the way what specific Operating System are the using?
32 bit or 64 bit?

 

[blacken666]

To make it worse BO has been shown to use only around two threads and for some reason CPU bound (be it why your GPU usage is so low on the 4850) so I wouldn't worry about the CPU side. If your dips go from 45 to 5fps and shoot back up sharply, there is a good chance your hdd has gone into a frenzy which can be caused by swapping due to lack of ram. Check your hdd light during that period. COD has never had huge maps and needed to load on the go (GTA4) so hdd performance may not be the reason but wouldn't hurt a bit to upgrade.
What do you have for an OS?

 

[jj463rd]

I disagree with malmental about the Phenom X4 9950BE being pure crap.
Sure they were disappointments but comparatively speaking they are close to the Intel Quad Core 6600 but without the vast OC capability of it and a higher TDP.
Look at various benchmarks the 9950BE doesn't look too bad as there are a lot more budget CPU's with less performance.In fact the slightly slower 9850BE OEM is right now one of the best price per performance CPU's.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

Now the original TLB bugged Phenoms they were crappy.

 

[jj463rd]

Basically the Phenom II X4 940 BE corrected that problem when it was released a few years ago (in Jan 2009).It performed like an oc'd Q6600 at stock speeds and could be oc'd further.Then again Intel's Core i7 920 was a better performer which came out slightly earlier in Nov 2008.The AM2+ 940 BE is right now also is good price per performance CPU and is about $96 right now.

 

[Diamons]

Windows 7 64-Bit

I really dont have kind of money =X I'm a 17 year old and don't have too large a paycheck.

I think it might be the RAM. When Black Ops is running, my physical memory usage is at 96 - 97%

 

[jj463rd]

Both Windows 7 and Vista consume large resources as compared to XP 32 bit.
Yes,I would definitely recommend increasing your RAM to 4 GB.

 

[blacken666]

Yeah, like jj463rd said. Win7 sucks up around 1gig to begin with if your lucky.

 

[Diamons]

Alright, time 2 buy more RAM!

 

[jj463rd]

Alright, time 2 buy more RAM!

Also you can use Readyboost in a usb flash drive to help.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/readyboost

 

[SteelCity1981]

I agree with everyone here when. I first read your post I saw you only had 2gb of ram and that seems to be the problem not the cpu, especially when you are only playing it at a low resolution. You'd be amazed how a simple ram upgrade could help a lot.

 

[Diamons]

I just find it so hard to believe times have changed so much. 3 years ago I had 512 MB RAM and an integrated graphics chipset, and I thought a gig of RAM was amazing.

Now 2 GB is already insufficient. Wow.