Dual or Quad Core

[Ecornily]

Hey Forum,
I'm a gamer and I'm having trouble...
I play on a pretty old system:
My gaming rig is a: AMD phenom x4 9550 @ 2.2 ghz
2x1 go DDRII from Kingston
Gigabyte M68M SP2 with AM2+ 95w/DDRII 1066x2/PCI Express 2.0x1/
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1go GDDR5 by Sapphire
400+ Watt Power Supply
I'm on a tight budget probably 150€ max for the CPU and I want to improve performances for games like COD7 or Medal of Honor, Crysis....
I've settled on a few things: 2x2 go G-Skill, and changing the CPU but keeping everything else.
But I haven't settled on the Processor !
-1st: First of all I am on a REALLY TIGHT BUDGET so no Hexa-cores or Intel cpu's.
-2nd: I would also like to stick with my motherboard (it's kinda "new", my dad bought it a month ago), even though it doesn't support DDR3 or over 95 watt processors.
-3rd: I don't only do gaming I've also got a few programs optimized for Quads (Video converters and editors...)
So remember: CPU under 150€/Keeping the Motherboard/Trying to go for a quad.

Thank you all for you answers.

PS:I'm still doing research but I haven't found anything yet.

 

[loneninja]

Phenom II X4 945 is the best 95W rated chip AMD has, excluding the 95W rated 6 core processors.

 

[enzo matrix]

^ agree with that processor. Less expensive and still viable alternatives are the Athlon IIx3 and Athlon IIx4.

If you can overclock your current processor to at least 2.8-3.0GHz, that would make it good again but I'm not sure if that's possible with the older phenom.

 

[Ecornily]

Thanks I was thinking about it but I did hesitate when I heard that there could be bottle-necking between a 3ghz processor and a good GPU so I was thinking would my GPU perform better with a Dual core such as the: AMD Phenom II x2 560 BE @ 3.3ghz.
If you have an answer to that question I would resolve my problem.

So thank you so much for your quick response.

PS:If you could also answer those:-Does the AMD phenom II x4 945 OC ? (Since it isn't a BE)
-Does the CPU need a AMD chipset on the motherboard to OC ? (because I don't have an AMD chipset on my motherboard)

 

[enzo matrix]

1. The phenom IIx2 560BE will outperform your current processor in most, if not all things.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/23?vs=187
FYI, Crysis can only use 2 cores.

2.The 945 does overclock. You cannot change the multiplier, but you can still change the base clock to overclock. Don't forget that doing this also increases everything else in your system so don't forget to lower multipliers like ram, as needed.

3. No. That has nothing to do with it. If you wanted to try your hand at unlocking cores though, that's a different story.

 

[Ecornily]

Thank you.
Well that makes things a lot clearer but still they are both very good. I know that if I changed my motherboard and got a AMD Phenom II x4 955, 965 or 970, I would have performances way over both the x4 945 and x2 560.
But the problem is I'm so confused. Because some people say Crysis works with 4 cores others say 2.
And I'm not sure but aren't games gonna optimize to Quads ?
So to make things simple:
A good CPU for gaming and running other multi core tasks.
An AMD Phenom II x2 560 BE @ 3.3ghz or more...
Or An AMD Phenom II x4 945 @ 3.0ghz or more...(considering I manage to OC)

Thank you if you can help me.

 

[enzo matrix]

These days, X4 945. If you want an unlocked multiplier, you could go for the 955 for I think about $10-20 more.

Crysis definitely only uses 2 cores. Crysis 2 is upcoming and will likely use more.

Games are headed in the more core direction. Most newer games can use 3 cores (a lot are console ports and consoles have 3 cores)
Some more intense games like dragon age and FSX use 4+ cores and usually don't play well with less cores.

If you plan to get new games, get the quad.

Because of the console porting I mentioned, I would recommend the cheaper Athlon IIx3 over the phenom IIx2.

If it were me, I would get the Athlon IIx3 with the intention of upgrading my motherboard, CPU and ram in 1-2 years.

 

[Ecornily]

Thank you so much.

Now i know what I'm gonna get but there still are a few questions.
As you said the 945 would be the best choice but being at 3ghz do you think that with a descent cooler (I would prefer using the one you get with it but I could bye a H50) I could get it to let's say:
3.5ghz or more. I think that would bring gaming performance to the max.
So thank you again.
But should I Over Clock and how ?

Thanks for the reps.

 

[enzo matrix]

^do research on overclocking. there are tons of online guides. Don't forget to test for stability. I use prime95 and linx.

3.5GHz I believe is likely. Nothing is guaranteed of course, but in my experience, AMD processors seem to stabely overclock about 20% without a voltage increase. I got an athlon 64 from 2 to 2.5, my athlon II went from 2.6 to 3.2 and an old 2600+ went from 2.0 to 2.2 (probably get a bit higher but the motherboard is crap). Of course, the percent max overclock seems to diminish past stock 3GHz.
Another note is from what I have read, and that is most people achieving 3.6-3.8GHz on phenom IIs.
It depends how they bin the processors but I think 3.5GHz is a reasonable minimum goal.

Another note, with a 5770, there is no way any game but FSX will notice a difference from 3GHz to 3.5GHz. or even beyond that.

 

[Ecornily]

Ok thanks, well now I'm out off questions.
Thank you all for you answers, especially you enzo matrix.

 

[suteck]

Thank you so much.

Now i know what I'm gonna get but there still are a few questions.
As you said the 945 would be the best choice but being at 3ghz do you think that with a descent cooler (I would prefer using the one you get with it but I could bye a H50) I could get it to let's say:
3.5ghz or more. I think that would bring gaming performance to the max.
So thank you again.
But should I Over Clock and how ?

Thanks for the reps.

One other thing - go with the H70 for overclock cooling. The h50 is good for stock but even corsair will admit it's not good for overclocking.