Worth a CPU upgrade

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

Black Ops is out in a couple of weeks, and the required specs are a littler higher than most. In particular, they call for a 3-core AMD CPU. So I've been debating whether an upgrade of my CPU is worthwhile. Current system:

Mobo: GA-MA78GM-US2H (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3118&dl=1#)
CPU: Athlon X2 7850 Kuma (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103678)
RAM: 8Gb DDR2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220335)
GPU: 1GB HD 4670 128-bit

The CPU I've been looking at is a Phenom II X4 940 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103644)

Basically, my question is - is this a worthwhile upgrade for the system? Or is some other component going to be bottlenecking anyway? Since the mobo only supports DDR2, I'm not fussed about socket AM2+ vs AM3 (and the AM2+ chip I linked to above is much cheaper since it's OEM).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Stuart

 

[Shadow703793]

You have a pretty old CPU, but I think you should still be fine. You probably want to upgrade the GPU before the CPU if gaming. You should OC the X2 a bit if you are CPU limited. What resolution do you play at?

 

[Guest]

1024x768. My monitor is old and won't support higher. The X2 is currently not oc'ed, what could I hope to get out of it?

 

[rededed1976]

Forget upgrading the CPU for now
The graphics card your using is rubbish, upgrade that instead.. Think ati 5770.....
mmmmmmm pretty graphics..... mmmmmmm

 

[Shadow703793]

1024x768. My monitor is old and won't support higher. The X2 is currently not oc'ed, what could I hope to get out of it?

Imo, you may want to upgrade the LCD first. You can find a cheap 22" LCD that supports up to 1680*1050 for less than $200 (example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236083 ). This will make a huge difference in web surfing,multi tasking, etc.

Anyways, a 4670 should be fine at that resolution. I recommend you wait and see the benchmarks for Black Ops first.

 

[jj463rd]

For that price ($95.99) dang jump on getting that Phenom II X4 940 BE.
It's a steal and is definately a worthwhile upgrade.I do agree with others though about a GPU upgrade but I wouldn't miss out on that CPU.

 

[pete3867]

if you want a real bang for buck chip like me (cheapskate) you should go for the Athlon x3 440-(£58.00) it overclocks to3.5 ghz easily and keeps up with most athlon x4's ,
but I personally think your system will cope with black ops , I have a 7750 in my bedroom rig and it seems to work very well with most games