Sandybridge upgrade worth it?

[sneuhardt40]

Play only FPS games. Current system is Phenom 2 X4 955, Asus MVA88T-V EVO/USB3, 4gb Corsair 1600mhz, HD 6970, Coolermaster 700W Silent Pro M.

Looking at i5-2500k, whatever mobo and ram are necessary to run it well, keeping 6970.

Waste of money? Thanks!

 

[Niceone101]

I am not the most knowing but I feel like if you need to replace all of that it might not be worth it, though I heard Intel was releasing something new end of year on another forum, I would search into that, not to sure myself.

 

[ghnader hsmithot]

Play only FPS games. Current system is Phenom 2 X4 955, Asus MVA88T-V EVO/USB3, 4gb Corsair 1600mhz, HD 6970, Coolermaster 700W Silent Pro M.

Looking at i5-2500k, whatever mobo and ram are necessary to run it well, keeping 6970.

Waste of money? Thanks!

Yes, it is a waste of money.Are ther games you cant max out?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

generally you have to dip under 1920x1080 resolution or run dual video cards to see a real world benefit of an SB over a phenom II. I would suggest overclocking the CPU.

 

[smoothdude]

Are you guy's kidding me? A $300 Sandy Bridge is faster than Intel's most expensive 1st Gen i7 extreme edition. Currently AMD doesn't have anything that comes close. Remember that AMD's Bulldozer was supposed to compete with Intel's icore family, however, AMD still hasn't released it yet.

However, video games need more graphics processing from a dedicated graphics card. Like the rest of the people on the forum have stated, the processor alone would not give you the results you are seeking and it would be very expensive as you would need to buy a new motherboard for the processor.

Now if you have the money to do the upgrade, I say go for it, because you will definitely see a difference in performance, however, it wouldn't be as much as if you upgraded to an SLI or Crossfire graphic card setup for the same amount of money.

 

[CsG_kieran_2]

Are you guy's kidding me? A $300 Sandy Bridge is faster than Intel's most expensive 1st Gen i7 extreme edition. Currently AMD doesn't have anything that comes close. Remember that AMD's Bulldozer was supposed to compete with Intel's icore family, however, AMD still hasn't released it yet.

However, video games need more graphics processing from a dedicated graphics card. Like the rest of the people on the forum have stated, the processor alone would not give you the results you are seeking and it would be very expensive as you would need to buy a new motherboard for the processor.

Now if you have the money to do the upgrade, I say go for it, because you will definitely see a difference in performance, however, it wouldn't be as much as if you upgraded to an SLI or Crossfire graphic card setup for the same amount of money.

No.

Just hold out for Bulldozer. Am sure it will be worth it.

 

[diellur]

Well, I'd say it's a waste when you look at the performance increase/money spent ratio. Your system is still good. Not as good, to be fair, but your current build has a fair bit of life left in it. If your AMD CPU is BE, then try overclocking as already mentioned. If I was you, I'd personally wait a while until you couldn't play a game that you wanted to. Then spend the cash.

 

[bearclaw99]

A few frames difference here and there. Worth the upgrade for games though? No.

 

[mfarrukh]

If you play games, browsing, movies and other lighter things like these, an upgrade is Worth it (only for games, of course)
For other heavy threaded tasks, it'll be a downgrade

 

[wolfram23]

Complete waste of money for a gamer. Your CPU should be very capable and delivering pretty close performance to any i5/i7 PC. Worst case scenario, buy a heat sink and overclock it a bit.

If you're going to upgrade, go big. Right now it would be like 1 step up... not like you're going from an X2 or X3 or a Core 2 Duo...

If anything getting an SSD to make your system a lot more responsive, and if you aren't maxing out games get another 6970 too. The CPU can handle it for 60fps.

 

[shanky887614]

If you play games, browsing, movies and other lighter things like these, an upgrade is Worth it (only for games, of course)
For other heavy threaded tasks, it'll be a downgrade

why is it a downgrade for heavily threaded tasks

the i5 2500 is a native quad core cpu the same as the i7 2600

if anything everything will be slightly quicker but not enough to warrent 300+ spending on a new motherboard+cpu

and probably ram because he will probably need to get ddr3 as well

 

[Blahman11]

I would keep the Phenom, its still fast enough for games. Games are only just starting to have first gen dual cores as their minimum requirement, and the Phenom 2s are light years ahead of them.

If you want more cores try unlocking some more if your motherboard suports it. The 955 uses a quad core die with two core disabled. They might be disabled for a reason but if they work fine your laughing.

The 955 is the black edition Phenom Dual core, so I would OC it as well. There's no harm in doing it.

 

[wolfram23]

I would keep the Phenom, its still fast enough for games. Games are only just starting to have first gen dual cores as their minimum requirement, and the Phenom 2s are light years ahead of them.

If you want more cores try unlocking some more if your motherboard suports it. The 955 uses a quad core die with two core disabled. They might be disabled for a reason but if they work fine your laughing.

The 955 is the black edition Phenom Dual core, so I would OC it as well. There's no harm in doing it.

Actually, it IS a quad core... it's a Phenom II X4 955 BE. X4 = quad core.

 

[RetiredChief]

Would it be a cost effective to upgrade – from a pure gaming stand point probably not.
FPS games performance is more a function of the GPU and unless the CPU is bottlenecking (Don’t think his is), then upgrading the CPU has limited value.

I heard that to be cost effective you need to move up the latter at least 3 tiers. You are right at this point.
The Phenom 2 X4 955 is in the same group that contains the QX6800/50, the next tier up contains the i5-750 and i7-965 (NO amd challengers) the highest tier is the new SB CPUs (not shown in the link.

Based (solely on the CPU) this is why I’d say toss-up, but for only gaming probably not cost effective.
What may make it cost effective are the advances in feature of the MB.
Would be a good Idea to wait for BD to see what it brings to the table – Wait for REAL benches.; However if you wait another 6 Months you also have Ivybridge as a choice.

Ref for tiers (there is a newer one out): http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu,2599-7.html

As far as OC, yes that will boast HIS cpu performance, but should not be used for comparing AMD (Oced) to a non OC Intel CPU – Keep apples to apples please.
Yes he may be able to unlock the extra 2 cores, but currently that will do nothing for current games – Again the stress here is MAYBE and Will that IMPROVE gaming experience.

Disclaimer: If I was a gamer, and then the platform would not be an issue – go with which ever performs better. I’m not a gamer and prefer the Intel platform – The CPU is only PART of that equation. It more a question of the monkey vs the 800 pound gorillia. While the monkey may pull a rabbit out of the hat, I'll bet on the 800# gorillia.

 

[wolfram23]

^ Again... core unlocks? It's a quad...

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808&cm_re=phenom_ii_x4_955-_-19-103-808-_-Product

 

[RetiredChief]

Wolfram23
I was just responding to the comment about unlocking the other 2 cores. I'm not a AMD user, but there have been may posts about unlocking extra cores (ie the 3 core -> 4 core AMD CPU). Went on the assumption that they did the same with some of their 4 core CPU (ie 6 core with two cores disabled). But my bottom line, even if he could, it would not improve gaming.

In googling I found
Quote: None of the currently retailing x4s can unlock to x6, as they only have 4 cores to begin with. end quote
Again apologize for my ignorance of AMD line-up

 

[Blahman11]

Actually, it IS a quad core... it's a Phenom II X4 955 BE. X4 = quad core.

Whoops my bad. I was thinking about the 555

 

[sneuhardt40]

Yes, it is a waste of money.Are ther games you cant max out?

How do I tell if I am maxing out a game? Thanks.

 

[shanky887614]

sne, you can start by maxing out all the settings and then checking your framerate (you need to look on google for the specific game)

if you get over 50-60 fps, there is no need to upgrade

if you get 20-30 on max settings then you can upgrade if you want but i would personally wait a while and lower settings for now

 

[wolfram23]

How do I tell if I am maxing out a game? Thanks.

Go to the settings and set everything to the max lol.

Download FRAPS for free and you can run it while gaming to see what your framerate is. Anything over 40 is good, and your monitor is probably 60hz which means anything over 60 frames per second won't be seen.

You could also run windows task manager and see if your CPU usage is very high.

 

[sneuhardt40]

Go to the settings and set everything to the max lol.

Download FRAPS for free and you can run it while gaming to see what your framerate is. Anything over 40 is good, and your monitor is probably 60hz which means anything over 60 frames per second won't be seen.

You could also run windows task manager and see if your CPU usage is very high.

I would love to get to 100fps but I take it thats impossible. I have a Samsung Syncmaster PX2370 that is is 60hz. Is it worth it to go to 120? Thanks.

 

[wolfram23]

I've never used a 120hz monitor... I hear it's pretty cool? I'd only get one for 3D though, personally.

You can get 100fps with a 60hz monitor, as long as vsync is disabled. The problem though is that sometimes the GPU can be rendering a new frame while the monitor is still showing the last one, then they overlap and you get a screen tearing. So usually it's not good to go beyond the monitor's refresh rate.