Phenom X4 9750 --> Phenom II x4... worthwhile?

[Sunshine87]

Hello, I have a AM2 Phenom X4 9750 (95w). I was wondering if upgrading my mainboard to AM3 and placing a Phenom II x4 (preferably, a 955 or around that) would make a worthwhile difference in gaming? It seems like it's a bottleneck. Some games are stuck at a particular FPS and when I apply more levels of AA, increase settings, the framerate only drops by 1-2fps at the most and vice versa when I lower settings.

Specs BTW
AMD Phenom x4 9750
Memory 2x2gig DDR2-800
Sapphire HD6850 GPU
500w PSU

 

[Raidur]

What is your motherboard?

Budget?

 

[bigbang]

do you overclock it? u shouldnt really be bottlenecked

 

[bigbang]

9750 to x4 950 is a 15% improvement in pure fps, on average

 

[mdd1963]

You might gain a few fps here and there, but, I doubt it would be a cost effective upgrade at this time, merely to increase from 45 fps to 49 fps at 1080P, assuming you aren't capped at 60 fps merely because of Vsync.

My advice? Since your GPU is fairly capable, just increase the settings and res/detail to your heart's content or until framerate drops into the 40's, and, wait for BD and/or IvyBridge to debut....

 

[Sunshine87]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yeah, I'm using a budget mobo. I was really asking since I looked over the web and couldn't find any real benchmarks that pit the p1 against the P2 w/ newer hardware. Most games run full 60fps at 1080p. But, some ai heavy scenes in games and ofcourse in unoptimized console ports (black ops) I have trouble maintaining 60fps. If its only 15%, then I'll just wait for BD.

 

[bigbang]

u can find them both in action in the 2009 cpu charts from tomshardware (or might be 2010 i cant remember)

 

[Wisecracker]

Your 9750 is killing you.

A 955BE (before over-clocking) will easily get you a 25-30% increase in frames with an HD6850.

If you make the move, just be certain to go with a 'Black Socket' AM3+ motherboard for Bulldozer Zambezi compatibility so that you have a 'drop-in' CPU upgrade ...

when the prices come down [:jaydeejohn:5]

 

[bigbang]

based on what tests are u claiming those wisecracker?
the charts indicate a 15% increase in best case scenarios

 

[Wisecracker]

This would be from Anand -- and I suspect the OP's results would be even greater as Anand is not really very objective toward AMD. That may not be fair -- let's say Anand is not very consistent when testing AMD.

Here is an example of the 720BE (not surprisingly similar to the example above) scaling with over-clocking the CPU and the IMC/NB ...

With a 955BE easily reaching 3.6+GHz and 2500MHz IMC/NB, I'm going to change that 25-30% increase to 35-40% That 'heater' 9750 at 2.4GHz with 2MB L3, no OC headroom, 65nm process and much weaker IMC just can't hang, especially in gaming.

 

[Raidur]

What is your current motherboard? You may not need a new one.

 

[Sunshine87]

A lol worthy ECS AM2+ board. So, no, I would need a new one as the phenom 9750 is the most powerful CPU this one can support (according to ECS.) Wisecracker, nice job with the info. I can probably sell my existing hardware to set back the cost of new someday. Like, ddr2 ram costs almost twice as much as ddr3 when I last checked. Am3+ would have been my motive for future proofing. Also yeah, even after new thermal paste and an aftermarket cooler, this thing hits 55'c under load. Then again, the cooler brackets could be tighter.

 

[Sunshine87]

Best answer selected by Sunshine87.