What Processor Should I Go With Must Be AMD

[briansklein]

Current specs

HAF 912 case
AMD 965 BE 3.4
990-FXA GD-80 Mobo
850 watt Zahlman PSU
8gigs of ddr3
GTX-570 stock
and a few extra bells and whistles

Want to know what Zambezi will out perform my current CPU preferably link some kind of legit benchmarks that compare. That would be very helpful or from personal experience.

 

[sosofm]

For now stay with 965 BE. Eventually wait for the new revision of AMD FX.

 

[briansklein]

Wondering if I should go with overclocking this CPU instead. I'm litterally maxed out on performance playing BF3 and I think it's hindering my fps at times. I turn on task manager to see how much of the CPU is being used and the cores are completely maxed out all the time. Think maybe overclocking would be good? Never really OC'd before.

 

[jaguarskx]

There is no reason to upgrade if you want to stay with AMD.

I would wait for Piledriver to come out before considering an upgrade.

 

[jaguarskx]

Yes, OC'ing is an easy way to get "free" performance. Sorry, but I'm not familiar with overclocking a Phenom II CPU.

 

[briansklein]

I would really like to get a few more reply's before selecting best answer. Thanks for the current reply's and lets hope the options laid out for me here solid.

Anyone have any experience with AMD's new processor line?

 

[FinneousPJ]

Not worth updating from a 965 at the moment.

 

[de5_Roy]

imo you should wait for piledriver/enhanced bulldozer or a bugs-worked-out revision of piledriver (in case it turns out like current fx). getting an fx would be a sidegrade.
your current setup seems to be a very good one for gaming.
if you want extra speed you can always oc your phenom ii. get a good cooler before you oc (i didn't see any mention of cooler in your specs so i am assuming).
as benchmarks suggest, current fx processors don't really offer better performance in gaming. imho any quad-core with 3.1-3.2+ ghz and a good amount of cache would suffice.

 

[Phoenixlight]

The FX-8150 outperforms the 965 but It might be better to just wait for Piledriver since the 965 can run games just fine.

 

[amuffin]

OC OC OC!

 

[redsunrises]

Yes I agree, you have an unlocked processor, I say overclock it! Here is a CPU scaling benchmark:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

Although it is for skyrim, it shows that for every .5ghz you increase the phenom it will put out roughly 5-6 extra fps... An overclocked 965 will see a performance gain, but dont be expecting something mind blowing lol. OC now, get piledriver or an intel system later on!

 

[tulx]

You can OC the 965 to about 4 GHz and check if you see any difference in BF3. If you do not, then there's really no use of overclocking it. Don't look at the charts, look at real percievable performance difference.

PS - this is a very very popular CPU so there should be many OC guides around. Look around.

 

[briansklein]

Ok now were getting to the butter for the bread. Im liking some of the answer's here alot more helpful. Would still like to find that one guy that has hands on experience with my question.

Question: What's a good overclocking tool that i can use or should i figure out how to do it through BIOS?

Also, if I over clock should i go water cooling or should I just get a better air cooler. Not going to push my cpu very far just a tad to get a few more fps out of it.

 

[amdfangirl]

Air cooler - the extra mhz is never worth the extra money.

Best overclocking tool is the BIOS. Learn it and use it well.

 

[briansklein]

amdfangirl you know of a website I could use to learn how to OC out of my BIOS. I have looked online and all the forums just talk gibberish to me considering I've never done this. I have a semi working knowledge of it and the forums i have looked at do in fact seem to hold the right info but putting them into a comprehensive vernacular would be helpful.

 

[amdfangirl]

http://www.overclock.net/t/645456/need-help-learning-how-to-overclock-amd

I'm not going to type it out. I'm afraid, I really can't explain it much better than Google.

 

[loneninja]

Use the BIOS to overclock your processor, it isn't too hard to learn. With a Phenom II 965 you have an unlocked multiplier on your cpu and that makes overclocking easy. All you need to do is go into the BIOS, raise the cpu multiplier and increase cpu voltage, than check for stability.

I would also stick with that Phenom II for gaming. AMDs new FX processors have lower IPC making their per core performance at a given clock speed lower than Phenom II. The FX 4100, with a clock speed of 3.6Ghz is about equal to a 3.0Ghz Phenom II at best. The FX 8120 is alright for highly threaded work loads, but for games is still no better than Phenom II because they don't use the extra cores.

 

[Dandalf]

OP it's strange that you say bf3 is maxing out all your CPU cores... the recent Tom's article that investigated bf3 performance explained that the game "just doesn't care" about your CPU as long as it is fairly fast... instead wishing for a faster graphics card. Your card has a lot of room to upgrade - unlike your CPU - so perhaps you should look at that area? I am hearing that even people with a 6950 cannot run bf3 on ultra at 1920 with AA enabled.

 

[jjtober1]

Most later revisions of phenom II's get to 4.0ghz fairly easy. I had my 955 at 4.0 with a half decent air cooler without problems.

 

[briansklein]

OK so I have been figuring out this whole OC thing. And unfortunatly I'm lost BIO's wise. However...my motherboard has OC genie ii and it over clocked it for me. My ram stock clock was 1333 now it's 2250. CPU was 3.4 and is now 3.85. I can attest that it made no difference in FPS what so ever so I'm going to assume that I would need another 570 sli'd to increase FPS stability. I do like that my core's are no longer peaking and very supprised to find that over clocking can be so stable.

 

[briansklein]

Best answer selected by briansklein.

 

[BaronMatrix]

OK so I have been figuring out this whole OC thing. And unfortunatly I'm lost BIO's wise. However...my motherboard has OC genie ii and it over clocked it for me. My ram stock clock was 1333 now it's 2250. CPU was 3.4 and is now 3.85. I can attest that it made no difference in FPS what so ever so I'm going to assume that I would need another 570 sli'd to increase FPS stability. I do like that my core's are no longer peaking and very supprised to find that over clocking can be so stable.

Sorry I missed this but you may not want to run your RAM that high with Phenom II. If you post your mobo it'll be easy to see how to just up the multiplier. OC Genie OCs the BUS not the multiplier. That's why your RAM runs so high. But if it's stable, go for it.