Phenom II X4 955 [VS.] Bulldozer X6 FX-6100

[Syndicat3]

Hi everyone,

First, here are my specs:

Phenom II X4 955 BE rev. C2 (clocked at 3.6 Ghz)
8 Gb DDR3
1 GB Radeon 6950
ASUS M4A78T-E
Corsair H50 cooler


I play games like Skyrim and BF3 and I'm looking to get a little bit more out of my system before building an Intel system. I can't really get this revision stable at 3.7 Ghz without voltage increase.

I built a new rig for my parents and put in a Bulldozer X6 FX-6100 which they definitely do not need, but it was on sale for $139 CAD (only $10 more than the Phenom II). I'm thinking it would be a good idea to switch processors so I have the Bulldozer in my system and they have the Phenom II. My mobo is a AM3, and of course the Bulldozer is AM3+, but a BIOS update was put out for support for this processor.

Is it worth switching CPUs? Will I notice much of a difference performance wise?


Cheers,


Chris


Both processors for reference:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_64&item_id=027383

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_64&item_id=042550

 

[may1]

What that kind of money 139 CAD can get you:
1. Good PSU
2. Good Case
3. Excellent VGA/CPU cooler
4. More RAM
5. 2 Skyrims.
6. A new copy of OS
7. Hard drives
8. Blu-ray combos
etc etc
And you're thinking of "upgrading" to a processor that will have less-than noticeable difference performance-wise.

 

[Syndicat3]

What that kind of money 139 CAD can get you:
1. Good PSU
2. Good Case
3. Excellent VGA/CPU cooler
4. More RAM
5. 2 Skyrims.
6. A new copy of OS
7. Hard drives
8. Blu-ray combos
etc etc
And you're thinking of "upgrading" to a processor that will have less-than noticeable difference performance-wise.

Did you even read my post?

 

[Tamz_msc]

If you are mostly into gaming, then you will not see that much difference.
If you run many multi-threaded applications, then you can consider an upgrade but honestly, I feel that the first generation CPUs based on the Bulldozer architecture do not have that much in them that calls for an upgrade.

 

[gamerk316]

BTW, did anyone do any benchmarks on BD on AM3? I would be very hesitent for that reason alone...

 

[Syndicat3]

BTW, did anyone do any benchmarks on BD on AM3? I would be very hesitent for that reason alone...

Yeah, that kind of worries me. Maybe I'll just leave the Bulldozer in my parent's system.

 

[megagabobe1]

the phenom ii x4 should run anything, no need to worry haha

 

[truegenius]

you will see no difference (or no performance increase, but will notice a decrease)

955be can hit 4 stable, give it a try

 

[Syndicat3]

you will see no difference (or no performance increase, but will notice a decrease)

955be can hit 4 stable, give it a try

I've tried. Not my C2 revision, but I heard the C3 hit 4 Ghz easily.

I guess I'll just stick with my CPU then. Thanks everyone.

 

[truegenius]

nice decision stick with it

 

[Syndicat3]

Best answer selected by Syndicat3.

 

[may1]

Did you even read my post?

Yes I did. Didn't you read the last line "will have less-than noticeable difference performance-wise"?

 

[wild9]

Not much extra to add, other than I think your parents have ended up with a great system there. Like the others have said I think you’d be best sticking with Phenom II.

Bulldozer is not the best contemporary architecture for games. Most games are not highly-threaded and therefore won’t exploit its resources. In some cases You’ll actually end up with worse performance than Phenom II x4 at the same clock speed.

Battlefield 3 doesn’t need a killer CPU to run well. Four cores either AMD or Intel will work wonders and any difference between Phenom II and BD will be negligible. It’s more a case of what GPU you use; with that Radeon 6950 you’ll have nothing to worry about unless you plan on using very high resolutions with ultra quality.

In terms of power consumption the only advantage Bulldozer would have is if all cores were under load, however this advantage would be offset somewhat by any over-clocking.

As for over-clocking that Phenom II x4 955 BE to 4GHz.. I would advise against it. I do not think you would see that much of a gaming difference at 4GHz. The power requirements and risk of instability would also rise dramatically.

Some info that may be of help:

1. Bulldozer FX-6100 vs. Phenom II 955: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fx-8120-6100-4100_4.html

2. Battlefield 3 CPU and GPU Scaling: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/battlefield-3-graphics-performance,3063-13.html

3. Battlefield 3 System Requirements

Source: http://bf3blog.com/battlefield-3-system-requirements/

Minimum requirements
OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7
Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or Althon X2 2.7 GHz
RAM: 2GB
Graphic card: DirectX 10 or 11 compatible Nvidia or AMD ATI card, ATI Radeon 3870 or higher, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or higher.
Graphics card memory: 512 MB
Sound card: DirectX compatibl sound card
Hard drive: 15 GB for disc version or 10 GB for digital version

Recommended system requirements
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
RAM: 4GB
Graphics card: DirectX 11 Nvidia or AMD ATI card, Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 or ATI Radeon 6950.
Graphics card memory: 1 GB
Sound card: DirectX compatibl sound card
Hard drive: 15 GB for disc version or 10 GB for digital version.