Leem123

Honorable
Jul 6, 2012
124
0
10,680
Would it be worth the upgrade from a GTX 560 to a 7850?

Also would the 7850 bottleneck with a AMD Phenom ii x4 965be?
 

Leem123

Honorable
Jul 6, 2012
124
0
10,680


Well i have the money to upgrade it. Or is there anything you recommend me upgrading too?
 
Depends on the game. I'd estimate 95% of games on the market are entirely GPU dependent. There are a few exceptions, but as a general statement, no a Phenom II 965 will not bottleneck a 7870 in any way, especially if you run it at 4.0GHZ (which is a pretty decent daily overclock you shouldn't have any trouble getting)
 

Leem123

Honorable
Jul 6, 2012
124
0
10,680


I won't be overclocking my CPU. I'm not into that.
 

Leem123

Honorable
Jul 6, 2012
124
0
10,680


Is bottleneck good or bad? Would it wreck your PC?
 
You'd still be fine with a 7870. But I'd consider it, with a stock cooler you should safely be able to set your multiplier to 18x. This would clock the CPU from 3.4 stock to 3.6GHZ, basically giving you a Phenom II 975 model. The CPUs are identical in every way, same cooler too the only difference is the multiplier settings.

Phenom II 965
200mhz x 17x multiplier= 3.4GHZ

Phenom II 975
200mhx x 18x =3.6GHZ
 

Leem123

Honorable
Jul 6, 2012
124
0
10,680


I have a Coolermaster plus cooler! Would that put my temps up? Also how do i change the multiplier?
 

A lot of people throw this word around "bottleneck" like its this big ugly monstrousity. All it means is that the CPU may not be powerful enough to keep up with the video card, it may be a little bottleneck or a large bottleneck.

For example, one game might be coded to really give the CPU a workout. Skyrim for example is a very CPU intensive game. Its also a console port, meaning it was written for Xbox, but they changed it a bit to work on a PC. Because of this, some of the background work that would normally be done by the video card in a game is done by the CPU. Which means the CPU has to work a little bit harder to play the game. If the CPU has to work harder than the video card, you would call this a CPU bottleneck. What it translate to in terms of actually playing the game is, that there is potential that the game wont get as many frames per second as it could with a more powerful CPU on the same video card.

This situation can be reversed with a weaker video card like say a GT 430. In which case, the video card would be the source of the "bottleneck". Since the video card is not nearly as powerful as the CPU. Generally speaking, most games are going to be held back by the video card, not the processor.
 

Leem123

Honorable
Jul 6, 2012
124
0
10,680


Thanks for the info. :) I have an amd phenom ii x4 965, gtx 560, 4gb ram, 1920x1080, 550w PSU. Would all this run a 7870 + Amd phenom ii x4 965? :) Sorry i don't have a clue about this lol
 


What brand and model is the 550 watt PSU? Assuming its a quality power supply, yes.
 

Yes your temps will be increased when you overclock. I would recommend you read a few sources before attempting to overclock, there are some things to keep in mind about it.

This is a very comprehensive guide on it, I'd be glad to answer any specific questions you have, but this makes it easier since it has everything laid out and better articulated (meaning I'm lazy)

http://www.overclock.net/t/525113/phenom-ii-overclocking-guide

Really though, you already have a decent cooler. My advice would be to keep it simple.

1. Download Hw monitor so you can watch your temps

2. Download Prime 95 so you can test your stability

3. Increase your multiplier one half step at a time, run stability tests each time until you hit 3.8-4.0GHZ and stop there.

Increasing multiplier is the simplest way to overclock, as far as how to go about it, you can use AMD Overdrive. Its a free download with a built in stability test (so you don't need Prime 95) although I've found its temp readings aren't always accurate, so I suggest HW monitor. As long as the CPU doesnt go over 62c, you're fine, thats the max safe temp of the Phenom IIs. Although honestly it probably would be fine if it hit 70c as long as its not long-term sustained.

Always keep in mind that overclocking voids your warranty on the CPU. So there is a risk, but theres a risk in anything thats worth doing.
 

Leem123

Honorable
Jul 6, 2012
124
0
10,680



XFX Pro 550w! I mean not OCz
 

You mean the 560 with the 7850? No. 2 7850s yes. You could also run 2 560s in SLi, but I wouldn't do either with only a 550 watt power supply. Running more than a single card I would suggest a 750 watt power supply, although depending on the card you could probably get away with 650 watt. But you should always get a good quality power supply regardless of the wattage. XFX makes good ones, so does Corsair, Seasonic and Antec.

Crossfire is for AMD cards, Sli is the same thing for Nvidia cards.

Also, your motherboard has to support SLi/Crossfire.
 

Leem123

Honorable
Jul 6, 2012
124
0
10,680


I know i mean't 2 7850's as my motherboard doesn't support SLI! But would my CPU be fine with two of them?
 

It should yes, honestly, if you have the budget for 2 7850s then you could probably afford a single more powerful video card. like a GTX 670 or a 7950 or 7970. A single video card is usually going to be the better option. But a single 7970 you're really pushing it with 550 watt PSU. I'd stick with a single video card setup either way though.