CPU upgrade for BF3?

[the dood]

Before you say "BF3 needs a good GPU", I know. I also know that at lower resolutions, which I'm running at 1600x900, the GPU get's bottlenecked by the CPU more. Especially on 32-64 person multiplayer. I currently have an AMD Athlon 635 2.9ghz quad core and a 560ti. When I play high player maps, I get pretty low FPS, and my CPU gets HOT. I got a new CPU cooler but I still want a nice performance increase. I was thinking of either upgrading to the AMD 965BE, or wait and save up for an Intel motherboard and a 2500k. But what I want to know is if upgrading to the 965BE would be worth it. I would overclock it to ~4GHz on CM Hyper 212+.

Any help/tips is appreciated. Please no "Just get Intel AMD is a waste of time" comments. I know Intel is better, but I got an AMD board with a small budget.

 

[Uberperson]

From what i can tell bf3 is not very dependent on CPU, most of the benchmarks only show the fps for top end cpu at 80fps then a fx 8xxx with only 2 cores enabled is like 71. You can probably just get an i5-2500k and intel mobo for $300 together. Upgrading to a phenom is like $100.

I would just upgrade to a higher end GPU that will allow you to upgrade the mobo/cpu and other stuff later and still be able to use the new GPU.

On another note the phenoms do run good, so it is up to you .(don't think i helped much haha)

 

[yummerzzz]

^

Those are Singleplayer benchmarks, multiplayer is extremely CPU demanding.

 

[Uberperson]

Well the phenom is nice, and can be Oc'd pretty well. The problem with going with it now is new games like Battlefield 10 or something could come out within the next two years and you end up having to upgrade again anyways. If you wanted you could get an ivy or sandy i5 and mobo for $300 and be set for a much long time.

 

[Blahman11]

Have you tried overclocking the Athlon? If you can get it to 3.5ghz ish you should at least make it playable. My Athlon 455 manages BF3 64 player maps ok, it goes into high 20s on 64 player tdm but I rarely play that. Thats at 3.3ghz so an overclock should make it play well.

 

[FinneousPJ]

Yeah totally try overclocking first. If that doesn't work the 965 is great, or depending on your mobo you could go for Piledriver which did great in BF3.

 

[maestro0428]

I have a 965be in my folding@home rig and its a great cpu. It overclocks to 4ghz and is so cheap at only 89 bucks. I say go for it.

 

[dodger46]

Generally Strategy games need more CPU power, in particular Hyper threading and L1/L2 Cache size. For AMD this means Bulldozer, and AM3+, unfortunately your board AM3. However, an upgrade to the 965BE will increase your L1/L2 Cache to 512Kb/2Mbfrom 128Kb/512Kb so should perform better.

 

[the dood]

Anyone have an approximate FPS increase in BF3 and other games?

 

[jaideep1337]

maybe consider getting an fx6300? its better than the phenom IIs(Finally!) and can be OCed pretty high too.