How much will a phenom ii x4 965 (stock 3.4ghz) bottleneck a 7950?


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Generally speaking, you should NOT experience too much bottlenecking. An i3 2120 can run games just fine with a GTX670 (Phenom II X4 965 is roughly equivalent to an i3 gaming wise). Keeping that in mind, a GTX670 isn't far ahead a Radeon HD7950.

Even if you were to experience bottlenecking, I wouldn't expect it to be very severe.
 

maxalge

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On average anywhere from 6 - 20+ fps loss compared to a 3570k.

At 4ghz about equal to a i3 2120.
 

rdc85

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dunno why u bring the highest i5 to the tables, I'm will assume u trolling....

from 3.4 Ghz to 3.8 will not see much different..
Any ways, are your chip is Black Edition? if it BE most of it can get to 3.8 just upping the multiplier + decent cooler.. (nothing wrong to try/aim for it...)
 


Considering a 4Ghz is very achievable on most Phenom II X4's, I doubt OP would run into any issues as long as he has a decent cooler. Something like a Hyper 212 will be MORE than sufficient. Also, keep in mind that even if the FPS were 6-20 LOWER than an i5, the i3 STILL achieves VERY playable framerates. At half the cost, you can't argue with the Phenom II X4 or i3 if you're on a budget :)
 

I think you got the reverse. Star Craft 2 and Skyrim are CPU-bound games.

While Crysis 2, BF3, and Metro 2033 can also rely on the CPU, they are more bound to the GPU. Dirt 3 I believe is one of those CPU bound titles as well.
 

oxford373

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maxalge

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The question is bottlenecking, the comparison I did was to show how much bottlenecking he will be getting.

The second statement clarifies the overclock he needs to match the i3.


No hate, no motives, just facts.


 

oxford373

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does CPU bounded games mean lightly threaded games(games don't use more than 2-3 cores) because in all games that efficiently use 4 cores core i5s tie high end phenoms.
 

I meant 'CPU bound' meaning the game relies on how efficient/fast the CPU is for the performance you're ultimately going to see. It doesn't necessarily have to do with CPU core count.