Phenom II x4 955 BE Upgrade?

[jrayx]

Well I have the ASUS M4A785T-M Motherboard and the Phenom II x4 955 BE 3.2 GHz and 8 GB of Kingston Hyperx Blu 1333 Mhz x 2.
I'm planning to buy the Sapphire Hd 7770 Vapor-x GHz edition, so I was thinking to upgrade my CPU.

Do I really need to upgrade my CPU? Is it that old? Is my mothearboard ok?
I mean I'm low on budget but this CPU can handle the HD 7770 without bottlenecks?
I've seen people running battlefield 3 with an Athlon II and a 7770, but I'm not really sure.

I don't want to buy a graphics card if I'll have to upgrade the CPU and Motherboard to something new soon.

Thanks for your help.

 

[dscudella]

Your CPU is fine for now. If you don't want to upgrade, don't. The 7770 isn't a particularly strong video card but (depending on your resolution) it will handle BF3 with your CPU with no bottlenecks.

If you upgrade your CPU the only way you would really see performance is with a new AMD FX or if you went Intel, an i5 and Mobo. Either upgrade will run $250+ with the Intel being more expensive.

Edit: In BF3 Multiplayer your Phenom II is a bit better than my i3 because BF3 is more CPU dependent (utilizing more cores) than single player.

 

[jrayx]

Your CPU is fine for now. If you don't want to upgrade, don't. The 7770 isn't a particularly strong video card but (depending on your resolution) it will handle BF3 with your CPU with no bottlenecks.

If you upgrade your CPU the only way you would really see performance is with a new AMD FX or if you went Intel, an i5 and Mobo. Either upgrade will run $250+ with the Intel being more expensive.

Edit: In BF3 Multiplayer your Phenom II is a bit better than my i3 because BF3 is more CPU dependent (utilizing more cores) than single player.

I see, but this configuration can run most games at 720p? Nothing extreme, just good fps and quality.

 

[mocchan]

I see, but this configuration can run most games at 720p? Nothing extreme, just good fps and quality.

Stick with your current CPU, you won't see a huge performance increase at that resolution unless you're willing to shell out ~$200 for a CPU.

I would suggest upgrading to something like a Radeon HD7870, though; this will give you more performance over the HD7770

 

[obsama1]

It's a decent quad-core. It won't bottleneck. A bottleneck would be an Athlon dual-core or similar. In singleplayer, the CPU doesn't matter much. A better GPU is more important in singleplayer. In multiplayer, if you don't have a decent CPU, your FPS will plummet. But at 720p, your CPU will handle BF3.

 

[obsama1]

@mocchan Or you could get a 7850, which is in between. A 7850 can be found for $180, and it will play BF3 on high/ultra.

 

[mocchan]

@mocchan Or you could get a 7850, which is in between. A 7850 can be found for $180, and it will play BF3 on high/ultra.

Oh wow are they really going for that much now? If that's the case, the HD7850 would also get my vote to save OP some cash.

 

[dscudella]

As with what everyone else said and like I already said, you won't see an increase in performance until you upgrade to an FX-8320/8350 or an i5.

Go ahead and grab yourself a new video card (if your PSU can support it) and have fun.

Radeon 7770 1gb $115
Nvidia GTX 650 Ti 1gb $140
Radeon 7850 1gb $179
Radeon 7850 2gb $185 (if you can afford the 7850 1gb go ahead and grab the 2gb for $6 more)
Nvidia GTX 660 2gb $230
Radeon 7870 2gb $238

Just a quick price listing from PCPartPicker in USD. The bold models are what I would recommend based on price and performance. They can all game at 1920x1080 but at lower resolution those 3 should be able to run on Ultra / Max settings at a constant 50+ FPS.

 

[jrayx]

Stick with your current CPU, you won't see a huge performance increase at that resolution unless you're willing to shell out ~$200 for a CPU.

I would suggest upgrading to something like a Radeon HD7870, though; this will give you more performance over the HD7770

Good to hear that. The 7770 is the max I can afford, because I have to buy a quality PSU, and I don't want to cheap out with that.
I think the Sapphire 7770 Vapor-x is the best for the price, besides the power consumption is low and great performance according to some reviews.

It's a decent quad-core. It won't bottleneck. A bottleneck would be an Athlon dual-core or similar. In singleplayer, the CPU doesn't matter much. A better GPU is more important in singleplayer. In multiplayer, if you don't have a decent CPU, your FPS will plummet. But at 720p, your CPU will handle BF3.

I didn't know that thanks, but I'm not planning to play too much multiplayer.

Do you think the NZXT H2 is a good case for that config? (HD 7770, Phenom II x4, Hyper 212+, 1x Samsung 1 TB and mAtx Board)

 

[mocchan]

If your budget is gone for a quality PSU and an HD7770, then I would say go for this solution. Good choice not using a cheap PSU for your rig

The HD7770 isn't a weak GPU by any means, it's just not an optimal GPU (IMO) for gaming. It'll handle your resolution just fine, though. I had forgotten that you mentioned 720P gaming; which that HD7770 will be able to almost max anything out on

On a side note, that NZXT H2 is more than enough for your rig

 

[jrayx]

I'm low in budget right now (I can't complete the PSU and GPU and case at the same time) so probably I'll get the money on March 2013, so the phenom II is going to be a good processor by that time, also the 7770 is going to be ok? Or the new 8000 series GPU are coming? Or newer AMD or cheap Intel CPU's coming by that time?

I'm worried about getting a good PC, and by 3 months or less being completely outdated.

Last question, there's any probability of newer cases by March April 2013?

 

[mocchan]

If you're purchasing in March/April of next year, why don't you just save up for a better GPU? It'll give you more performance than the HD7770 and who knows, the prices may have dropped by then

The HD8000 series will most likely cost around as much as the HD7000 series now, so I would just hold your money and purchase a 7000 series card next year (most likely price slashes due to new releases).

I can't comment on any new cases next year, but your Phenom II X4 should last another year or so IMO; it's getting outdated but it's still a very modest CPU. "Good enough" for most games at very playable FPS

 

[jrayx]

If you're purchasing in March/April of next year, why don't you just save up for a better GPU? It'll give you more performance than the HD7770 and who knows, the prices may have dropped by then

The HD8000 series will most likely cost around as much as the HD7000 series now, so I would just hold your money and purchase a 7000 series card next year (most likely price slashes due to new releases).

I can't comment on any new cases next year, but your Phenom II X4 should last another year or so IMO; it's getting outdated but it's still a very modest CPU. "Good enough" for most games at very playable FPS

Great, I think I'll go for a 7850 maybe if the PSU can handle it (Also the Processor), hope that price drop on 7000 Series .

 

[mocchan]

Just to give you some reassurance, you can run an HD7850 along with a Phenom II X4 955 on a CX430V2 PSU. You can even run those two pieces of hardware overclocked on said PSU

 

[dscudella]

In march the new Radeon line comes out.

 

[mocchan]

In march the new Radeon line comes out.

They will most likely cost a bit of a premium over the current HD7000 series, as always. If OP has enough spare cash by then, he should jump on the HD8000's. However, if OP is looking to save money, there's nothing wrong with purchasing the HD7000's (if they're cheaper) considering they're still a very robust solution

 

[dscudella]

I meant that since he was going to hold off until March for a video card that he could a better one then, as the new Radeons will drop and hopefully push the price of the 7xxx's down.

 

[jrayx]

Best answer selected by jrayx.