Phenom ii x4 965 good enough for crossfire 7850

[spaufkop]

Hello this is my first post here in the forums but i have been reading alot, (my english is bad)

still i would like some opinions for my specific setup, gaming is priority

i have currently have,

mobo: asus m4a79xtd evo
cpu: x4 965 no oc (dont think it would matter for gaming)
gpu: currently 1 asus 7850 2gb getting anoter monday
ram: 2x4 gb corsair xms3
psu: corsair tx 650w

Will the 965 severly bottleneck two 7850s? or only slightly?

ive been thinking to get an i5+ z77 motherboard and an ssd as i would reisntall windows then anyway but this would cost arround 450 euro and i dont want to spend that and only seeing a small boost in gaming.
Bottom line keep the 965 or not?

 

[kenny3105]

should be fine with the 965 as it is still a hell of a cpu. most recent games are gpu bottlenecked.

 

[spaufkop]

great.. i hope so i will see it monday and test it out..

now im seeing like 70 80% load on the cpu and the gpu can hit 99% (one card) on bf3

but its not like with two cards the cpu needs double the power or does it?

 

[kenny3105]

no the games need more gpu power than cpu power these days

 

[spaufkop]

nice, i will report back monday when i got the second card in for those who are wondering about this particular setup.

 

[griptwister]

Yep! How ever, you may want to OC for best performance gains. But it'll be enough... and, If you feel it's not enough, you can upgrade to an i5 later

 

[spaufkop]

true the only thing holding me back is the wife complaining about putting money in my pc to play my "games"

 

[griptwister]

Hahaha! That can be a problem! Women tend to get in the way of plans (however, sometimes it's a good thing).

Oh, and I'd recommend keeping that Phenom II x4 and going crossfire. Next year around June the new Intel processor line is coming out. You'll either be able to get a good deal on an i5, or you'll wanna buy a newer processor. Hahaha! You'll still get good FPS using the x4 for now.

 

[montosaurous]

The Phenom II 965 BE will be ok if you plan on getting a Haswell CPU. That being said, the 3570k blows away the Phenom II 965 BE and you would see a huge performance increase. I would wait until Haswell though personally. Either way upgrade sometime in the near future.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/701?vs=102

 

[griptwister]

The Phenom II 965 BE will be ok if you plan on getting a Haswell CPU. That being said, the 3570k blows away the Phenom II 965 BE and you would see a huge performance increase. I would wait until Haswell though personally. Either way upgrade sometime in the near future.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/701?vs=102

Pretty much what I just said lol.

 

[griptwister]

Don't get another 7850, it will be bottlenecked highly by your cpu.

BS. lol, it will still provide a decent framerate and he can later upgrade if it's not enough.

 

[iixwh3l4nxii]

Hey it's monday, care to share the results? I'm eager to know if you feel its bottlnecked XD

 

[spaufkop]

well i got the second card installed and i have run some benchmarks..
the heaven benchmark when one card at stock fps 50.3 core 1275 min fps 22.7 max fps 110.8. when in crossfire also no oc fps 95.6 score 2407 min fps 23.9 max fps 195.4.

and in 3dmark11 it when from p4927 to p7616 but the combined score when down

as these rusults does seem better, in bf3 i dont see an improvement gpu load gets to around 65% each but its fine can always upgrade in the future

 

[spaufkop]

i still wonder will i see a noticible diffrence if oc my cpu from 3.4 to say 4ghz? as i read here and there it dont look like it.. but they talk about ocing cpu/nb on these chips give a nice boost but i dont know much about this i only know how to increase the ratio and bus speed an increasing the voltage oc way. if anybody know a good link where i can read about increasing cpu/nb that would be great.

 

[kenny3105]

you will see a difference if you overclock your cpu but i have looked at the pci express set up on your motherboard and it runs at 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 , support ATI CrossFireX™ technology (at one x16 or dual x8 link) and thats why your not seeing huge increases

 

[drew13]

I had a 960T (pretty much the same as you have because it was overclocked to 3.4GHz) and at high settings on BF3 at 1920x1080 fullscreen I was getting 15 fps with a 6750 graphics card. I bought a 3570k yesterday and at stock clocks it runs at 40 fps. There will be about a 2-10% increase if you overclock your processor to 4GHz. If you have 2 7850s, you will be getting bottlenecked very badly. 16x vs 8x means about a 1-3% performance decrease so you won't have to worry about that. You are seeing little increase because of the bottlenecking.

 

[spaufkop]

Thanks for the reply's..

Ok i am now busy with overclocking and would like some help or tips from you guys..
I now have it at 3.8ghz and at 1.47v and temps are good at 45c max but i noticed in gpuz that when idle it shows correct voltage of 1.47v but when i am at prime95 running blend test at load it shows only 1.43~1.44 i believe they call this vdroop.
I only runned prime for 15 min now without errors. Should i go to 4ghz or stop now at 3.8 and start with the cpu/nb? But here is where i need some help.. I think the stock frequency is 2000mhz is see this in cpuz under the memory tab is this correct what i am saying? And what voltage do i use for cpu/nb? All the help i can get would be great thanks

 

[spaufkop]

Also i did not touched the fsb i only used the multiplier. did not do anything with ram also. if would change the cpu/nb would this affect the ram in any way because it is listed under the memory tab in cpuz. I dont know much of overclocking but i read somewhere that ocing the cpu/nb give great improvement on the phenom chips.

 

[griptwister]

Also i did not touched the fsb i only used the multiplier. did not do anything with ram also. if would change the cpu/nb would this affect the ram in any way because it is listed under the memory tab in cpuz. I dont know much of overclocking but i read somewhere that ocing the cpu/nb give great improvement on the phenom chips.

I don't know much on OverClocking, as I've yet to really get into it, but I've heard the same. I say, give it a go!

 

[ohyouknow]

Start simple. Multiplier and the Cpu Voltage only. 4ghz is the most common jump at around ~1.4volts or so. Google around as there are many overclocking guides on the Phenoms.

You need a decent cpu cooler to do this and would not suggest you overclocking less you pick one up.

Honestly, if you are looking at better gaming performance and are playing at 1080p. Which I hope you are. Sell off your 7850 and pick up a 7970~7950

Changing a platform right now is pointless. Benchmarks are done at those lower resolutions to pinpoint these faults. Skyrim is the example that showcases cpu bottleneck but seriously, if your monitor is 120hz refresh and train yourself to tell the difference over 60 fps you wouldn't be making this thread in the first place.

Reiterating my point. New card, if anything. But what does your setup not do well right now? What are you hoping for? Cheers.

 

[spaufkop]

Well I play on 1080p and i dont have a 120hz monitor its 75hz but either way i dont see 75fps (constant) it hovers arround but i still get it to fall low at 30 or lower wich i dont want. And because i allready had 1 7850 and my board support crossfire i thought and have it go with another one cause i read two 7850s where better then one 7970.. I played some nfs most wanted and it was even worse going under 20fps.

 

[griptwister]

Well I play on 1080p and i dont have a 120hz monitor its 75hz but either way i dont see 75fps (constant) it hovers arround but i still get it to fall low at 30 or lower wich i dont want. And because i allready had 1 7850 and my board support crossfire i thought and have it go with another one cause i read two 7850s where better then one 7970.. I played some nfs most wanted and it was even worse going under 20fps.

well, if a game doesn't support Crossfire, You'll actually get a worse frame rate. 2 7850s are better for total performance, but for some games the framerate tends to drop more. Unless if you get 2 high end cards and/or a better CPU.

 

[ohyouknow]

I still suggest picking up a higher end card rather than going xfire on 7850's. Low fps will be further up with a higher end card and you get to avoid xfire issues like stuttering (which is up to user sensitivity and even still not always the case nowadays), but mort importantly you get to avoid driver optimizations and profiles not always solid or there for games you want to play.

 

[spaufkop]

Hmm i allready got em now better make the best of it.. trying this overclocking but it is a pain in the but and im sure in the future when i upgrade to and intel cpu these cards will kick off. As it is more off an minimun fps problem and that is what the cpu causes.

 

[Thehairyosama]

Coming from recent experience I would upgrade the cpu to a I5 3570K I upgraded my phenom and saw 40-50 fps increases in games like BF3, WoW etc...