Is this cpu going to last.

[Wolverine604]

So I made the switch to pc gaming recently after hearing about the next gen consoles, I am loving it so far but am faced with a problem, I had an old pc with and stole the phenom 2 x4 910 processor from it and bought myself a am3 board only capable of using phenoms, I then added a 7850 2gb ocd gpu, a little while later and I am finding out that the only upgrade I can go to next is the AMD phenom 2 x4 965BE I have asked around and gotten completely different views, so my question is, will this processor be capable of playing next gen games, or at the very least BF4 at max settings with at least aa: x4.

The most I can spend is 200 so the only path I see is upgrading to the phenom 965be will this work for me, I only play at 1280x1020. Any other upgrade ideas are welcomed.

 

[montosaurous]

Whatabout an i3 3220 and B75 board? That should get you until 2015 fine. Otherwise, a Phenom II 965 BE even when overclocked doesn't have a ton of time left.

 

[Murderotica926]

I think the point is he's trying to avoid having to upgrade to another motherboard when he just bought one.

I hate to say it but I don't think the Phenom IIs are fit to handle the next generation of gaming. Their time has all but come and gone. While they were very solid CPUs for their time in the spotlight (they certainly shined more than their successors, the current AMD FX-series CPUs) they are almost 2 generations old. Intel is soon to roll out their Haswell CPUs and AMD will be rolling out the successors to the FX-series.

I just upgraded from my Phenom II 955BE about a month ago. It served its purpose exceptionally, paired with an HD 6950 it could handle BF3 at medium-high settings (no AA) at 60fps with no problem. But even overclocked to 4Ghz it had trouble with Far Cry 3, which is border-line next-gen in regards to how demanding it is.

Now, the Phenom II x4 965 probably isn't your ceiling. If your motherboard supports the Phenom II x4, I'm almost positive it also supports the Phenom II x6, a true six-core CPU. That CPU is still a beast, but the problem is that no current video game uses more than 4 cores/threads. So unless BF4 is designed to use 6 or more cores/threads (which I doubt), the x6 wont perform any differently than the x4.

My old motherboard was originally an AM3 only board but I bought a later revision that allowed AM3+ CPUs (the FX series). I'm going to list all my old components on eBay soon but maybe I can sell you my AM3+ motherboard? It would allow you to run the best available CPU that AMD currently offers, the FX-8350. The FX-series is honestly kinda lousy in comparison to Intel's newest CPUs but at least you'll have a CPU that can run 8 threads simultaneously (again, questionable whether that makes any difference in games) and you can find it for $200. Regardless of how the FX-series compares to Intel's CPUs, the FX-8350 is definitely a bit better than the Phenom II x4 965, even in a 4-thread game.

 

[simon12]

I think you should stick with your current CPU until you find a game it struggles with and see what money oyu have at the time. Any AM3 CPU will not be a huge upgrade.

 

[ARICH5]

after haswell i camn see gaming companies release more patches to take advantage of 6 cores in the future.

 

[timil]

Yes a phenom ii is nearing the end of its lifespan.. Twill be sad to see it go when I upgrade to steamroller