AMD Phenom II x4 965 bottle necking?

[omerkljako]

Here is my specs:
AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.4 ghz
2 Visiontek 7850 2 gb (crossfire)
8 gb ddr3
700W power sup

When i play battlefield 3 on ultra sometimes the fps will go under 30, which should not happen with 2 7850's. Here is my question is my CPU bottle necking? and if not what could be the problem.

some other info when im in small places or small maps i will have 60 fps.

 

[lazyboy947]

Most likely to the point that the other card is not even under load lol, if u ran with a single card, ud prob get better fps. Cheap fix, get a cpu cooler if u dont and oc if u can

Do u know what pci-e lanes the cards are in? i believe anything under the x8 lane severely hurts fps

 

[omerkljako]

ya i have a cooler master 212, and i do notice that if i dont have crossfire on its almost the same fps. but il try oc

 

[omerkljako]

and it is x16

 

[lazyboy947]

both are at x16? the difference from 8 and 16 isnt much its when u get lower, so most likely the cpu

 

[omerkljako]

ya but is 3.4 ghz really not enough to run battlefield 3 at ultra? doesnt seem right

 

[lazyboy947]

its not the ghz speed its the cpu, u could throw a 3.4ghz i5 in there and would prob run smoothly in crossfire. overclocking just helps as it speeds up the cpu and allows it to perform better than the stock clock. in bf3 running a 5850 with my stock clocked x6 lags on ultra going to 3.4ghz smooths out gameplay and 3.7ghz increases my fps quite a bit

 

[david cassar]

you would be getting a bottleneck with 2 hd 7850.

 

[omerkljako]

so what is limiting my fps the 2 7850s or the amd phenom II x4 965? ok and now when i play metro 2033 there is literally no difference in fps between crossfire and no crossfire, also my fps is below 30... im really confused

 

[8350rocks]

Your Phenom is a good chip, however...

It is not enough to push a crossfire'd HD 7850 setup. If you want to stick with AMD go to something like a FX8320/8350...if you're going to OC anyway, get the 8320, if you're not going to OC you should get the 8350.

Either one will push your cards just fine.

 

[lazyboy947]

Well matters on ur board, if its am3, there are certain boards that have the piledriver update majority of the 890fx boards do but going to something like a 8350 and ur board cant take it, then ull need a new am3+ board and thats a big expense. It would be worth to spend lets say $280-330 on the 8350/8320 $180 and a crossfire ready board that is decent for around $100 or so to utilize ur crossfire setup but if ur making a huge upgrade then wait for steamroller

If ur board can take a piledriver cpu then it would be worth the $170-190 either cpu costs as the 8 cores are relatively cheap compared to the intel equivalent and the release costs of the fx 8 cores. Also they tend to have deals or on sale for $170 for a 8350 but $200 for the 8350 isnt terrible

Also i would think near a 4ghz oc on the x4 would make a nice increase in ur crossfire performance, and a cheap solution if again ur board is good to oc

 

[8350rocks]

Asrock 970 extreme3 is Xfire capable and it's $85.00 and you can OC on it.

FX8350 is currently $189.99 on newegg and FX8320 is currently $169.99 on tigerdirect

You can get out of the upgrade for $250 total.

(All currently with free shipping)

 

[lazyboy947]

I would choose a different board like a asus 970 r2 board as i havent anything bad from asus yet and they seem to make a quality board for the cost. Also for overclocking for a good cheap board to overclock the gigabyte 970 ud3 has a 8+2 power phase that usually only comes with the 990fx boards and some dont even have that lol its the power delivery for the cpu and if ur going to oc ulll need a heatsink on these if ur not going for the gigabyte one as the rest usually have a 4+1 and they are still okay for overclocking but def need the heatsink on the vrms.

Also the way i see a good quality board is the heatsinks and the power phase, so even if u dont overclock it should still be a quality stable board.

As mentioned if u are to upgrade and overclock the 8320 is a good choice easily overclockable to stock 8350 and then some, where as the 8350 will start at 4ghz and has more room for higher clocks.

Getting ur motherboard model would be nice to tell if it takes piledriver or not. Assuming u have a good board for am3 or am3+ since ur running crossfire at x16 you should be able to use a piledriver cpu

 

[8350rocks]

I would choose a different board like a asus 970 r2 board as i havent anything bad from asus yet and they seem to make a quality board for the cost. Also for overclocking for a good cheap board to overclock the gigabyte 970 ud3 has a 8+2 power phase that usually only comes with the 990fx boards and some dont even have that lol its the power delivery for the cpu and if ur going to oc ulll need a heatsink on these if ur not going for the gigabyte one as the rest usually have a 4+1 and they are still okay for overclocking but def need the heatsink on the vrms.

Also the way i see a good quality board is the heatsinks and the power phase, so even if u dont overclock it should still be a quality stable board.

As mentioned if u are to upgrade and overclock the 8320 is a good choice easily overclockable to stock 8350 and then some, where as the 8350 will start at 4ghz and has more room for higher clocks.

Getting ur motherboard model would be nice to tell if it takes piledriver or not. Assuming u have a good board for am3 or am3+ since ur running crossfire at x16 you should be able to use a piledriver cpu

The Asrock board is 6+2 phases and well made, their cheaper boards are not great, but the extreme series and the fatality series are usually good...they had the issue with BIOS on the extreme4, but that's not a hardware issue...and the extreme3 and extreme9 seem to be great from what I am experiencing and have read...

(I have the 990FX extreme3 in my "work" PC)

 

[omerkljako]

I have the MSI 970A-G46 it is Xfire ready and i can OC on it. I also have a decent heatsink, the Cooler master 212. But now im second guessing my board :/

 

[omerkljako]

and it support am3+

 

[omerkljako]

So trying to close this, should i just stay with my current cpu and oc? or should i buy the 8350? or should i get a new board and a new cpu? Also is my board good enough to oc and handle the 8350? thank you for all of your help guys