Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Upgrade phenom 2 or not

Tags:
  • Gaming
  • CPUs
  • Motherboards
  • Phenom
Last response: in CPUs
Share
August 21, 2014 11:06:27 PM

Is it worth upgrading a phenom 2 940 @ 3.3ghz to a FX 8320 or FX 6350 for $130? Its a gaming PC that I don't use for much else. I would have to get a new motherboard, but at Micro Center I can save $40 on any mobo so its not a big deal.

More about : upgrade phenom

a b 4 Gaming
a b à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
August 21, 2014 11:11:39 PM

No

EDIT: to elaborate on my much to short answer (sorry, I was at the end of my lunch break) The Phenom II X4 940 is still very much a powerful gaming CPU and should not be substituted for anything short of an i5, especially if you have to purchase a new MB. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclo... As seen on the August Toms hardware CPU Hierarchy charts, the Phenom is tier 4, and should not be upgraded to anything less than a tier 1 to see a significant performance differnce. (In fact, I would still recommend anyone with a AM3 board that supports it an upgrade, if required, to either a Phenom II X4 or X6)
a b à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
August 22, 2014 12:44:08 AM

If you have to change motherboards you should strongly consider going Intel. About the only way I'd go with an FX processor is if I had an AM3+ motherboard to begin with.
Related resources
a b 4 Gaming
a c 85 à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
August 22, 2014 1:12:07 AM

It's not worth it if you have to change motherboards. The FX CPUs aren't far ahead of a mildly overclocked Phenom II anyway, particularly not in core-per-core performance, which is what matters most to gaming (and that's not changing next-gen either, even Mantle tests maintain the importance of core-per-core performance).

If you're switching, it would have to be to Intel to see a worthwhile benefit.
a b 4 Gaming
a c 902 à CPUs
a c 126 V Motherboard
August 22, 2014 6:53:22 AM

I would go with their Haswell i3 4360 motherboard combo, at a minimum. Fortunately, any compatible motherboard gets the discount. :D  I would pair it with an H97 board, giving you future broadwell support. An FX 6350 wouldn't touch the i3 4360 without a substantial overclock. Even the FX 8350 wouldn't do well against it in all but the most heavily threaded of titles. I have considered swapping my FX 8320's for them, as they are only WoW rigs.
August 22, 2014 7:30:04 AM

I have a Phenom II 965, on an AM2+ board and looking to upgrade to something new with SATAIII to fully use my SSD. I was considering going Z97 board and the Pentium 3258 to overclock with, then upgrade to a i5 or i7 at a later time. Would that be a good route? Or is there a comparable AMD setup that would also be a good option? I like the Z97 boards as I have the option to order them with a m.2 slot for future upgrades.
a b 4 Gaming
a c 902 à CPUs
a c 126 V Motherboard
August 22, 2014 8:40:22 AM

I wouldn't go under an i3. There are some less expensive Z97 boards, and some H97 boards that have the M.2 slot.
a b 4 Gaming
a c 85 à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
August 22, 2014 9:21:33 AM

logainofhades said:
I would go with their Haswell i3 4360 motherboard combo, at a minimum. Fortunately, any compatible motherboard gets the discount. :D  I would pair it with an H97 board, giving you future broadwell support. An FX 6350 wouldn't touch the i3 4360 without a substantial overclock. Even the FX 8350 wouldn't do well against it in all but the most heavily threaded of titles. I have considered swapping my FX 8320's for them, as they are only WoW rigs.


Yay, somebody else gets that the i3-4360 is capable CPU! Additionally, the i3-4370 just released.
In all honesty though, the i3-4350 is so close (negligible 1-2 fps difference) that for $10 less it's probably the better option.

I normally might recommend the i3-4340 (on the grounds that it's the cheapest refresh i3 with the L3 cache increase), but for some reason (probably unexpected high demand) the prices of the i3-4340 are higher than the prices of the i3-4350.

The i3-4330, for its part, doesn't have the thermal improvements of the refresh CPUs, and although the performance difference is merely incremental, it starts to add up by the time you hit the i3-4330. So it's probably not a great choice compared to the i3-4350.

I haven't installed WoW recently myself, but the i3 is proving to be incredibly quick in single-threaded games. I'll use Oblivion as an example, since last time I tried WoW they performed similarly, optimized similarly on the CPU side, and released close together. My Phenom II 955 had an average fps of 30-45 fps in Oblivion, whereas this i3-4360 averages 130-180 fps.
a b 4 Gaming
a c 902 à CPUs
a c 126 V Motherboard
August 22, 2014 9:43:43 AM

OP has to go with the i3 4360 to get the motherboard discount at microcenter, making it the best option i3 wise.
August 22, 2014 3:17:23 PM

I guess ill just wait it out then. I'm just concerned about not being able to run the next gen ports with decent settings at 1080p. My gpu is a 7870. I was thinking my cpu was going to be a bottleneck.
a b à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
August 22, 2014 4:05:21 PM

Leckoz said:
I was thinking my cpu was going to be a bottleneck.


I probably is to a certain extent. Its just not worth buying a new motherboard for an FX - might as well get a more capable, efficient Intel CPU/Mobo if you're going to go that far (as every one has pretty much said).
a b à CPUs
August 22, 2014 8:48:59 PM

I have a Phenom II chip as well, and would not recommend you upgrade at this time. For the age of the chip, it still has decent performance, and just remember the best computer is the one that is coming out 6 months from now!
!