Upgrade Phenom II X4 965 BE to FX-8320

[Kliwer]

Hi. I currently have:
Phenom II X4 965 BE
Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2
GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
CRUCIAL BALLISTIX SPORT 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 DIMM 1600MHz CL9

Now, I know my current CPU is a bottleneck. Most of the games work fine for me even at ultra settings. Recently I started playing BF1 and SP is working flawlessly on ultra (40-60fps), but MP is not so good at low settings - sometimes drops to 15-20fps at 1080p. In mind I have an upgrade to some i7 but changing all rig is pricey and doesn't fit my budget yet. I noticed that FX-8320 is priced okay for an upgrade, but will it be a noticeable performance boost? Is it worth it?

 

[Barty1884]

While an improvement, yes... it's all going to depend on cost.

You're jumping ahead ~2 years in architecture, 3 years between chips.
4c/4t to an 8"core/8t chip. Definitely performance gains to be had.... but not likely to be night & day.

To me, it's "worth it" at like $40. Anything more, and I'd just pocket the money for now, with a goal to a platform upgrade sooner rather than later.

 

[mgallo848]

To me, it's "worth it" at like $40. Anything more, and I'd just pocket the money for now

^this

 

[Kliwer]

While an improvement, yes... it's all going to depend on cost.

You're jumping ahead ~2 years in architecture, 3 years between chips.
4c/4t to an 8"core/8t chip. Definitely performance gains to be had.... but not likely to be night & day.

To me, it's "worth it" at like $40. Anything more, and I'd just pocket the money for now, with a goal to a platform upgrade sooner rather than later.

Thanks. Thought so. It's twice as much. Looking at the prices now, I think I could go for i3-8100 - is this CPU ok? I am not really knowledgeable about Intel CPUs.

 

[Barty1884]

The IPC gains of any remotely modern Intel chip are sizeable, and a nice step up from your Phenom for gaming.

An i3-8100 is a solid choice, leaving you upgrade potential in future (through at least an i7-8700K, potentially 9th gen depending on the board).
You will need DDR4 too though.

AMD have their Ryzen offerings, which are a great 'value' proposition.

For example, for the cost of an i3-8100 (4c/4t), budget board & 8GB DDR4

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($118.90 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI - B360M PRO-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($70.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $252.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-18 15:35 EDT-0400

You could have a 1st Gen Ryzen5 1600 (6c/12t)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($75.98 @ Newegg Business)
Total: $275.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-18 15:35 EDT-0400

 

[mgallo848]

It won't work with your MB (in case you didn't know)

 

[Kliwer]

The IPC gains of any remotely modern Intel chip are sizeable, and a nice step up from your Phenom for gaming.

An i3-8100 is a solid choice, leaving you upgrade potential in future (through at least an i7-8700K, potentially 9th gen depending on the board).
You will need DDR4 too though.

AMD have their Ryzen offerings, which are a great 'value' proposition.

For example, for the cost of an i3-8100 (4c/4t), budget board & 8GB DDR4

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($118.90 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI - B360M PRO-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($70.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $252.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-18 15:35 EDT-0400

You could have a 1st Gen Ryzen5 1600 (6c/12t)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($75.98 @ Newegg Business)
Total: $275.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-18 15:35 EDT-0400

Okay, thank you for your confirmation. I found one auction of FX-8320 and I'll see if I can get it at ~10$. If not, I'll go for i3-8100 with H310(cheaper just for switch, will exchange it at later date with something much better) and 16GB of DDR4 Ballistix Sport LT (8GB is too low, on some games I noticed increased pagefile usage)

It won't work with your MB (in case you didn't know)

Yeah, I know. I'm not that stupid but I understand your point.

 

[dontlistentome]

The problem with an i3 8100 is that it's not going to fix your multiplayer BF1 issues. You need a six core i5 for that. If you can get the FX for $10 I'd give that a shot first. In single player, and in smaller multiplayer BF1 games, the i3 8100 will be a big improvement.

 

[Kliwer]

The problem with an i3 8100 is that it's not going to fix your multiplayer BF1 issues. You need a six core i5 for that. If you can get the FX for $10 I'd give that a shot first. In single player, and in smaller multiplayer BF1 games, the i3 8100 will be a big improvement.

I am aware of that. Thanks for info. I have to make this jump to new rig, at later date I'll just switch to better mobo and i7 - just as I did going from 939 to AM3. Intel CPUs are too expensive to buy the one I want from the start, and they prices are going up every day now

Anyway, I'll write here if I win the auction on Friday and I'll add info later if it would change anything.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[Kliwer]

A little update: I did win the auction but have not seen the CPU since... Anyway, locking fps in BF1 to 30fps makes it much more playable but not perfect.
Once again, thank you all for your help.

 

[Kliwer]

Okay, I got the FX-8350 and I don't see a difference at all. Well, at least I can play AC Origins now.

 

[Gam3r01]

Thats because the 8350 has almost identical single core performance as your old processor. All you basically did was double cores. Which as you see can have some to zero impact.

 

[Kliwer]

Ah.. that's good to know. Shame I was not aware of that earlier. Thanks

 

[Calvin_27]

You could always try and overclock your new CPU to as high as you can get it for a few more frames for the time being, might not be noticeable but worth a shot.

 

[mgallo848]

Something is still wrong. You should see an improvement in fps and reduced fps drops in games like BF1. Are you sure you have the Bios set correctly to run at the proper speed? Some people have also reported they needed to make a settings change in windows to properly increase usage from 4 cores to 8 cores when they upgraded the CPU.