Time to upgrade!

L

LAiN_OfTheWired

Gawd
Joined
Nov 6, 2008
Messages
825
Ok, so I have a decent system for what I do/play. I'm getting a tax refund, though, and traditionally I've used a portion of my tax refund to upgrade some hardware. So I'd like some input on my future AMD cpu!

First off, does anybody know when AM3 motherboards sporting the Nvidia 980i boards are supposed to start showing themselves? I sorta cross-graded my Radeon 3870x2 to a Geforce 9800GTX+ 1GB to cut down on energy consumption a bit once I got laid off. I just got a new job and start Monday, so I'm thinking of SLIing this 9800GTX+.

I'd REALLY like an AM3 Phenom II. I'm on an AM2 system now (not even AM2+), so I'm definitely going to notice a difference (even with this X2 6400+ OCed to 3.45GhZ) but I would really like to get that extra boost with the DDR3 (no matter how minimal it is).

I would like to have an unlocked-FSB chip for overclocking, but it isn't mandatory. Still, I have a black edition that I can't help but feel cheated on since my ECS board won't support changing the FSB multiplier so this time around it would be nice.

The only things I really do with this PC are: music production (I have *legit* copies of Fruity Loops, Native Instruments Guitar Rig, and Native Instruments Traktor 2), light gaming (mainly Gears of War for Windows, but also Crysis Warhead, I might pick up a couple new games this year), and writing (32 pages into a novel I started and have trashed about a thousand times in the past 6 years). So not too intensive.

Should I go with the X3 720 or maybe wait for the X4 945? How long would I be waiting? I know the buzz says April, but AMD has been pretty good about just saying "Q2 2009."
 
If you have the $$$ for a new AM3 mobo then just wait until some faster DDR3 supporting P2's are realeased. I think some AM3 mobos will be released supporting DDR2 rather than DDR3 (thought I actually saw one somewhere but could be wrong), and hopefully also some hybrid DDR2 and DDR3 mobos will be released that will allow the consumer to use either DDR2 or DDR3. Don't jump the gun like I did with buying the 4 HD 4670's that I have, when I should have waited for the HD 4830 or perhaps a new HD 4700 series vid. card if they are actually released (I use 2 4670's 1GB Saphires in Xfire and these replaced the two 512MB Saphires I had).

It will only be a couple or few months until the newer and faster P2 models are realeased (I hope an 800 series with 4MB L3 is realeased as a BE, and that it will be CHEAP if it is, otherwise I will eventually get a 720 BE and put it in a AM2+ mobo I have on the way from an RMA and will use DDR2 1066MHz on it, which RAM ATM is on an AM2+ mobo with a X2 7750 Kuma, but I will put some OCZ Red ATI Certified DDR2 RAM on the mobo with the Kuma and move the DDR2 GSkill to the mobo with the X3 720, and I will be happier than a fly on s***t, or better yet on some food).
 
I've been seeing the new nvidia boards will come in march but if every place has the right info its only going to support DDR2 not DDR3 bummer. I was waiting for them as well but dunno now was hoping to get sli board so when I upgrade video card would use other as physics only. not sure if you can use one dedicated as physics card with AMD chipset. AMD doesn't support SLI but using one as dedicated physics isn't SLI so I'm not sure about that I'm guessing no though.
 
I'm wondering the same thing, too. If so, I'll most likely dedicate my 9800GTX+ to physx and purchase a GTX 280. I'm pretty sure its possible. Time to crawl the Nvidia subforum... If it won't work (highly improbable) I'll just have to a budget quad crossfire setup a lil later on.

I'm pulling the trigger on the ASUS M4A79T Deluxe and Phenom II X3 720 for now and giving it 2GB of Corsair DDR3-1600. When Windows 7 comes out retail, then I'll look at upgrading the CPU (most likely for Christmas at this rate). I'm really interested in seeing what the 720 is capable of first-hand, especially after seeing so much good press about it. The 720 really seems to be following the lead of the Radeon 4830.
 
looking at asus or msi for a 720be.old 6000+ is not cutting the mustard with 2 4850s new that when i bought them.could not pass 150$ at best buy.
 
Right now I know Gigabyte has released their new AM3 motherboards and its available on Newegg. They have two at the moment, one FX and another X series, though the FX motherboard looks tempting and nice, I'll grab that one when the 945 comes out. From what I heard the AM3 945 is going to be released somewhere in April, hope thats true.

And as for AM3 NVIDIA boards, is just a rebranded 780a board with no changes and they are still using DDR2. WTF? If you have a 780a don't bother getting a 980a they are just the same thing and I'm pretty sure a AM3 will work on a 780a board.
 
$140 Asus AM3 DDR3 M4A78T-E 790Gx mobo here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366

That is a decent DDR3 mobo it seems.

Also, new changes are coming in the silicon of the CPUs, both SOI and Bulk and Hi-k silicon will be used, and Z-RAM will also apparently be used in AMD CPUs. The 4-core Shanghais are good and the 6-core Istanbul and following Sao Paulo models may be faster than Intel's 6-core Dunnington Nehalem-Xeons. Bandwidth is huge on the Istanbul 6-core server CPUs and something called HT Assist where the HT no longer communicates with the DRAM/RAM but only communicates between the CPU cores and the amount of this HT Assist may be controlled by the user. Someone mentioned that for the Home Consumer and Enthusiast market that perhaps this HT Assist may not be used and the HT would operate in its present day method and this would create a FX model for Enthusiasts etc. SOI silicon is to be used on high-end CPUs, Bulk Silicon on Mainstream CPUs, and Hi-k silicon on Energy Efficient CPUs, and 32nm CPUs might just be here in the first half of 2010 according to the official AMD roadmap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top