Yup...another one of those :/

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pojut

Gawd
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Dec 28, 2009
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Hello, fellow [H]ers. First, the relevant info:

I game at 1920x1080...no desire to ever go crossfire/sli, no desire to ever go multi-monitor gaming (I like keeping my gaming rig as simple as possible, from a hardware standpoint.) I prefer to upgrade every 2-4 years. Money isn't much of a factor here, since I'll be using my tax return to fund this little adventure, but I'd really prefer to keep things in the $500-$600 range total.

OK. So, I'm planning on replacing my rapidly aging 4850 with a GTX 570. That part I've decided on, so no worries there. The thing I'm trying to figure out is this: will my Athlon II X4 635 (OC'd to 3.2) have enough oomph to keep up with the 570? I've thought about replacing the Athlon II with a Phenom II X4 Black Edition, but the only problem is my mobo wouldn't support it. So, I'd need a new motherboard...and since I'm currently running DDR2, I'd need new RAM as well. Would it be worth spending 300+ dollars on such a thing, or would I be better off just getting the 570, and upgrading the Mobo/CPU/RAM a little later down the line, like say when the next-gen AMD CPUs hit?

tl;dr: is my Athlon II X4 enough to hang with a 570, or would it be worth it to pick up a new Phenom II X4 Black Edition, mobo, and ram? Thanks all!
 
if your motherboard supports the Athlon II 635 then it will defo support the phenom II aswell, the athlon II is just a Phenom II with no L3 cache

also I have just checked the specs of your motherboard in ur sig and is AM2+ so you can defo install a phenom II x4 or X6 cpu the X6 may require a BIOS update, so no need for new Mobo or RAM as phenom II supports both DDR2 and DDR3 memory either of these chips will have more than enough power for ur planned GTX570 upgrade

TBH I think the athlon II you already have should still be fine, especially with the OC your running.

see this link for your boards CPU support list

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2814

hope this helps
 
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Dynomutt said:
if your motherboard supports the Athlon II 635 then it will defo support the phenom II aswell, the athlon II is just a Phenom II with no L3 cache

also I have just checked the specs of your motherboard in ur sig and is AM2+ so you can defo install a phenom II x4 or X6 cpu the X6 may require a BIOS update, so no need for new Mobo or RAM as phenom II supports both DDR2 and DDR3 memory either of these chips will have more than enough power for ur planned GTX570 upgrade

TBH I think the athlon II you already have should still be fine, especially with the OC your running.

see this link for your boards CPU support list

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2814

hope this helps
Click to expand...

Whoa! Weird...coulda sworn I had seen that it didn't support the Phenom IIs...I'll definitely have to look into this. If it does indeed (which, based on that link you posted, it does look to be the case) it appears a black edition Phenom II X4 and a 570 are in my near future :)
 
Looks like the 95w ones do better in there...yet I can't seem to locate a 945/955 in a 95w TDP config. Anyone have a line on one?
 
if I were you I would go with the Phenom II X6 if you really want to upgrade the CPU, the 6mb cache you get with a Phenom II over the Athlon II will not gain you much in gaming performance, although 6 cores is a little overkill for current games aside from starcraft II it will do you better for future ones, you wont see a massive performance jump in current games with either CPU upgrade TBH but the X6's are pretty sweet for the price and most OC very well lots of peeps get 4ghz CPU and 3000Mhz Northbridge out of them
 
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I have a 6870 with a athlon II 620 @3.3 and it seems fine. In bad company 2 the cpu is at 90% cpu usage at 1920x1200. I'd wait and look into the am3+ socket possibly mid summer. The difference between a 3.2GHz athlon II and even a 3.6GHz phenom II isn't huge tbh. Just get the videocard and see how it does first.
 
Oooh, that's true...I forgot about AM3+. Good call, I'll just stick with the video card for now.

Actually, I may pick up an SSD too, instead of a new CPU :)
 
I agree, wait until BD ships then you can decide if your going to stick with AMD or go Intel and a SB setup.
 
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