switching to better CPU

hawkend

Hi. I need to change my CPU because i have 10FPS in Strongehold zone...
Its my PC:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 stock + Raijintek Aidos
RAM: Kingston 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz CL9
GPU: Gigabyte HD 6850 Windforce stock
HDD: Seagate 1TB
OS: Windows 10 x64

I think to buy i7 920 with MOBO for 50-60$ at least its should be enough.

ambisinisterr

Hey, first of all it is fairly normal for some people to get low FPS in new zones. That will get better in time without putting expenses into your computer.

However if you really wish to upgrade your computer I am more than willing to give advice.

I personally don't agree with your decision but it is a decent bargain for performance. However as the tech lover I am I have a good guess as to why you are getting such a decent bargain. That's not the best article but is simply the first one which showed up on the google search. According to sources it affects pre-Sandy Bridge CPU's (older than 4 years).

If you are going to upgrade I would rather suggest latest or last generation components. It really just doesn't make sense to upgrade to decade old components in my opinion. Yes it would be about a 75% improvement for 60$ but then in another couple of years you'll end up spending another chunk of change again.

I believe it makes more sense to spend 300$ now and get a 3-400% improvement and be set years to come. Rather than small increments which will likely add up to more over a long period of time.

Additionally on a final note you will likely get a better performance increase from upgrading your GPU rather than your CPU. You would have to look into what your limiting factor is to know for sure though. I know that the GPU is much newer than the CPU (hell you are "upgrading" to a decade old processor) but GPU performance has grown much faster than CPU performance in the last few years.

Synthetic benchmarks are not completely accurate but they can give a rough idea of the improvements. The 3DMark performance of the Radeon HD 6850 is 2,200 according to videocardbenchmark.net. The performance of the current top tier GPU (Nvidia GTX 980 Ti) is 11,200 which is a 500% improvement.

Now I do not recommend buying that card when you are obviously wanting to stay on a budget...
But a GTX 970 would give you about a 400% improvement for 300$ brand new from a retailer. A GTX 780 is not much further behind but it will be hit and miss to buy from a retailer since it is no longer in production. Either one would get you a much higher performance improvement per dollar (albeit more initial investment) compared to upgrading from an ancient CPU to a less ancient CPU.

hawkend

Rather the best option for now is sell current GPU to get in this same cost GTX560Ti/570/650TiBoost/660 to reduce using CPU with switching PhysX on nVidia GPU. I put more money for newer processor generation(Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge). The lowest cost with 8 threads is Xeon 1220v2/v3. Sandy Bridge doesnt have 8 threads in this generation Xeon so i at least need Ivy Bridge. Anyway i know that replacing GPU would be better option for gaming but mostly times i spent in Kali Linux(VirtualBox) or sometimes do high-level compression(7ZIP+ARC+PRECOMP+SREP+MSC+LZMA).

hadestemplar

hawkend said:

Hi. I need to change my CPU because i have 10FPS in Strongehold zone...

Its my PC:



CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 stock + Raijintek Aidos

RAM: Kingston 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz CL9

GPU: Gigabyte HD 6850 Windforce stock

HDD: Seagate 1TB

OS: Windows 10 x64



I think to buy i7 920 with MOBO for 50-60$ at least its should be enough.

Kinda nice spec u already have.. I use AMD apu A6-3400m. quad core 1,8 ghz 1,3ghz (turbo core) AMD HD 5620G.


First of all if u want buy gaming cpu don't bother with intel i7.. Its overrated and total pointless keep it, and no mention that its too expensive.

I checked your cpu info. Its kinda old but yet strong enough. AS ambisinisster wrote u should get new GPU instead cpu. Sure intel cores have integrated gpu but its not strong enough.

Also have u ever made pc maitenance, clean dusts from hardware and clean trashes from your OS + optimize it.
Optimizing = clean/defrag registry, clean HDD from trashes/broken shortcuts and defragment it. Also disabling OS features which are no need for gaming and still eating your pc power...


Remember that there is more than 1 reason why FPS drops. Hard drive speed can decrease it, old gpu with outdated drivers, network configuration, antivirus/internet security also can decrease gaming speed.

Also remember that game code itself sometimes can't handle huge loads...
So before buying new cpu try optimize your pc.

And if u still insist to buy it. I rather go with cheaper AMD 8 core cpu which can handle high demand of multitasking and also good for gaming.. If u intel fan than best thing is intel core i5.

kreatyve

Something to keep in mind with hardware upgrades - if you already have Windows 10 - your Windows 10 key is tied into your hardware, and any major hardware changes will require you to actually purchase a new Windows 10 key. Little bit of very fine print that Microsoft didn't make publicly known until recently.

urabask

bloodyspamer said:

And if u still insist to buy it. I rather go with cheaper AMD 8 core cpu which can handle high demand of multitasking and also good for gaming.. If u intel fan than best thing is intel core i5.

Real world performance between similarly priced options won't make much of a difference but AMD will pretty much always have a higher TDP.

kreatyve said:

Something to keep in mind with hardware upgrades - if you already have Windows 10 - your Windows 10 key is tied into your hardware, and any major hardware changes will require you to actually purchase a new Windows 10 key. Little bit of very fine print that Microsoft didn't make publicly known until recently.

Which is why you just get a $15 windows 7 key off reddit.

bloodyspamer said:

I checked your cpu info. Its kinda old but yet strong enough. AS ambisinisster wrote u should get new GPU instead cpu. Sure intel cores have integrated gpu but its not strong enough.

A 6850 should be more than enough for an MMO. It's primarily going to be CPU bound and getting a better GPU means he'll probably bottleneck it.

hadestemplar

kreatyve said:

Something to keep in mind with hardware upgrades - if you already have Windows 10 - your Windows 10 key is tied into your hardware, and any major hardware changes will require you to actually purchase a new Windows 10 key. Little bit of very fine print that Microsoft didn't make publicly known until recently.

Last time I check info about os key binding with hardware apply for motherboards. So if u change dedicated GPU or CPU it will not be any problems. If u switch to other motherboard I think then u will get some problems.. But I am not 100% sure.

urabask said:

bloodyspamer said:

And if u still insist to buy it. I rather go with cheaper AMD 8 core cpu which can handle high demand of multitasking and also good for gaming.. If u intel fan than best thing is intel core i5.

Real world performance between similarly priced options won't make much of a difference but AMD will pretty much always have a higher TDP.
A 6850 should be more than enough for an MMO. It's primarily going to be CPU bound and getting a better GPU means he'll probably bottleneck it.

Intel win in benchmarks but fail in real world applications.
AMD lose in benchmarks but beat show great perform during real world apps..

What can I say, Intel is just overrated HAMSTER. :P Also the problem with AMD buldozer/vishera is not pure 8 core. Its 4 modules. 2 Cores per module. Which is like would take 4 dual core cpu's and put in one chip. Also there is software which could utilize its modular cpu. Same goes with AMD apu. even its great yet need software to fully utilize its capability.
I have AMD a6-3400m apu. which is quad core 1.8 ghz 2.3ghz turbo with AMD HD 5620g. So I choose GPU accelerated apps and can go on pair with intel core cpu laptops

urabask

bloodyspamer said:

kreatyve said:

Something to keep in mind with hardware upgrades - if you already have Windows 10 - your Windows 10 key is tied into your hardware, and any major hardware changes will require you to actually purchase a new Windows 10 key. Little bit of very fine print that Microsoft didn't make publicly known until recently.

Last time I check info about os key binding with hardware apply for motherboards. So if u change dedicated GPU or CPU it will not be any problems. If u switch to other motherboard I think then u will get some problems.. But I am not 100% sure.

urabask said:

bloodyspamer said:

And if u still insist to buy it. I rather go with cheaper AMD 8 core cpu which can handle high demand of multitasking and also good for gaming.. If u intel fan than best thing is intel core i5.

Real world performance between similarly priced options won't make much of a difference but AMD will pretty much always have a higher TDP.
A 6850 should be more than enough for an MMO. It's primarily going to be CPU bound and getting a better GPU means he'll probably bottleneck it.

Intel win in benchmarks but fail in real world applications.
AMD lose in benchmarks but beat show great perform during real world apps..

What can I say, Intel is just overrated HAMSTER. :P Also the problem with AMD buldozer/vishera is not pure 8 core. Its 4 modules. 2 Cores per module. Which is like would take 4 dual core cpu's and put in one chip. Also there is software which could utilize its modular cpu. Same goes with AMD apu. even its great yet need software to fully utilize its capability.
I have AMD a6-3400m apu. which is quad core 1.8 ghz 2.3ghz turbo with AMD HD 5620g. So I choose GPU accelerated apps and can go on pair with intel core cpu laptops

Pretty much any argument that either vastly superior for anything is just masturbatory fanboyism. On the other hand AMD hasn't really released anything in a while so Intel is slowly inching away with performance even.

I mean ideally about the best you could really do is hope someone puts 8350s on sale again for $80 because there isn't much out there that will compare value wise (IIRC Frys even had them for $99 with a mobo at one point). Either way imo he should invest in a better CPU unless he's willing to invest in both a new CPU and GPU. Should probably look into getting a new heatsink too if he ever gets around to getting an option he can overclock.

My last rig was an OEM build with 1045T phenom II X6 that I put a 670 in while I saved for a better CPU. And it bottlenecked the HAMSTER out of it. I play Blacklight and switching to a 2500k literally took my FPS from 90 to 300. Even if I maxed things out it was sitting pretty at 180. The 1045T is more or less similar in performance to OP's CPU too.

Also if he's looking for GPUs I'd definitely look into buying used. I'm currently using a GTX 670 and was looking for another one to SLI and found one for $90. I mean for a new GPU that won't even get you a 750ti.