Upgrading my cpu

[SirJangly]

Will I notice a difference in overall performance and games?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Yes, you definitely will.

 

[faxon]

significant performance increase at stock, and a huge increase in overclockability. they dont have your exact cpu or the 945 on the anantech bench, but these benchmarks should illustrate about what you will gain all in all

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=23&p2=88

 

[SirJangly]

What about an x3 720 BE? Is there a good but not too expensive to run ddr2 memory with it?

 

[Rhoxed]

the 720BE will be a huge upgrade for you, but the 945 would be better obviously

if you dont mind having a tri-core you could always pick up an unlockable mobo and try for the 4th core on the 720BE , if it doesnt unlock you still have a tri-core that would eat your 9500 for breakfast

as far as unlockable mobo's
gigabyte 790X-UD4P
790XT-UD5P
almost any of the biostar

 

[Sylvanas]

as far as unlockable mobo's
gigabyte 790X-UD4P
790XT-UD5P
almost any of the biostar

Pretty much anything with an SB750.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: SirJangly
Will I notice a difference in overall performance and games?

No. Games are rarely CPU limited. You won't notice any real improvements unless you have some crazy 3-way GTX 295 SLI that uses more power than the space station.

General system performance won't improve either. Most of the stuff we do with computers is limited by the amount of ram we have and the speed of the hard drive.

 

[SirJangly]

A phenom is rated at 2.2 ghz, I am getting an x4 955BE at 3.2. You are telling me that won't impact games in a significant manner?

 

[Rhoxed]

you will notice a large difference in CPU limited games

as for mobo's that dont unlock with sb750 stay away from
foxconn a79a-s and the GX version
msi AM2 boards 790GX, AM3 GD70 is fine
DFI are hit/miss, as with asus, and asrock

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: SirJangly
A phenom is rated at 2.2 ghz, I am getting an x4 955BE at 3.2. You are telling me that won't impact games in a significant manner?

Correct. I'm using an E6600 from almost 3 years ago and only 1 of my games is CPU limited - GTA 4. Fallout 3 is video card limited. Ghostbusters is video card limited. Gears of War is video card limited. Dead Space is video card limited. Crysis is mostly video card limited; I think physics is the only setting that requires CPU power.

 

[SirJangly]

Are steam games cpu limited? Specifically, team fortress 2.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: SirJangly
Are steam games cpu limited? Specifically, team fortress 2.

Not anymore. TF2 was very CPU limited before the SMP patch. Now that the game is threaded properly, it's GPU limited. Anandtech's article about the Phenom 9500 shows that it can get 138fps in HL2 Episode 2 which uses the same game engine as TF2. I wouldn't call the game CPU limited unless that Phenom was restricting the game to run at less than 60fps and that clearly is not happening.

 

[SirJangly]

Did I mention that I play at 1440x900?

 

[richierich1212]

Originally posted by: SirJangly
Did I mention that I play at 1440x900?

Wow you should definitely upgrade your monitor then. No reason to have a 945, really unless you do more than game =)

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: SirJangly
Are steam games cpu limited? Specifically, team fortress 2.

Not anymore. TF2 was very CPU limited before the SMP patch. Now that the game is threaded properly, it's GPU limited. Anandtech's article about the Phenom 9500 shows that it can get 138fps in HL2 Episode 2 which uses the same game engine as TF2. I wouldn't call the game CPU limited unless that Phenom was restricting the game to run at less than 60fps and that clearly is not happening.

Might be the same engine, but there are differences none-the-less. I've seen evidence across various forums of people with the Phenom 9500 having horrible performance in TF2 (even after the multicore rendering). While I don't think they are particularly the normal sample, the problem still exists. One such user upgraded only his Phenom 9500 to an Phenom II 720 and his TF2 performance jumped through the roof. I believe he was using a 9800GT video card.

Also if that TLB-erratum fix is enabled in the BIOS, performance for a Phenom 9500 is going to be even worse, especially in games.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
Also if that TLB-erratum fix is enabled in the BIOS, performance for a Phenom 9500 is going to be even worse, especially in games.

But why would anyone enable this? When I got a phenom 9600, I had it running linpack for a week and it never had any errors. The TLB error is less likely than having a generic overclock error.

As for the frame rate in TF2, I'll need to test that. I'll post again when I have adequate data.

 

[imported_Asianman]

Steam should get over 100 fps with any decent graphics card, although real gameplay is dramatically different from the bench. I upgraded from a 9550 to a 940, and although it works great, the differences are not that great. What games do you play, and at what detail levels? The only game that I've noticed with significant benefits are Company of Heroes, and Supreme Commander.

 

[Sylvanas]

Yes, you WILL notice a difference in games. I run at 1920x1200 and I came from a 9850BE @ stock to my now overclocked 955. There was a large difference in games- especially multithreaded titles, also: Empire: total War, UT3, Farcry 2, CoH and minor improvement in Crysis- Farcry 2 was at least +10FPS.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
As for the frame rate in TF2, I'll need to test that. I'll post again when I have adequate data.

It took a long time to install TF2 on that computer but at least I got it running. Here is a screenshot of me getting 69 frames per second on a 29-person TF2 server.

system specs:
Phenom 9600 at stock speed
integrated Radeon 2100 graphics
2gb DDR2-800

Even at lowest resolution and quality while staring at the wall, it's still limited by the integrated graphics. It would probably get higher fps if I had a real video card, but 69 still proves what I'm trying to show. This game is not CPU limited on a Phenom 9600 so an upgrade to an i7 or high end Phenom II would show no improvement in TF2.
Doing the same test on my E6600 with a real video card gives about the same results: 75 fps on a 30-person TF2 server.

 

[drizek]

Originally posted by: SirJangly
A phenom is rated at 2.2 ghz, I am getting an x4 955BE at 3.2. You are telling me that won't impact games in a significant manner?

Basically your framerate willl go from 70fps to 90fps. However, if you are only getting 30-60fps in your games right now, you will still get 30-60fps because thats all your videocard can do.

TF2 is a pretty simple game. what fps do you get now?

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
As for the frame rate in TF2, I'll need to test that. I'll post again when I have adequate data.

It took a long time to install TF2 on that computer but at least I got it running. Here is a screenshot of me getting 69 frames per second on a 29-person TF2 server.

system specs:
Phenom 9600 at stock speed
integrated Radeon 2100 graphics
2gb DDR2-800

Even at lowest resolution and quality while staring at the wall, it's still limited by the integrated graphics. It would probably get higher fps if I had a real video card, but 69 still proves what I'm trying to show. This game is not CPU limited on a Phenom 9600 so an upgrade to an i7 or high end Phenom II would show no improvement in TF2.
Doing the same test on my E6600 with a real video card gives about the same results: 75 fps on a 30-person TF2 server.

LOL What? You're looking at a wall and posting sreenshots? Even in a full server I can get those same framerates depending on where I am in the map when I have TF2 maxed. The minimum framerates are most important in TF2 (the framerates most likely seen when engaging in a battle with people), not the framerate you get when staring at a wall.

And that still doesn't change the scenario I've encountered with other online users. I suggested every possible fix to them and yet they were not able to resolve their framerate issue until they swapped out the processor.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
As for the frame rate in TF2, I'll need to test that. I'll post again when I have adequate data.

It took a long time to install TF2 on that computer but at least I got it running. Here is a screenshot of me getting 69 frames per second on a 29-person TF2 server.

system specs:
Phenom 9600 at stock speed
integrated Radeon 2100 graphics
2gb DDR2-800

Even at lowest resolution and quality while staring at the wall, it's still limited by the integrated graphics. It would probably get higher fps if I had a real video card, but 69 still proves what I'm trying to show. This game is not CPU limited on a Phenom 9600 so an upgrade to an i7 or high end Phenom II would show no improvement in TF2.
Doing the same test on my E6600 with a real video card gives about the same results: 75 fps on a 30-person TF2 server.

LOL What? You're looking at a wall and posting sreenshots? Even in a full server I can get those same framerates depending on where I am in the map when I have TF2 maxed. The minimum framerates are most important in TF2 (the framerates most likely seen when engaging in a battle with people), not the framerate you get when staring at a wall.

And that still doesn't change the scenario I've encountered with other online users. I suggested every possible fix to them and yet they were not able to resolve their framerate issue until they swapped out the processor.

The whole point of looking at the wall is to eliminate GPU bottlenecking. If you're looking at explosions while running a CPU test, you'll be sadly disappointed when you buy a new CPU and later find out that pixel shading, vertex shading, and dynamic lights have nothing to do with the CPU.

I can't help but think there's more to your story. I play almost exclusively on high population servers and the CPU was only a problem before the SMP patch. After the patch, I haven't heard many CPU complaints. Tech Report tested TF2 and came to the same results that I just posted. They got 91 fps on an E6750, I got 75 on an E6600. They got 77 fps on a Phenom 9600, I got 69.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

It's not my story; it's someone else's. Most likely he had a problem with his particular processor, which is why I said the problem must exist. I've also seen one other person complain about the same issue with the same chip, the Phenom 9500. Ideally this processor shouldn't limit TF2 in accordance with some of the "stories" I've heard (the user I've been referring to was getting below 30 fps no matter what settings he used), but in some cases I can only suspect that it does under the right (wrong) circumstances as a simple processor upgrade alleviated the problem.

And looking at a wall and posting screenshots still shows me nothing. A processor can affect all levels of performance, including min, max, and/or avg framerates.

 

[soccerballtux]

OP I'd go ahead and go for it. You could either get the 945 or watch for one of those 945+MOBO deals they've been having lately (<$200). I'd go for it not for the performance now, but for the performance in 1.5-2 years when DDR2 is phasing out and AM3 is where it's at. That's why I upgraded at least. My mobo has xfire too so I'm set for like 3-4 years.