i currently have this mobo - http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Pr...x?DetailID=911&CategoryID=1&MenuID=20&LanID=0 but would like to buy the best cpu i can for it, but only supports 95w TPD, should i invest in a new mobo so i can get a better cpu, or stick with what i got? I want it to be future proof. Many thanks
Your socket is going the way of the dinosaur so if you want "future proof" you won't be able to use that board anymore as you're two generations behind already. However, have you checked your manufacturers website to see if they've updated their bios to support any of the new quadcore cpus?
Best processor for that board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103679 Best cheap processor for that board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103677 Honestly, either of those CPUs are not super powerful so you should just save your money. If you got a new MB you would also need new RAM as well. If you want a noticeable speed upgrade and for it to be compatible with a future computer as well, you should get a solid state drive for your operating system. Unfortunately you will be limited in performance by that MB as Nvidia chipsets are complete crap, but it will still be a noticeable upgrade. best SSD for the price and capacity: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231378
This is what im currently got in this machine. AMD phenom X4 9500 running at 2.4mhz OC 4GB of DD2 ram at 1066mhz Nvidia Geforce GTX 270 and a sata2 500gb drive Just want to play aion more smoothly and its down to the cpu on that game
Your CPU might possibly be a bottleneck to the graphics card getting enough data to process, or it could be you need a better hard drive to run the game on. Normally you would think a quad core would be plenty fine for supplying the data needed to your graphics card, but it is a kinda low speed quad-core in comparison to how nice of a graphics card you have. I know it sounds weird but when my OS drive failed a couple weeks ago and I installed to a 500GB sata2 drive I had only got a couple years earlier, quite a few games had weird lag issues. It wasnt like the FPS was horrible, it would run fine and then get a nasty hiccup in the smoothness and drop down to like 5fps for a split second. And it would do this every 10-20 seconds or so, especially happened when opening a menu, going around a corner to a new area, looking down the weapon sights. Got a new hard drive and everything was better. It could just be too much stuff in the background is accessing the hard drive and causing performance problems in Aion. Whether that sounds like your problem or not, at this point you should probably just get a SSD upgrade. Either run your OS on the SSD and Aion on the 500GB drive, or run Aion and the OS on the SSD and put most of your other stuff on the 500GB drive. The only real limiters I can see on your gaming performance are your CPU and your hard drive. However if you get a new CPU, you really cant get a better one with that MB because of the socket it uses. You would need to get a new motherboard to get a significantly better CPU, and for that you would also need new RAM as the newer MB would use DDR3 instead of DDR2. And with AMD and Intel releasing new sockets next year, buying a new MB now for a "small upgrade" would be a waste as you would be in the same position later on down the road when you want to play another game more smoothly and cant upgrade the CPU yet again because all the new CPUs use those newer sockets. Socket AM3 has been around since 2008, and the incremental upgrade to socket AM3 (which seems completely unnecessary) will be released next year. So the socket will have had a 3 year lifespan already by the time its replaced. Kinda sucks, but normally it seems processor sockets have a 3-4 year life span so this new change is normal in the computer industry. You just seems to be right ahead of the hardware release curve and what you want to do is be right behind it instead. You best bet would be to wait until the new stuff is released. Even if you dont get a full new system with all the latest and greatest, having a motherboard that uses the new socket will let you not be in this position again during this sockets lifetime.
The mobo would also play a huge role for how quickly data is going to travel due to bus systems, so that would also bottleneck his system. Also why are they upgrading AM3? its a great socket and they were able to make sooo many processors compatible with it, with outstanding performance. including the hex cores which most people didn't even need new mobo's for it was awesome!
Two reasons: 1. You answered your own question, as this really doesn't make your partners happy. 2. They have to compete with Sandybridge.
His motherboard, although it has a sucky chipset, is HTT 3.0 compatible and has PCI-E 2.0 with a full x16 slot. So the motherboard bandwidth would not be a problem.
hahaha yes i just noticed no new mobo's equals loss of profit if no one needs to buy new hardware. Also yes, your correct his mobo despite being a little in the past is still a decent mobo.
AMD is always hurting for profit, so most likely it is because they just want to force you to buy a motherboard with their new chipset. But another possibility is that with the significant change the bulldozer architecture has, a new chipset that is optimized for said architecture might be needed. The last major architecture required some PLL changed to the chipsets to be able to get the clockspeeds up, most likely that is the issue again. Also the new chipset will also feature an IOMMU, which mostly helps virtualization. And I think the HTT link is being upped to version 3.1, which means 3.2GHz speed each direction (or an HTT 6400MHz speed is what you would see advertised). So the new chipset with the new socket has quite a few changes rather than just forcing people to buy a new MB "just cause". I realize they could easily put the new chipset and its advances on the older AM3 socket, but with the major architecture shift coming to the processors they are making, it does make more sense to start this new era with a whole new socket and chipset specifically designed for the processor. Another rumor is/was that the new chipset might support PCI-Express 3.0 as well, but I find that highly doubtful as AMD is already sampling Bulldozer die's and plans on ramping producing soon, means chipsets are about done as well. And the PCI-E 3.0 spec hasnt been 100% finalized yet. So very unlikely. ANYWAY, sorry I got so off track there. Buying a new CPU at this point for a socket that has been behind the current generation for a while now and is about to be behind yet another generation just seems wasteful to me. You could put your money to better use elsewhere
Um, does that mean that I'm going to have to upgrade in the next like 3 years from my 3.2ghz Hex core? I could see maybe a new mobo when the PCI-E 3.0 comes out but how am i processor wise here?
If you're running your processor at stock speeds, which if you're using AMD I'm assuming you aren't. As they typically run at 3.8 to 4.0 stable with air cooling you should be fine for quite some time. 3 years though, is asking a bit much.
So if you was me, would you wait for a new mobo, and get a new cpu to go with it? Or invest in something now? And i cant seem to figure out why my mate is running aion with a better fps than me when ive got a better machine.
Well what are his specs specifically? You could try updating the graphics drivers. Make sure you are playing on the exact same graphics settings your mate is. Look into getting a different HDD/SDD as you may be performing too many reads or writes in the background that is killing your performance. Are you both on the same operating system? Alias, If I were you I would wait for new motherboards to be released and get a new MB, CPU, and RAM. You will most likely be able to get a decent AM3+ socket motherboard with a 9-series chipset for $100 or less. You can pick up a cheap CPU for the socket, pricing is unknown. And get 4GB (or 8GB if the price of 4gig sticks keeps dropping) of DDR3 memory of DDR-1600 speed or higher, $100 (+/- $20). That will put you with new hardware at the start of the generation so it will last you quite a while. Well you would need a graphics card capable of using PCI-E 3.0 to actually get the bandwidth upgrades from it. As for the CPU, with a 6-core already I could see you being fine for a couple years. I know people who push their computers for 5-8 years on the same hardware. They run horribly slow and cant play any games, but you can do it if you want. For staying in the "performance area" of computers I can see a 6-core lasting you 2 years though, especially if overclocked. You dont really NEED to overclock the core much. I would just get it as far as you can on stock voltage. What you need to overclock is the northbridge core speed as that is the performance bottleneck in AMD processors. Stock clock speed of the NB is 2GHz, you should push for 2.8-3.0GHz if possible. I have seen insanely good overclockers running at 4GHz northbridge speed. NB speed reduced the high latency l3 cache on the processors which helps in multithreaded apps a LOT. It also reduces total RAM latency which helps performance all around, but more so on high memory intensive applications such as modern video games. For anyone who cares this is the best way to buy computer hardware if you want to stay in the performance category and spend the least: When a new generation of processors/motherboard is released (this typically is accompanied with a new socket), buy a MB, CPU, and if necessary RAM. Or probably get more RAM if you dont need a different type. 3 years down the road when a new generation is just releasing, upgrade your CPU to the best possible from the previous generation that you already have the other hardware for. 3 years down the road again start back with step 1, buy a new MB, CPU, and if necessary RAM. For graphics, with the latest video cards we are far ahead of the graphical requirements of games. Software has not caught up to the hardware. This is because things are designed for consoles and console hardware is still back in the 2006 era. So maybe at the most get a new graphics card every other generation. But if things stay as they are you can probably get away with a new graphics card every 3, maybe every 4 years. My personal recommendation for a graphics upgrade would be to buy a new GPU the year AFTER the next console release. As the new consoles with new hardware will define the level of performance required. Thus if you get the generation after the console release you will be set for probably the entire lifetime of that console generation which is around 4 years. Then you can repeat the process again the year after the next console is released.
hell no AMD non stock is just as smooth as stock speeds, and almost same temps. But why not 3 years? FFXIV was the first game to even come close to breaking recommended specs past Dual Hell the Core 2 Quad has been out for 3 years and its still running strong!!!!
If you're only looking at MMO's this may very well be the case. Go play Batman or Metro with a C2Q and let me know what happens.
Those are what i call revolutionary games, almost like Crysis was back in the day where they actually make me want to and push my computer higher. Those games are what drive me to buy hardware so i can play them in full glory lol.' Batman eh not so much but metro OOOMMMGGGGG!
Didnt Batman: Arkham Asylum use the Unreal 3 engine? Why would that use a lot of CPU power? Metro 2023 though is good stuff. It is still hard to imagine a game that actually recommends a 3GHz+ quad core in todays world where everything is still using dual cores at best. I like that the game engine is so intensive, I wish more games would require some good hardware to run. Just not at the expense of gameplay. Gameplay + graphics = mmmmm