C2D to Phenom II x4??

fpantovich · July 1st, 2009, 07:43 AM

Ok, well, as many of you remember, I upgraded my 4850 to a GTX 275. My graphics performance gains haven't been as notable as I would expect, so I'm assuming I have a bogdown somewhere. My assumption would be the CPU, since it's just a C2D E6600 (OC'ed to 3.29GHz), or possibly even the motherboard (MSI 975X Platinum Power up Edition).

Anyways, I was wondering if moving to a Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Processors - Desktops with a Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards would yield any huge gains over my current setup? I'd be able to keep all my other current hardware which would be a big benefit (less cost) and from what I can tell this AMD setup is quite a bit quicker than the C2D E6600 setup I currently have.

I was also looking at the AM3 setups, possibly, but then I'd also have to upgrade my RAM to DDR3 which would add into the cost of the upgrade. Basically, what I want to know is, what would be the biggest move for me to try and get rid of the bogdown of my graphics performance? It's really not as big of a move over the 4850 as it's supposed to be.

I would definitely love to get the Core i7 CPU with a nice motherboard for it, but those and the MB's are just way too pricey for me right now. I'd be looking at spending no more than maybe $250-350 shipped (mind you I'd be shipping to an APO, so shipping prices are a bit higher) in total towards the upgrade, so let me know what ya'll think as I haven't really kept up on the CPU/Motherboard changes for quite a while. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that with my current motherboard I could also go with a max of the Q6700, which isn't on newegg anymore, or the Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops which would run me about the same as just the AMD CPU without MB, so I'd be saving a bit of money going from a C2D to Q2D of the same model number, but not sure if that is really worth the minimal gains.

KarmaKiller · July 1st, 2009, 09:33 AM

If it were my system, I think I'd go the cheapest route now, and wait for the I5's to drop. They are suppose to be coming at the end of this month. They are supposed to have close to I7 performance, and also supposed to be cheap. (sub $200 for CPU, and same for motherboard) Basically it's gonna be intels replacement for the skt 775 CPU, and competition for the Phenom II linup.
They use DDR2 instead of DDR3, so you could probably use the same RAM you have now.
That's just what I'd do. In all honesty, you shouldn't be having any problems maxing most all games as it is now though. Something seems off. Would you mind running a 3Dmark 06 test, so we can see your CPU and GPU score?
(If you really want an upgrade, if you have a micro center around you, they are selling Q9550's for $170, that is a steal for that CPU, they are normally $230+)

ShyguyXPC · July 1st, 2009, 12:12 PM

975X chipsets run the older PCI-Express 1.0/1.1 standard, so could be the card might be exceeding the slots bandwidth and holding it back there?

C2D E6600 OC'd to 3.2GHz should be fine as far as I know.

your not going to notice much in games jumping on to a Quad core, from your current CPU, since there's few if any games that use 4 cores right now.

I'm willing to bet its the PCIE 1.1 slot holding your card back. since many have considered a Radeon 4870/Geforce GTX260 on the borderline of peaking out PCIE 1.1. seeing as the 275 is way past that, its almost a given.

cksboy15 · July 1st, 2009, 02:38 PM

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

That should be all you need.

fpantovich · July 1st, 2009, 03:37 PM

Yeah, I was doubtful on the CPU being the issue, but ya never know...like I said, I haven't kept myself up-to-date on things like I used to. As for the motherboard, I was thinking the same, but I forgot it was only 1.1, I was thinking because of the older chipset it may be bogging it down, so I guess I was correct in my assumptions in a roundabout way

I like that board, PLENTY of USB slots, which means I probably won't need this external powered hub anymore

Only one question about it, wtf does dual-bios mean? Is it like a failover BIOS or 2 seperate BIOS that you can set differently independent of eachother? Just curious, never had a board with that feature.

As for the i5's, I remember hearing about those. Is that really expected to be out by the end of this month? Might be worth the wait, but I don't know. I may just go with the cheaper solution and call it a day, heh. Thanks for the responses; I just got back from work so sorry about the delayed response on my part.

KarmaKiller · July 1st, 2009, 03:55 PM

First off, the dual BIOS basically means if you brick your board doing a BIOS update, there is still a default BIOS that you can recover to to make it usable again.

And from what I've been reading, they keep saying end of July/early Aug. for the I5's.
If you feel like you need to do something to fix the issue now, then pick up a new board like the others suggested. It would be the cheapest route for now, then save the rest of the money for the i5.

EXreaction · July 1st, 2009, 04:08 PM

How much did you get and how much were you expecting?

Have you reformatted the system since the new card?

fpantovich · July 1st, 2009, 08:25 PM

I did a fresh install of Win 7 RC (had Win 7 Beta prior to upgrade). Installed latest drivers, etc..all the right stuff...only got maybe a 3-5% boost in graphics performance and benchmarks were a slight budge as well, but not too much. I figured I have a bottleneck somewhere and my PCIE slots being 1.1 instead of 2.0 makes sense. With my C2D E6600 OC'ed to over 3.2GHz stable, that should be bogging down my graphics too much. I'll buy a good quality motherboard upgrade after I get back from a short trip. I'm leaving in about a week and shipping to APO typically takes 1-2 weeks, so no point in ordering prior to trip. I'll probably order in the middle of the trip so that it's here when I get back

Thanks for the help, all.

jprovido · July 5th, 2009, 12:30 AM

imo i think the one that causing the bottleneck is the processor, i had a 4870 on a pci-e 1.1 before, upgraded to a biostar TA790gx w/ pci-e 2.0 but there wasn't any difference at all. i think the pci-e slots are fine

ShyguyXPC · July 5th, 2009, 03:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jprovido

imo i think the one that causing the bottleneck is the processor, i had a 4870 on a pci-e 1.1 before, upgraded to a biostar TA790gx w/ pci-e 2.0 but there wasn't any difference at all. i think the pci-e slots are fine

yeah, but the CPU is overclocked to 3.2GHz, so there shouldn't be any issues at all with it providing enough data to the card, aside from cache memory differences, and FSB speeds, it'd be similar to using one of the newer Core 2 Wolfdales at 3+GHz, which should be enough for a single 4870.

again since it was still and probably still is, an ongoing debate on many forums whether a 4870 was able to saturate all of the PCIE 1.1 slots bandwidth or not, I'd lean more towards the slot and or something with the chipset.

question is what board did you have before this one? as I mentioned the board they have is a Intel 975X chipset, one of the first Crossfire compatible Intel chipsets, which puts it at the debut of the Core 2 series (actually was released before those chips were) and for all intents and purposes OLD.