Keep AMD phenom II 6-core or i7 upgrade


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I am in a dilemma

 

I have major computer lust and I am eyeing a nice delicious a nice 3.4 or 3.6 ghz i7. My current rig is an AMD phenom II 2.6 ghz black edition (2010 era), It is 6 cores. To speed this up over the years I put Samsung SSD PRO (fastest SSD), ATI 7850, upgraded the RAM to 16 gigs 1600. 

 

My main uses are a few games and VMWare worstation to test domains and learn IT stuff. A CPU with virtualization support is a must for this reason and I like my many cores.

 

How CPU bound is an issue for games? I do not run Crysis but I would like to try BattleField 4 and Elder Scrolls online. Does my older cpu become an issue or am I fine with the upgraded ATI 7850?

 

If I upgrade the cost will be $650 for a new midrange board, i7, an office 365 subscription and WIndows (both of these are tied to my AMD system currently :-()

 

Or am I fine for awhile?

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what is the resolution of your monitor? High resolution is going to bottleneck both the AMD and the 7850.

 

If you upgrade the CPU, your 7850 is going to be bottlenecked easily. if you upgrade the 7850, the AMD CPU is going to be the bottleneck.

 

btw, you can carry over the Windows license. you'll just have to call their activation number.

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No I already changed too much of my hardware with my upgrades so far and need to do activate by phone as it is. At this stage a new license is in order.

 

I use 1080p no 4k or anything.

 

My current build only has PCIX 2.0 on this card and sata3 which are probably or close to bottlenecking my samsung pro and 7850.

 

Money is an issue as my student loans and healthcare cost $950 a month. If it were not for them I would not ask if it is worth it. I am constrained by funds.

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You won't push BF4 to its limits with that computer, but you can certainly run it at a decent framerate by lowering the graphical settings. Whether you can live with it or how much would a faster machine be worth to you vs. your budget constrains is really yours to decide. I say try it out and decide after.

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If you can afford to upgrade then upgrade, BUT I would suggest thinking what you need, and go for an i5. If it's primarily a gaming rig an i5 is more than you'll need within the lifetime before your next upgrade. There are games today that will max your CPU and then some. There are no games that will max an i5 and won't be for the foreseeable future.

And i7 as awesome as it is isn't necessary for a gaming rig and is just a waste of money. If however you did CPU intensive tasks like 3d rendering and video editing, then sure, the i7 would be so etching to go for. But for gaming, spend the money on memory and graphics and more SSD.

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No I already changed too much of my hardware with my upgrades so far and need to do activate by phone as it is. At this stage a new license is in order.

 

I use 1080p no 4k or anything.

 

My current build only has PCIX 2.0 on this card and sata3 which are probably or close to bottlenecking my samsung pro and 7850.

 

Money is an issue as my student loans and healthcare cost $950 a month. If it were not for them I would not ask if it is worth it. I am constrained by funds.

 

I have upgraded my motherboard/processor/graphics 7 times since I bought my Windows 7. You do not need to buy a new licence any you are wasting your money that could be put towards better things. But if you absolutely must, You mention you are a student? Go to your Schools's bookstore to see if you can get Office and Windows free or very cheaply. I attend a trade school and was able to get Office 365 100% free and Windows 8.1 for $69.00. My relative who attends a four year college was able to get both for free.

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I think your hardware is still pretty good. Keep saving money for an excellent build. Next year is the right time to upgrade IMO.

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My suggestion is to buy a new GPU.  You'll get the most performance improvement for the money.  Your CPU probably won't be a severe bottleneck being that CPUs are by far the fastest part of a PC.

 

btw, you aren't even close to saturating PCIe 2.0.  I have 2 GTX 680s in SLI, and I doubt I'm close either.

You're also probably a ways from saturating the SATA3 with your SSD.  Not that you have any better options anyway.

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THe reason I got an AMD phenom II over the 1st generation i5's was intel took virtualization out of the bios and wanted everyone to get an i7. That rubbed me the wrong way as AMD includes it for all of them.

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Sirtuin, on 16 Apr 2014 - 22:54, said:Sirtuin, on 16 Apr 2014 - 22:54, said:Sirtuin, on 16 Apr 2014 - 22:54, said:

Watch_Dogs and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor already recommend i7-3770 and the CPU requirements won't probably decrease as devs become more familiar with the PS4 and X1 CPUs. 

There is absolutely no indication on an i7 being a realistic requirement, Intel's CPUs are that much faster than the low-power stuff included in the consoles that these "recommendations" are simply a joke. And no there is NO secret magic in terms of CPU speed in this console generation, its simple (rather slow) x86 chips!

This i7 requirement is as legit as the 6GB RAM requirement of some games that was immediately dropped with patches - yes the consoles have 8GB RAM, but it's shared between both CPU and GPU part of the APU and vast parts of it are actually reserved to the operating systems?

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My suggestion is to buy a new GPU.  You'll get the most performance improvement for the money.  Your CPU probably won't be a severe bottleneck being that CPUs are by far the fastest part of a PC.

 

btw, you aren't even close to saturating PCIe 2.0.  I have 2 GTX 680s in SLI, and I doubt I'm close either.

You're also probably a ways from saturating the SATA3 with your SSD.  Not that you have any better options anyway.

BF4 on ultra is pretty demanding of the CPU. Although his CPU will _probably_ be fine.

I have an FX4100 OC'd at 4ghz (2 cores only, other 2 3.8) and it eats up 80% at busy moments. (shanghai tower crashing down, gulf of oman sand storm coming in, metro nade spam)

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OP: My suggestion is trying to run the games you want to run on your machine. If they actually bottleneck noticably on the setup, then you know there is an issue. If not, then you know there isn't. We can all offer you suggestions on what we think, but unless we have specific benchmarks with your components or similar components it will be difficult for us to make an accurate assessment. In general, I'd recommend you prove your use-case to yourself for an upgrade before upgrading.

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i5 is more than enough for gaming, I would recommend you to wait for Broadwell cpus !

Keep your current AMD and invest more in your GPU wich is the most important piece of hardware when ti comes to gaming.

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What ever you do, don't neglect the PSU. Many issues have arisen from not making sure your PSU can deliver the necessary power requirements.

btw, I run a second gen i5 and it barely breaks a sweat in gaming or VM's.

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First :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4770K-vs-AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1035T

 

Then :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4670K-vs-AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1035T

 

And just for fun :

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-4340-vs-AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1035T

 

And you can check this out:

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-270X-vs-Radeon-HD-7850

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-280X-vs-Radeon-HD-7850

 

 

For VmWare, you'll need RAM, that's the most important thing if you want many Vm's open at the same time and performing well.  Your current CPU and all Intel i3/i5/i7 and even some Pentium all have VT-x support.

 

Like StrikedOut said, if you upgrade, think of your PSU.  That's another easy $100+ for a good one.

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THe reason I got an AMD phenom II over the 1st generation i5's was intel took virtualization out of the bios and wanted everyone to get an i7. That rubbed me the wrong way as AMD includes it for all of them.

I don't think that quite makes sense.  BIOS is on the motherboard side.  The i3, i5, and i7 have all always supported virtualization since generation 1.  

 

http://ark.intel.com...ationtechnology

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I don't think that quite makes sense.  BIOS is on the motherboard side.  The i3, i5, and i7 have all always supported virtualization since generation 1.  

 

http://ark.intel.com...ationtechnology

But not all support Intel? Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

 

As for upgrading might as well wait for the  Z97 or X99 chipset.

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But not all support Intel? Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)

Neither did the Phenom II though

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