Upgrading GPU, will my cpu bottleneck?

[chobo]

Pretty much looking for a straight upgrade on my gpu, looking for more fps in my games :P

 

My current rig:

AMD FX-8120 @ 4.0GHZ

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3

XFX AMD HD 6870

8gb 2x4 Kingston Hyper X Blu

thermaltake tr2 600w psu

 

I know that the 8120 isn't that old of a cpu but I'm looking to spend about 250-300 on my next gpu and I don't want to bottleneck the 8120 or is that even possible? Because there is a deal at my local computer shop for I5-3750k/mobo that I was thinking about upgrading too as well, if the 8120 wasn't sufficient enough.

 

Just trying to save abit of money here by continuing to use the 8120. What do you guys think I should do? go with whole new setup or will a new gpu be fine?

[Godlygamer23]

Bulldozer as a whole didn't really perform that well as general CPUs. That said, you should be fine with a single card. You will certainly see a performance boost going from an 8120 to a 3570K, but you could also just upgrade to an 8320 to save you some money.

[target39]

Overclock the FX 8120 and you should be fine. For $300, I'd recommend the AMD Radeon HD 7950. For brands, go HIS, MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, etc.

[chobo]

Bulldozer as a whole didn't really perform that well as general CPUs. That said, you should be fine with a single card. You will certainly see a performance boost going from an 8120 to a 3570K, but you could also just upgrade to an 8320 to save you some money.

Hmm yea I figured the 8320 does seem like a nice upgrade.

 

Overclock the FX 8120 and you should be fine. For $300, I'd recommend the AMD Radeon HD 7950. For brands, go HIS, MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, etc.

I've already OC'd it to 4.0ghz so not too bad, but thanks for the gpu recommendation!

[winny3141]

WAIT till Haswell!!! Yes, the i5 processor might be more expensive with a new motherboard as well, but it will way be worth it. You will have to make sure your PSU is compatible with the power efficiency that Haswell requires, but you should be fine though. Later in June the 760 ti is supposed to come out, and that will feature a cut down GK104 chip that the gtx 670 was based off of. That should be worth your wild and is rumored to be priced at 299$. If you can't wait, I would reccomend you go with a gtx 660 ti, for 300$, or if you want to save a bit of money, go with a 7870, as it is only 215$ for the cheapest one and it will perform really well. In addition, the 7800 series of graphics cards come with Tom Raider, Bioshock Infinite, and Far Cry 3 blood Dragon so you get 110$ worth of games with a 215$ graphcis card, so you end up paying only 105$ for the graphics card itself with the games you would by anyway at that price. the 8000 series or the 9000 series, or whatever AMD is doing, is rumored to come out in Q4 2013; which means that I would reccomend you not wait and get the system this summer after Haswell releases.

 

I hope I was of some help!

 

- winny3141 :D

[sk8ermanblue]

Today I saw a FX 8320 for $159. This and a 7950 or 7870 would be great additions.

[xToFxREAPER]

if your local shop happens to be memory express as mine is i know they always have deals like that i would look at their deal for the 8320 + mobo because the cheap 3570k deal they have has a really really crappy mobo but if you have a good cooler on your current cpu overclock the snot out of it and you should be good thus saving you money :)

[Godlygamer23]

Hmm yea I figured the 8320 does seem like a nice upgrade.

And if you overclocked it to 4GHz, you'd effectively have an 8350 while saving $40. (Newegg prices)

[Godlygamer23]

WAIT till Haswell!!! Yes, the i5 processor might be more expensive with a new motherboard as well, but it will way be worth it. You will have to make sure your PSU is compatible with the power efficiency that Haswell requires, but you should be fine though. Later in June the 760 ti is supposed to come out, and that will feature a cut down GK104 chip that the gtx 670 was based off of. That should be worth your wild and is rumored to be priced at 299$. If you can't wait, I would reccomend you go with a gtx 660 ti, for 300$, or if you want to save a bit of money, go with a 7870, as it is only 215$ for the cheapest one and it will perform really well. In addition, the 7800 series of graphics cards come with Tom Raider, Bioshock Infinite, and Far Cry 3 blood Dragon so you get 110$ worth of games with a 215$ graphcis card, so you end up paying only 105$ for the graphics card itself with the games you would by anyway at that price. the 8000 series or the 9000 series, or whatever AMD is doing, is rumored to come out in Q4 2013; which means that I would reccomend you not wait and get the system this summer after Haswell releases.

 

I hope I was of some help!

 

- winny3141 :D

Haswell isn't that much of an upgrade to Ivy Bridge or the Vishera series. I'd recommend sticking with the 8320.

[target39]

Hmm yea I figured the 8320 does seem like a nice upgrade.

 

I've already OC'd it to 4.0ghz so not too bad, but thanks for the gpu recommendation!

I meant overclock it a bit higher if you could. I was able to get 4.5ghz on the FX-4100 on all cores on 760G, so I know you can do it on 990FX. What cooler do you have?

[winny3141]

Haswell isn't that much of an upgrade to Ivy Bridge or the Vishera series. I'd recommend sticking with the 8320.

I beg to differ. For overclockers it yeilds a big improvement, as well as the fact that it has native USB 3.0 support, so faster USB 3.0 speeds, as well as the fact that it has new instruction sets to perform faster overall.

 

Here is a video explaining it:

 

 

- winny3141 :D

[Godlygamer23]

Vishera also overclocks well on cheaper boards. So for someone who's using an AM3+ socket, it's just cheaper for them to get an 8320. You'd have to spend quite a bit of money to gain a small performance gain going to Haswell.

[sk8ermanblue]

WAIT till Haswell!!! Yes, the i5 processor might be more expensive with a new motherboard as well, but it will way be worth it. You will have to make sure your PSU is compatible with the power efficiency that Haswell requires, but you should be fine though. Later in June the 760 ti is supposed to come out, and that will feature a cut down GK104 chip that the gtx 670 was based off of. That should be worth your wild and is rumored to be priced at 299$. If you can't wait, I would reccomend you go with a gtx 660 ti, for 300$, or if you want to save a bit of money, go with a 7870, as it is only 215$ for the cheapest one and it will perform really well. In addition, the 7800 series of graphics cards come with Tom Raider, Bioshock Infinite, and Far Cry 3 blood Dragon so you get 110$ worth of games with a 215$ graphcis card, so you end up paying only 105$ for the graphics card itself with the games you would by anyway at that price. the 8000 series or the 9000 series, or whatever AMD is doing, is rumored to come out in Q4 2013; which means that I would reccomend you not wait and get the system this summer after Haswell releases.

 

I hope I was of some help!

 

- winny3141 :D

best bet for you is an 8320 you should be able to get well over 4ghz with it and a 7950. If you need some extra money for the CPU than a 7870 works well too. The only thing that you can brag about with a 79xx card is it beats the  770 and 680 at a lot of games right now for a much cheaper price point. I'm not a red or green team fan boy I just know that upgrading  to nvidia right now doesn't make sense for a lot of people. Sli scaling is still way better and Intel processors have an edge for the most part in performance but not enough for you to warrant a new mobo processor and video card. when 2 of them can be replaced for a nice upgrade.

[Jimbo]

Put it this way - the money that a new motherboard and CPU would cost you is better spent on GPU horsepower.

[sk8ermanblue]

Put it this way - the money that a new motherboard and CPU would cost you is better spent on GPU horsepower.

And it's no secret that If you "wait for haswell" your not going to wait for a huge performance boost. It might be a little cheaper from some of what I am reading but not so cheap as to warrant a new board. keep the board it's a solid one. And grab some free red team games. woohoo enjoy your experience and overclocking fun!!!

[WoodenMarker]

Just get the cheapest 7950 and see if things are fine. If you're still having gaming problems, upgrade your cpu. I don't think you'll need to though.

[chobo]

Just get the cheapest 7950 and see if things are fine. If you're still having gaming problems, upgrade your cpu. I don't think you'll need to though.

Yea I think i might pick up the MSI 7950 twin frozr and see where that takes me and maybe upgrade to FX8350 if anything.