Bottleneck Concerns...

[MiNiB3N]

Hello All,

 

I would like to do a CPU and GPU upgrade... however I have some bottleneck concerns.

 

My current pc has a AMD Phenom II X6 1055t @ 2.8GHz and my GPU is the AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB. I wish to upgrade to an FX based CPU however the FX CPUs are AM3+ and my motherboard is a AM3 socket.

 

I had heard that the two slots are physically compatible (i.e an AM3+ CPU could fit into an AM3 slot physically) and that certain motherboard manufacturers were making certain AM3 motherboards compatible with AM3+ CPUs with a BIOS upgrade. Unfortunately my MSI 870a-G46 AM3 motherboard was not among the list of compatible motherboards... which means if I want to have an FX chip I would need to upgrade my motherboard... 

 

...However when I first build this PC two years ago I was only 14 years old, and my only income was from delivery the local papers around the neighbourhood. So when I came to building my PC I had to cut a few corners... one of those corners was buying Win 7 Home Premium OEM Edition instead of the full version since the OEM version was about £35 cheaper. This means my version of Windows is tied to my motherboard and so if I wanted to upgrade my CPU, I would have to upgrade not only the CPU but also the Motherboard and Windows which could easily come to about £300 if not more...

 

Being 16 years old that is a lot of money just for half of my intended upgrade, which makes me think of ruling out upgrading the CPU but now the problem starts...

 

My question is: Will the 1055t CPU bottleneck any potential GPU upgrade? For instance I was thinking about getting the 7870 or the 7950 but there will be no point in upgrading at all if there will be a CPU bottleneck. or perhaps I should just get the CPU upgrade this year and maybe the GPU upgrade next year...

 

Sorry for the massive wall of text, and if you managed to read through all of it thank you. I hope for a quick reply

 

Thanks,

 

Ben.

 

 

[ShadowRaven]

First thing is what your motherboard and power supply is and second is your budget

 

Hello All,

 

I would like to do a CPU and GPU upgrade... however I have some bottleneck concerns.

 

My current pc has a AMD Phenom II X6 1055t @ 2.8GHz and my GPU is the AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB. I wish to upgrade to an FX based CPU however the FX CPUs are AM3+ and my motherboard is a AM3 socket.

 

I had heard that the two slots are physically compatible (i.e an AM3+ CPU could fit into an AM3 slot physically) and that certain motherboard manufacturers were making certain AM3 motherboards compatible with AM3+ CPUs with a BIOS upgrade. Unfortunately my MSI 870a-G46 AM3 motherboard was not among the list of compatible motherboards... which means if I want to have an FX chip I would need to upgrade my motherboard... 

 

...However when I first build this PC two years ago I was only 14 years old, and my only income was from delivery the local papers around the neighbourhood. So when I came to building my PC I had to cut a few corners... one of those corners was buying Win 7 Home Premium OEM Edition instead of the full version since the OEM version was about £35 cheaper. This means my version of Windows is tied to my motherboard and so if I wanted to upgrade my CPU, I would have to upgrade not only the CPU but also the Motherboard and Windows which could easily come to about £300 if not more...

 

Being 16 years old that is a lot of money just for half of my intended upgrade, which makes me think of ruling out upgrading the CPU but now the problem starts...

 

My question is: Will the 1055t CPU bottleneck any potential GPU upgrade? For instance I was thinking about getting the 7870 or the 7950 but there will be no point in upgrading at all if there will be a CPU bottleneck. or perhaps I should just get the CPU upgrade this year and maybe the GPU upgrade next year...

 

Sorry for the massive wall of text, and if you managed to read through all of it thank you. I hope for a quick reply

 

Thanks,

 

Ben.

[PCBudgetSolutions]

You can get some more power out of your CPU with a few hundred MHz overclock.  But yes the 1055T isn't an amazing game CPU by todays standards as the architecture is quite old now.  But like the I7-920 it's main flaw is lower clock speed.  Up that a bit and you can get some more life out of it.

[MiNiB3N]

ShadowRaven, on 25 Jul 2013 - 10:12 PM, said:

First thing is what your motherboard and power supply is and second is your budget

I have a 700w PSU and my budget is around £375... This would normally be enough for a GPU and CPU however I due to my circumstances I am hoping this would be enough provided that my CPU is not a bottleneck.

[ShadowRaven]

I have a 700w PSU and my budget is around £375... This would normally be enough for a GPU and CPU however I due to my circumstances I am hoping this would be enough provided that my CPU is not a bottleneck.

There should not have any bottlenecking involved between you psu and cpu.  In the meantime I would go a Amd Radeon 7950   http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/AYge   and save for a cpu & motherboard at a later time