What to upgrade to?

Hey, Hey everyone!!!

I currently have a ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless board with a Athlon X2 5400+ processor. I'm thinking about upgrading, but I'm not sure what to upgrade to. We mostly game on this board and whats the computer is mostly for. I know my board isn't compatible with the second set of AMD quad-cores that came out, but there are still quite a few number of options.

So, what do you recommend? The list is above. I'm asking to make sure because I know its not always the bigger the number the better, so I need advice!

Thanks a much in advance.

Monique

Well the real question would be can you justify the upgrade? What are the rest of your system specs and what is the typical usage of the system? Do you do a lot of CPU intensive workloads, or use applications that may be heavily multithreaded? I am referring to stuff like photo, audio, or video editing as games today dont really benefit from multiple cores in any real manner (in terms of raw performance), and still most people will be better off with a high speed dual core than a moderately clocked quad core.

Also note that if you are like most gamers today, and are running a 20-22" display putting out 1680x1050 as the native resolution, you are not going to be as cpu limited as users had been in lower resolutions, so your games may benefit from a GPU upgrade more than a CPU upgrade.

The highest end quad core your board currently supports is the 2.6ghz Phenom II 9950, which is a good chip at $130, but it will be out classed by the newer phenom II chips, even the 2.6ghz X4 810 is going to be a faster option, but as it is not currently supported by your board its not a viable one. Honestly if I were in your position I would take advantage of the new X2 7750 and 7850 prices...the OEM 7750 at a mere $49 is particularly attractive. These chips are very fast, will surpass anything AMD got out of the Athlon64 X2 processors in the past, including the 3.2ghz 6400, and it will do so at stock speeds. The nice thing of course, is these chips are black editions so overclocking from the stock 2.7/2.8ghz clock speeds is a very easy task and I've yet to see one of these chips fail to hit 3ghz, so you have a fair bit to gain.

If you look at this tway, it really is your best value upgrade. You will get a good cpu upgrade without spending a whole lot of money, and you can make your existing platform last until you decide to make the jump to AM3 next year (or later) when you will be required to buy a new board and new DDR3 memory anyway. If you bought a supported quad core, it would really only be worth it to go for a higher clocked offering as something like the $90 AMD 9600 quad core will only be faster than your current chip in heavily multithreaded applications, for the most part your current chip will be as fast, or even faster than a 2.3ghz quad core 9600.

If you buy one of the newer dual cores, you will get a faster chip on all levels, and at under $70 it is not going to cost you much at all. The difference could be spent towards any other upgrades your system might need such as additional ram or a better video card (if needed), and bet of all if Asus does come out with a new bios to add support for some of the newer 45nm quad cores, you wont have any trouble selling off a 7750 or 7850

Thanks for the info. I'll check the 7750 and the 7780 out, but we do have certain that say they've been enhanced for multi-thread performance and 64-bit systems.

Our current specifications are below:

8GB of RAM
896MB GTX 275
64-bit version of Windows 7
26" HDTV

We have Call of Duty which came with the video card, and Grand Theft Auto which actually states that it was enhanced for a multi-threaded 64-bit system. We recently bought Sims 3, but that's not really what I would call true gaming.

Monique

Well at this point I wouldnt suggest going with a cheap quad core if you are interested in a quad core, may as well go for the 2.6ghz 9950, but the problem is this chip will only be faster than a 7750 or 7850 in applications that will utilize the additional cores, these chips all use the same architecture, the only difference is core count. For most day to day stuff the dual core will be faster, and when it comes to games today, even games that are multithreaded or quad core optimized, you dont gain much performance, it will simply tend to use the additional cores for thread pre-processing so forth.

The upcoming DirectX 11 standard that is included with windows 7, is going to be a Godsend for multicore processors as this standard requires game developers to take advantage of dual core, triple core, and quad core processors like never before. But unlike previous standards, microsoft will be including some of the multithreaded resource handling for DX10 gaming environment, so even current hardware will benefit. But the problem is...we are looking about a year down the line before any of this pays off as even though DX10 hardware sales are through the roof (latest steam survey puts DX10 capable systems at 80% of the market), most people with it are still running XP, as Vista has been less welcoming. But once 7 launches I'm sure adoption rates will sky rocket and demand for DX10 and DX11 games will rise with it.

Also note, that with your 26" HD tv used as a monitor, which I assume is running 720p (1366x768), you will be more cpu limited in todays games, in fact that GTX 275 may not be getting much of a work out at all and is going to be hindered by your current chip. In your case right now you will benefit most from having as high a clock speed as possible, so that 7750 or 7850 and some light overclocking will be the way to go. You may also want to consider, at some point, looking towards a 1080p capable TV or LCD monitor, as that video card has so much more to offer!

Thanks for the information!!!!