What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
I'm buying a better case for my brothers PC as all of his temps seem a bit high (his current case is quite small and cramped inside with minimal airflow).... Now i'm also thinking about upgrading his GPU but i want to avoid bottlenecks and keep it relatively cheap! Will a 2GB GTX 660 or even a cheaper 2GB Radeon 7850 be a nice upgrade from his old 1GB Radeon 6850? I'm also assuming his Phenom II X4 955BE (3.2GHz) won't be much of a bottleneck? I think anything higher than a Radeon 7870 will probably be wasted though... What do you guys think?
His current specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 955BE @ 3.2GHz (stock)
8GB Kingston DDR3 1333 RAM (2x4GB)
Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L Motherboard
1GB Club3D Radeon 6850 (factory oc'd)
550W XFX Core Edition PSU
Windows 7 64-bit
Cheers :cool:
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
What PSU does he have??
Forgot to mention... it's a 550W XFX Core Edition PSU (should be fine). He's also gaming at 1080p so 2GB VRAM should be fine for now :).
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
The GTX660 is faster out of the box in most games when compared to the HD7850,although the latter overclocks better and can have a better games bundle.
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
The GTX660 is faster out of the box in most games when compared to the HD7850,although the latter overclocks better and can have a better games bundle.
The 2GB Radeon 7850 appears a bit cheaper too (always a good thing :D)... But how much faster is it compared to a 1GB Radeon 6850?
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PowerPie5000
The 2GB Radeon 7850 appears a bit cheaper too (always a good thing :D)... But how much faster is it compared to a 1GB Radeon 6850?
The HD7850 is around 50% faster on average including older games when compared to an HD6850 1GB. In new games the difference is greater.
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Whats his budget for a really good spec gfx card
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
c12038
Whats his budget for a really good spec gfx card
A tight budget... No more than £150 ideally. A high end GPU would be a waste anyway as the CPU would become a major bottleneck. Something like a GTX 660 or Radeon 7850/7870 will do :)
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
you can get a 7870 `Black` edition (which is a 7950 lite) for £159 from novatech with free delivery
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
HalloweenJack
you can get a 7870 `Black` edition (which is a 7950 lite) for £159 from novatech with free delivery
Sounds very tempting and hopefully it should be ok with his 550W XFX PSU (bearing in mind his CPU alone is rated at 125W max)... His CPU might hold that GPU back a bit though (not by too much i hope).
EDIT: I might be able to get hold of a cheap Phenom II X6 1100T if that would make any difference? And how does the FX-4170 or even an FX-6100 compare to a Phenom II X4 955?
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PowerPie5000
Sounds very tempting and hopefully it should be ok with his 550W XFX PSU (bearing in mind his CPU alone is rated at 125W max)... His CPU might hold that GPU back a bit though (not by too much i hope).
EDIT: I might be able to get hold of a cheap Phenom II X6 1100T if that would make any difference? And how does the FX-4170 or even an FX-6100 compare to a Phenom II X4 955?
More or less on par I would say
Go for a 660Ti boost this will be the most likely choice or maybe a HD6870 but try and get a reference one they seem to O/C quite well....
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
c12038
More or less on par I would say
Go for a 660Ti boost this will be the most likely choice or maybe a HD6870 but try and get a reference one they seem to O/C quite well....
I had a 6870 a while ago and it wasn't much faster than his 6850 (i upgraded to a 7950 Boost). I know there's a 650Ti Boost and it appears to perform around the same level as a 7850, so i might also consider that too... I'm guessing it's not worth changing the CPU with any i mentioned above then?
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Leaning towards a 2GB GTX 650Ti Boost as it's comparable to a 7850 and a bit cheaper to buy... It very nearly keeps up with the GTX 660 in some benchmarks too!
Does anyone know where i can find a VRM heatsink that will fit his Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L motherboard? It has the space and even the holes for a VRM heatsink, but never came with one.
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Might be worth contacting Gigabyte, I have heard of them sending them free if you send them a jiffy bag with paid postage on it
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
karl751
Might be worth contacting Gigabyte, I have heard of them sending them free if you send them a jiffy bag with paid postage on it
It's worth a go! Thanks
Gigabyte have also just sent me an updated bios file to allow support for the FX-6300 Piledriver/Vishera processor... The FX-6300 should be better than his old Phenom II X4 :)
Re: What GPU for a Phenom II 955?
It's settled... If buying the parts new then his budget can stretch to an FX-6300 CPU and a 2GB GTX 650Ti Boost. If buying used then maybe he could bump up the GPU to something better and still buy the FX-6300... Although the prices on used hardware is not that much less than buying new after looking on ebay, and there's not much of a selection either (on current gen stuff).
