CPU/Mobo Cpu Upgrade Suggestion (Athlon II X2 620 -> ?). Just for BF3.

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vinaycm

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As the title suggests, iam looking forward to upgrading my AMD Athlon II X2 620 to a better one than can handle BF3 at my gaming resolution of 1680x1050 without bottlenecking my GTX460 1GB.

Current Config:

AMD Athlon II X2 260

ASUS M4N68T-M LE V2 Motherboard

2x2GB DDR3 1333Mhz Kingston

MSI GTX 460 Cyclone OC Edition

Currently iam able to play BF3 multiplayer with medium settings at 1680x1050 at an avg FPS of 30-35, but the problem is that there are some severe drops in frame rates (to unplayable levels) at times. Tested the same with 560Ti and the results were similar, so i think the CPU is the bottleneck here.

Requirements: To be able to handle BF3 at 1680x1050 with atleast medium settings and no lag.

Budget: As low as possible.

As of now iam planning to get the Board+Processor upgraded to a Intel G620 + H61 Motherboard or just change the processor to a AMD Quad Core. I would like to know which would be the best vfm option among these:

1) G620 + H61 Motherboard

2) i3 2100 + H61 Motherboard

3) Upgrading the processor to Phenom II X4 - 840 or similar.

Upgrading to a i3 2100 would be the most expensive option and would be resorted to only if its really worth the money put in.

Any other suggestions that would fulfill my requirements within the budget constraints are also welcome..

Note: The thread title has a typo, its actually X2 260..
 
Well it's up to you either sell your existing combo and get

i3 2100-6.2k OR G620-3.5 + Intel DH61WW-3.5k otherwise Sell X2 260 and get Phenom II X4 955BE-6k and keep the mobo.
 
Well, IMO, you could go for the 955 as the easiest and the best option. You could get around 1.5k for your Athlon.

As for the Intel, do not go for the 620 unless you have a very good reason. It would be better to splurge on the i3 2100.

However, if you can, I would suggest to wait for the i3 31XX series. After all, no one would want to buy a CPU with its replacement coming in within 3 months? Intel plans to launch the i5/i7's initially. The i3's will follow suit. However, the only advantages will be a slightly better platform[Native USB3, Thunderbolt anyone?], lower power consumption [55W instead of 65W] and more features [QS 2.0].
 
go for any of the 2nd hand Athlon II X4's (cheapest you get) or a 2nd hand Phenom II X4 (955 say) for as cheap as you can get.

Should be more than enough
 
In my opinion the bottleneck is your ram. WIndows 7 with some services running in background itself will consume close to 2GB, and there is only 2GB left for the game. Try upgrading your ram first, which is really cheap now, and see if the problem is resolved. Normally a 3 ghz ual core CPU shouldn,t be bottleneck for GPUs like 460TI. get 4gb corsair value ram for 1.2k off flipkart. Later if you upgrade your mobo+cpu+maybge gpu too, the ram upgrade is worth.

most cpu benches out there shows enormous difference in cpu for gaming, because they are using a high end card with low~mid resolution and lower image quality setings, with no other bottlenecks in system like memory or hdd. So, in that case there might be 20~30 fps difference across cpus. But in real world, case is not like that. We will set max eye candies we can do as far as the game is smooth, and wont be using 8or more GB of 1600+ mhz ram and ssds.

for better memory performance, get a paired set of 2*4GB ddr3 corsair for 2.4k. Im sure you wont be complaining about lower frame rate again, atleast at the present eye candy setings and current resolution.

Also keep task mamager minimised while playing, and try minimising game in mid while you experience stuttering and check if the cpu cores are at 100% ?, or is it the ram which is at 100% ? Also do a defrag, and bench the hdd transfer rates.
 
buying G620 wont be a huge step up from what you have right now... i3 2100 would be better if you are upgrading your pc with gaming in mind,i3 2100 performs better as compared to 955 BE in gaming... in mustitasking 955BE wins hands down
 
#dOm1naTOr Thanks for the info. I never thought of the RAM bottleneck. Will check it out shortly.

BTW i've got the upgrade done. Taking into consideration the suggestions upgraded the CPU+Mobo to Intel Core i3 2100 + Intel DH67BL Motherboard (RAM: 2x2GB Corsair DDR3 1333Mhz).

The results are nothing short of spectacular. As mentioned in the first post, the framerates in BF3 were hovering around 30-35FPS with severe shutters in between. Now with the upgrade the frame rates have jumped to almost double averaging around 55-60.

Thanks everyone..
 
^^^ congrats on your new puchase
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That lil i3 is a beast in gaming and put many quad core phenoms to shame.It another shame tho that intel had its multipliers locked or else this wud have been a diff story.

ANy particular reason for paring that i3 with the h67 instead of the h61?
 
G80_gts said:
ANy particular reason for paring that i3 with the h67 instead of the h61?
Click to expand...

The H61 is a crippled chipset,

for starters it does not support Dual Channel DDR III @1333MHz, so RAM is bottlenecked again,

H61-block-diagram_450x408.jpg


H67_block-diagram_450x408.jpg


Rest of the points I think these block diagrams will show much more clearly.

Hope this answers your queries, Cheers!!
 
ALPHA17 said:
The H61 is a crippled chipset,

for starters it does not support Dual Channel DDR III @1333MHz, so RAM is bottlenecked again,

H61-block-diagram_450x408.jpg


H67_block-diagram_450x408.jpg


Rest of the points I think these block diagrams will show much more clearly.

Hope this answers your queries, Cheers!!
Click to expand...

AFAIK, all the core i proccys have an IMC. The choice of chipset has nothing to do with it.
 
Actually i brought the Proc+Mobo combo from a friend who was upgrading to i5 2500K, so the choice of chipset was by chance..

BTW will upgrading the current 2x2GB 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM to 2x4GB 1333Mhz DDR3 will help the gaming performance in any way? Upgrading to 1600Mhz is out of the question as the chipset supports a max of 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM only..
 
vinaycm said:
Actually i brought the Proc+Mobo combo from a friend who was upgrading to i5 2500K, so the choice of chipset was by chance..

BTW will upgrading the current 2x2GB 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM to 2x4GB 1333Mhz DDR3 will help the gaming performance in any way? Upgrading to 1600Mhz is out of the question as the chipset supports a max of 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM only..
Click to expand...

Though 4GB should be enough, but if you are going to use this config for more than a year then consider buying 2 x 4GB 1600 Mhz RAM as upcoming games could make good use of it.

I am suggesting you the 1600 MHz RAM as the price difference when compared to 1333 MHz RAM would be negligible but if you get a good deal on 1333 MHz RAM then buy it.

Hope it helps.
<
 
ALPHA17 said:
The H61 is a crippled chipset,

for starters it does not support Dual Channel DDR III @1333MHz, so RAM is bottlenecked again,

H61-block-diagram_450x408.jpg


H67_block-diagram_450x408.jpg


Rest of the points I think these block diagrams will show much more clearly.

Hope this answers your queries, Cheers!!
Click to expand...

Am i reading something wrong here>

the figure shows 1 mem DIMM slot per channel.supportinga max of 2 channel( 1 channel per DIMM) which isin keeping with dual channel mem architue which provides a independednt channel per module to the mem controller. Plus if you visit some of the mobo mfg`s pages, you will the h61 boards rated at dual channel mem config supporting max of 16 gigs.

The only diff i could see was

1. native support for SATA 3(6 Gbps)

2. Increased PCI E lanes

3. increased no of usb

This is no way a "crippled" chipset to start off with looking at the practical implications of sata 3, no of usb devices one usually connects and fianlly number of PCI-E lanes one uses.
<
 
G80_gts said:
Am i reading something wrong here>

the figure shows 1 mem DIMM slot per channel.supportinga max of 2 channel( 1 channel per DIMM) which isin keeping with dual channel mem architue which provides a independednt channel per module to the mem controller. Plus if you visit some of the mobo mfg`s pages, you will the h61 boards rated at dual channel mem config supporting max of 16 gigs.

The only diff i could see was

1. native support for SATA 3(6 Gbps)

2. Increased PCI E lanes

3. increased no of usb

This is no way a "crippled" chipset to start off with looking at the practical implications of sata 3, no of usb devices one usually connects and fianlly number of PCI-E lanes one uses.
Click to expand...

Yep H61 does support dual channel memory and as stated by #vivek.krishnan the choice of the chipset has nothing to do with it as memory is controlled by the IMC which in case of Core i series in on the die of the processor.

Here are some links which will confirm it:

Check the memory section:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LE/

Intel's H67 vs H61:

http://ark.intel.com/compare/52807,52806

Hope it will put all misconceptions to rest.
<
 
Thanks for the links #cooleagle, now I have to be more careful before shooting off about the H61 chipset.

Also thanks to #vivek.krishnan, #G80_gts.
 
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