Upgrading existing midrange system

[DEADFA11]

Hello there.

At the moment, I have an M2R32-MVP crossfire motherboard, AMD Athlon x2 6000+ processor, and nVidia GTS250 graphics card. I am looking to upgrade individual components, but I'm not exactly sure what would net me the best bang for my buck. I had planned to buy some combination of the following:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz
A mid-high end graphics card (think 200 - 300 $), like the GeForce GTX 465
ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard for both AM3 compatibility and possible future SLI upgrade path.

A friend of mine just purchased a new motherboard and CPU (x4 Phenom I think), upgrading from an older dual core Athlon of some sort, but kept his Geforce 9800GT. He reported massive frame rate increases for such things as tree detail in the Terokkar Forest of WoW. So now I'm wondering if I might save some money and get a decent upgrade just by upgrading the CPU and keeping my current video card, or whether that upgrade would be tiny and I should spring for a new graphics card too?

 

[Sean W.]

whats your budget?

 

[DEADFA11]

Budget is not fixed. I just want to get the best value for my money. I'd like to be clear that I do not want the best that money can buy, as that is simply not good value.

I suppose my question boils down to whether my CPU (Athlon x2 6000+) is causing a bottleneck situation (with a GTS250 in a PCI-E 16x slot).

Edit: and I know I can verify whether said bottlenecking is happening by overclocking the CPU in steps and checking for framerate improvements, but I am away and do not have access to the computer. I would like to order some components before I get home, so they will be there when I arrive. I'll be gone for a few weeks.

Another question I have, which seems to have varying answers across the internet: Do games now, or will they in the short-term future, take advantage of more than 2 CPU cores?

If the answer is no, it seems like a better investment, gaming-wise, to buy a super high speed dual-core. Perhaps quad, as I can't find an AMD dual-core clocked at more than 3.2ghz. From a non-gaming standpoint on the other hand, I would prefer the hex-core, since my research involves highly parallel problems such as those encountered in machine learning.

However, at almost twice the price, I would rather only spring for a hex-core if it would also noticeably improve game performance.

 

[Trotter]

Another question I have, which seems to have varying answers across the internet: Do games now, or will they in the short-term future, take advantage of more than 2 CPU cores?

Most definitely yes. Battlefield Bad Company 2 plays on a dual core (keeps my 4200 X2 pegged at 100% or close to it), but it hums on a quad. BC2 is not the only game by any means, and newer/upcoming games will utilize multiple cores more and more.

I don't know if any current games can use all of a hex or not. Since they are so new games probably aren't coded for them yet. I really don't see buying one for a gaming system, but I could be wrong.

 

[patonb]

Believe it or not, the 250 isn't a bad card at all. Not high end, but high enough to run decently.

If you're going to update, I'd do the mobo now. Youre current cpu will run it, and you're gpus good, so updateing the mobo, for future cpu update is the only reason to. However, you'll need new ram as well.

Honestly, maybe save up a bit long and get it all at once so prices come down, or you decide to go intel.

 

[DEADFA11]

If the only reason to update the motherboard is for the possibility of a future CPU upgrade, then I don't see the point. Especially since I would need to buy another 4 gb of DDR3 to replace the older generation, in exchange for little to no performance increase.

In that case, consider this option: buy only a GTX465, keeping current CPU.

Would I then experience bottlenecking due to my older CPU (6000+ X2)?

 

[Trotter]

Yes, it would.

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT55TFBGRBOX
&
GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
$310

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM
$105

Total = $415

OR

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGIBOX
$160

GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
$140

Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM
$105

Total = $405

 

[DEADFA11]

In the interest of proactively staying up to date, I think I'll go for the higher clocked 6-core:

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz

Since game designers will surely take advantage of this level of parallelism once it becomes more commonplace. As for motherboard and RAM, those that you have suggested look good. I'll look into those.

One thing: I notice the motherboard you listed doesn't support SLI. Is this a specific choice, or could I easily find an equivalent one that does?

 

[Trotter]

NewEgg carries a total of four AM3 SLI boards... two from MSI and two from Asus. Of those this one edges out:
Newegg.com - ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

I don't care for the sound chip (VIA), but it will work. Nvidia used to be the top dog for AMD chipsets, but not anymore.

 

[DEADFA11]

That's the one I had in mind, looking at the ones they offered. I just want SLI to keep the options open as far as upgrade paths go. Nothing worse than getting to the point when you need an upgrade, and realizing you need to buy a whole new system.

I'll think on it for a while, and if I'm still feeling ambitious in a few days, I'll have a bunch of new hardware in the mail. Thanks for all the help!