upgrade phenom PC

[acerinpa]

Ok - my next kid wants a gaming PC- currently he is using my older phenom machine. I will get a lists of all parts if you guys think the Phenom II Quad black 965 CPU is worth upgrading or should we build new. He wants it to play BF4 on a 1080p 26 inch monitor on high settings.

So, obviously - question one- is that CPU still fast enough and if put with a good GPU will it be able to rock BF4? If consensus is "yes" - then I will list all components in the PC to determine which is the best way to upgrade.

Thanks

 

[Trotter]

That's what I will be gaming with.

 

[Yevrag35]

Yeah, that'll be fine. Is it paired with DDR3 memory right now?

 

[acerinpa]

Yes - 4 Gb DDR3 I believe - and I think it has a 850 watt Corsair PSU. I am at work so need to get into it and list parts ASAP. I think the main issue is the GPU is like 5 years old and was mid level at the time of its purchase. It would be great if all we had to do was clean it up and switch out a new GPU= 760 or 7970 GPU - I am thinking he was max out at about $300 for the gpu. I found this one so far =

Amazon.com: XFX AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB DDR5 2DVI/HDMI/2Mini DisplayPorts PCI-Express Graphics Cards FX797ATDJC;FX-797A-TDJC: Computers & Accessories

I personally like Nvidia more than AMD ,but for the $300 dollar range I don't think Nvidia has anything close to the 7970. the 760~ $250, the 770~ $400.

 

[RichM499]

I would recommend this one
SAPPHIRE 21197-00-40G Radeon HD 7970 3GB PCI Express Video Card - Newegg.com

It has the reference cooler which directs air out of the case instead of blowing it around in the case which will heat up the rest of the components in the case. I am using a Phenom II 1090t and GTX 760 and I run all my games in 1080p with all the max settings with smooth framerates.

 

[PP Mguire]

Take it how you will, but here the 760 is about on par with the 7970 (in BF3) but BF4 is an AMD Gaming Evolved title so initial scoring when the game is released will be in favor of AMD cards.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/770?vs=854

My suggestion, wait for the R9 290x to drop real soon and check pricing then. The R9 280x is supposed to be a rebranded 7970 so actual 7970 pricing, and all of Nvidia's line should drop.

Edit: Before people **** all over what I said, the 7970 is a better card than a 760 but if you want to stick with Nvidia you'll get pretty much the same performance in Battlefield.

 

[acerinpa]

Any idea when that R9 290x drop will be PP?

 

[PP Mguire]

I'm under the impression of the beginning of next month but I can't remember a solid date.

 

[acerinpa]

Ok hmm.... Well finally checked out the set up- it is a i5 , 8gb RAM, 5700 ATI card. Need to take it apart to see the PSU - but I think it is 600 watt Corsair. How there was sooo much crap on it - it would not even properly update windows or java, or adobe. Had both Nvidia and Catalyst software on it as well. Hopefully once i clean it properly- then all he will need is a new card.

PP - the R9 290x is going to be around $500 from what I can tell. the R8 280x May be good for him.

What is the name of the free software that you can check you hardware with- cant remember it. Free download - there is also a temp software from same company if I remember correctly.

 

[PP Mguire]

Everything you need to know will be in the device manager.

Temp software download the standalone copy of Coretemp for proper CPU monitoring, and MSI Afterburner for GPU.

The R9 290x will be the first to come out from that series which is why I said wait for it to drop. The R9 280x is a rebranded 7970. The R9 270x is supposed to be a slightly butched 7950 for 200 bucks, so I'm going to guess the R9 280x is going to be 250 and slightly higher performing than the 7970 GHz.

Edit: NDA lift is supposed to be the 15th, but idk when the actual hardware is going to ship.