Is AMD Phenom 965 BE still good for gaming?

[DarkstyleR]

Im thinking of getting a phenom 965 black edition. Is it still good for gaming ? Planning on playing games like metro last light on very high, battlefield 4 1280x1024.

 

[matthew_nicho2]

i have a Phenom 970 which very slightly better but I get 60fps in metro last light just fine, of course it would depend on what graphics card you have also.

Saying that you will struggle with newer titles. For example Assassins Creed Black Flag, Saints Row IV, Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs, Shadow of Mordor will run easily as 30fps but never run at a constant 60fps. I have to lock them to 30 else the screen tears and frame rates are all over the place at times.

I am expecting to run all big games from this gen (PS4, X1) at 30fps from this point forward.

tldr;
If you want to run all the new and upcoming games you will need a faster CPU
if you want to play older titles then it should be fine

 

[cewhidx]

I just upgraded from a Phenom II 965 to an FX 8350 all stock speeds, and have seen no noticeable difference in gaming performance. Now with that said, I have had no problem running Far Cry 4, or Shadow of Mordor on ultra using a higher end graphics card (GTX 780). I haven't used FRAPS or anything to record my actual frame rates, but I can say that I have had no slowdowns or lagging that I have noticed yet so, for gaming I'd have to say that the Phenom II 965 is plenty capable if you have a strong enough graphics card. I would suggest switching to Intel for any measurable gaming performance gain over the Phenom as FX hasn't shown me any difference.

 

[DarkstyleR]

What would you say are better alternatives to that proccessor for the same price (or not a huge difference) ?

 

[cewhidx]

I'm not sure what a 965 is going for these days, but if you are getting a new mobo with the new processor you could do better with an Intel setup for gaming. Tom's has a cpu hierarchy chart at the end of their "Best gaming CPUs for the Money" articles that would give you an idea about the performance level differences. Alls ya gotta do then is look up the current prices on Newegg or whatever your favorite hardware site happens to be and narrow it down from there. I'd do the leg work for ya, but my internet is really slow at the moment, and what would take you a few minutes would take me considerably longer lol. Hope this helps.

 

[DarkstyleR]

I saw that with the intel g3258 but I don't really want to overclock. The 965 be is about 80 dollars.

 

[Narcissistic_Martyr]

If you don't already have a motherboard, I'd get this combo. If you have an AM3 or AM3+ board I'd grab a phenom ii x6 1055t (or higher) for around $80. If you're dead set on AMD and don't have a MB get the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3. However you're still going to have to overclock the phenom to get similar performance.

 

[Rakanyshu]

If you don't already have a motherboard, I'd get this combo. If you have an AM3 or AM3+ board I'd grab a phenom ii x6 1055t (or higher) for around $80. If you're dead set on AMD and don't have a MB get the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3. However you're still going to have to overclock the phenom to get similar performance.

I think this would be your best answer plus if you're going AMD specially a BE you should OC thats what they are made for, my brother has the phenom ii x4 BE and its still a beast for gaming i hardly noticed a difference in his or my rig using the same VideoCard.

 

[DarkstyleR]

Alright lets say I overclock the 965 BE, will that help in performance?

 

[cewhidx]

Well, since the Phenom II 940, 955, and 965 are essentially the same processor with a 200Mhz increase in clock speed between them, here is an article that shows how they perform along side one another under identical conditions with the same software:
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/processors/AMD_Phenom_II_X4_965_1.html

This should give you an idea of the performance increase that occurs with an increase in clock speed. *NOTE* The speed differences are ONLY multiplier increases and not BUS speed.

 

[Narcissistic_Martyr]

Alright lets say I overclock the 965 BE, will that help in performance?

Yes, but it won't give you as good of FPS as the i3 build I linked above.

 

[DarkstyleR]

FM2 proccessor, i thought those were bad for gaming.