Opinions on CPU upgrade?

[techrayder]

My current specs are:

AMD Phenom 2 x4 955 OC'd at 3.7 GHz
4 GB DDR2 800 RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition

I'm wanting to get some better performance for gaming specifically, so here are my questions:

1. Is my processor bottlenecking my GPU?
2. Is having the current RAM setup I have hurting me gaming wise?

And, if I do need to upgrade any part of this setup, what would you recommend? I'd prefer to stay AMD if I could, but all the talk about bulldozer and the FX series falling flat worries me.

 

[rolli59]

You should be fine with that CPU and GPU, if you have 64 bit windows then 8GB ram would not hurt but you are DDR2 which is expensive.

 

[techrayder]

I do get some pretty good performance, like for example on BF3 on high i'm running 60 fps in a clearing, but ill dip like 45-50 in most instances. Guild Wars 2 maxed out also dips down to about that in some busy areas too. I guess i'm just trying to eek juuuust a little more and stay 60 fps and up as much as possible, but I suspect that might be very costly for such a small tip over.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

the fx series wont get you any more performance. the fx 8350 would only give a slight increase in performance in games that are well threaded, but since your board is ddr2, it probably wont support it.

 

[rolli59]

No it will not support FX and upgrading board you might as well change to Intel for gaming but really you are OK for now and maybe consider next generation.

 

[techrayder]

No it will not support FX and upgrading board you might as well change to Intel for gaming but really you are OK for now and maybe consider next generation.

I suppose that makes sense, i'll just hold onto my current build and wait it out until AMD can hopefully catch up, or just go Intel if it comes down to it in the future. Thank you for the help! Great first experience for me at Toms Hardware!

 

[techrayder]

Best answer selected by Techrayder.