Overclock Old CPU or look for replacement?

[crispykiller96]

Hi there i'm on a very tight budget and needed some help firstly i have a mild overclock on my Phenom 2 X4 955 from 3.2GHz to 3.6GHz and runs very well on stock cooling and without any voltage changes now in 2014 my cpu is showing its age crysis runs terrible even on medium settings on my aging GTX 460 768MB now heres the issue i either get a FX 6300 cpu with a compatible AM3+ motherboard or overclock my phenom cpu to 4GHZ with a better cooler and upgrade my graphics card to say a GTX 650 or 660 or even the 7 series if my phenom can keep up with it lol 🙂

(1) So my question is do i overclock my phenom 2 to 4ghz and install a newer better graphics card with better cpu cooler
(2) ditch the motherboard and cpu and buy the FX6300 and purchase a AM3+ motherboard and keep using my 460 until i find a better alternate i'm confused 🙂

Cheers

 

[Arcanine300]

Well if your gaming i would overclock the phenom to 4ghz or higher and get a 660 or 750ti and then later on when you have more money i would get the cpu upgrade. Gpu's are more important for gaming then cpu's so you will see a large increase in performance from getting an upgraded gpu.

 

[fil1p]

Hey,

I would possibly get a budget cooler, something of good value like the CM Hyper 212, and simply push the CPU a bit further. You won't see a big boost, however I would save up and later upgrade to the Z97 platform along with a new GPU. The FX6300 is not a very big upgrade, it would be better to wait a bit and get something a bit more powerful.

Hope this helps!

 

[Elitemonkeys32]

I would also suggest overclocking the phenom ii is still a viable gaming processor. Try overclocking and then overclock the north bridge as well to at least 2600 mhz and that should hold you over until you get a new processor. Upgrading to a fx6300 wouldnt be much of an upgrade thought because the phenom has a higher ipc so i would go for a fx 8350 when it is time to upgrade

 

[damric]

Don't leave free performance on the table. Overclock that CPU. Go Radeon. Mantle API helps eliminate much of the driver overhead that overtasks CPUs. More Mantle games are coming end of this year and many more in the next 2 years.

 

[crispykiller96]

Don't leave free performance on the table. Overclock that CPU. Go Radeon. Mantle API helps eliminate much of the driver overhead that overtasks CPUs. More Mantle games are coming end of this year and many more in the next 2 years.

Thanks mate i'm pushing for at least 4ghz if i can what radeon gpu would you recommend that would work well with my phenom if radion was the case i could possibly install two ati cards as i have two pci express slots would that improve performance significantly i have a 1050 watt 80+ psu so power is not an problem I'm guessing two midrange gpus what would you suggest also thanks for all the other answer guys 🙂

Update i forgot to add i game on a 24inch 1080P display i'm just after smooth playable frame rate really 🙂

 

[rohanr22]

I over clocked mine, was running perfectly until the CPU and mb just gave out. Refused to post. Now I'm forced to get the fx 6300