Phenom 955 for light gaming - New graphics card advice.

[global33]

I don't really have much time to play games these days and haven't done so on the PC for a few years, when I bought a PS4 as a low cost option. I was given a Phenom 955 and motherboard earlier this year by a friend which I used to upgrade my desktop. Motherboard is a ASUSTeK M5A99X EVO with 16gb.

Thing is I've got a hankering to play the odd FPS like Doom and I can't invest enough time with the PS4 to get proficient at playing this type of game with a control pad enjoyably. I can't really justify a new motherboard, cpu and gpu for the little bit of time I will use it, but wondered if I could get away with a budget gpu like a 1050ti and still play some newer games, even if they weren't on the highest settings. Currently got a 5850 in there, so assume the power supply is good enough for any budget card I use.

Would a 8350 be an upgrade in gaming terms? Reason I ask is that if so I might be able to stretch to buying a second hand one on somewhere like ebay?

Is the 1050ti the best card about at the moment in that price range? There seems to be a huge jump in price for something like a 1060 and of course with an old cpu I guess there is no point if it would just get bottle necked anyway.

Many thanks everyone

 

[mdd1963]

1050Ti is decent for 1080P for most titles, surprisingly so....

It's a good 'bang for the buck', IMO....

 

[global33]

Thanks. It did seem the best going before a significant hike in price. Do you think that with one of those I should be able to play a title like Doom with the processor I have at 1080p or will it just be held back to much by such an old chip?

 

[madmatt30]

Doom runs on a phenom 955/965 easily. You'll do 60fps at medium settings without a doubt .rogue leader (,one of the mods) was running a 480 with a phenom 965 & hitting well in excess of 100fps at ultra.

You can overclock that phenom to 3.8ghz asily with the addition of a $20 cooler btw .

That's a fairly big performance increase.

Upgrade wise a fx 6300 (If you can grab one cheap) is a good upgrade , I wouldn't spend more than is necessary

 

[global33]

Brilliant. That's good to know. The motherboard came with an aftermarket cooler. Not sure which one, but it's pretty big. I've just installed AMD overdrive and stuck it to 3.8 and am running Prime on it to see if it's stable. Temp seems to be about 60 which seems on the high side, but I'm assuming that's because Prime is working it really hard.

 

[madmatt30]

Most phenoms will run at 3.8 with no fuss & no manual voltage I creases whatsoever

As you've found though they do run fairly toasty.

Use amd overdrive for temp monitoring

http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/over-drive

Open CPU status & the thermal margin shows offset temp margin available until throttling cutout.

Under prime anything hovering around 10c or higher is absolutely fine.

 

[madmatt30]

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNDNtXMLoYk"][/video]

The guy has loads of benches with a stock phenom 955 & 1050ti

Surprising what it can still do in all honesty!

https://www.youtube.com/user/chriscasamassa/videos

 

[global33]

That all looks great and nice to know I can do a bit of gaming without breaking the bank. Thanks for all your help.