Upgrading Phenom II X4 965 To FX-8350

[Azndude263]

I already have the AM3+ motherboard (MSI 970) with the Phenom II X4 965 along with a gtx 750 ti. I'm planning to give this PC to my brother for some light gaming such as Guild Wars 2, CSGO, PUBG, Civ 5 and such. Do you guys think it is worth spending $50 (after selling the 965 and buy a used 8350) to upgrade to a 8350? Also, should I also spend the extra $70-$80 on upgrading the 750 ti to 1050 ti?

PS: Could someone also help me out the difference between 8350 and 8370? Is it worth it to spend an extra $20-30 on it?

 

[chemmajorp53]

But if your brother has your old PC where are you getting a motherboard and 750 ti from? Are you upgrading it for him or for yourself? 8370 is just an 8350 that's very slightly more overclockable because of improvements in manufacturing. Definitely not worth $20-30 more. I wouldn't buy an 8350 either though.

 

[Eximo]

All FX-83xx chips are pretty much the same level of performance. With a little overclocking they can all be made to run at the same speed, within reason. Not always the best thing to do with a underrated 970 board though. First thing to check is that the board is rated for 125W CPUs. If not you can get one of the FX-83xxE which are 95W chips to play it safe.

Upgrading the GPU is more tricky, I would go ahead and try it with the GTX750ti and see how it does. Then pick up a new GPU if it just can't handle the gaming he wants to do.

Despite the age, and low IPC compared to recent chips, the FX 8300 chips can still game pretty well.

 

[Azndude263]

This is my old PC as I have already built a new one with the i7 6700k a couple years back. It just has been sitting in my closet collecting dust and my brother's laptop just died so am planning to give him my old 1. I used to use this PC just for streaming Netflix, web browsing and very light gaming such as Minecraft but never tried more demanding games. He does play more demanding games thus am not sure if the Phenom 965 and the GTX 750 ti can handle thus am thinking about spending about $130-$150 upgrading to the FX-8350 and GTX 1050 ti but not sure if it's worth it if there these will be improvements

I have never overclocked CPU before and am not sure if it is easy to do but the mother board is the 970A GAMING PRO CARBON

I know the newer Ryzen or the Intel route is obviously a better way to go but that just means I need to buy both new motherboard and CPU (no cheap used ones). I just want to give this PC a few more years with some little upgrades if possible

 

[exroofer]

Yes on video card, no on cpu swap.
I did that exact same swap a few years ago, but it went in to a Sabertooth 990FX board.
Most of the 970 chipsets don't have the OC headroom of the 990FX boards.

The video card makes sense, because you/your brother can upgrade to a Ryzen on a B350 board for $400 and change USD, ( chip/mobo/ram, R5 1600 if you stretch the $400 a little), keep the video card, and be happy.
965 per core performance is about as good as as a 8350 when OC'd.
4.0 ish Ghz and 2800 Northbridge is achievable on "most" 965's, it will depend on how happy the board is with that.

And the Northbridge OC can be done with little or no extra voltage, meaning little or no extra heat.
Which gives a pretty impressive increase in cpu thruput.

So ya. Upgrade video card, get a little OC on the 965, and it will be fine for a while for your stated use.
Video card will give the biggest increase by far, and can be re-used in upgraded system for a couple years.

Also, as it sits with 750ti, it's still decent enough that your brother will be able to enjoy it.

 

[chemmajorp53]

Definitely no on the CPU upgrade, 8350 really isn't that much faster than the 965 and you can just OC what you have a bit. For all the games but PUBG, that computer is fine. PUBG is pretty crappily optimized and you're not even going to get great performance with a 1050 ti. If you were to upgrade I'd just skip the 1050 ti and go straight for a 1060 or even a used 970. PUBG will be playable on low settings on that PC the way it is, but you're going to have to spend a decent sum of money to get 60fps+ all the time and it's probably not worth it.

 

[Azndude263]

Isn't the FX-8350 relatively newer than the Phenom II series? Is the FX-8350 really that bad and show that little improvement over its older counterpart?

As you guys already stated, I don't think the 970 board is good for overclocking thus am planning to keep at stock clock (plus I have never done this anyway hahaha). I thought $50 is a pretty good investment for going from 3.4ghz quad core to 4ghz eight core newer chip but based on what you guys say, it is obviously not hahaha

 

[exroofer]

Yes the 8350 is newer.
No it is not "that bad"
However, with a little oc. (Northbridge!), the 965, PER CORE, will be at least as fast as a stock 8350.
If I thought you could get 4.6-4.8/2400 NB out of an 8350, it would be worth it at $50 cost.
But I seriously doubt you could do that on that board. And it would need at least a Hyper 212 Evo cooler.
Three years ago I would have said sure.
But with Ryzen out now?. No.
Get as much video card as you can afford/power with current psu.
Go Ryzen when money allows.
Be happy.

 

[Azndude263]

But the thing is my 965 is also at stock (I don't know how to overclock and like you said the board probably isn't good for overclocking). But the consensus is still stick with the 3.4ghz 965 and upgrade to 1050ti?

 

[exroofer]

Yes, with the upgrade path being to Ryzen in the future.
Makes the most economic sense.
Some Googling and a visit to the AMD overclocking forum here on Tom's would let you get 10-20% more out of the 965 EASILY, even on a 970 board.
Even if you leave it stock, spending money now on an 8350 is money better stashed against a future upgrade.
For example, a 4 core/8 thread Ryzen will significantly outperform an 8350 in most cases, and the $50 ish dollars, ( which assumes you can actually do the swap for that), gets you 1/2 to 1/3 of the way to ryzen.

After the work and expense of 965-8350 swap, you just won't see big gains.
It will be better, but using that $50 ish to go from a 1050ti to a 1060 would give you MORE gains really,
and a card you can take forward with an upgrade later.
A used 970 video card is also a very sensible option here, within your budget.

 

[Azndude263]

The reason I can't and don't want to upgrade to Ryzen is because then I would need to buy new motherboard and ram as well :/. But I will keep the 965 and buy the 1050ti. Is the 1050ti good enough for 1080P?

 

[tinoferrol]

I changed the 965 BE for the FX 6350. I didnt notice almost nothing in term of performance. The FX are poor in performance in games copared to an i5, not to mention an i7. The 1050Ti is the same as a GTX 960, or slightly better in some games. Go for it, you can play 1080p with it for sure.

 

[jeffredo]

Coming from someone who's owned an X4 955 BE and an X4 980 BE plus an FX-8320E (all of them overclocked) the FX-8350 is going to perform much better in modern games. The old Stars architecture of the Phenom is just too old and missing too many modern instructions to perform well now. The FX 8-core should perform about 25% to 100% better depending on the game. Now that's with a reasonably powerful modern GPU. With a GTX 750 Ti you're going to be so GPU bound that there probably won't be much benefit at all.