spacegoathlz Posted April 24, 2016 Author Share Posted April 24, 2016 Ok. This comp I have was built 4 years ago, but it was built to last. I have.... AsusTek M4A89TD mother AMD 890FX chipset AMD SB850 Southbridge AMD Phenom II X6 1045T processor 500W power supply 5 fans air cooling in a huge case that I blow out at LEAST every 2 weeks(the thought of a leak and the maint of liquid cooling makes me nervous) NVIDIA 750 Ti (my NVIDIA 560 that it originally had went out back around Nov.) 16GB Ram 2 x 1TB internal 3500RPM HD The processor is the weak link, at the time, I was playing MMORPG's and had console gaming, and had no thoughts to playing graphic/processor intensive games on PC. I am wanting to upgrade my processor. I am thinking the AMD FX-4350 4.2GHz, because it's cheap, and still a huge step up. The hardest pushes that I give this thing are Need for Speed PS2 emulation, and GTA V PC version, but I do notice some lag on games that PCSX2 wiki shows as having no issues. (Yes, I've meticulously gone through every setting combo under the sun in config on PCSX2) The testing reported on the wiki seems to be mostly with intel i7 & i5 and those seem to be the popular ones for gaming, but honestly, this AMD setup has been so incredibly reliable and cool (temp wise) that I really want to stay with AMD (I dunno, could I even put an Intel into this MB with A3 sockets?) Just wondering if those of you that know more about it than I do (I know a lot of the hows, not a lot of the whys in computers) see any huge problems with me going to that FX-4350, if I should go with a newer model, more expensive AMD processor, or if there is some major reason to go with Intel instead. Also, while the data transfer between drives is slower than I'd like, everything else (HDD, chipset, RAM) still seems to be running great. Is there any need/reason to change any of it out along with the processor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 In terms up upgrades, as long as it's the same chipset and your motherboard is rated to support it, then go for it, you're not gonna hurt the system. I am unfamiliar with AMD products specifically in terms of using them, I've sworn off AMD for 8 years. My i7 930 from 2009 is playing PS2 and Wii games flawlessly. The same can't really be said for some of the newer games but my motherboard is at it's limit with this socket. I need to essentially build a new PC to keep going up (and I am super poor in this regard). That said, no, you'll not be able to put an Intel chip inside of your AMD socket, they're generally not built like that. I have 12GB of DDR3 1600 RAM, a GTX 970, and my i7 with my games running off of external USB2 hard drives and the only FPS drops I suffer are from the lack of emulation not my system generally speaking. This is however just my personal observation, the Hyper-threading that the Intel chipsets can do is astounding honestly. Most of these emulators are probably not even taking advantage of 2 CPU cores let alone all 4. I would suspect that the move to Direct X 12 will make the biggest stride in emulation longevity, DX12 is a sight to behold. I do concede that Intel chips are more expensive, but unlike Apple who charges more because they create the mystique rather than putting in quality components, you actually do get what you pay for. My wife's AMD GPU in her PC gives us nothing but troubles for example (we bought the PC pre-built and cheap from a friend). I am surprised that 500 watts however is powering your PC, I wouldn't have gone less than 750w, but I also don't know your PC like you do. Missing power can make your PC do odd things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromlostdays Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Yeah I'm not sure about AMD either, but my computer is a hand me down with an I5 and the ancient GTX 660, and I can play Wii and PS2 as well. The only time I see it struggle is if I ever tried to use a resolution higher than 2x. Specifically on N64 or PS1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Yea I can use x2-x4 depending on the game for PS2, Wii, Gamecube, PSP, and I use a Pixellate shader for everything else 2D in RetroArch just fine. N64 x2 or x3 will fail sometimes for me too, but I think that is a lack of decent emulation more than anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacegoathlz Posted April 24, 2016 Author Share Posted April 24, 2016 I guess I am not in bad shape at all then. I run pretty much everything on x3 resolution, the Need for Speed games slow a bit when there's heavy traffic. I can even pull off Ratchet and Clank games, ignoring the background glitches with just a slight slowdown as you enter combat. (Which becomes a feature/not a bug pretty quickly lol) I may just need to shift my thinking, my processor is only 2700Ghz stock, I can auto clock to about 3200, every manual OC I've tried to get to 3400 or above either fails BIOS or starts overheating within minutes. I've kind of been running on the assumption that I should be able to get 3x at full speed out of just about any game. Oh well. I guess I'll spend that money on another 5TB of storage \o/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 x3 is asking a lot of the software. At a certain point it may not be hardware but rather software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ps4isthefuture Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 I've been only using AMD in my last 2 personal computers 1st one 8 years ago and this one almost 4 years now. Also used AMD in all 162 computers I have built over the last 10 years. Like SentaiBrad says make sure it's the same socket type and supported by the motherboard. Make sure to thoroughly clean the base of the heatsink and reapply your thermal paste. I'm sure you knew but just incase. I need to upgrade soon also. My AMD A8-5600k 3.2GHz (OC 3.8GHZ) and my AMD HD6670 2GB don't like some of the new games so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 I'm building a new PC today myself, just waiting for the rest of the parts. https://www.launchbox-app.com/forum/monkeys/i-am-building-an-insane-new-pc-and-i-want-to-share-that-with-everyone I am super excited! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 @spacegoathlz I had the exact same CPU before and recently upgraded to 8350 @ 4 GHz and it was a fairly noticeable increase in performance. I wouldn't say it was huge but it was the simplest and cheapest upgrade instead of replacing the motherboard and going with an Intel CPU. The 8350 is enough to drive PCSX2 and it let me bump up the graphics settings of GTA 5 and The Witcher 3. I also have a GTX 970 GPU which helps out a lot and does the does bulk of the work in most modern games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CadetStimpy Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 lordmonkus said upgraded to 8350 @ 4 GHz I'm runnin' that same CPU. I felt it was a good value, as well, and as you pointed out, no Mobo replacement necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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