Upgrade to Core i5 from AMD Phenom 1055T, worth it?

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Retromangia

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Hey guys,

I'm currently running and AMD X2 Phenom 1055T (oc'd to 3.8ghz), along side an AMD 7950. Most of my games run pretty damn well, but part of me thinks they can run better.

Would it be a worthy investment to upgrade to a Pentium G3258 Haswell Dual-Core 3.2ghz overclocked to 4.0ghz? Or would it take an i5 to really notice any improvement?

Anyone's thoughts would be much appreciated! :)

thanks guys, hope to hear from you soon.

-Retro
 
Well what games are you playing?
What's the max resolution of your monitor?

With that said, FWIW, upgrading from a Phenom II X4 CPU to a Core i7 CPU definitely improved my BF4 performance at 1080P
 
For reference, here is a 1100T vs. a 3258 (stock clocks)... and from looking at the gaming benches it definitely appears that the the extra cores on the Phenom do help in many minimum-fps scenarios. Basically, you'd most likely have a worse gaming experience on the 3258 due to bottoming out when your Phenom may not.

I'd wager that you would indeed need to take it up to a Haswel i5 to see a serious difference.

Here's a Haswell-based i5-4690k vs. the 1100T. Far greater of an upgrade and likely the one you are aiming for.
 
Strictly speaking from a gaming standpoint, you'd gain a hell of a bigger performance boost by upgrading your GPU instead of a new CPU. A 7950 is no slouch but even at 1080, you'd see a huge increase in going with something like a GTX 970 or 290x instead.
 
Considering the i5 will do literally EVERYTHING a LOT better, I'd say yes, absolutely worth it.
 
sure it will, but will they notice for the cost of a new CPU and Motherboard? Not likely...
 
MrGuvernment said:
sure it will, but will they notice for the cost of a new CPU and Motherboard? Not likely...
Click to expand...
It may cost him more in the long run to upgrade later rather than now. Assuming that he has a decent amount of DDR3 RAM (16GB or more), if he upgrades now, he can reuse that RAM with current Intel Z97 platforms. If he waits another year or two, Intel is switching to DDR4 RAM for their mainstream platform. As such, he would have to pay another $100+ (assuming that 16GB of DDR4 RAM will drop that low by then) for DDR4 RAM on top of the overall cost of the new DDR4 based system.

Based on current Intel performance improvement trends and the lack of a real need for higher speed RAM, the extra $100+ for a DDR4 based mainstream setup isn't really worth it nor worth the wait. So might as well upgrade now to a Haswell setup, get close to basically the same performance as a future Intel CPU (probably no more than 10% faster), and save $100+.
 
Wow, was not expecting such a great response from you guys.. I knew HF was the place to ask..thanks again everyone.

So let me give you my specs:

-AMD Phenom X2 1055T CPU
-AMD 7950 GPU
-8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
-Windows 7
-120GB SSD

I play all my games at 1080P, and aim for 60fps. I play everything from Battlefield 4, Diablo III, StarCraft 2, and Dirt 3.


Would it be safe to say that I can get an Intel Mobo and i5 CPU for around $200?

I don't need the latest and greatest CPU, but I am looking for one that overclocks well. As for motherboard, I found a good deal on the MSI Z97 PC Mate.

I haven't upgraded in years so im kinda out of the loop...Thanks everyone!
 
Retromangia said:
Would it be safe to say that I can get an Intel Mobo and i5 CPU for around $200?

I don't need the latest and greatest CPU, but I am looking for one that overclocks well. As for motherboard, I found a good deal on the MSI Z97 PC Mate.

I haven't upgraded in years so im kinda out of the loop...Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
No. With Intel, they intentionally limited the number of CPUs that you can overclock. The cheapest new overclock capable Core i5 CPU, the Core i5 4690K, costs $230 to $240 alone. Unless you live near a Microcenter in which case that CPU is $200. While the $100 MSI Z97 PC Mate is a decent motherboard, I would recommend spending a little bit extra for a better overclock capable motherboard like the Asrock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer.

So yeah, you're looking at $340 to $370 for an overclock capable Core i5 upgrade. Hence MrGuvernment's earlier statements about worthwhile costs. If you live near a Microcenter, a similar setup would cost ~$280 + any local sales tax. A non-overclock capable Core i5 setup will run about $275 to $280.
 
Thanks for the advice Dangman... how would I differentiate which CPU is overclockable...Something about the letter "K" right?


I'm also open to buying 2nd hand CPU's... perhaps an older i5 K model. Any thoughts on that? They either work or they don't ya know. I wouldn't buy a second hand motherboard because they can have all sorts of issues.

thanks again everyone! :)
 
Retromangia said:
Thanks for the advice Dangman... how would I differentiate which CPU is overclockable...Something about the letter "K" right?
Click to expand...
Yes basically an overclock capable Core i5 or Core i7 CPU has the letter K in the name.
Retromangia said:
I'm also open to buying 2nd hand CPU's... perhaps an older i5 K model. Any thoughts on that? They either work or they don't ya know. I wouldn't buy a second hand motherboard because they can have all sorts of issues.

thanks again everyone! :)
Click to expand...
If you're talking about a full generation older (Ivy Bridge which uses socket LGA 1155) than the current crop of Intel CPUs, that probably won't save you that much money. No one is really rushing to replace their Ivy Bridge CPUs at the moment so there isn't a huge supply of used Ivy Bridge-based Core i5 3570K CPUs around.

Especially considering that you're buying a new motherboard. On Newegg, the cheapest LGA 1155 overclock capable motherboard is this $130 AsRock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

That's basically the same price as a newer generation Z97 LGA 1150 motherboard like the Asrock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer I listed earlier. With that said, if you can find a Core i5 2500K or Core i7 2600K for $150 shipped, that would make kinda worthwhile to go with an older platform. Stick with the AsRock Z77 Extreme4 for those CPUs as both CPUs are LGA 1155.
 
Retromangia said:
Thanks for the advice Dangman... how would I differentiate which CPU is overclockable...Something about the letter "K" right?


I'm also open to buying 2nd hand CPU's... perhaps an older i5 K model. Any thoughts on that? They either work or they don't ya know. I wouldn't buy a second hand motherboard because they can have all sorts of issues.

thanks again everyone! :)
Click to expand...

There's tons of 2500K's on Ebay around $150 that absolutely love 4.4-4.6ghz.

The only problem with that route is that Z77 boards are actually very expensive due to scarcity (Dangman, ya beat me to it :p). You will see some decent deals occasionally pop up on Ebay, but i've always been leery of anything but BNIB boards. Most Z77 boards are $75-$150 even used. By the time you've got the board and chip, you're still uncomfortably close to a new Haswell K build. At that point, it would be wiser to save up a little bit more $$$ and go with a Haswell K chip setup.

Now...it would be a different story if you had an existing Z77 board, or could get one for on the cheap....
 
Retromangia said:
Wow, was not expecting such a great response from you guys.. I knew HF was the place to ask..thanks again everyone.

So let me give you my specs:

-AMD Phenom X2 1055T CPU
-AMD 7950 GPU
-8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
-Windows 7
-120GB SSD

I play all my games at 1080P, and aim for 60fps. I play everything from Battlefield 4, Diablo III, StarCraft 2, and Dirt 3.


Would it be safe to say that I can get an Intel Mobo and i5 CPU for around $200?

I don't need the latest and greatest CPU, but I am looking for one that overclocks well. As for motherboard, I found a good deal on the MSI Z97 PC Mate.

I haven't upgraded in years so im kinda out of the loop...Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

Again brother, I think you'd see a much bigger bump in performance going with a GPU upgrade instead of CPU especially at 1080. The 290x can be had for $300 last I looked and would play everything on the market at max settings. Ideally it would be best to get an i5 and a GPU obviously but for the money, you're going to get a lot more performance put of your cash with a 290x or GTX 970.
 
MrGuvernment said:
sure it will, but will they notice for the cost of a new CPU and Motherboard? Not likely...
Click to expand...

I disagree. If I were to put myself in the OP's situation that means my current rig simply won't cut it. It's worth every penny.
 
Ok great... Many different routes I could take.. now that you guys mention it, I think it wouldn't be in my best interest to get an older I5... I didnt realize it had an older socket type as well.

So what id like to know is, do you guys think my current CPU is good enough, or do you think its severely limiting my GPU and overall gaming experience?

thanks duders!
 
you still have not told us what games you play so we don't know how CPU dependant they are.
 
Retromangia said:
Ok great... Many different routes I could take.. now that you guys mention it, I think it wouldn't be in my best interest to get an older I5... I didnt realize it had an older socket type as well.

So what id like to know is, do you guys think my current CPU is good enough, or do you think its severely limiting my GPU and overall gaming experience?

thanks duders!
Click to expand...

not your Actual GPU, but it may limit the performance on newer and stronger cards, specially talking in minimums FPS which you may have a hard time trying to be stable in some games at 60FPS (or more depending on the desired Refresh Rate) and more even yet in the games you mentioned above.. and even if a new GPU will show a greater performance bump the constant FPS drop may be enough to lower the total gaming experience..
 
MacLeod said:
Again brother, I think you'd see a much bigger bump in performance going with a GPU upgrade instead of CPU especially at 1080. The 290x can be had for $300 last I looked and would play everything on the market at max settings. Ideally it would be best to get an i5 and a GPU obviously but for the money, you're going to get a lot more performance put of your cash with a 290x or GTX 970.
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What? At 1080 you are far more likely to be bottlenecked by the CPU than the GPU versus higher resolutions. A 290X would make more sense at 2560+ resolutions, but at 1080P, and given that he states he wants 60fps minimums, I would say an i5 upgrade would be much more worthwhile versus replacing the 7950, which is still a respectable card.
 
Rizen said:
What? At 1080 you are far more likely to be bottlenecked by the CPU than the GPU versus higher resolutions. A 290X would make more sense at 2560+ resolutions, but at 1080P, and given that he states he wants 60fps minimums, I would say an i5 upgrade would be much more worthwhile versus replacing the 7950, which is still a respectable card.
Click to expand...

He isn't comparing 1080 to higher resolutions. He's comparing a GPU vs CPU upgrade when gaming at 1080.


That said, a 7950 is still pretty formidable at 1080 so I can't say I agree with him that a GPU upgrade would be more worthwhile. If I had to pick one, I'd go with the CPU. You can always lower a texture setting or AA on more graphically demanding games, but there isn't a whole lot you can do if your CPU is holding you back, and with an old Phenom II, that will happen often.
 
A 290x is going to get nearly DOUBLE the frame rates as a 7950. You'll pick up around 5% with a new i5. A Phenom X6 at nearly 4 GHz isn't going to bottleneck a 7950 so a faster CPU isn't going to make much difference in gaming. But getting a GPU that's twice as fast will.

And no, a lower resolution is not more likely to bottleneck at the CPU. The lower the resolution the less demand will be on the CPU and you can get away with a slower one than at say 5760x1080. At 1080 a Phenom X6 with a high overclock is still a viable chip. Yes ideally it would be better to have a faster CPU and I'm not saying CPU's font matter but if we're talking one or the other here and just in terms of gaming, a GPU upgrade with 100% more performance for about the same money is the way I'd want to go.
 
Tough choice you have. Getting a new CPU or GPU would be a decent upgrade either way. A lot of it depends what games you play and if you do anything else other than gaming.
 
Starcraft 2 would benefit massively from the Intel Core i5 upgrade, since it's only single-threaded. But the rest of the tittles you mentioned would not see much of an upgrade, since you have an x6 processor.

See here, where a lowly Pentium outclasses your X6:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/129

If you spend a lot of time playing SC2 competitively, then the Core i5 will be your best friend, especially thanks to the turbo boost. But otherwise, you'll be better-served by the R9 290x :D

Or you could do both!
 
defaultluser said:
Or you could do both!
Click to expand...

Yeah thats the best way. A Phenom II is getting kinda tired. Hell my 8350 is getting some gray hairs and Im really resisting the urge to blow up a credit card on a Haswell-E build. We either upgrade, or we die. :D
 
MacLeod said:
A 290x is going to get nearly DOUBLE the frame rates as a 7950. You'll pick up around 5% with a new i5. A Phenom X6 at nearly 4 GHz isn't going to bottleneck a 7950 so a faster CPU isn't going to make much difference in gaming. But getting a GPU that's twice as fast will.

And no, a lower resolution is not more likely to bottleneck at the CPU. The lower the resolution the less demand will be on the CPU and you can get away with a slower one than at say 5760x1080. At 1080 a Phenom X6 with a high overclock is still a viable chip. Yes ideally it would be better to have a faster CPU and I'm not saying CPU's font matter but if we're talking one or the other here and just in terms of gaming, a GPU upgrade with 100% more performance for about the same money is the way I'd want to go.
Click to expand...

Show me a 290x getting double the performance of a 7950 at 1080p when paired up with a Phenom II.... It's not going to happen, so please stop making up numbers.
 
Well holy crap... was not expecting such an overwhelming response... god i love this forum ;)

through this discussion, it seems there is no best choice, but the truth is my CPU is almost 5 years old now.

I think what I'm going to do is wait for Intel's new "Skylake" to hit the streets in a few months. It's supposed to be their best CPU they've released in years. I think it'd be silly for me to invest in a broadwell chip when they're soon to be phased out.

My PC still has enough juice to get me through... and thanks to AMD's Mantle API, Battlefield 4 finally runs like butta ;)

Thanks everyone for all the help!
 
RamonGTP said:
Show me a 290x getting double the performance of a 7950 at 1080p when paired up with a Phenom II.... It's not going to happen, so please stop making up numbers.
Click to expand...

A Phenom II X6 at nearly 4 GHz is not going to be any problem for a 7950. I know, I had one and could match all the benchmarks I saw with Intel chips at 1080 and single GPU. So knowing that, all the benches I see like Anand's showing the 7950 about half as fast as a 290x are about right and far from being made up. For fuck sake why does everything have to turn into an "AMD CPU's suck" hatefest? This is not about how much better Intel is than AMD. I can promise you that X6 is not holding that 7950 back by more than a few frames compared to an i5 and that's a waste of $300+ for an i5 and mobo for a few FPS when a new 290x or GTX 970 for $300+ would be nearly double the frame rates. Again, I know, I did pretty much the same (GTX 670 to this 290x) and saw nearly a doubling of performance despite having this pitiful AMD chip.
 
Well, it is about how much better Intel is actually because OP has an AMD setup and is asking about an upgrade to Intel, so that's exactly what it's about. And no, you didn't match all the benchmarks.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3674/amds-sixcore-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-1055t-reviewed/9

That's using a paltry HD 5870 and the X6 still falls well short of processors much slower than today's i5's in several instances. Until you can show me a 290x consistently providing double or close to double the performance when paired with a Phenom II, I'm going to call BS on that claim because quite frankly, nothing I've seen out there supports such a feet.
 
RamonGTP said:
Well, it is about how much better Intel is actually because OP has an AMD setup and is asking about an upgrade to Intel, so that's exactly what it's about. And no, you didn't match all the benchmarks.
Click to expand...

No its about how much of a gaming performance increase you'll get by buying a 290x with a 3.8 GHz X6 versus spending the same money on a i5 and keeping a 7950. All I'm saying is he'll see a much larger increase in frame rates by getting the 290x or 970.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3674/amds-sixcore-phenom-ii-x6-1090t-1055t-reviewed/9

That's using a paltry HD 5870 and the X6 still falls well short of processors much slower than today's i5's in several instances. Until you can show me a 290x consistently providing double or close to double the performance when paired with a Phenom II, I'm going to call BS on that claim because quite frankly, nothing I've seen out there supports such a feet.
Click to expand...

Not exactly well short. In fact it's right up there on most all those games and those are all old games that only use single cores and at a low resolution. So if OP is going to be playing a lot of Dawn of War at 1680x1050 then a new Intel chip is what he needs.

Here's a better one. It compares a much slower 8150 at a pathetically slow 3.2 stock clocks to Sandy and Nehalem with a 7970.

TechPowerUp

On most of those games at 1080 the 8150 was close enough to not be noticeable in actual gaming. So a faster Phenom II X6 at nearly 4.0 GHz would do even better.

Again, Intel is faster. Congratulations! But we're talking a few percentage points faster in gaming in OP's situation. Putting in a brand new i5 isn't going to increase frame rates much at all because that X6 is fast enough to get the most out of it. We're both in agreement that he needs a CPU and GPU upgrade. We're just arguing over which one he needs first. I just upgraded from a 670 to a 290x and saw twice the performance. Granted my 8350 at 4.8 is a much faster chip but I still saw a shit ton more performance than if I'd kept my 670 and bought a 4670K instead.

So I think it's best to buy a great GPU now and enjoy twice the performance or hell even if we say you're right and I'm smoking crack and it's only half what I'm claiming, that is still a 50% increase. Then when Skylake hits OP can get that like he says he's wanting to and be set. Buying the CPU first gives him only a few percentage increase in frame rates now that he likely won't even notice in real world gaming in most games while he saves up for the GPU upgrade.
 
I've been keeping tabs on this post and I see the OP is now considering Skylake. Originally my assumption was price was a factor considering the OP mentioned a Pentium G3258, or an i5.

From my own experience having a 1055T I've not seen it struggle to play games at 1080p. The one game I've noticed a substantial dip in FPS was Company of Heroes 2 and that was comparing not only a 1055T to a 4770k, but also an AMD HD 6950 to a GTX 680, and now the comparison would be the 680 to a 970. The 1055T hasn't ever really been on an even playing field. But even so it games well. Well enough that I know I wouldn't consider jumping to a Haswell Pentium and would only make the leap to a Haswell i5 if the improvement was substantial. (granted the ability to upgrade to an i7 is nice) And again, comparing the 1055T to my 4770k as far as gaming goes I don't see a substantial difference at 1080p. I did see a nice increase in fps from the 6950 to the 680 though.

All that being said, if money isn't an issue switching platforms as well as a GPU upgrade is something I would seek. As it stands I still like my 1055T though.
 
MacLeod said:
No its about how much of a gaming performance increase you'll get by buying a 290x with a 3.8 GHz X6 versus spending the same money on a i5 and keeping a 7950. All I'm saying is he'll see a much larger increase in frame rates by getting the 290x or 970.



Not exactly well short. In fact it's right up there on most all those games and those are all old games that only use single cores and at a low resolution. So if OP is going to be playing a lot of Dawn of War at 1680x1050 then a new Intel chip is what he needs.

Here's a better one. It compares a much slower 8150 at a pathetically slow 3.2 stock clocks to Sandy and Nehalem with a 7970.

TechPowerUp

On most of those games at 1080 the 8150 was close enough to not be noticeable in actual gaming. So a faster Phenom II X6 at nearly 4.0 GHz would do even better.

Again, Intel is faster. Congratulations! But we're talking a few percentage points faster in gaming in OP's situation. Putting in a brand new i5 isn't going to increase frame rates much at all because that X6 is fast enough to get the most out of it. We're both in agreement that he needs a CPU and GPU upgrade. We're just arguing over which one he needs first. I just upgraded from a 670 to a 290x and saw twice the performance. Granted my 8350 at 4.8 is a much faster chip but I still saw a shit ton more performance than if I'd kept my 670 and bought a 4670K instead.

So I think it's best to buy a great GPU now and enjoy twice the performance or hell even if we say you're right and I'm smoking crack and it's only half what I'm claiming, that is still a 50% increase. Then when Skylake hits OP can get that like he says he's wanting to and be set. Buying the CPU first gives him only a few percentage increase in frame rates now that he likely won't even notice in real world gaming in most games while he saves up for the GPU upgrade.
Click to expand...

If the Phenom is bottlenecking a 5870 and underperforming processors much older and slower than Skylake is going to be, seems pretty useless to upgrade the GPU.

You made a claim, show me the numbers. The numbers you just post show Phemom getting about half the performance in a couple games and a third in others while being close, but still coming in last place in the remaining. Not to mention no minimum FPS which is the most important factor as well as the number that the Phenom would be doing the worst in.

Here's the problem. Upgrade the GPU and you can play graphically demanding games at higher fps. But the 7950 doesn't exactly struggle at 1080 and if you wanted more FPS there's always options to achieve that by lowering settings.

If you have a CPU bottleneck and you want higher fps. What's your option? Virtually nothing.

Sorry, but we will just have to disagree. If anything, the link you just provided is pretty solid evidence that you're not getting anywhere near double the performance if you swap a 7950 to a 290x running a Phenom II and you may not see an improvement at all depending on the game. Then we come back to the claim that you "matched all the benchmarks" with your Phenom II when you compared it against higher end processors. if we look at the numbers provided in my link as well as your link, it becomes clear that was BS. Regardless, we aren't going to convince each other. OP has both sides, balls in his court to do with it as he sees fit.
 
Fair enough. One thing I will clarify is that I didn't mean to imply I matched ALL benchmarks against Intel rigs. I meant all the benchies I saw of games I played. I don't play WOW or Civilization or Star Craft so I never compared them and have always agreed Intel outperformed in those games almost by double. I play shooters and games like Batman, Dead Space, Mass Effect and things like that. In games like that, my 1090 at 4 GHz and 5870 were hitting as close as makes no difference to the benchmarks I saw on review sites at the time using Intel chips. In the link you provided you've got a stock clocked Phenom II also getting as close as makes no difference in 4 of the 6 shown. We can agree to disagree but I don't want you thinking I'm lying or just making shit up.
 
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