Amd 7970

[cookiemonster]

Hi I am seriously looking at one of the new AMD 7970 and might change to Gigabyte this time as i like the Motherboards but is Gigabyte bringing out an AMD mobo that will have PCI Express 3.0 x16 bus or is there any rumours of any AMD boards doing the PCI-E 3.0. The other question is do you think my processor will cause a bottleneck with the new card if so I don't fancy Bulldozer yet, I was thinking of an AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3) would that make a difference.

NZXT Lexa S
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H (rev 2.0) motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, Deneb Core, S AM3, 3.8GHz
8gb Crucial Ballistic DDR3 1333mhz/PC3-10600 (7-7-7-24) 1.65v
XFX HD 6970 ATI - AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 2GB
Western Digital WD6402AAEX 640GB Hard Drive SATA111 7200rpm 64MB Cache-OEM Caviar Black.
WD 250GB 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 7200RPM 16MB Cache
Corsair 750 PSU
Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
Liteon DVD Writer
24” Samsung SM2433BW Black Widescreen LCD, 1920x1200
5.1 Creative Surround Speakers
Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard
Logitech MX516 Gaming Mouse
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Epson DX8400 All in one.

 

[brandonwh64]

From what I have read, PCIex 3.0 doesn't effect the 7970. Your 965BE may limit your card some but It will doubtfully be by much.

 

[radrok]

The 7970 will be a waste on 1080p, you won't notice much of a difference.
Upgrade your CPU to a 2500k/2600k or better, upgrade to Ivy Bridge
Also there is no AMD chipset with links capable of 8 GT/s, so for now there won't be any PCIe 3.0 compliance as far as I know.

 

[Crap Daddy]

There are a few things here. First he is not on 1080p but 1900x1200, there are games out there that will benefit from an average 30% increase in performance for maxed out quality. On the other hand for the price of a 7970 you could build a nice Sandy Bridge/Ivy machine and still use the 6970 which is a good card.

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi all thanks for the good info and ideas, I had looked at maybe changing to intel as I have been amd since my first Duron 400, but it completely baffles me as to where to start your looking at new processor new chip and new ram, what about the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3) would that make a difference as i wouldn't need to change my mobo, or is it really time to take the plunge and go Intel amd what chip would mach the Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black.

 

[Norton]

If you're happy with your setup and your games etc are playing smooth I would wait and see what the 7950's can do.

If you have the upgrade itch.... the price on SSD's are coming down. Add one for a boot drive and bank the rest until the 7950's come out.

My $0.02

 

[nt300]

If you have Crossfire go for a nother HD 6970. Will cost you cheaper and give you more performance against the HD 7970
You may also wan to go DDR3-1600 or 1866 and get about 16GB of ram. It very cheap now like about $100 or less.

 

[radrok]

Hi all thanks for the good info and ideas, I had looked at maybe changing to intel as I have been amd since my first Duron 400, but it completely baffles me as to where to start your looking at new processor new chip and new ram, what about the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3) would that make a difference as i wouldn't need to change my mobo, or is it really time to take the plunge and go Intel amd what chip would mach the Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black.

I am pretty sure you can keep the RAM sticks as long it is DDR3 it doesn't matter
You probably use your system for gaming and a 6 core CPU won't yield you any advantage so going for a 2500k that has more performance per core will increase your FPS output, also a second 6970 when the prices drop will be a good idea.
Still I believe you'd see the best improvements with a Sandy or Ivy Bridge chip.

 

[cookiemonster]

Thanks for all the advice but I was told that Phenom 11x4 don't like ram above 1333MHz so if I want to go for 1600MHz I will need to go for the Phenom 11x6 as the Thuban works ok with that ram.

 

[Melvis]

Your setup is fine, i would go with what nt300 said and go with another 6970 for some Crossfire goodness that will yield better FPS increase and the best price.

Yes a 2500K will get you more FPS but its just not worth the money to buy (CPU/MOBO/RAM) to get a few extra frames. Look at the latest benchmarks from Wizz here >http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970_CPU_Scaling/ showing bulldozer against intels and the difference isnt to much in "most" games and considering Phenom II has better clock for clock then Bulldozer and games dont use much more then 4cores your probably getting better FPS then bulldozer anyway lol.

If your still getting over 60FPS in all games then whats the point?

1600MHz runs fine with Phenom II its more of a Mobo issue then the CPU and yours should be fine.

 

[ty2010]

fm1?

The a8 3870 blows the 1100t away and gets rid of the graphics bottleneck, plus it and the motherboards are cheap as dirt. Why discriminate?

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi seems that the AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3) is pretty scarce with the dealers i usually buy from in the UK.

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi I have decided to keep the amd 6970 and to change to Intel so far i have decided on this

Intel Core i5 2500K Unlocked, S1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad, 3.3GHz, HD3000 IGP 850Mhz, 6MB Cache 95W Retail

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3P, Intel Z68, S 1155, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, RAID SATA, PCIe 2.0 (x16), ATX

16GB (4x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance LP Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V

Maybe ? Corsair H80 Hydro Series High Performance CPU cooler, S775/1155/1156/1366/2011/AM2/AM3
or else stick with the cooler I have. I should see a difference with this setup compared to what I have.

 

[Crap Daddy]

Stick with your cooler, does the job well until 4.5-4.6 and to be honest those freq. are overkill for gaming.

 

[radrok]

I second the post above mine, your cooler is enough

 

[cookiemonster]

Thanks both, should i see much if any a difference to my amd setup.

 

[cadaveca]

you'll notice the difference, for sure. We've have quite a few users make that move, and I haven't heard one yet that was disappointed.