What upgrades from a PII 940 Black Edition and a GTX480?

Nick89 · Sep 17, 2011

So I want some opinions on what I should or should not upgrade.

I'm thinking about waiting for bulldozer before I upgrade my CPU and GPU wise I was thinking of just getting another GTX480, But Do I need a special SLI motherboard for the second 480 to work? I've only ever messed around with crossfire before, I have no experience with SLI.

Please let me know what you think. I want to make sure my system will play BF3 Flawless.

bbmarley · Sep 17, 2011

well bulldozer is suppose to be here soon [lol]
wait and see how it compares while waiting for bf3
yup you would need a sli cert motherboard just like you would have needed a crossfire cert board when you had crossfire

claylomax · Sep 17, 2011

I did get another GTX 480 back in February and FPS double in most games (GTA IV being the exception). I'd say get a SLI ready AM3+ motherboard (drivers are ready) and another GTX 480 and wait for BD to be released. EDIT: your cpu is AM2+.

Nick89 · Sep 17, 2011

bbmarley said:
well bulldozer is suppose to be here soon [lol]
wait and see how it compares while waiting for bf3
yup you would need a sli cert motherboard just like you would have needed a crossfire cert board when you had crossfire

I don't think you need a CF cert motherboard for crossfire. I ran Crossfire on my current board and I never saw anything about it being a CF certified board.

techtard · Sep 17, 2011

The new AM3+ mobos for the FX chips are supposed to run both Crossfire and SLI. So you should be good to go.

micropage7 · Sep 17, 2011

check out ur board spec
in manual it said support sli or cf?
i guess your current rig is fast enough. especially black edition so you can oc it little bit
wait is better since BD is on the way and i better wait until it wide applied

claylomax · Sep 17, 2011

Nick89 said:
I don't think you need a CF cert motherboard for crossfire. I ran Crossfire on my current board and I never saw anything about it being a CF certified board.

Your board supports crossfire "de facto", there is no need for a "certified crossfire" sticker on your board. Since you can't use your cpu on an AM3+ mobo, just wait a bit longer.

Fatal · Sep 17, 2011

I would say wait till the new stuff comes out. I can say I don't see that big a difference with my i7 rig vs my 940 rig. All I do is game so I know my i7 rig is faster I just cant tell the difference.
Edit: I expected to be blown away by the difference and I wasn't maybe I expected too much. I wish I would have waited longer would have got the 2600k. I guess that's what I get for rushing it I should have waited.

System Name	9th Level
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard	MSI X570 Carbon wifi
Cooling	EK Basic 360, x2 250mm, x1 140mm, x1 120mm fans.
Memory	32GB Corsair Vengeance 3200mhz.
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 3080 12GB FTW3
Storage	500gb ssd, 2tb ssd, 6tb HD.
Display(s)	MSI 27" Curved 1440p@165hz
Case	HAF 932
Power Supply	Corsair HX850W
Software	Windows 10 64bit

Processor	2500k
Motherboard	Asrock Extreme3 Gen3
Cooling	CM Hyper 212 EVO
Memory	16G Corsair Vengence
Video Card(s)	XFX 390 DD BE
Storage	OCZ Agility3 / F1 1tb
Display(s)	Hazro HZ27WC 2560x1440 / x3 BenQ G2222HDL Eyefinity - 5760x1080
Case	Fractal Design Define XL
Audio Device(s)	Onboard / Edifier RT1600
Power Supply	Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 700W

System Name	Jaspe
Processor	Ryzen 1500X
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X370-F Gaming
Cooling	Stock
Memory	16Gb Corsair 3000mhz
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTS 450
Storage	Crucial M500
Display(s)	Philips 1080 24'
Case	NZXT
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Enermax 425W
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	9th Level
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard	MSI X570 Carbon wifi
Cooling	EK Basic 360, x2 250mm, x1 140mm, x1 120mm fans.
Memory	32GB Corsair Vengeance 3200mhz.
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 3080 12GB FTW3
Storage	500gb ssd, 2tb ssd, 6tb HD.
Display(s)	MSI 27" Curved 1440p@165hz
Case	HAF 932
Power Supply	Corsair HX850W
Software	Windows 10 64bit

System Name	Grond
Processor	Ryen 5 3600x PBO ~ 4.4GHz / fabric at 1900
Motherboard	MSI b550 Tomahawk
Cooling	XSPC Raystorm CPU w/ am4 mounting bracket+ 2 RX360 radiator + xspc Razor R9-290 w/ backplate
Memory	32gb Crucial Ballistix @ 3800
Video Card(s)	XFX R9 290 w/ XSPC Razor full cover block and backplate
Storage	WD SN850 1tb-OS, SN750 1tb, Samsung 860 Evo 1tb, WD blue hdd 4tb
Display(s)	Samsung 23" 120hz 3d LCD w/ 3d glasses, using 'lightboost' trick
Case	NZXT H630 white watercooling case
Audio Device(s)	Onboard realtek ALC 1200+ Sennheiser HD 598
Power Supply	XFX Pro 850 XXX semi-modular
Mouse	Logitech G703 Wireless
Keyboard	Steelseries 6 v2
Software	Windows 10 Pro (Had some mystery error on Win7 and decided to go W10)

System Name	micropage7
Processor	Intel Xeon X3470
Motherboard	Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. P55A-UD3R (Socket 1156)
Cooling	Enermax ETS-T40F
Memory	Samsung 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Video Card(s)	NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800
Storage	V-GEN03AS18EU120GB, Seagate 2 x 1TB and Seagate 4TB
Display(s)	Samsung 21 inch LCD Wide Screen
Case	Icute Super 18
Audio Device(s)	Auzentech X-Fi Forte
Power Supply	Silverstone 600 Watt
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Sades Excalibur + Taihao keycaps
Software	Win 7 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	Classified

System Name	KAREN / EVA / GHOST
Processor	Intel Core i7-950 / AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE / Core i5 3570k
Motherboard	ASUS TUF Sabertooth X58 / DFI LP DK 790FXB-M2RSH / Asrock z77e-itx
Cooling	Thermaltake Frio / Corsair Cooling™ Hydro Series H50 / Corsair Hydro Series H60
Memory	Corsair Dominator 6GB DDR3 1600 / Corsair Dominator Quad2X4096-8500C5DF / G.SKILL Ripjaws Serie 1600
Video Card(s)	XFX HD6950 CF unlocked /XFX HD5770 CF/ MSI R4890 Cyclone
Storage	OCZ Vertex 2 60 WD Raptor X WD1500AHFD / Seagate Barracuda /Western Digital 80gb, Toshiba 1TB
Display(s)	2 Acer P215H 21.5 Widescreen / Acer S211HL 21.5 / HP 2009F 20inch
Case	SILVERSTONE RAVEN RV02-BW / NZXT Phantom /Bitfenix Prodigy
Audio Device(s)	On board / Philips MMS 321 - PC multimedia speakers
Power Supply	Ultra X3 ULT40311 1000W / Cosair CMPSU-750TX 750W/ CORSAIR Gaming Series GS700 700W
Software	Windows 7 64 bit / Windows 7 64 bit / Windows 7 64 bit