Upgrade CPU from 4200+

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BiggusDoggus

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#91971 25-Oct-2011 09:49

Hi all

I currently have a AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (socket AM2).

I want to upgrade the CPU (just the CPU - I'm not looking at replacing the mobo or anything else. As always, on a budget!).

Would going to something like a Phenom X3 8450 be a decent step up?

Bought "Rage" in the weekend without taking a good look at the minimum specs, and it just doesn't run (duh).

I have 3gb DDR2 RAM and 512MB HD5670 card, on an ASUS M2A-VM mobo.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

sbiddle

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#537193 25-Oct-2011 10:07

I had one of these boards, it was probably the worst motherboard I've ever owned.

The first thing would be to check the Asus site and see if it supports this CPU. Every motherboard manufacturer lists CPU support for their boards.

There are limits on what you can upgrade to due to the old board as most new CPU's won't work.

BiggusDoggus

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#537196 25-Oct-2011 10:10

sbiddle: I had one of these boards, it was probably the worst motherboard I've ever owned.

The first thing would be to check the Asus site and see if it supports this CPU. Every motherboard manufacturer lists CPU support for their boards.

There are limits on what you can upgrade to due to the old board as most new CPU's won't work.

Yes it does -http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2/M2AVM/#CPUS

The board works okay for me, but I don't really put that much "pressure" on it.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

Ragnor

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#537242 25-Oct-2011 11:35

I'm not sure the CPU is the problem, your current cpu is I think a 2.2ghz dual core which should be enough to run the game.

Your specs do seem to exceed the minimum requirements so you should be able to run it, probably not well but it should run.

Have you tried updating all your drivers (video, mobo chipset etc)?

Anyway, the native resolution of your screen/monitor determines what sort of hardware you need to run the game smoothly, higher resolution more $$ on hardware.

What size/resolution screen do you have eg: 23" @ 1920x1080 ?

Also what power supply do you have an how many watts is it eg: Antec 520w? If you intend to upgrade the cpu you might find you need a newer power supply with a higher rating.

mentalinc

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#537268 25-Oct-2011 12:39

Have you updated your ati video card drivers?

CPU: AMD 5900x | RAM: GSKILL Trident Z Neo RGB F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC-32-GB | MB: Asus X570-E | GFX: EVGA FTW3 Ultra RTX 3080Ti| Monitor: LG 27GL850-B 2560x1440

Quic: https://account.quic.nz/refer/473833 R473833EQKIBX

BiggusDoggus

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#537283 25-Oct-2011 13:37

mentalinc: Have you updated your ati video card drivers?

Yes - all drivers kept up to date.

"Rage" aside, and assuming power supply etc is adequate (I'm at work and can't quite recall what PSU I have) - is it a good upgrade?

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

Ragnor

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#537633 26-Oct-2011 10:36

Anandtech have a good tool for a quick comparison, they didn't have your exact cpu but the next one up.

AMD Athlon X2 4600+ (2.4GHz, 1MB L2 cache)
vs AMD Phenom X3 8450 (2.1GHz, 1.5MB L2 cache, 2MB L3 cache)
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/35?vs=26

Just upgrading to a X3 8450 won't give you much of a boost, also not sure if any pc stores will even have stock of it, it's too old - not many listings on pricespy or gearbot for it.

Q: What screen size/resolution do you have?

If you want to play the game smoothly on decent settings on a 22-24" LCD you really need to go to something like:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Socket AM3
MOBO: AMD 990FX chipset mobo eg: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3
VIDEO: Nvidia GTX 560 Ti 1GB or Radeon 6950 1GB

or if you want to go Intel, something like:

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500 Sandy Bridge 3.30GHz 6MB 95W LGA1155
MOBO: Intel Z68 chipset mobo eg: ASUS P8Z68-V LX
RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3
VIDEO: Nvidia GTX 560 Ti 1GB or Radeon 6950 1GB

Also you want a 64bit OS (eg: Windows 7 Home OEM 64bit) to make use of the higher ram (32bit OS can only normally access 3GB, which is probably why you listed your current system at 3GB instead of 4GB).

Basically it's time for an decent upgrade if you want to play modern games.