CPU Upgrade question for AM2+ board

[mrjspeed]

Hello,

My friend has commissioned me in upgrading his system. He plays the new Star Wars game and wanted a better experience.

He had an AMD HD 4850 512MB and upgraded to a HD 7950 3GB. He is claiming that the frame rate isn't much better and that his computer is "still slow".

Here is his current CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400 Brisbane 2.8GHz (dual core)
Here is his current MOBO: BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX A2+ AM2+/AM2 (cpu support listed HERE)

Since he bought the motherboard, there has been a bios update to support Deneb CPUs. The best CPU this motherboard officially supports is the AMD Phenom II X4 940, or x945 - a 3Ghz Quad core that most online retailers don't sell at a reasonable price. The only place I have found it is on Ebay used.

My question: AMD sells some decently clocked AM3 Denebs. I'm interested in this one: AMD Phenom II X4 980. I realize that it isn't on the official CPU support list, but would it work? When I compare it to the compatible 945 (HDX945WFK4DGI), it is essentially identical other than the clock speed. Has anyone with this motherboard (or any for that matter) been able to use a processor in the same family outside of the supported list?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[EarthDog]

OUCH. Thats an ancient CPU. What resolution does he game at?

If its not on the support list, I wouldnt do it. Get the best one out there thats on the list is my suggestion.

 

[mrjspeed]

OUCH. Thats an ancient CPU. What resolution does he game at?

If its not on the support list, I wouldnt do it. Get the best one out there thats on the list is my suggestion.

he just recently upgraded his 1280x1024 monitor to a 1080p ASUS, so now its at 1920x1080.

I found this thread here: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=625117

this guy has the same mobo and a X4 965 working. From what I read, it seems the processor runs fine but isn't very overclockable due to "power plane" limitations. My friend isn't interested in overclocking, so if I had knowledge of the 980 CPU being able to run at stock clocks, I'd get it for him.

 

[EarthDog]

That risk is up to you. I wouldnt do it. Get the best supported processor.

 

[trents]

That risk is up to you. I wouldnt do it. Get the best supported processor.

+1. CPUs not officially supported will often run but at greatly throttled speed because the motherboard plays it safe and treats it as a generic CPU. If you run an AM3 CPU the motherboard will shave some off the HT Link an CPUNB frequencies as those are lower with AM2+ than AM3 (1800 mhz vs. 2000 mhz.). Not a huge performance penalty in and of itself, however.

 

[Metlcub]

You may be better off getting a AM3+ board with say a FX-6100 and 8gig mem. mem is dirt cheep, you could do that upgrade there for under $400.
Microcenter
Asus crosshair V formula $179
FX-6100- $140
Corsair Vengeance Series 8GB DDR3-1600 - $55
total- $369

But thats if your friend wants to do it. You could go with a lower priced mobo, but what ever CPu you put into his AM2+ board is going to be bottle necked with that vid card.

 

[mrjspeed]

+1. CPUs not officially supported will often run but at greatly throttled speed because the motherboard plays it safe and treats it as a generic CPU. If you run an AM3 CPU the motherboard will shave some off the HT Link an CPUNB frequencies as those are lower with AM2+ than AM3 (1800 mhz vs. 2000 mhz.). Not a huge performance penalty in and of itself, however.

That's a good point, I didn't really think about that. You could have a CPU running at the right clock but with handicapped features it may not be worth it.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I think we will probably look at a MOBO/CPU/MEM upgrade.