Currently running a Athlon II X-3  Rena chip @ 3.2 ghz and considering going for the Phenom II X4 Zosmo.

Would the extra core and L3 cache be a greater benifit than the speed of a SSD?

Seasonic 620W Bronze

Gigabyte 780G DS3GH MB

8 Gigs ddr 800

WD Black 640g 7200 HD

HiS 6870 Iceq 1g graphics

Win 7 64 bit

Its an aging system I know and its beginning to choke on some of this generation of games.  The 6870 has really helped but it seems like something is still holding it back.

The processor might get you about a 10% performance improvement in programs that don't scale past three cores.  Or it might not even get you that much.

Your claimed motherboard doesn't seem to exist, so I can't tell you how safe it would be to overclock.

I'm guessing that your power supply is either a Seasonic S12II or an M12II, either of which would handle anything that you might want to do with that system pretty well, whether overclocking or replacing hardware.

Try playing a game where your computer struggles, open Task Manager, and check the CPU usage on the Performance tab.  If all of the cores are mostly maxed out, then you'd likely see a serious performance improvement from the new processor.  But if they're not max out, then a fourth core won't help much, so the new processor won't gain you much.

What games is your system struggling with?  It could also be a problem of turning video settings unreasonably high, and then the video card being unable to handle it.

Yes Seasonic M1211 (checked the box)

The GA- MA78G-DS3H is an old board the first generation of the ATI 3200 integrated graphics boards.http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2800&dl=1#ov  with bios update it should be am3 ready.

Skyrim and The Witcher 2 are the problem games at the moment (I am overextending the quality but am very close to having the look and performance I want just need a bit "more" somewhere.)

Will check the task manager!  (why didn't I think of that)  Will come back with some results.

Overclocking on that motherboard is completely out of the question.  Gigabyte even says don't put a processor in it that takes over 95 W, as a 3+1-phase power system can't handle it.

One thing to ask is whether the game runs smoothly at low graphical settings.  If it's perfectly smooth at low settings but only struggles when you turn settings up, it's probably a video card limitation.  A Radeon HD 6870 is a pretty capable card, but the high end cards do exist for a reason.  It's likely that you could have the games run very well if you selectively turn down a few graphical settings that put a lot of strain on the card without doing much to improve image quality.

Actually, you can check video card utilization directly.  Go to Catalyst Control Center, and find the AMD Overdrive section.  That will show your video card utilization percentage.  If it hits 100% or comes very near it in the areas where the game isn't performing as well as you'd like, then it's a video card issue.

Heh , SSD hands down. ... a computer is like a car , there is no rocket science or anything complicated behind a computer. If you got 3000$ worth of CPU and Graphic card but got a 50$ IDE hard disk , your performance will be crap. It's like putting a V4 engine on a mustang.

 Invest in a good PCI express SSD and watch the difference unfold.  CPU and graphic cards means nothing if your HDD can't keep up the load.

SSD only helps for loading. In *some* games perhaps like Skyrim and MMO's, it could possibly maybe improve things since objects will load faster while playing, however, this is generally not a big issue anyway. For performance boost, stick to the trio of video ard, CPU, and RAM.

Well the Zosma http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103995   is 95w and I don't think I would need an overclock since the stock is 3.0 ghz.

According to task manger I am at 90-95% on all 3 cores while Skyrim is up and running.  Most of the options are turned of or down (no AA have AF on doesn't seem to hurt performance either way, water effects are off)  where I am choking performance is using SSAO to fix shadow flicker.

CCC shows about 50% Activity while running around outside on a sunny day.

And thank you for helping me out!

That sounds like a processor bottleneck, then.  Close the game and check your processor usage again.  It won't be completely idle, but it should be pretty close.  If your processor is being heavily used even without a game running, then it could be some rogue program using up a lot of the processor.

It sounds like Skyrim is pretty processor-intensive.  I guess that's why Anandtech said that they wanted to include Skyrim in their video card benchmarks, but they couldn't figure out how to make dependent on the video card rather than a processor bottleneck that showed all the fast video cards the same.

I think the Phenom II X4 960T would help quite a bit, but you might also want to consider replacing the processor and motherboard entirely, to allow a much faster processor.  That's a lot more expensive, of course, as it could cost $400+ for a new motherboard, processor (Core i5 2500K), and OS license.  The Zosma processor is much cheaper, and probably around $120.  So I guess it's really a question of budget.

Of the 2 choices, id personally go for the new CPU. SSD are great but from what youve described I think the CPU would provide a greater boost in power. 

Id really recomend what the above poster said. getting a new motherboard and an i5 cpu would be a huge upgrade. I currently run an i5 quad core processor. i5 760 @ 2.8ghz. i love it :). I imagine budget isnt much of an issue since you stated you wanted to buy an SSD, darn things are ungodly expensive xD

Actually I am at a $150-175 budget for this upgrade (christmas giftcards).  I am waiting to see how the next generation of processors turns out before a rebuild.  I could swing a smaller SSD or a CPU that fits my current board in that price range.

After checking the things that you fine folks have suggested it really looks like a cpu limitation. (never thought of checking the task manager and CCC  for limitations.)

Thst mobo dosen't oficially support Zosma. I wouldn't chance it.....Disreguard, Zozma is supported.

AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor  Or

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Zosma 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor 

That's about the best you will find IMO, You might be able to clock it a bit higher without frying the Mobo since the 955 is 95w and comes at 3.2ghz

If you can OC your Ram to 1066 that also might help since ddr2-800 probably bottlenecks a quad core a bit.

Also try bumping up your north bridge speed a bit.

The 925 dosent include a heatsink.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200012

The Zosma is probably a better choice since the NB can be clocked quite a bit higher if your MB supports NB overclocking. It can help speed up Ram access bit.

Originally posted by grndzro

Thst mobo dosen't oficially support Zosma. I wouldn't chance it.

 

AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor 

That's about the best you will find IMO, You might be able to clock it a bit higher without frying the Mobo since the 955 is 95w and comes at 3.2ghz

If you can OC your Ram to 1066 that also might help since ddr2-800 probably bottlenecks a quad core a bit.

Also try bumping up your north bridge speed a bit.

Gigabyte says otherwise.

http://www.gigabyte.us/support-downloads/cpu-support-popup.aspx?pid=2800

Thuban/Zosma had both DDR2 and DDR3 memory controllers built in.

Ooo it's a revised list. yup Zosma is on there.

the one I looked at on the GB site didn't have it on there.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2722#

I'll edit my above post a bit.

....wait a minute if he has a Rev 1.0 motherboard the power is 3+1 vs the 2.0 which is 4+1 and has an upgraded VRM. People have Phenom 965 working fine in the 1.0 motherboards so any 95w cpu should be fine as long as it's in the list Quizical supplied.

Technically with the F7 bios update it will work with AM3. 

But if you get the Zosma you will need the F8F beta bios or later.

Thanks again for the replys.  I am gonna go with the 960T, I don't plan to OC this one but the board has the capabilty ( the current A2- X3 is at 3.2 from 2.8? stock been on almost 24/7 for many months like that). 

Ed.  It is the rev. 1 board and I have it updated to F8 Bios.   I think this will be the little extra I need to survive the current generation of games :).

Just to update I installed the 960t tonight.  Everything booted up smooth and it made the cut for Skyrim! Even installed the new HD pack on top of the mods and I only get a slight studder when loading a crowded city cell ( takes a couple of seconds for the system to smooth out but no problems afterwards.

Checking the task manager it looks like Skyrim will scale to 4 cores, I show 90% on 2 cores , the 3rd at 60 ish , and the fourth at about 45% or so (that poor A2 x3 was really choking I bet.).  Everything returns to idle when I kill Skyrim so I'm pretty sure thats my  main resource hog while its up.