CPU Processor Advice

[Wolfy5079]

Hi there. I'm just looking for some advice on a better CPU processor than I already have. I'm currently using an AMD Athlon II X2 250 on a motherboard model Asus M5A78L-M LX3. Could someone push me in the right direction towards a better CPU Processor at a good price. Also if someone could recommend a good graphics card at a good price that would be great too.

[MentaL]

[Monolith]

Need an idea on what you can spend. like "between $100 and $200". Or more if you can afford it...processors are based on more expensive USUALLY means better.

Also what is this going to be used for? Gaming? Rendering? Both?

[Wolfy5079]

It's going to be used for gaming. My prince range is between £70 and £150 if possible.

[jacubb]

I would go for Intel Core i5, since for this price you could not get i7. There are more versions for it, the quad-core for lowest price is in my country for 200€, what is around £140. I have bought i5 3570K 3 years ago and it has still enough power for gaming (BF4, GTA V, Project Cars etc.). In my humple opinion, i5 is the best CPU what you can get from your budget.

[Wolfy5079]

that sounds great but would it be compatible with my motherboard? (link in the original post)

[jacubb]

What I have found about your motherboard it seems, that it supports only AMD CPUs. But, I am not sure, I have never bought AMD stuff.

[NoBrain]

As much as I'd recommend Intel since AMD's current CPU's basically suck, you would need to purchase an entirely new motherboard and CPU to change over to Intel. This slightly goes over your budget but it's basically the best gaming performance you will be able to get from AMD's side; AMD FX-8370E Black Edition Hex Core CPU: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Feel free to look on eBay for the same processor however be sure to make sure it says new on it, used ones suck. Avoid AMD's FX-9xxx series since they produce SO much heat from my experience and use more power than what should be needed, even when idling with little to no gain over their FX-8xxx series.

As for your GPU situation, the best graphics card you can get for 1080p is the GTX 970 (personally recommend MSI variants, from personal experience). Even then the GTX 970 is complete overkill depending on the games you play. The GTX 970 at 1080p gaming you will be able to max out most games. Literally everything at 720p as well. You will read stuff about the 3.5GB VRAM thing as well, yes only 3.5GB is usable and if you go over that you will get artifcating / heavy lag leading to a complete GPU driver crash but you will struggle to go over 3.5GB (let alone 3GB) at 1080p unless it's extremely high texture packs (shadow of mordor).

EDIT: Looking at benchmarks a GTX 960 will still get you relatively great performance on medium / high settings. The only issue I have with this card is that it's 2GB VRAM.

MSI Nvidia Gtx 960 Gaming 2 GB PCI-E Graphics Card: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

[Wolfy5079]

Thank you very much. I'll take a look for both of these later tonight.