Hey all.

So here's my story.

I currently have a Phenom II X4 965 BE processor. That's 4 cores running at 3.4 each. HOWEVER, this processor wasn't originally designed to run with my current mobo. When I got the processor I had to flash a custom BIOS which allowed it to run properly with my mobo. I have to use a custom program called MsrTweaker to get each core running at 3.4GHz. I think this may be what's holding me back.

I have a DxDiag file that's telling me my computer is running these 4 cores at 800mhz. This is the minimum speed the core runs at. My CPU-Z (which you will see below) show it running at 3.4. I'm just not 100% sure my mobo is letting my processor run effectively. My computer does feel slower than it should.


Thoughts?

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/neocronpics/CPUZ-Processor_zps41aa190d.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/neocronpics/CPUZ-Mobo_zpsbecf2b0a.jpg[/img]

800 MHz is perfectly normal when your CPU is idle--they clock down automatically as to not waste power. Your CPUz screenshot proves that your processor is running at 3.4 GHz, and that that's its maximum. I don't see an issue. It's probably not ideal to run a custom bios for a variety of potential reasons, but things seem fine on the processor frequency front to me.

As above its cool and quiet doing its work clocking it down to 4x 200mhz from 17x 200mhz when the cpu is not in use. You can disable this in the bios if you want to check this for yourself. CPU-z show the CPU is set to 3.4ghz.

Fair enough, thanks for the reply.

All that being said, I still feel my rig struggles to run games like Watch Dogs on full graphics. I have to turn it down to at least medium, at best low. I know my rig should be able to handle this in theory. Any thoughts on this please?

Watch Dogs is not the most optimized game in the world if you aren't running a beast graphics card your going to have some fluctuation in your frame rate. I don't know your card but Leave Texture settings on Medium and make sure to keep Water Quality\Shadow Quality to Medium\Low as well and try bumping everything else up except Vsync/AntiAliasing keep those down.

Even when you get to acceptable frames don't let the stuttering fool you when you pass into new sections of the city the game is having trouble doing that on PC even running off an SSD.

Thanks for the response Evilsbane, I've never had a problem with other Ubisoft games (AC has always run perfectly on high settings), I thought WD would be good too. Here's a CPU-Z with my Gcard. The main reason I came here today was to try and find a way to upgrade my rig. I tried streaming some games today on Twitch, only playing STO, but my computer couldn't really handle the game and the streaming software, video capture of webcam etc. Eventually my comp just locked up. I figured I'd try and figure out which part of my system needed upgrading.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/neocronpics/CPUZ-Graphics_zps5977f94a.jpg

Yup. Looks like your CPU's throttling. 800mhz is probably your idle speed. If that bothers you, try turning off Cool and Quiet in the bios.

Your graphics card is not going to be able to handle gaming, streaming, and running a camera at the same time. Mine is not even considered a "high end" card these days and it is stronger than yours. Go for a 760ti or something similar.

Thanks for the input. I'll look into it.

After comparing some posts, I like the look of this;
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/nvidiageforcegraphicscards/nvidiagtx660series/gtx660-dc2ocph-2gd5.html

Could I get better for the price?

That CPU is 5 years old now, i think it's time for an upgrade all around if you want more performance. The 965 BE may have 4 cores but they are not really that good individually.

The thing that worries me about upgrading processors, is getting it to work with my Mobo. I can upgrade the mobo and processor with a bundle easily enough, but then will the RAM I have be of any use as well? I'm not all that clued up on computer hardware, I've always been a software guy. Could you point me in the right direction please?

If you're replacing the MoBo and CPU it's probably worth it to replace the RAM. If you have DDR3 Memory running in there now you could technically move it over. If it's DDR2 then, unless you're upgrading to a different old MoBo, it's a no go.

But yeah if you're upgrading the Processor to something current the AM3/AM3+ (Possibly AM2?) socket that is running your CPU isn't going to run any of AMD's newer CPUs. Intel goes without saying, they change their sockets every 20 minutes it seems like. (I'll say it anyway since I just read you saying you're not a hardware guy--- Intel Socket's won't work with AMD CPUs).

So this thread seems to have turned into "Is this set up any good/worth the money?" :)

My friend suggested this graphics card as an upgrade (as he currently has it, and is very very reliable according to him). The Processor is one I've found, and judging my cpubenchmark.net it's almost twice as good as my current one. The case is just a personal preference, I currently have a 500W PSU that's around 9 months old.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=1782&cmp[]=370

http://tinyurl.com/kb3wxfy
http://tinyurl.com/mdnr2j8
http://tinyurl.com/m38wjge

So, thoughts? Are they worth it, will it overheat in that case, am I missing anything?

watch dogs is special....

the game has 90 degree railway turns, the game looks like gta 3 from certain angles, even on ultra.

and it actually works terrible with phenom II architecture, so, that's the main issue here.

Even a 8320 is going to be a bottleneck actually, check this benchmark out.

They got graphics cards tested earlier in that article too.