General

[quote=Burning]BCLK is a north bridge setting and is the only variable that directly changes the clock speed of multiplier locked processors. Changing the BCLK also changes the memory speed and so memory may have to be downclocked if it becomes unstable. Black Edition processors remove this hassle and the CPU multiplier and voltages can be changed without worrying about hyper-transport and memory instability since those dependent variables are not changing.

A faster CPU does produce more heat, moreso when overvolted. The same is true for memory, but memory made for overclocking tends to be equipped with heatspreaders and do carry lifetime warranties.

Bottlenecking the HD 7950 with the Phenom II X4 does happen with certain game titles. http://media.bestofmicro.com/9/G/364516/original/CPU-scaling.png

TERA and LoL are not demanding enough to make a difference and BF3 is mostly GPU dependent and so you should be okay sticking with your Phenom II X4. Much depends on upcoming games, but if titles follow the system requirements of Far Cry 3, then you may have to upgrade both your processor and video card. Also you can bet Portal 3 will never happen because Valve can't count to three.

Streaming games is an issue that isn't consistently dealt with. Some streamers rely on capture cards to offload processing. Others may use something like dxtory to offload some CPU load onto unused GPU assets. Others just straight up use raw system performance.

Gaming on a single monitor, even if the second monitor isn't displaying any part of the game, should be fine with a single powerful card. Extreme gaming on multimonitor setups and resolutions in excess of 1080p however, would warrant the use of multiple GPUs.[/quote]

Ah, this really clears up all the confusion I've had.

Thanks for your replies and help .

[quote=Hiraku]Thanks for the response

I've been reading a bunch articles and threads with not much personal experience in this field, and they were mentioning base clocks and multipliers which is understandable. What does the north bridge have to do with the processor? There're a bunch of charts on what to set the north bridge to depending on processor speeds, so I don't think it should be a problem other than definition. But what do you mean by not needing to know about memory speeds? I know that directly overclocking ram won't give a noticeable performance increase unless I'm editing heavy images and videos, but would the memory speeds/volts automatically/need change (thus producing more heat) due to the faster core?

Do you happen to know if a noticeable bottleneck might apply if I were to replace the 6770 with a 7950?

I understand that it would vary between every person, but which upgrade gives the better overall performance for standard gaming, streaming, and maybe light editing/coding/emulating? I'm currently using this computer to play existing games like TERA, BF3, LoL, etc. but am noticing lower frames when approached with particle/physics heavy content (bad multi-threading, game client, graphics processing?) on higher qualities. I would like to run future potential games on decent settings (Witcher 3, Battlefield 4, Blade & Soul, Portal 3, Dead Island Riptide, etc.), have the hardware to potentially stream games (720/1080) without any setbacks, and maybe run dual monitors (which I assume won't be a problem with my current setup anyways).

@CreamyCreamy: Thanks for the response also, but not looking to crossfire cards (expensive) as my motherboard might literally melt (sarcasm), but I could just buy a bridge separately if I were to, no? Not a big fan of PhysX as there aren't too many games which incorporate them. (Mirrors Edge <3)[/quote]

BCLK is a north bridge setting and is the only variable that directly changes the clock speed of multiplier locked processors. Changing the BCLK also changes the memory speed and so memory may have to be downclocked if it becomes unstable. Black Edition processors remove this hassle and the CPU multiplier and voltages can be changed without worrying about hyper-transport and memory instability since those dependent variables are not changing.

A faster CPU does produce more heat, moreso when overvolted. The same is true for memory, but memory made for overclocking tends to be equipped with heatspreaders and do carry lifetime warranties.

Bottlenecking the HD 7950 with the Phenom II X4 does happen with certain game titles. http://media.bestofmicro.com/9/G/364516/original/CPU-scaling.png

TERA and LoL are not demanding enough to make a difference and BF3 is mostly GPU dependent and so you should be okay sticking with your Phenom II X4. Much depends on upcoming games, but if titles follow the system requirements of Far Cry 3, then you may have to upgrade both your processor and video card. Also you can bet Portal 3 will never happen because Valve can't count to three.

Streaming games is an issue that isn't consistently dealt with. Some streamers rely on capture cards to offload processing. Others may use something like dxtory to offload some CPU load onto unused GPU assets. Others just straight up use raw system performance.

Gaming on a single monitor, even if the second monitor isn't displaying any part of the game, should be fine with a single powerful card. Extreme gaming on multimonitor setups and resolutions in excess of 1080p however, would warrant the use of multiple GPUs.

[quote=Burning]You have a Black Edition Phenom II. You don't need to know anything about memory speeds or hyper-transport to overclock your processor. BIOS updates are mostly only needed when upgrading to compatible, but unsupported processors. Other BIOS updates address bugs, but never have anything to do with video cards.

How much you gain from upgrading either the video card and/or the processor depends on the games you play.[/quote]

Thanks for the response

I've been reading a bunch articles and threads with not much personal experience in this field, and they were mentioning base clocks and multipliers which is understandable. What does the north bridge have to do with the processor? There're a bunch of charts on what to set the north bridge to depending on processor speeds, so I don't think it should be a problem other than definition. But what do you mean by not needing to know about memory speeds? I know that directly overclocking ram won't give a noticeable performance increase unless I'm editing heavy images and videos, but would the memory speeds/volts automatically/need change (thus producing more heat) due to the faster core?

Do you happen to know if a noticeable bottleneck might apply if I were to replace the 6770 with a 7950?

I understand that it would vary between every person, but which upgrade gives the better overall performance for standard gaming, streaming, and maybe light editing/coding/emulating? I'm currently using this computer to play existing games like TERA, BF3, LoL, etc. but am noticing lower frames when approached with particle/physics heavy content (bad multi-threading, game client, graphics processing?) on higher qualities. I would like to run future potential games on decent settings (Witcher 3, Battlefield 4, Blade & Soul, Portal 3, Dead Island Riptide, etc.), have the hardware to potentially stream games (720/1080) without any setbacks, and maybe run dual monitors (which I assume won't be a problem with my current setup anyways).

@CreamyCreamy: Thanks for the response also, but not looking to crossfire cards (expensive) as my motherboard might literally melt (sarcasm), but I could just buy a bridge separately if I were to, no? Not a big fan of PhysX as there aren't too many games which incorporate them. (Mirrors Edge <3)

You have a Black Edition Phenom II. You don't need to know anything about memory speeds or hyper-transport to overclock your processor. BIOS updates are mostly only needed when upgrading to compatible, but unsupported processors. Other BIOS updates address bugs, but never have anything to do with video cards.

How much you gain from upgrading either the video card and/or the processor depends on the games you play.