amd phenom ii x4 965 black edition vs 3570k

mister geforce

Honorable
Apr 14, 2013
43
0
10,530
ok i am mostly gonna be gaming at max settings 1080p and i'm not sure which cpu to get i'm wondering if the 3570k is overkill and if i get a phenom ii 965 i wont see a difference.
my rig
.gigabyte hd 7870 oc
.corsair cx600
.gigabyte ga-h77-ds3h
.8gb ballistix ram
.wd blue 1tb
.windows 8 64 bit

ps. the 3570k is $218 and the phenom is $84
 
Solution
A 965 BE overclocked to 4GHz will keep up with a 7870 OC most of the time if you are short on cash, the 6300 makes more sense. I think the 3570K is overkill unless you get at least a 7950. But if you already have the components you listed then your board only supports Intel CPUs anyway. If you don't then the choice should be more like 965 + 7950 6300 + 7870 or 3570K + 7850 in which case the 6300 + 7870 is likely the most balanced and therefore better deal but this will vary from game to game.

kid-mid

Honorable
May 1, 2013
153
0
10,710
you'll definitely see an improvement in all phases of your rig including power consumption.
it's worth the extra coin and possibly catch a combo deal for a Z77 mobo.
no point in having a K series chip and not having a Z series mobo..
 

Johnny828

Honorable
Mar 14, 2012
86
0
10,660
Here are benchmarks comparing the 965 BE vs i5-3570k:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=701

There's a comparison for 3 games if you scroll down to the very bottom, apparently the i5-3570k can get you around 30-40% higher fps vs the 965 BE using the same video card, so the 965 BE would be a bit of a bottleneck, and even more so if you want to upgrade your video card in a few years. So you'll pay more for the i5-3570k, but you'll use the full potential of your video card and you'll be more future-proof.
 

slomo4sho

Distinguished


Conveniently, 2/3 are Blizzard titles...
 
A 965 BE overclocked to 4GHz will keep up with a 7870 OC most of the time if you are short on cash, the 6300 makes more sense. I think the 3570K is overkill unless you get at least a 7950. But if you already have the components you listed then your board only supports Intel CPUs anyway. If you don't then the choice should be more like 965 + 7950 6300 + 7870 or 3570K + 7850 in which case the 6300 + 7870 is likely the most balanced and therefore better deal but this will vary from game to game.
 
Solution

Johnny828

Honorable
Mar 14, 2012
86
0
10,660


I think you mean Bioware. But yeah, they're the only quick benchmarks I managed to pull out comparing these 2 cpus. But I think the figures would be pretty much the same across all recent games (and perhaps even more so if they're very recent and more demanding).
 

Johnny828

Honorable
Mar 14, 2012
86
0
10,660


Great advice, and I'd suggest that you overclock the FX 6300 too because AMD cpus tend to lack some performance in single thread performance (which affects fps) and overclocking the FX will compensate for that. An aftermarket cooler like Cooler Master EVO would suit this purpose.
 

Johnny828

Honorable
Mar 14, 2012
86
0
10,660


The difference in terms of proportionality would pretty much be the same imho, but since the fps numbers themselves would be lower due to OP's not top-high-end card, it would apparently be smaller.