So many choices :(

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Gaxe

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Jun 6, 2013
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So I'm building a gaming pc, I'll have enough money to buy it all on July 15th. I am extremely confused right now though, first with Haswell being released made it a tad bit worst.

So basically here are my choices;
AMD: FX-6350 ($140)
AMD: FX-8350 ($200)
Intel: i5-3570k ($220)
Intel: i5-4670k ($240)

I got no idea what is the better choice, I plan on mainly gaming (games like Guild Wars 2, BF3/4, League of Legends, ect). If I can save some money I'd love to. I have no idea what mobos are good for AMD either.

Here's my planned build;

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Black/Orange) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply
 
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if you do want to save some money the fx 6350 would be a good choice. in games it will perform nearly as well as the 8350. If you plan on overclocking it over clocks pretty well. A good mobo for amd if you are going to over clock would be a 990fx chipset board. an asus M5A99X EVO R 2.0 is a good choice for about 150.00. if you will not be overclocking than a 970 chipset board like the M5A97 EVO R 2.0 from asus would do just fine for about 100.00.

As Elmo pointed out, the i5s would perform better in the games you listed, and in any game really. Guild Wars and LoL are cpu intensive. This doesn't mean that the amd chips wouldn't be able to handle them at all, but the overall frame rates would be lower even at low graphics (but if you...
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ElMoIsEviL

ElMoIsEviL

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The games you mentioned tend to run better on Intel CPUs due to their architecture favoring Single Threaded performance (cept maybe BF3 in some cases and BF4 we don't yet know). I mean you don't need the Intel CPU but in Guild Wars 2 it actually makes a big difference in the minimum frame rate.

The small price difference between the 3570K and the 4670K makes that decision easy imho but it's not a needed extra $20 tbh. I'd probably get the 4670K if I were in your shoes but if you want to save $20 that's a great place to do it and go for the 3570K.
 
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ethereal essence

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Jun 5, 2013
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if you do want to save some money the fx 6350 would be a good choice. in games it will perform nearly as well as the 8350. If you plan on overclocking it over clocks pretty well. A good mobo for amd if you are going to over clock would be a 990fx chipset board. an asus M5A99X EVO R 2.0 is a good choice for about 150.00. if you will not be overclocking than a 970 chipset board like the M5A97 EVO R 2.0 from asus would do just fine for about 100.00.

As Elmo pointed out, the i5s would perform better in the games you listed, and in any game really. Guild Wars and LoL are cpu intensive. This doesn't mean that the amd chips wouldn't be able to handle them at all, but the overall frame rates would be lower even at low graphics (but if you wouldn't lose frame rate when upping the graphics to high or more). For example, my girl friend has an AMD A10 laptop running at 2.3 ghz, and that handles GW2 at a low but stable and smooth 25-30 FPS at mostly high settings. The FX series for desktops would out perform that for sure (same cpu architecture but a higher clock speed).

In most games the difference in frame rates between an AMD FX 8350 and i5 is very very small. There are some exceptions but these tend to be poorly optimized games that the intel's are better at brute forcing. Skyrim is another game that amd lags behind on but the FX 8350 still manages 60 fps or so on that game.

If you do plan on overclocking an amd i'd suggest a 650w 80 plus gold seasonic psu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151118

In the end, the amd has a cheaper buy in cost, and has an upgrade path to the next gen FX processors (which are confirmed to be the same socket) so it would be a simple affair to upgrade from the fx-6350 to the next high end 8 core from amd (or 6 core if you'd prefer) and it can certainly handle any game out there right now (not exactly sure on the numbers for LoL but it should be fine on amd). And if you do anything that utilizes multi-threading (editing, encoding, compiling) then the amds have an edge over the i5s.

As it stands now though, intel has better and more consistent performance across all games. Your choice all comes down to which of two things is more important to you, cheaper upfront and upgrade cost and more bang for the buck or highest possible performance in gaming. If you can live with good performance in most games and decent and still playable frame rates in poorly optimized games, go amd. If you absolutely must have max possible frame rates in everything go with intel.
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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You'll prob get a lot of 8350 and 4670K answers, and a couple months back I would prob have said 4670K, but after a lot of recent re-evaluating, I suggest the 3570K. First vs 8350, when both are OCed the 3750K runs away from the 8350 and it OCs higher and better on average, the the 3750K vs the 4670K, the 4670K has about a 10% nod in performance at stock, but doesn't OC as well, so the gain is lost under OC-ability, (for me and some other builders I network with, this is what we have come up with)...Many will argue the 4670K is on 1150 and you'll be able to upgrade to Broadwell when it arrives, which was a good point, when Broadwell was expected in mid 2014, but now Broadwell for Desktops is being slipped to early/mid 2015, which prob means mid 15)...With that taken in to effect, by that time their will be a whole new line of mobos for 1150 and prob all will be DDR4 based which is due out next year, this will prob also affect other things on the mobo as far as increased efficiency and lower power use, which means it will run faster and cooler than current 1150 mobos. As far as upgrading for the AMD socket, to be honest, it's already out of date, maybe, maybe by the time Steam Rollers comes around, AMD will finally support PCI-E3 GPUs (which the current then may be PCI-E4, you'll be looking at the same MC (memory controller) as is currently out there (on the 8350) which basically is rated up to 1 DIMM per channel of 1866 or 2 DIMMs total at 1866 (and that testing was with 4GB sticks, so 8GB maybe 16GB) where Intel is already (3570K) at 32GB of 2400 (the typical 4670K can handle about 32GB of 2666)...and games are becoming more DRAM centric, though they still have a ways to go.

So it's a little more than 2 cents worth, maybe 3 or 4 ;)
 
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montosaurous

montosaurous

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FX 8320 is $160 and can run those games well. And you can OC it to decent speeds (not as high as the FX 8350 of course). It sorta makes sense to pay $20 more for an i5 3570k over the FX 8350 for gaming purposes, but not $60 more for a 3570k over an 8320. Right now I think the 8320 and 6300 are the best bang for the buck CPUs at the moment.
 
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ElMoIsEviL

ElMoIsEviL

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This is what I was referring to in the image bellow. Notice the minimum framerates? If the game is that important to you then it's worth looking into imo.

CPU%20Cores.png
 
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ethereal essence

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the problem with those benchmarks is that it doesn't even state which generation of fx processors it is. it could be bulldozer which yes, would be crap. considering that the min and max frame rate on my gf's laptop (a10 trinity) match the "fx-4000" on that list at .7 ghz slower clockspeed, i'd be inclined to think it is bulldozer. considering that they have the llano cpus listed.... i doubt they tested it with the piledriver fx series. not to mention it was tested at 3 ghz....

LL


as you can see, at 4ghz the (very likely bulldozer) fx-4000 gains significant fps

i can't find any other benchmarks other than tom's hardware, which is painfully lacking in details.

long and short of it is that gw2 should run fine
 
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ElMoIsEviL

ElMoIsEviL

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Ethereal...

I own an FX-8350, Two FX-6300s and a FX-4300. I have them all overclocked to the same clock speed (4.5GHz). All of the systems run Kingston HyperX PC3-1866MHz RAM as well (to help alleviate memory bottlenecks).

In Guild Wars 2, in World Battles (with many players on the map) running a pair of Crossfired 7870XTs, 7870s and 7950s I hit 20-30FPS. The GPU doesn't matter. It becomes laggy and nearly unplayable.

Thing is Guild Wars 2 is a PVP game so to have the performance drop this drastically is an annoyance.
You can read the experiences from others here.

I have no issues with AMD or with their products. In fact I quite enjoy them and you'll see me recommending them very often on this forum but for Guild Wars 2... no way. I play that game on my 3930K instead.
 
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1991ATServerTower

1991ATServerTower

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You're better off spending $90 on an Intel motherboard and getting an i5 than you are to spend a whopping $150 on an AMD motherboard and getting ANY AMD CPU. I am flabbergasted that a person would suggest buying a $150 AMD motherboard for gaming use when that money is WAY better spent on WAY better performing Intel parts for the same dollar value...
 
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ethereal essence

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i was merely stating that the benchmarks you posted weren't necessarily precise and detailed. and yes amd does struggle with that game. I'm sorry, i didn't mean to come across as argumentative and I did fail to account for how much more cpu muscle wvw required.

and as far as spending 150 for an amd mobo goes... that is if you want to get high overclocks. you can just as easily spend 90.00 on a 970 chipset board, deal with less overclocking headroom and still be fine for gaming (for most games)
 
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