Need Help With CPU Upgrade 4 Streaming/Gaming Rig

JustinKoker

Honorable
Mar 6, 2013
15
0
10,510
I am in need of some help from any knowledgeable members of TH. I am planning on upgrading to a new CPU soon for my current system. I want something that will allow me to play on high/max settings for games but still be over 60 frames while streaming. My current CPU, which is an AMD FX-8120 8-core Zambezi o.c'ed to 3.8 GHz just is not cutting it. I have already established that this has to be my current bottleneck because most games I cannot play on high nor consistently over 60 even on low settings especially while streaming. I see about a 20-30% performance drop in-game while i stream with this CPU. I can get more detailed specs of my entire system but for now the basics should suffice. (I am sure there is a test I can run on my system to give me a list of all my components but don't know of any personally)

FX-8120 @ 3.8 Stable

Radeon HD 7950 3GB

GA-990FXA-UD5 AM3+ MB

Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 RAM @ 1333 (will not allow me to clock to 1600 for some reason)

700W ATX 12V 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU

240GB Samsung SSD

I want to see if I can find another AMD CPU that runs just as well performance wise as an i7-4770K if possible. The ones I have looked at are the FX9590 and the FX8350. For the time being due to money restraints I would rather not go Intel if I can, but I do plan to make a purely gaming rig in the near future that will be Intel and keep my current as my editing/rendering/streaming rig. Though to make Intel work I would need a new MB and between the 2 of those it would be around 600 USD with tax. I thought i made a good choice with my current 8120 but i was mistaken for gaming. I just do not want to make a bad choice a second time and go AMD if I really should switch intel. I would plan to keep the replaced MB and CPU until I can get the other components needed to replace the CPU and MB and put the intel stuff into the gaming rig.

I know This is a fairly long segment but if anyone may have some insight I do not on if there is any AMD CPUs that are what I am looking for or if I am better of going intel and spending the extra money now. I just want a system that can demolish most games and still be able to stream without that performance damp from the cpu encoding of stream. I see so many people playing games on max settings over 100 frames and I would just like to have that assurance.
 
IMHO, you're just not going to get what you want without an Intel CPU.
A 4770K is $340 on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116901
A decent MB is $140: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157369

That's still under $500. However if you have Win7, you'll probably need a new copy of Windows as OEM copies are tied to your motherboard. The registration will fail. It's definitely worth calling them and explaining the situation, that components of the system were not up to the job and required an upgrade, they may accept that and allow you to install. Otherwise you'll have to budget a new copy.

Those processors you listed are better than your 8120, but I'm just not convinced you'll get your money's worth, unless you can get a really good price for your 8120 second hand.
 

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
As long as you are in that class of CPU, gaming at high frame rates will be all about the card. Any FX-8xxx/9xxx processor will be sufficient. Not as fast as the Intel i7's but fast enough for gaming with a good card. If you are starting over with new MB too, then Intel would be the best... for gaming. Streaming isn't an issue with either one. Oh, and don't believe everything you see about 'claimed' framerates. Take those with a grain of salt, as the old saying goes. There is no real benefit to have over 60 fps with a 60hz monitor. And even 30 fps is smooth to the human eye.

For video rendering, decoding, and other video work, the more cores the better. There, the 8 core AMDs will give the i7 a run for its money.
 

JustinKoker

Honorable
Mar 6, 2013
15
0
10,510
Would I see much of a performance difference between 8 and 16gb of ram or is that mostly for rendering/editing purposes. I am not entirely sure which components are most necessary for which applications. If I really want to, I could go intel and just pull the important stuff from my current system then just replace some essentials. I have 2 GTX 460s in storage somewhere and then i would just need a new PSU, OS, case, and disc reader which is about 400 for all of that roughly.

I cannot remember if my liquid cooler H-100 is compatible with both amd and intel motherboards though. I would have to figure that out especially if i planned to overclock the I7 which i would def do.
 

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
The difference between 8GB and 16 GB for gaming is a moot point. Games are still 32 bit coded*, which means they can only address 4GB of system memory. Of course some system memory has to be set aside for other stuff like a video buffer, etc. So 8 GB is always a good number for gaming. And you are not going to be wanting to multi-task while gaming anyway if you want to get the most out the game.

Applications other than gaming will use as much system memory as they need depending on their demand, coding, and how many are running at the same time. So if you are an avid video editing buff or have a lot of productivity apps to run at the same time, go for 16GB.

* There are some rare exceptions. But most are 32 bit.