I have some spare cash for an upgrade but is AMD to Intel worth the Jump in the long run?

Rolando_d

Honorable
Feb 27, 2014
73
0
10,640
Hey guys, once again I appreciate the help. This is an awesome active forum and community.

Right now I have a pretty decent Co-op position and I have the extra cash on hand but I have to go back to school and finish my degree in Aerospace Engineering in the Fall. So my goal is to really build my PC so that it will be a high quality machine for the next atleast 3 years while I can. The computer is used for Engineering programs Autocad etc, rendering type stuff and a passion of mine is Simulation Games such as FSX as well as FPS games like BF4.

Here's my current system:

FX 8320 8 Core Processor 4.1 OC
EVGA GTX 760 GPU
8Gb Gskill DDR3 RAM
GA-970a-ud3 Mobo
600W PSU
120Gb Samsung EVO SSD Boot Drive
500Gb 7200rpm barracuda HDD

I was strongly thinking of switching out the Mobo and CPU with I7 4770k and Z87 Plus Combo from Tigerdirect. Here is the link. I almost hit the checkout button before I decided to check and see if anyone had any better ideas than the CPU. The reason I was thinking CPU is because Simulation games such as FSX require a ton of CPU power

Z87 & I7 4770k: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8511492&CatId=8585
Also the PSU is 600W, should I look at switching that out first?

I have a Hyper 212 EVO aftermarket cooler right now on the CPU and one thing I've noticed is that even OC to 4.1 Ghz the Core 3 temp seems to heat up. Also my system seems unstable past 4.3Ghz and I was getting some weird stuff happening when the CPU was 100% loaded and I was trying to fly FSX with a framerate of 10fps. On FSX the CPU was 100% loaded, and I was getting crashes so thats why I was thinking about chucking out AMD for the 4770k since I've read it has 32% higher multithread performance and 75% higher single thread. so do yall think I should stick with the AMD and problems are being caused by the board? Or should I make the Jump to Intel?
 
Solution
Well that info sounds like you didnt OC right my man. Obviously the 4770k is better than your 8320. But if you have the money for intel then go for it. Dont know much about intel, im a broke college student and there not wallet friendly. But my 8350 with my crosshair formula v and a my OC i have it steady at 4.9ghz and my 770 windforce. I can run BF4 on ultra never dipping below 90fps. I would check your OC before anything.

Good luck =]

Pocketfullanut

Honorable
Apr 4, 2013
73
0
10,660
Well that info sounds like you didnt OC right my man. Obviously the 4770k is better than your 8320. But if you have the money for intel then go for it. Dont know much about intel, im a broke college student and there not wallet friendly. But my 8350 with my crosshair formula v and a my OC i have it steady at 4.9ghz and my 770 windforce. I can run BF4 on ultra never dipping below 90fps. I would check your OC before anything.

Good luck =]
 
Solution
From the limited information provided, I would suspect that you have either an unstable overclock, or some sort of throttling occurring. I think the motherboard might be in question, but the 970-UD3 has an 8+2 phase VRM, which is fairly hefty. Still, although the phase-count may be high, it may not be built to accommodate for much headroom for the 8-core processors.

All this said, I would switch to overclocking via the BIOS, and running stress tests (Prime95) to unsure stability - and to make sure it is not overheating or throttling.

As an afterthought, what is the make/brand of your PSU? A lower-quality PSU could cause issues.