APU or FX? So many options.

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Wolfcelt07

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I'm decent at best with computers but sometimes I read all these reviews on the AMD processors that this ones great and so is this one then we see the oh its actually bad and don't get that....so I need to know for my MILD gaming(Warcraft, Minecraft gta5 for the future!) and possibly future mild streaming. Should I go with Fx6300, 6350,8320, 8350(maybe) or should I go with just a a10 7850k?

Reviews are only so good so I'd like to hear from community and links are appreciated. Thanks! :D
 
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geofelt
With your budget, look at this recent tom's build:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enthusiast-pc-under-1300,3856.html

In particular, the Z97 motherboard will give you the option for a 14nm broadwell upgrade.
I would buy the i5-4690K instead, a better chip at the same price.

At that budget, use a ssd for the "C" drive. 120gb at least. 240gb and I would defer on the hard drive until you need the space for large files.

And buy a single good graphics card.

Here is my canned rant on planning for dual cards:
-----------------------------Start of rant----------------------------------------------------
Dual graphics cards vs. a good single card.

a) How good do you really need to be?
A single GTX650/ti or 7770 can give you good...
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bicycle_repair_man

bicycle_repair_man

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People will always recommend Intel or AMD and benchmark figures will always favour one over the other, depending on what you're using as the yardstick.

Are you looking to build a PC yourself or buy one ready-made? What budget do you have? Besides gaming, is there anything else you want to use the PC for?
 
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Traciatim

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If you are going for budget gaming you shouldn't rely on the graphics unit built on the chip no matter who makes it, so you'd be looking at getting discrete graphics. That essentially rules out the APU series since they are expensive for a processor for the performance you get.

For gaming you generally want the highest single thread performance you can afford with a good video card to match your budget, so that usually rules out the AMD FX line unless you have working requirements that they do well in.

So then you should be looking at an Intel Pentium G3258 for overclocking, an i3, or if you have the budget a 4670k/4690k for a performance gaming rig. Then get as much video card as you can afford.
 
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Traciatim

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lol, the processor is 58% more expensive... and that page doesn't even give you any good benchmarks. Try to find some WOW benchmarks or Minecraft Benchmarks that rely very heavily on single thread performance... is it performing more than 58% faster in those?

Anand has a nice chart of CPUs in WOW: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/62 . .. clearly showing the 6300 and 8350 barely squeaking by an i3-530 and Pentium G850 which are both pretty old at this point. The newer models will quite easily blow past what they have listed on that chart.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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What is your budget for the cpu and GPU combined?

For good gaming, the graphics card is usually the most important part.
I recommend a budget split of 2x the cpu cost for the graphics card.

In the case of the A10-7850K you are looking at $190.
That is pretty good for a entry level budget gamer using the very good integrated graphics.
If you play fast action games, you will eventually become disappointed.
The problem I have with an APU is no good upgrade capability. The cpu power is not upgradeable, and if you install a strong discrete graphics card, you negate the initial benefit of a good apu graphics.
One could add in a similar strength card to the apu but dual cards have stuttering and tearing issues.
Bottom line is with a A10-7850K what you get you will live with forever.

A budget of $150 is about the least you could do. That would be for an entry level discrete graphics card in the $100 range. That might be a R7-250 . A cpu might be a G1850.
Most games, including wow can not use more than two fast cores. Look at this comparison of <$200 gaming cpu's. In it, the base cpu is an older G860 which is about 15% less capable than the G1850.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-processor-frame-rate-performance,3427-9.html

Next up would be a budget of $225. That would be for a $75 G3258 and a $150 discrete card like a GTX750ti. With a mild overclock, the G3258 will be about twice as fast as the G860.

Past that, you get the idea.
 
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Wolfcelt07

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My budget honestly is going $1100-$1600(For the whole computer). As far as CPU+GPU Budget goes I want to keep those within $275-$400 I like Intel but I like AMD Im not really that picky I just want to be able to play mediocre games for the most part. Not gonna go into anything to severe. MY 1st original idea was a fx6300 or 8320 with either 2-260xs or 1-290...but I flip flop all my choices. Every few days cause I need this rig to at least last me a couple of years but probably no more then 4 years.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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With your budget, look at this recent tom's build:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/enthusiast-pc-under-1300,3856.html

In particular, the Z97 motherboard will give you the option for a 14nm broadwell upgrade.
I would buy the i5-4690K instead, a better chip at the same price.

At that budget, use a ssd for the "C" drive. 120gb at least. 240gb and I would defer on the hard drive until you need the space for large files.

And buy a single good graphics card.

Here is my canned rant on planning for dual cards:
-----------------------------Start of rant----------------------------------------------------
Dual graphics cards vs. a good single card.

a) How good do you really need to be?
A single GTX650/ti or 7770 can give you good performance at 1920 x 1200 in most games.

A single GTX660 or 7850 will give you excellent performance at 1920 x 1200 in most games.
Even 2560 x 1600 will be good with lowered detail.
A single gtx690,7990, GTX780ti or R9-290X is about as good as it gets for a single card.

Only if you are looking at triple monitor gaming, or a 4k monitor, might sli/cf will be needed.
Even that is now changing with triple monitor support on top end cards and stronger single card solutions.

b) The costs for a single card are lower.
You require a less expensive motherboard; no need for sli/cf or multiple pci-e slots.
Even a ITX motherboard will do.

Your psu costs are less.
A GTX660 needs a 430w psu, even a GTX780 only needs a 575w psu.
When you add another card to the mix, plan on adding 200w to your psu requirements.

Even the most power hungry GTX690 only needs 620w, or a 7990 needs 700w.

Case cooling becomes more of an issue with dual cards.
That means a more expensive case with more and stronger fans.
You will also look at more noise.

c) Dual gpu's do not always render their half of the display in sync, causing microstuttering. It is an annoying effect.
The benefit of higher benchmark fps can be offset, particularly with lower tier cards.
Read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

d) dual gpu support is dependent on the driver. Not all games can benefit from dual cards.

e) dual cards up front reduces your option to get another card for an upgrade. Not that I suggest you plan for that.
It will often be the case that replacing your current card with a newer gen card will offer a better upgrade path.
The high end Maxwell and amd 8000 or 9000 series are due the end of the year or next year.
-------------------------------End of rant-----------------------------------------------------------

 
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