AMD FX-4300 bottleneck my GTX 970?

Daakulol

Reputable
May 9, 2015
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4,510
So I just bought a new GTX 970 and was wondering how bad my AMD FX-4300 would bottleneck it? Also if it does could you suggest the cheapest AMD cpu that would not. I had my eyes on the AMD FX-8320 vishera.

Side note the cpu MUST be AMD. Cannot use intel
 
It will depend on the game. Well threaded games that will use all 4 cores will be OK, but you could do better.

What motherboard do you have?
What CPU cooler do you have?

An FX 6350 will OC nicely with a good board and good cooling. This would be the bare minimum I'd recommend for a GTX 970. 8320 would be better, but the FX 8 core CPUs can get hot and need good power and high end cooling.
 

Daakulol

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May 9, 2015
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4,510


I have a GA-78LMT-S2 motherboard and just a super basic Zalman 92mm fan
 

Daakulol

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May 9, 2015
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4,510


I have a 144Hz monitor
 

Daakulol

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May 9, 2015
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4,510



Would it still be fine to not OC the vishera for a time? Or should I wait till I can buy both. Don't have the money to get better cooling and the Vishera at the same time since I just bought the gtx 970.
 
You may actually "downgrade" here, because Vishera is running at lower clock speed, and since not all games/apps can use 8 cores, You're still gonna be running on the level of FX-4300, no matter what CPU You pick. In this case, You may wanna try to get superb cooler and OC Your FX-4300 really high.
 

Cristi72

Admirable
Hello,

The Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2 motherboard supports only 95W CPUs and only a few FX CPUs, so the choices are FX8320E or FX8370E, and only if the motherboard is version 1.2 (for ver 1.0 and ver. 1.1: FX-6300 or the older FX-8100).

To OC fans: please don't encourage overclocking FX CPUs on old low-end motherboards, no cooler will solve the sub-par VRM performance and scarce BIOS overclocking options.
 

DubbleClick

Admirable
Yup, overclocking the fx 4300 might work on it by a bit, but definitely not very high. About the 8 core cpus, your motherboard is probably going to flat out melt.

You have no other choice of staying with the fx 4300 until you can afford a cpu + motherboard. An I5 4460 + h81 board go for $180+$30=$210 and would even be a good upgrade from a fx 9590 regarding gaming, by the way.
 

Daakulol

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May 9, 2015
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Okay thanks! I will do some more looking around motherboards I had actually bookmarked the i5 4460 beforehand incase I were to buy a motherboard that supported an intel cpu. Most likely will go for a i5 4460 with a the ASUS z97-A combo in the near future when I get a bit more $
 

DubbleClick

Admirable
Why would you get a z97 board for a locked I5, though? Want to sli? And even then, there's cheaper alternatives with no loss on features.

Unless you intend to add another gtx 970 or a m.2/sata-e ssd, you could as well get a h81 board. If you need more usb 3/sata 3 ports, the gigabyte b85m-d3h has you covered.
 
DubbleClick - he would get Z97 board, because he may get K/C cpu in the future. I really don't understand Your questions, nor logic DubbleClick. All other chipsets are marketing move, and total bs. There should be two. Z and B/H. B/H would be for office, and Z would be for gamers, end of story. The rest in between is for "special cases", that people don't really use that much, like virtualization, decentralized workstations, and others.

And yes, for serious gaming, another GTX 970 is gonna be bliss, even in a year, so why lock him self out with H81?

What are You doing here? Recommending a h81 board to a gamer?! What kind of logic did You use here, please, enlighten me, and us.

Z97 for superior upgradability and OC posibilities. Z97 for SLi. Z97 for superior m.2 sata ssd, Z97 for superior clocks of ram, and reliability. Z97 has superior raid0 made directly out of the box, compared to H81. Z97 is generally the only choice for a gamer, unless You're not a rich guy, who can move to new chipset within a year, or two. If You plan to keep the current motherboard for 4-5 years, Z97 is the ultimate answer for that. He can go full 32 gigs of ram, and k/c cpu, with heavy OC on most of the Z97 motherboards.

Honestly, people like You irritate me, extremely. Because in obvious situations, they tend to recommend illogical and dumb things, just like this one now. Stop it, please, don't do it.
 

DubbleClick

Admirable
The only one recommending stupid things here is you.

"Z97 for superior upgradability and OC posibilities. Z97 for SLi. Z97 for superior m.2 sata ssd, Z97 for superior clocks of ram, and reliability. Z97 has superior raid0 made directly out of the box, compared to H81."

Upgradeability? I told you about broadwell, only insane people would spend $350 on a minimal (<5%) performance improvement.
OC possibilities? The I5 is locked, therefore irrelevant.
SLI? I mentioned that. If he doesn't plan to SLI in a few months, that's useless.
Superior m.2? H81/B85 boards don't have m.2 at all. Sata3 is the same, pcie ssds work same (as fast as m.2).
Superior clocks of ram? 3200mhz instead of 2666mhz? No sane person gets ram above 2400mhz, there isn't anything but an increase in price and configuration problems.
Reliability? Just flat out wrong.
Superior raid 0? Plain wrong again.

There is literally nothing senseful behind your posts, irrelevant mentions alongside of wrong statements. You started with that with your amd claims and continued to do so until this very moment.

Do people a favour and educate yourself and grow common sense before giving advise again.
 
DubbleClick - really, are You nuts?

1. Superior upgradability. You think he's gonna stay on i5 till kingdom come, and than go after whole new computer platform? No, he can get i7, whether it's HW, or BW, doesn't matter, and extend the life span of his current motherboard and ram for another 2-4 years!

2. Yes, OC capabilities, for K & C processors. I don't know whether You're trolling, or just plain slow in Your head. I wrote it like 3x already - OC for K & C.

3. SLi is like a must, if he goes into new platform, going to the same sinking ship [h81 equals what he has already]. Not going for Z97 would be madness in this case, because he already has a h81 equivalent with AMD platform, right?

4. No it doesn't m.2 is superfast, and doesn't take space in PCi-e, and doesn't interrupt other PCI-e lanes.

5. Superior clocks for OC, on h81 those ram clocks are pretty much useless, right? ;)

6. Increase in price, decrease in configuration problems, yes.

7. yes, reliability. It's not flat wrong, it's statistics. Z97 go off less often, compared to cheaper chipset motherboards.

8. Yes, superior raid. I have Z97 raid0 with 4 SSDs, and they go much faster compared to 2 way raid at h81! I tested it, here at my place, many times. I reach full speeds at two way raid, 40% deterioriation at 3 way, and 60% deterioriation at 4 way raid, whilst h81 can only do two at raid1, with 20-40% deterioriation and decrease in rated speed.

Wake up buddy...
 

DubbleClick

Admirable
1. You can plug an I7 4790k just fine into h81 boards. The I7 5775c? We can't know, but paying $100 extra for same performance doesn't make sense. Just as an upgrade to an I7 would be majorly pointless in a gaming rig.

2. Pointless, see above.

3. Sli is a must? Not at all. The rest you wrote is just absolutely unrelated.

4. Pcie ssds ARE just as fast as m.2. m.2 works by taking the bandwith of 4 pcie3 lanes. Youre wrong again.

5. There is no gain in speed (and actually a decrease) getting anything higher than 2400mhz cl10 ram.

6. You accidently made it an own point. Decrease in configuration problems? Have you ever tried configuring 3200mhz ram? 29.3 is the maximum dram multiplier so you need to mess with your bclk clock. A decrease in configuration problems is impossible anyway, taking 1866mhz ram as example. You put it in the motherboard, go into bios and enable xpm. You can't get it shorter than that, except letting your ram run at 1333mhz default.

7. Source? And even if, are you really making a possible 1.1% instead of 1.2% out as reason to get a z97 board? Warranty has one covered anyway.

8. That 4-way raid 0 is faster than 2-way raid 0 is obvious. I however don't see why you wouldn't be able to 4-way on boards other than z97?

Seriously, you have not contributed anything towards the topic except false information. And you have not provided a single bit of evidence (or even logic, for that matter) to back up your claims.
 
DubbleClick - please, just answer this one question, coz any dispute, or debate with You is utterly pointless, because You fail to see very foundational principles of trends and hierarchy of information technologies and corresponding hardware cases.

Question: Which is better?

A: Paying now [2015] mere 50-70 bucks more for Z97 board and:
- be able to get 4790k and OC it to 4,5-5 GHz on air/water? [and thus, getting a free 15-20% raw power increase] and prolonging the life of the current system by 2/-4 years. At a time he's gonna go from i5, he'll probably be somewhere around 150 - 200 euro price tag
- be able to SLi another GTX 970 [yes, he's going for the GTX 970] for 150-200 euros
- in general, do an upgrade of 300-400 euros, and be able to run everything on high/ultra-high for another year/or two, after upgrade

B: Paying now [2015] mere 50-70 bucks less for H81 board and:
- be able to get 4790k, but won't be able to OC it at all, whatsoever [thus losing 15-20% raw power]
- won't be able to SLi, and thus being able to buy only new and better graphics card for 300-400 euro, and most likely, 500 euro graphics card, if he'd wanted the SLi of GTX 970 effect
- in general and ultimately get a new motherboard/ram, for new system for another 500 euro

Allow me to sum that up for You, will ya?

A: All he has to do is invest somewhere within the range of a year, or two 300-400 euro, and he's good for another year-two.

B: He has to invest either extra 650-700 euro, to get the same effect as he'd get with option A, without the ability to push the CPU for another generation/or two!*, in a year, or two, and ultimately invest another 1000 euro, because he'd bought the c*appy h81 two years ago, and saved 50-70 euro!

* many of my clients are running on 2600K OCed to 4,5 - 4,8 [some 5.0] GHz nowadays, because they didn't think like You, but thought like me. And now, they still have superior CPU, that didn't need to be changed for past 4 years, and they won't need to change it for another 3-5 years!

So please, be so kind, and answer that. Is it A, or B? Which seems more logical to You?

My question is very simple, really. Why saving now a marginal sum of 50-70 euro, that will force me to invest extra 300 - 350 euros in a year/or two, or eventually 500-600 euros? I fail to see Your point, utterly, absolutely and totally, and You're absolutely right in this aspect, I really do fail to see what You're trying to prove here.
 

DubbleClick

Admirable
That's were your thought process lacks.

Scenario A:
-pay $70 extra for a z97 board.
-pay $300 extra for the I7 4790k
or -pay $450 extra for the I7 5775c
-pay $80+ extra for higher clocked ram
-pay $80 extra for an aftermarket cooler

Scenario B:
-save $530-$680 for ~1% less fps on average
-don't spend time messing with voltages to get your system stable


The op hasn't mentioned on any plans regarding sli, therefore this doesn't happen in either scenario. I already mentioned that a z97 is required to sli anyway, which renders your attempt at 'proving me wrong' void.
 
DubbleClick - You are a true troll master, aren't You?

He pays now extra 30-70 bucks for motherboard, nothing else happens. He can get the same ram, same graphics card, same everything.

In a year or two, he has the option to get a cheap 4790K chip. He can sit it either into h81, where it'll run, on 4,0 GHz and 4,4 GHz TurboBoost, or he'll pump it up to 4,5-5,0 GHz OC in z97 chip.

In a year or two, he has the option to get cheap GTX 970. He doesn't have this option in Your scenario. He has to buy a fully fledged single gpu graphics card, or some dual gpu one pcb graphics card. Whilst still losing power on his current, or new CPU, because he's not able to OC the new one.

His option is either get a new graphics card, where instead of 150-200 euros, he has to invest 300-400 euros, and he probably still won't have the same performance, as he'd have with 2 x GTX 970 SLi, for 150-200 euros. If he wants to surpass the 2 x GTX 970 SLi, he will most likely have to invest 500 euros for single GPU, or 700 euros for dual GPU graphics card, in order to overpass possible GTX 970 SLi performance.

Your arguments are all wrong. What You wrote is in Your head, and is irrelevant. We're not talking about stronger memory here for Z97, nor anything else.

He will have to get the AF cooler for 4790K all in all, even on h81.

You're a super troll, and this is my last feed to You. You simply fail to see the bigger picture, and for some perverted and illogical reasons, You're telling the OP to go fore the same stuff he already has...
 

DubbleClick

Admirable
No. I'm not telling him to get the same he already has, but the most cost efficient option with the best performance.

What you're telling him is to spend a horseload of money for no actual gain in games.

No idea why you keep bringing up an I7 4790k anyway (despite that there is no need for an aftermarket cooler on stock speed) as it won't show noticeable improvement in playing games.

Same for sli, there has been no mention of it at all.

And then, an I7 4790k and a gtx 970 for $150 each? He'd have to wait around 10 years for that to happen.

But yeah, before growing common sense you'll probably have to learn english and practice reading comprehension first.
 
4790K because he will go there eventually, if he doesn't want to buy a new system and stay on weak h81 and i5.
He will have to get AF cooler both for h81 and z97.
10 years, try like this summer, when AMD arrives with R9 3xx, You're gonna see those prices drop, to 250-280, and year from now on, it's gonna be 180-220 euro.
SLi is the logical and smart answer to the future upgrade. Why investing a 400-500 euro to a new graphics card, when I can invest half, or even less, for the one I have already, and have 1,5x the power? There's no smart answer for You, definitely, but for the rest of the World, it's SLi.
4790K cost now 300 euro without VAT. With coming of BW, and SL and SM, it will go instantly down to 200 euro.
I didn't write 150 euro/each, I wrote 150 - 200 euro/each.

Stop trolling. Thank You.
 

Owlsome_1

Commendable
Aug 31, 2016
4
0
1,510


What about a amd fx-4300 @4.6Ghz with 80%+ usage always on even in idle? I'm using this and getting higher fps than my skylake i5 surprisingly (Same GTX 970 FTW+) The fx had a 7 FPS boost in gta 5 compaired to the i5.

Amd FX-4300 Over clocked to 4.6 ghz
Coolermaster Silent gaming fan (keeps my cpu bellow 40c with this oc when gaming)
GTX 970 FTW+ (4gb)
550w Thermaltake Psu
8gb of ddr3 ram
Case: Thermal take commander (Has 2 120mm fans one intake and one outtake)
With a 144hz Asus monitor that runs 1440p max
Avg FPS GTA V 1080p High (73)

My other was
Intel i5 6400k (3.2 ghz)
Same cooler master fan
GTX 970 FTW+
16gb ddr4 ram
Case: Thermaltake p5 green edition atx open panel case
750w corsiar cxm psu
same monitor 144hz asus monitor (1440p max)
GTA V avg FPS 1080p High (66)

So a fx-4300 can handle a gpu like a 970 just fine and gta v is moderately to highly cpu and gpu intensive just overclock it as high as you feel is safe, happy gaming!