Latest AMD APU vs AMD CPU

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
D

DugDug1983

Reputable
Jan 6, 2016
5
0
4,510
So I am building a new gaming rig and have been looking at some different options for cpu vs apu. I am thinking about a A10-7870K with a Crossbalde Ranger from Asus, and a R9-380X. But I also like the the FX-8320 with either the MSI 990X/970x Gaming motherboard or Asus Crosshair V motherboard. Same R9-380X in both builds. Which is better for just gaming?
 
Solution
jimmysmitty
The only downside to buying a FX series now is that AM3 is a dead socket, meaning there will be no more CPUs released for it as Zen will be AM4 with DDR4.

The only systems worth buying and building now are Intel based as they have a new socket (LGA1151) that will receive not only a refresh (Kaby Lake) but also a die shrink (10nm Canon Lake) making it the most viable platform currently.

Zen is a decent wait if you won't want to do Intel because it should, in theory not for sure, at least bring AMDs CPUs up to par with Haswell (i3/i5/i7 4000 series) in performance and hopefully also use less power than the FX series does.

In the end it is your choice but I highly recommend against investing in a dead end platform.
Sort by date Sort by votes
madmatt30

madmatt30

Titan
Ambassador
Jan 1, 2013
24,574
650
91,240
6300 or 8320 - pointless buying a quad apu & pairing a discrete card with it.

Stick with the 970 series board , the 990 & the crosshair are not worth the extra money for the average user.
The MSI 970 gaming is a decent board, spend the saving on a decent aftermarket cooler.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
22,250
1,350
108,740
I agree, the FX would be the better option of the two you presented.

The FX-8320 is essentially an underclocked 8350 (which is ~$30 more on average), so you can push a bit of an OC out of it too.

An alternative (although a 'dead' socket) is the Athlon 860k. It's essentially an A10-7850 with the iGPU disabled. Much better price point and decent all-round performance ($73 vs $139 for the FX or $132 for the A10).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
22,250
1,350
108,740


According to this there actually might be a couple of "new" CPU releases for FM2+. Doubt they'd be anything spectacular though, although the rumoured TDP is an improvement.



An i3-6100 + Z170 is a good call. I assume the OP is set on an AMD CPU/APU, but if they can be persuaded, this would be the way to go.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
D

DugDug1983

Reputable
Jan 6, 2016
5
0
4,510
Not really a Intel fan, so it'll be strictly AMD. I thought about waiting till Zen comes out but I would prefer not to wait that long as right now I am restricted to my Asus ROG 750 Laptop.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

Champion
Oct 5, 2007
21,605
599
59,140
The only downside to buying a FX series now is that AM3 is a dead socket, meaning there will be no more CPUs released for it as Zen will be AM4 with DDR4.

The only systems worth buying and building now are Intel based as they have a new socket (LGA1151) that will receive not only a refresh (Kaby Lake) but also a die shrink (10nm Canon Lake) making it the most viable platform currently.

Zen is a decent wait if you won't want to do Intel because it should, in theory not for sure, at least bring AMDs CPUs up to par with Haswell (i3/i5/i7 4000 series) in performance and hopefully also use less power than the FX series does.

In the end it is your choice but I highly recommend against investing in a dead end platform.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
22,250
1,350
108,740
A ROG 750 laptop? Not too many people would view that as 'restricted' necessarily. Doesn't it have an i7, 16+GB RAM and a GTX 880M? Pretty good spec, for a laptop of course.

Performance-wise, Intel is the way to go....although maybe AMD will pull something out of their ...somewhere with Zen.

If you want to stick with AMD, and don't want to wait for Zen, you're missing out on potential CPU upgrades in future but if that doesn't bother you (that you'll be on a 'dead' socket) I would still advocate the 860k as a "bang for buck" chip.

The top of the line FX-9590 would come the closest to performing on par with a higher-end Intel Chip at the moment, but its $300+ and a whopping 220W TDP.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

Champion
Oct 5, 2007
21,605
599
59,140


The FX 9590 also requires very high end cooling, the equivalent to a H80 in water or air at minimum. Anything less will cause it to overheat.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
22,250
1,350
108,740


Just to be clear, I wasn't advocating for using it. Just pointing out the shortcomings of AMD vs Intel (and I like AMD!)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
O

Outlander_04

Titan
BANNED
Nov 18, 2008
20,308
4
74,960
FX8320, Asrock 970 performance, 2x4 gig of RAM, and a decent cooler for some overclocking.

Then spend more on a quality case, psu, etcetc to be ready for upgrading when Zen arrives

Despite the clims of intel fans this will give you the same game experience as any of their suggestions, except the i3 builds which it will easily outperform in multi player maps
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

Champion
Oct 5, 2007
21,605
599
59,140


Yet when Zen arrives he will have to buy a new board, CPU and RAM spending more than just buying a Intel setup which in the near future he can upgrade just the CPU or just waiting for Zen instead of wasting money on an outdated platform.

As for performance, it truly depends on the game. I have seem some multiplayer games where nothing better than a dual core will win based on the core but there are some that do benefit from 4 real cores vs a dual core with SMT, such as BF4.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
O

Outlander_04

Titan
BANNED
Nov 18, 2008
20,308
4
74,960



He won't "have" to do anything .
But it would be wise if he set himself up with the future in mind .
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

Champion
Oct 5, 2007
21,605
599
59,140


And how is buying a dead platform setting himself up with the future in mind? If Zen was coming to AM3+ I would agree with you but it is not.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Onus

Onus

Titan
Jan 27, 2006
37,037
12
89,965
He did say "set himself up with the future in mind." That does not imply a recommendation to buy an AMD system. He did specify more money to be spent on a better case and PSU. The low-end but adequate AMD parts could be throwaways, an interim solution until future "real" parts get here, from either company.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
O

Outlander_04

Titan
BANNED
Nov 18, 2008
20,308
4
74,960


The hardware i suggested will cost about $250 for cpu, mb and RAM . They will have a multi year life span but if at some time in the future the OP wished to replace them he can update using the rest of the hardware [ case , psu , storage etc] he buys now . That is setting yourself up for the future .

BTW have you stopped recommending haswell builds because they are really dead , as opposed to FX being a still current model that will be replaced in the coming months ?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

DugDug1983

Reputable
Jan 6, 2016
5
0
4,510
I will take everyone's advice carefully. So far I've decided to stick with the FX8320, MSI 970 Gaming Mother Board. I already have a brand new Corsair 300R case, with CSX750M semi modular Watt ppower supply and Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900). The R9-380X should hold me for awhile. I'm not overclocking anything I plan on waiting till next year before dropping big bucks on a highend rig. Give it awhile for zen to work out kinks and such.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

Champion
Oct 5, 2007
21,605
599
59,140
I will take everyone's advice carefully. So far I've decided to stick with the FX8320, MSI 970 Gaming Mother Board. I already have a brand new Corsair 300R case, with CSX750M semi modular Watt ppower supply and Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900). The R9-380X should hold me for awhile. I'm not overclocking anything I plan on waiting till next year before dropping big bucks on a highend rig. Give it awhile for zen to work out kinks and such.
Click to expand...

I do have one question for you, if you dislike Intel then why do you have a laptop with an i7?

Just seems a bit odd to me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
D

DugDug1983

Reputable
Jan 6, 2016
5
0
4,510


It was a Christmas present from my wife. and it does play most of the games I play like C&C3, Sins of the Solar Empire: Rebellion, Mass Effects (all 3), and swtor pretty well. Besides I put both my SSD's in it and and it's great for when I go on trips for work or vacations.

Also it's not that I dislike Intel or Nivida for that matter, I just have had better luck with AMD so far. Espically with Gigabyte, and MSI products.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
jimmysmitty

jimmysmitty

Champion
Oct 5, 2007
21,605
599
59,140


Just checking. Just a heads up though, MSI and Gigabyte make everything. They don;t care so long as you buy it.

Hopefully your purchase will serve you well.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
synphul

synphul

Champion
Mar 11, 2011
9,477
7
54,965
I think it's a bit odd that haswell/devil's canyon is newer than fx 8350, yet people say it's dead. The only reason the fx 8350 isn't 'technically' dead is because nothing new has come out. If Maxell stopped making any recordable media after vhs, no cd's, dvd's or anything else - does that mean vhs is 'current tech'? I would say no since Verbatim, Sony and others transitioned to optical media.

Obviously so does Maxell but it was hypothetical to prove the point that old tech isn't still relevant just because it doesn't yet have a replacement from said company. I don't see any advantage to buying a bunch of hardware for 10mo use with hopes that zen 'may' be something great. I say that with hesitation being realistic, it could be or it could be another bulldozer and there's no dispute how that panned out.

Nothing dead about haswell or devil's canyon, both will easily serve someone for a good 4yrs or more. That's being conservative. None of intel's upper end mainstream i5's or i7's have been '2yr and replace' type chips and the number of people still running sandy bridge are proof of that. No harm in waiting on zen but while I'm not bashing it I'm not going to artificially praise it either. I don't do that for intel, not about to do it for amd. Speculation, hype and adverts mean squat, performance in hand is all that matters. It either delivers or it doesn't.

If someone had to go with amd, of the choices originally considered the fx is the better of those two.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom