FX 6300 bottlenecking GPU? Budget build questions.

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pavle2222

pavle2222

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Alright guys,i need some help, i'm a poor Serb and i'm going to upgrade my PC in a week.
My current setup is an AMD FX 6300,8 GB 1333Mhz RAM,and an MSI R6670 1GB GDDR5.
It's pretty much an 9 year old case with a 9 year old HDD with some not that new parts.
As an upgrade,i'm thinking of getting the AMD R9 380X.The one i'm getting is this one http://www.winwin.rs/racunari-i-komponente/racunarske-komponente/graficke-kartice/graficka-kartica-amd-radeon-r9-380x-sapphire-nitro-oc-4gb-ddr5-dvi-hdmi-vga-256bit-11250-01-20g-6770149.html,i choose the R9 380X because it has 4GBs of memory and because it's 256 bit,making it a bit more "future proof" I'm not a computer tech genius,but i'm not an complete tard either,my question is,will the AMD FX 6300 bottleneck the R9? If it will,could overclocking fix it? I'm using a 212 EVO as my cooler and the CPU is pretty cold. I'm also using a 600 watt PSU,the recommended PSU for this GPU is 500 watt so i think it'll work just fine. And no,i can't get any card over 300$,and no,i cannot upgrade anything else but my GPU.
 
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RedJaron
"Future proof" basically doesn't exist. The biggest use of VRAM right now is high resolution displays ( such as 1440p or bigger ), and massive AA settings. If you're on a 1920x1080 display, 3GB of VRAM will be just fine. The types of settings you'd have to run to starve the VRAM will also bring the GPU to its knees, so I wouldn't worry about it much. If we were talking about a 1GB or 2GB card, I might be a little more wary.

The bigger problem with the 280 right now is its age. Yes, it's still a strong card, but it's rather inefficient. AMD is due to release a new generation this year, so if you can hold off on buying it, I'd recommend waiting for that. Otherwise, save up for the 970.
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-Arke-

-Arke-

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I have had one FX 4300 running one R9 280 (non X) and I saw no bottle neck with few games (tried Dota, CS:GO, magicka, The Witcher and few others less demandant).

I think you can affor a 280(x or nor X) with no bottleneck at all. It may deppend on the game, tho.
 
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RedJaron

RedJaron

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Short answer: no, you'll be fine.

Long answer: yes, there will be some bottlenecking, but it's doubtful you'll notice it. The truth is every computer component gets bottlenecked somewhere along the line in a computer, it's just a problem if you notice it. If an i3 + GTX 970 can get great gaming results, there's no reason an FX-6300 + R9 380X will have problems.

The question is your PSU. Total wattage alone isn't everything. Do you know the make and model of it? Does it have enough PCIe power cables for your new card?
 
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pavle2222

pavle2222

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I definitely can afford a 280 if i can afford a 380X,but i really don't want to downgrade it because i need something with at least those specs (4GB/256bits) I'm 100% sure that i won't bottleneck with a R9 280,though.
There's videos of the FX 6300 and a R9 380 (not X) playing GTA V and 70% of the comments were "CPU bottleneck" because the game was running at 30fps with full max settings. Some did say the problem was in the 10x MSAA that the guy used so i'm not sure. The 380X is stronger than a normal 380 so i'm really worried about bottleneck problems.
The 212 EVO is just about the best budget cooler i can get and i could probably get the FX to 4GHz. I'm also planning on overclocking the GPU,as well.
 
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pavle2222

pavle2222

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Thank you. And no,i'm not sure about my PSU,i'll check right now.
Update: I believe i'm using this http://www.winwin.rs/racunari-i-komponente/racunarske-komponente/napajanja/napajanje-600w-lc-power-lc600h-12-v2-31-1130085.html I know a little about GPUs but i have no idea how PSUs work and in what way do the pins correspond with the GPU,so if someone could take a look at this and see?
Under the "connectors" part it says :?1x 20/24 pin mainboard 40cm\r\n?1x 4+4 pin mainboard 12V\r\n?1x PCI-Express 6 pin\r\n?1x PCI-Express 6+2 pin\r\n?6x SATA 2x 40/2x 55cm\r\n?3x PATA 2x 70cm\r\n?2x FDD 80cm
 
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RedJaron

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A 280/280X isn't clearly a downgrade from a 380/380X. The 280/280X is the same as the 7950/7970. They're 3GB cards with 384-bit VRAM paths. They're very strong GPUs, they're just old and run hotter than current cards. The 380 is actually a 285, which is a derivative of the 280 and the 290. It dropped the VRAM bus to 256-bits, but enabled some compression tricks so it wasn't as much of an issue. The 280 and 285 are close to tied, though the 280 has a slight edge at higher resolutions. The 380X is the uncut version of the 380. It's a little stronger than the 280, but I think the 280X actually a little better.

As for VRAM amounts, I wouldn't worry about 3GB vs 4GB. A lot of people will say otherwise, but you're very hard pressed to use all that VRAM on a single 1080 screen.
 
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pavle2222

pavle2222

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I really want the 4GB VRAM because i probably won't be able to upgrade the GPU in quite some time,i want it to be as "future proof" as it can be,and i've seen that newer games keep taking up more and more VRAM these days.
And also,i didn't know the 280X is better,i'll look into the 280X as well,thank you.
And,to confirm,my PSU does fit with the GPU?
Update: It seems that the 280X has a smaller price than the 380X,and their specifications seem pretty much the same.
Is it worth going for that extra 1 GB VRAM for roughly....20$ more?
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-380X-vs-Radeon-R9-280X this comparison also puts them at neck and neck,how one might say. I'm really confused.
 
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pavle2222

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I've been using this one for...2 years now.
It's very good and silent,i haven't noticed any problems so far.
And,as specified,i can only upgrade my GPU,nothing else.

 
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RedJaron

RedJaron

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"Future proof" basically doesn't exist. The biggest use of VRAM right now is high resolution displays ( such as 1440p or bigger ), and massive AA settings. If you're on a 1920x1080 display, 3GB of VRAM will be just fine. The types of settings you'd have to run to starve the VRAM will also bring the GPU to its knees, so I wouldn't worry about it much. If we were talking about a 1GB or 2GB card, I might be a little more wary.

The bigger problem with the 280 right now is its age. Yes, it's still a strong card, but it's rather inefficient. AMD is due to release a new generation this year, so if you can hold off on buying it, I'd recommend waiting for that. Otherwise, save up for the 970.
 
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pavle2222

pavle2222

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As specified,i can't pay for any GPU over 300$,and i'm guessing the 970 will topple over that price,especially if bought new. The 380X i'm buying is actually a slightly "improved" version which is pretty much the same as a normal 280X.
All matters considered,the 280X does have a smaller price tag on it,but it is rather inefficient,and old.
The 380X has a smaller memory bus,but is newer and that VRAM "might" come in handy soon.
The new generation is also going to have quite the price tag,i assume.
Update: All things considered,i think i'll go for the R9 380X. This might seem foolish but i've come to a conclusion mainly because of 2 reasons :
1: The first reason is simple : This is not a normal R9 380X,check this page http://www.winwin.rs/racunari-i-komponente/racunarske-komponente/graficke-kartice/graficka-kartica-amd-radeon-r9-380x-sapphire-nitro-oc-4gb-ddr5-dvi-hdmi-vga-256bit-11250-01-20g-6770149.html,It's a "Nitro",it seems to already have some kind of factory OC,and it can probably be overclocked even further.
2: The other reason is more of my "superstition". Simply because the memory bus won't matter that much for me,and i'm only running my games at 1080p,that extra VRAM will probably help me a lot in the next few years,of course,i don't have solid proof,but i've read somewhere online that games will keep increasing their minimum VRAM and soon,VERY soon,1-3GB just won't cut it. For example,Mad Max,a game that isn't THAT graphically amazing,has a recommended VRAM of 3GB or higher.
In 2017,there might be games that take that up to an ever higher scale.
 
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Hellowalkman

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just overclock the 6300 to about 4.5 GHz and it should be fine ..

also directx 12 will help
 
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-Arke-

-Arke-

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Well, I agree with you. If you can afford a nice 280x (or a 2nd hand 290, if you think your PSU will handle it), it should work quite good. As Redjaron said, there will be little to non noticeable bottleneck with either GPU. I just said the 280 thing as an example, not a path to follow.. I ran also one 290 with FX 4300 and saw nothing bottlenecking with TW3 high-ultra (that was the most demandant game I Tried) and saw no difference within a 290 + i5 4960 (53-65 FPS in both scenarios).

The 380x is a nice card and it's said to have nice DX12 support, which is a plus together with the extra Vram. You should be fine with that GPU for now. I hope it will be fine for at least 2 years, but you cant know what will come tomorrow, not for sure.

 
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ohiou_grad_2006

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Op, you might consider the 280x still.

http://www.techspot.com/review/1093-amd-radeon-380x/

Pulled up that review and it looks like the 280x trades blows with the 380x. Plus the 280x should still get dx12 support.

As far as bottleneck, I think you'll be fine. I've got an fx 6300 clocked at 4.3ghz running with a Radeon 7950 3gb that's factory overclocked and it's a good combination. Should be not much slower than the combo you want with a 280x or 380x.

Power supply, I know you say you can't upgrade that. Can you find on the label the rating for the 12v+ rail so we can see what they rate it for? Maybe then we can at least get an idea if it's safe to run or not. There is so much difference between power supplies that are cheap and those that are highet quality. On cheap ones maybe you get lucky sometimes, but they usually can't hold up as well as higher tier ones when you begin to put strain on them.
 
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pavle2222

pavle2222

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My motherboard was the cheapest AM3+ i could find,i hardly believe i can.
 
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pavle2222

pavle2222

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It says 230 V 50Hz on the back of the PSU.
 
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Hellowalkman

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Try at least once or twice because I too have a cheap motherboard and have been able to overclock my cpu by nearly 750 MHz

 
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EAJuggalo

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I' was running low 60's. I now have my CPU running stock with TurboCore turned off. I got really sick of seeing the voltages and speed get raised when the CPU was only under 20% load.
 
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pavle2222

pavle2222

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So,overclocking the FX to....3.8 Ghz and overclocking the GPU to 1070Mhz (It's stock Mhz is at 970) is a no?

 
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