Which CPU to get, far too many to choose from?

[madne$$]

Hey guys,

I'm really stuck on which CPU to buy either AMD or Intel, I really wanna give AMD a shot as their the cheaper option but Intel is much better for gaming.
I wanna be able to play GTA4, Shogun 2, Rome 2 total war (When released=]), Fifa 13, CS:GO, BF3 (In time),

I current have

1) Corsair GS800 (PSU)
2) Sapphire HD6870
3) HDD with Windows 7 installed

Just need a good Motherboard and CPU to buy.

From those games listed which AMD would you recommend?
From " " Intel would you recommend?

Thanks so much.

Madne$$

 

[Shallowmist]

Hey guys,

I'm really stuck on which CPU to buy either AMD or Intel, I really wanna give AMD a shot as their the cheaper option but Intel is much better for gaming.
I wanna be able to play GTA4, Shogun 2, Rome 2 total war (When released=]), Fifa 13, CS:GO, BF3 (In time),

I current have

1) Corsair GS800 (PSU)
2) Sapphire HD6870
3) HDD with Windows 7 installed

Just need a good Motherboard and CPU to buy.

From those games listed which AMD would you recommend?
From " " Intel would you recommend?

Thanks so much.

Madne$$

Honestly I have both I7 and AMD FX build and i would personally go for the FX with your build. Since it will compliment the AMD card. And just as a comparison it is true that at some places you will lose FPS compared to intel i do not deny it but at higher resolutions of 1920x1080 which i assume is the basic for gaming the difference is 1/2 fps at best. + you can overclock the FX'es by a substantial bit. And also with AMD your multitasking will be way better i usually do a'lot of things on the PC except gaming and with the i7 i had i would get hindered when doing many things in the same time. So i opt for AMD no regrets so far of owning mine.

 

[manofchalk]

The gaming CPU to go for right now is the Intel i5-3570k. It's powerful enough to not bottleneck any games or rigs attached to it, but not powerful enough to attract an i7 price tag. Also beats the top AMD CPU's in everything but multi-threaded performance (and not by much).

The AsRock Z77 Extreme4 is a cheap and very nice mobo, comes with most of the features of higher end boards at a much better price tag.

Not much reason for modern AMD chips unless you are on a tight budget and looking for multi-threaded performance (which games dont benefit from). The old Phenom II x4 965 is a good option if you are looking around the $100 price range.

 

[madne$$]

Thanks for both of your replies, most appreciated .

What if im going to only use 1280X1024 res?

So sorry i forgot to mention that in the post above, would you guys still stick with your answers or change them?

Thanks again.
Madne$$

 

[manofchalk]

The resolution supported isn't mandated by the CPU, thats more the GPU or integrated graphics.

Though at that resolution, the integrated HD4000 graphics on the 3570k may actually be useful.

 

[ram1009]

BTW, everyone else has failed to mention to you that you will probably need a new OS because your old one that you say resides in your HDD will not allow activation on the replacement MB. This is only true if your old OS is the OEM version, which is likely.

 

[AntiZig]

It also looks to me like you need a set of ram sticks.

I'd go with intel for now if you're making a gaming rig and can afford to spend the money on it. At least you won't run into problems down the road of having to replace AMD with something else.

 

[madne$$]

Is it true that AMD is bringing out a new bunch of CPU's in August?
Called "Vishera" I see what the results are like for them, if they prove better then FX i will consider getting them if not then ill stick with Intel .

Dont worry ill sort out the OS and Memory Sticks thats not a problem it was mainly the CPU and Motherboard i was worried about.

 

[madne$$]

Sorry not August i mean October

 

[manofchalk]

AMD is releasing a bunch of new CPU's soon, though I wouldn't expect much of them. If they do what is typical for new CPU generations and have a 10% increase in performance, it would still be below an equivalent Intel Ivy Bridge CPU.

I personally don't think AMD chips will be competitive until the Steamroller chips, which is the generation after Piledriver (which the Vishera chips are based on). Or at least, that's what I hope.
AMD need another performance revolution similar to the introduction of dual and quad cores. Back then they excelled while Intel was stuck trying to tape two dual cores together (which is especially strange since they did the same trying to make a dual core and failed as well).

 

[FinneousPJ]

If you want to save money go with AMD X4, if you want more performance go with Intel i5.

EDIT or i3 if you want to save money while going with Intel

 

[madne$$]

lol FinneousPJ .

Thanks again Manofchalk and everyone else.

Right Im gonna give my chances with AMD purely because their cheap and a 10% decrease wont bother me to much, providing i can play those games listed above on an AMD chip ill be sound.

Which AMD chip would you recommend to play those games listed above, both GTA4, SHOGUN 2 and Rome 2 are CPU resource hogs ;P, which one would be able to handle them.

Should i go for a 4,6, or 8 core CPU?

Thanks again .

 

[FinneousPJ]

On the AMD side I would go for the $100 -ish Phenom II 965

 

[jacobsta811]

AMD really only has any advantage in server type workloads - I might recommend a bulldozer for a budget VM build.
If you insist on AMD, your choices are basically:
Top End Phenom II - like the mentioned Phenom II x4 965 (I actually have one of these, as well as i5-2500k and i5-3570k systems - the Intels are noticably faster)
Top End Bulldozer. Choices here are:
FX-4170 - Highest clocked/single threaded performance bulldozer. Probably can get the highest overclock out of this, so in games that aren't well threaded will have the best performance.
FX-8170 - Highest end/most threads Bulldozer - again, you should overclock but you probably won't get as high of a frequency as the FX-4170. So best for loads that are well threaded. Battlefield 3 Multiplayer, Video Editing, etc are what would be better here.

 

[kcsmacker]

if you live by a microcenter you can get a i5 3570k and a z77 motherboard (asrock extreme4) for just under 300 bucks. Great deal IMHO.

 

[madne$$]

if you live by a microcenter you can get a i5 3570k and a z77 motherboard (asrock extreme4) for just under 300 bucks. Great deal IMHO.

Hey kcsmacker,

whats a microcenter lol, I have Pcworld, currys, maplins etc.. near me, i typically do my orders online .
Never heard of a microcenter

 

[AntiZig]

http://www.microcenter.com/

they have a deal where if you buy CPU + mobo from them they give you $50 off final price