AMD FX8350 or Intel i5-4670K for Gaming and Game development

thefuzz52

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Feb 1, 2010
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Before I start: I realize there is probably like a thousand threads on this topic, of which I have went through some, but I can't seem to make a clear decision.

I won't be building until earliest November, and until now I was originally going to go with the i5-4670k, since it isn't as much as the i7s but provides an upgrade path to them in the future should I feel the need to upgrade. (I'm also more familiar with the Intel systems of CPUs, even though my only PC has an AMD processor, it's a laptop). Anyways I stumbled across the fact that the FX8350 is a better multi-tasker with the obvious trade off of weaker single thread applications (obviously with the 8 cores) and now I'm wondering which would be better for me. This would mean I would have an AMD motherboard, since I know nearly nothing about AMD processors, would there be any upgrade path should I decide in the future, where I don't have to swap the motherboards? I may do some overclocking but not to the extreme.

What I will be doing with it? Essentially, high end gaming (will probably get an HD7970 or upcoming ATI series equivalent, or maybe NVIDIA equivalent), games like Battlefield 4 for example. I will also being doing game development, and this is where the multitasking thing has me stuck. While game developing I will be having the UDK Editor, Autodesk Maya 2014, Photoshop, and probably the internet open at the same time and hope to still have good performance. Obviously I could close programs if say I need to do intensive rendering or light mass processing, but this method is generally what works best for me having them all open while modeling game content. In regards to Autodesk Maya 2014, I read somewhere that you can change how many cores you want it to utilize while rendering, thus taking advantage of the AMDs processor. But yet again, I only know what a dual-core is like while preforming these operations and wouldn't know how the i5 would perform (or how much better than my 2.3ghz dual core, I'd imagine much better, but I have no idea).

In the opinion of you all, what is your best recommendation, and why? Would the i5 suffice? I'm quite a picky one to have max resolution and near ultra quality with the highest FPS possible in games (and the udk editor). I also prefer to run processors at the coolest temps possible. If anything else needs to be known to make a better recommendation, I shall provide!

Thanks!
 

8350rocks

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I am a game developer...I use many of the tools you're discussing...I have the 8350 in my PC, and I am perfectly happy with it. In fact, it's faster at ALL of your rendering programs, by a good margin. The 8350 was my choice, and I think you'd be more than happy with it too...
 

thefuzz52

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Hmm, I read somewhere that the 8350 tends to use more power/runs hot. Have you found this to be the case?
 

8350rocks

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It draws more power...125W TD vs. 84W TDP...however, it runs cooler than Intel CPUs.

The difference in power draw per month between the 2 is less than $1. Typically it's less than $0.50, however, it depends on your $/KWh