A8 6600K vs FX 6300 with a 7750 GPU

[phabri7io]

Hi there:
A friend of mine is about to buy a new mobo+cpu. It has already the other components, including a discrete GPU (XFX 7750 DDR5 1GB).
Working on a tight budget we have come to two options:
FX 6300 or A8 6600k (both with discretes mobos)
My opinion is that the FX 6300 is way better than the A8 6600K (or any other APU in the same price)
The only thing is: There is really any gain in crossfiring the integrated gpu from the A8 with the 7750, or will the fx 6300+7750 combination will be better.
This is mostly for basic gaming.
Thanks in advance!

 

[patrick47018]

Go for the FX-6300, it is the better choice

 

[Rookie_MIB]

Assuming all being relatively equal in costs, the FX-6300 + 7750 would be quite a bit better than the A8 setup. Hybrid crossfire on an A10 setup I had only increased my WEI by .1 points, so it's really a non-issue. The only time I'd really consider the A8 is:

1) cost. If you're saving a fair bit of scratch in the process.
2) power. You're using it in a lower power scenario like a HTPC.
3) thermals. You're using it in a small case with minimal airflow.
4) integrated graphics. You don't need discrete level graphics.

2/3/4 don't really apply to what you're defining as the 'use case' for the machine, so the biggest difference is cost, and as I mentioned, if the FX is close to the A8 in cost, take the FX.

 

[geofelt]

Consider a $70 G3258 and a $50 lga1150 motherboard.
Here are some links as to what it can do:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-b81-cheap-overclocking,3888.html
http://techreport.com/review/26735/overclocking-intel-pentium-g3258-anniversary-edition-processor
Here are some comparisons that include a FX-6300:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-processor-frame-rate-performance,3427-9.html
http://www.hardwarepal.com/best-cpu-gaming-9-processors-8-games-tested/

What I like about the G3258 for a budget build is that you can easily upgrade to a i3, i5, or even i7.

With the FX line, all you can do is go from 6 cores to 8.
That is not helpful because games rarely use more than 2 cores.
An overclocked G3258 core will be as fast as a I7-4790K core.

 

[phabri7io]

Thanks for the fast reply guys!
I´ll go with Rookie_MIB`s solution, In this country (Argentina) the FX 6300 costs almost the same than the A8 6600.
Intel`s are more expensive (relation cost/benefit)
The G3258 posted by geofelt is not available here.
Again thnk you all for the reply.
Cheers!

 

[Rookie_MIB]

Consider a $70 G3258 and a $50 lga1150 motherboard.
,,,
...
What I like about the G3258 for a budget build is that you can easily upgrade to a i3, i5, or even i7.

With the FX line, all you can do is go from 6 cores to 8.
That is not helpful because games rarely use more than 2 cores.
An overclocked G3258 core will be as fast as a I7-4790K core.

I do agree with many of the statements, as the G3258 is a pretty potent little chip. However, the big problem is that it is a dual-core, non-hyperthreaded part, and while certainly many games don't really utilize multiple cores consider this:

1) While games don't utilize multiple cores at this time, the trend is slowly changing towards that direction. At that point the G3258 will be left behind as it doesn't -have- any more physical (or even logical) cores to make use of. The FX-6300 will.

2) It is better when you're building the system to plan ahead somewhat to extend the life of your system, so you don't have to upgrade as much down the road. Buying one processor now, then having things change and having to upgrade again if his game of choice requires more cores would be a waste. Meanwhile having the FX would be a better -long term- choice.

Last thing to point out, the overclocked G3258 you pointed to in the article barely beat out the quad core Athlon II 750k, and that's assuming that he gets a good processor to overclock. At stock speeds the FX-6300 should be able to outperform both.