AMD build good for next gen games?

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DonQuixoteMC
You shouldn't be using an FX chip in a build this expensive. It looks like more and more games will be multithreaded, but that's not the case. At least not within the lifetime of this PC. You rarely can code a game to run on more than 4 cores. It's impossible with our current game engine technology to consistently parallelize the workload over many cores and see a performance boost (See: Amdahl's Law). So singlethreaded speed becomes the determining factor, and FX chips have rubbish singlethreaded performance compared to Intel chips. So at this point in time, the Intel chip is the only option for a build of this caliber.

With that in mind, here's my build suggestion:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by...
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lxgoldsmith

lxgoldsmith

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a few changes for more room in the budget and more reputable ssd

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/3bztt
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/3bztt/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/3bztt/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Canada Computers)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.79 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($102.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Memory Express)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($84.75 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Canada Computers)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($399.00 @ Canada Computers)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.75 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ NCIX)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($19.75 @ Vuugo)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($95.88 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $1148.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-17 15:56 EDT-0400)
 
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CraigN

CraigN

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You can find a 770 as low as $345 CA if you pick a different brand. There's a PNY one listed on PCPartpicker for that price right now. The only other recommendation I would make is a GTX 760, but the 770 is a good deal faster and will last you a lot longer for next gen games.
 
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IDontUnderstand

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CPU: Changed to FX-8320, I usually never recommend FX-8350 as you can just overclock 8320 to 4 GHz without much effort
RAM: Changed to A-Data V1.0 8 GB, G.Skill is a nice brand, but a little bit expensive in this case. A-Data is a pretty good brand.
SSD: Changed to A-Data SP600 128 GB, HyperX 3K is too expensive, you won't notice much different from SP600 to HyperX.
GPU: Changed to ASUS GTX 770, cheaper and perform similarly
PSU: Upgraded to Atec EarthWatts Green 650W, cheaper and more reliable

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($166.98 @ Newegg Canada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.79 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($102.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ NCIX)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($71.61 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.75 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($368.75 @ Vuugo)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.75 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($63.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($19.75 @ Vuugo)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($95.88 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $1120.22
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-17 15:58 EDT-0400)
 
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simix1919

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Thanks for the quick answers! Is PNY a trusted gpu company? The 6300 compared to the 8350 is much weaker and has 2 cores less so I will either take the 8320 or 8250. Is Asus better than PNY?
 
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simix1919

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I Know that the Asus motherboards are outstanding! Never has an asus gpu. But I am talking gpu wise, PNY or Asus?
 
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CraigN

CraigN

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Yeah, I would agree on ASUS on the graphics card as well. All the previous Asus graphics cards in builds I've done have lasted forever. The only other brands I really really trust are MSI, Gigabyte, and EVGA, but I only referenced the PNY one to prove there are cheaper models than a $400 2GB 770 :)
 
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maddogfargo

maddogfargo

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Must-Have: Bump the RAM to GSkill Ripjaws DDR3 1866. It will run as high as 2100 quite nicely.
Must-Have: Change the Motherboard to a 990FX chipset board.
OPTIONAL: Bump the XFX PSU to a 600-650w model. XFX is great, but you want a little more headroom and a PSU in this range is not expensive.

Everything else looks good.

With that cooler and setup you can do a mild OC in the 4.4-4.5GHz range at stock or near-stock voltage.

If budget is tight, I would do the above but still go with a 990FX board and 8320 or even a 6300.
 
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DonQuixoteMC

DonQuixoteMC

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You shouldn't be using an FX chip in a build this expensive. It looks like more and more games will be multithreaded, but that's not the case. At least not within the lifetime of this PC. You rarely can code a game to run on more than 4 cores. It's impossible with our current game engine technology to consistently parallelize the workload over many cores and see a performance boost (See: Amdahl's Law). So singlethreaded speed becomes the determining factor, and FX chips have rubbish singlethreaded performance compared to Intel chips. So at this point in time, the Intel chip is the only option for a build of this caliber.

With that in mind, here's my build suggestion:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($119.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ NCIX)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($100.70 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.75 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($349.64 @ TigerDirect Canada)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ NCIX)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($19.75 @ Vuugo)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($95.88 @ DirectCanada)
Total: $1179.66
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-17 16:25 EDT-0400)

If you really want to overclock, tack a little CM Hyper 212 Evo onto the parts list. However, I recommend against it. If you want to spend more money, get a 250 GB SSD or get a PSU that can deliver 650W or more so you can overclock/SLI later if you want. Overclocking now though is just a bad investment, you pay a premium for a very small return in performance.

 
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simix1919

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I have a tight budget so the motherboard is cheap.
 
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simix1919

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I dont know how to overclock so i dont know if I will later on maybe. And in the near future won't the amd cpu's run games better since the next gen is powered by amd and the consoles are using amd hardware? Also in the near future wont the games use more cores?
 
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CraigN

CraigN

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Not necessarily - Despite the fact that the next gen consoles are AMD hardware, the chips on those are woefully underpowered (quoted by Nvidia as being a middle-low range PC) and struggle to play most games at 1080p@60fps presently.

Also, despite the fact they are x86, they still have to code and write for them differently than they would on PC, because they'll be required to make it work on all platforms (Intel and AMD) so you can't write the games the same way you would write them for one specific set of hardware.

Top that with the FX chips are already a year or two old and haven't seen a refresh in awhile... The 8350 will be 2 years old in October.

Intel is the better choice for PC in the long run. But I certainly understand the need to build performance on a budget too.
 
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simix1919

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This is my first time building a PC so i dont know if I should go amd or intel. I completely understand what you're saying i was just wondering wouldnt the game be optimized better on amd hardware??
 
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DonQuixoteMC

DonQuixoteMC

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That's what I was saying about Amdahl's Law. You can't necessarily get more performance from more cores. Plus, consoles are coded very differently than PCs

And if you're not going to overclock, then ignore AMD chips completely. They really can only compete with stock clock intel chips when they are overclocked.

I'm not trying to hate on AMD, they're awesome for budget builds, but this isn't a budget build. I would go with Haswell or Ivy Bridge.
 
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IDontUnderstand

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CPU difference is not worth noting in BF4
http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/page6.html

It really depends on what games you are trying to run, some games utilize more GPU power, but most games are more GPU hungry. In those cases where GPU takes more percentage, FX-8320/8350 will not differ from i5.

On the other hand for Crisis 3
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crysis-3-performance-benchmark-gaming,3451-8.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/642-crysis-3-performance/page6.html
shows a bit more FPS difference for different CPU, but again, not a lot unless you go Extreme edition or maybe i7.
 
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