AMD Equivalent to i5-6600k?

[Tommy Rayburn]

Upgrading PC for VR purposes and curious if there was a relative alternative for AMD compared to the i5-6600k that I am looking at?

I have been an AMD user for years (support the "little guy") and would rather not have to switch.

 

[BrandonTheGPU]

I believe the the AMD FX-8350 would be a good comparison but better the FX-9590

Either of these two should suit you well

 

[13thmonkey]

however we see many people here with 9590's struggling with temps, struggling with throttling, and even having boards that can't cope.

If you are insisting on AMD then wait for Zen, there's no path from AM3+ to zen, so what you buy you'll be stuck with and if zen is good it'll depreciate massively.

 

[Sakkura]

AMD does not have an equivalent. The problem is Intel has a huge advantage in performance per core. AMD can add more cores, but that doesn't help in software that's bottlenecked by a single thread or two.

The hope is that their upcoming Zen architecture will again allow them to be competitive on performance per core.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

From a gaming perspective there isn't an AMD equivalent to a 6600K. Once you get to that price bracket, AMD become irrelevant. That may change with Zen, but I'm not going to hold my breath as AMD already disappointed the gaming community with Piledriver.

 

[rhysiam]

The sad situation is that the newest FX CPUs are now almost 4 years old and they had to be priced below the standard Intel i5s of the day because they weren't quite competitive back then.

AMD has more recently released the 9590 and some other crazy CPUs, but they're essentially 8350s that are pushed to the absolute limit. You need high end motherboards and serious cooling. Even then they're still below an i5.

Have a look at these benchmarks (pay attention to the "higher is better"/"lower is better"): http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1544?vs=1289
While the 9590 is able to hold its own in some workloads, and even edges the 6600k from time to time, it mostly loses and very often when it loses, it loses by a huge margin.

There is really no AMD equivalent at the moment to an Intel i5. Zen is the hope. If you can wait for Zen it might be worthwhile. Otherwise I'd suggest you should probably just get an Intel platform.

 

[Sakkura]

From a gaming perspective there isn't an AMD equivalent to a 6600K. Once you get to that price bracket, AMD become irrelevant. That may change with Zen, but I'm not going to hold my breath as AMD already disappointed the gaming community with Piledriver.

Piledriver was a nice improvement on Bulldozer. It's just that Bulldozer was bad. And then Piledriver's been their "high-end" offering since 2012.

 

[Hlsgsz]

Upgrading PC for VR purposes and curious if there was a relative alternative for AMD compared to the i5-6600k that I am looking at?

I have been an AMD user for years (support the "little guy") and would rather not have to switch.

If you want to support AMD, you will either wait and hope Zen delivers, or you would make a very bad decision by going with what they have on teh market. Skylake is just vastly superior technology in all the meaningful ways.

 

[Tommy Rayburn]

Wish I could wait, but with Oculus coming in a few weeks .... Well

however we see many people here with 9590's struggling with temps, struggling with throttling, and even having boards that can't cope.

If you are insisting on AMD then wait for Zen, there's no path from AM3+ to zen, so what you buy you'll be stuck with and if zen is good it'll depreciate massively.

 

[13thmonkey]

Wish I could wait, but with Oculus coming in a few weeks .... Well

however we see many people here with 9590's struggling with temps, struggling with throttling, and even having boards that can't cope.

If you are insisting on AMD then wait for Zen, there's no path from AM3+ to zen, so what you buy you'll be stuck with and if zen is good it'll depreciate massively.

Well, then you have the choice,
Buy something that is hot, difficult to manage and doesn't perform too well,
Buy intel
Wait for zen, if it is good buy it, if not buy intel, or have whatever zen gives you.

Those are your options with implications

 

[Ecky]

Unfortunately, AMD's top-end FX-9590 CPU can be outperformed by a heavily overclocked first-generation Core i7 from 2009. The single-threaded performance just isn't there.

The FX-8320e can be a decent CPU if you can get a screaming deal from Microcenter - they often give free motherboards with AMD CPUs as otherwise they don't sell - but no AMD CPU will compete with a Core i5.

 

[Tommy Rayburn]

Wow that is cheap? Could almost buy one now and by zen next year?

Unfortunately, AMD's top-end FX-9590 CPU can be outperformed by a heavily overclocked first-generation Core i7 from 2009. The single-threaded performance just isn't there.

The FX-8320e can be a decent CPU if you can get a screaming deal from Microcenter - they often give free motherboards with AMD CPUs as otherwise they don't sell - but no AMD CPU will compete with a Core i5.

 

[Hlsgsz]

Wow that is cheap? Could almost buy one now and by zen next year?

Unfortunately, AMD's top-end FX-9590 CPU can be outperformed by a heavily overclocked first-generation Core i7 from 2009. The single-threaded performance just isn't there.

The FX-8320e can be a decent CPU if you can get a screaming deal from Microcenter - they often give free motherboards with AMD CPUs as otherwise they don't sell - but no AMD CPU will compete with a Core i5.

No. Zen is coming to a completly different platform and that's a very good thing since this one is from 2012.
There's no other way around it, eiuther wait for Zen or get with Intel. Anything you buy from AMD these days on the CPU side constitutes money basically thrown away.

 

[synphul]

There really aren't any intel equivalents, haven't been for several generations now. An fx 9590 is no cheaper than an i5 so no real savings there. Not to mention the headaches of pairing it with a suitable (expensive) motherboard with proper power delivery and cooling. Many users end up underclocking their 9590's to get them stable, you'd be better off with an 8350 and overclocking it if you absolutely have to go amd.

As others have mentioned, amd's zen is closer to being released. It would be worth waiting for, buying now will sink you into a 4+ yr old platform when the new one everyone's been waiting for is just months away. Bad timing to get into the fx line as it's being phased out. That would be your best bet for amd though like intel it will mean a new motherboard, ddr4 ram etc.