AMD FX-8350 or Intel i5-6500k?

[Frenzy724]

Hey guys, I'm on a budget of around $800 looking for a 1080p gaming PC for high settings on some of my most played games such as GTA V and Rocket League. I need to pick a processor and motherboard, and I know CPU doesn't have THAT big of an impact on most games performance. I wanted to go with the i5-6500k for more "future-proofing" as it's obviously on the brand new Skylake chips, but most things I have looked up don't show much of a performance increase in games over the "tried and true" AMD FX-8350. I don't want my CPU to be obselete in 1 year even though it has been great the past 3, this is why I am always cautious about buying older generation hardware. I'm hoping to get a GTX 960 in my build, for price reference. I would have to cut some corners and wouldn't be able to get the case I want or motherboard I want if I went for an i5-6500k build, so if they FX-8350 is still relevant, and more importantly will stay relevant for the next 2-3 years if not more, that would be great.
TL;DR: New build, which CPU? Is cutting asthetic corners worth it for the "future proofing" and how is the 8350? How long will it stay competitive compared to the i5-6500k?

EDIT:
AMD Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nnqfXL
Intel Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QrfL8d

 

[Kevern_11]

get an i5-6400 or some skylake processor that is cheaper, the fx chip is over 2 years old and is showing signs in modern games of its age.

 

[Supernova1138]

I wouldn't buy anything AMD for CPUs right now unless you are on an extremely tight budget that effectively forces you to buy AMD. The FX 8350 is actually a little over 3 years old now. Gaming wise, it usually will perform worse than a current i5. If the game uses a very multithreaded engine, eg. Frostbite or Cryengine, then the 8350 can make up some ground and be somewhat competitive with the i5s, though minimum framerates do still tend to be a bit lower with the 8350 and you're more likely to run into CPU related stuttering.

As for the 8350's long term viability, that's pretty much entirely dependent on how game developers use DirectX 12 in the next year or two. If DirectX 12 really improves multithreading like it promises, it might breathe some more life into the Piledriver FX CPUs and let them remain viable for a little bit longer. Even if DirectX 12 is effective at putting the old AMD chips on life support, I wouldn't expect them to remain viable for 5 years or so. As such, I wouldn't recommend getting the FX 8350 if you're hoping to have this system last 5 years, I'd say a current AMD build would only be good for another 2 or 3 years tops, and that's if DirectX 12 saves it from complete irrelevance.

 

[nikoli707]

for gaming any sandy bridge or later i5 is better than the fx 8 core... and espeically any i5 that can be overclocked. get the i5-6500 non k and a z170 board and overclock to 4.0ghz.