AMD processor - did I save anything?

[wogfor]

Ok, what I am curious about is this:
I built my rig with an AMD FX6350 for several reasons, the first being cost. I also know little about Intel's offerings, my last being a Pentium III Coppermine 866 (old!). Since then, I have through several prebuilts, one purchased and 2 others given to me, all running AMD, so I was a bit more familiar with AMD offerings.
I just wondered if there was an Intel processor that may have been somewhat in the vicinity to compare it to and what I could have spent instead. My rig runs just fine with the games I play and have yet to experiment with OC.
I guess what I am looking at might be a mid-level gaming Intel CPU?
I also wish that as long as I was being a little AMD fanboy, I could have waited on my build now that Ryzen is on the....horizon. (bad pun, yes....?)

 

[synphul]

It would have been worth waiting for ryzen most likely since amd has supposedly greatly improved their ipc performance. That should bring them closer to intel's cpu's. In most games an i3 will exceed the performance of the fx 6350. Performance differences vary from game to game and may depend on what gpu you have as well. If the gpu is maxed out then a faster processor may not provide much benefit.

In terms of u.s. pricing the fx 6350 seems to be going for around $130. Depending which motherboard you have and how much it cost etc would depend on how good of a deal you'd gotten. An i3 6100 can be had for $119 and paired with an h110 or b150 board for around $50-60. The i3 6100 would likely meet or exceed the fx performance. A slightly faster i3 7100 runs around the same price as the 6100.

 

[madmatt30]

Asking a question like this is always going to get a varying response & you'll kind of worry yourself thinking about it.
I'd never buy a 6350 personally , for me the 6300, 8300 & 8320 have always been the value chips because a little overclock puts them up level with the **50 series which costs $20-30 more
If you got the 6350 with the wraith cooler on a deal I could understand the purchase but otherwise not.

The 6350 is a decent performer but whether you got value for money depends on what you spent on motherboard & cooling extra.

An i3 6100 is a similar pricepoint cpu wise but you can run it at stock on a cheap $40-50 board & 90% of the time push better performance than any amd chip (at least in gaming)

The fx chips you're looking at a $70-80 board + a $20-30 cooler to get the best performance from them so the time you've done they actually cost more in total.

That said my main gaming machine is still running an fx6300 even though I own an 8 core fx , an ivy i5 3570 & have a brand new i5 6500 CPU still sat in its box (£100 impulse purchase which I couldn't turn down), why??
Because its still doing the job fine at the moment paired with a 2 year old gtx 970

 

[Max-from-DeskRoll]

AMD chips are hot and by that I mean - literally hot.
Talking about gaming performance, Intel is your best bet for now, regardless of the budget. If you do, say, video editing, then it might be different...
Anyways, I surely hope that Ryzen will be a beast compared to current gen AMD CPUs.

 

[Ecky]

Techspot did an i3 6100 review that probably addresses your question:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1087-best-value-desktop-cpu/

For any of the well-threaded FX-8 CPU results, you can multply them by 0.75 and get approximately FX-6xxx performance. What you'll find is that in cases like Photoshop, video encoding and compression, your FX-6 will be roughly ($120) Core i3 6100 performance. In gaming, your FX will fall behind, performing lower than a $65 Pentium G4560 but will still be "adequate" for most games.

The Intel CPUs will draw about 60% less power, and can be used without issue with motherboards in the $45-55 range and the stock cooler. The FX system will dump more heat and be a good bit more noisy.

Depending on your motherboard selection, you may be lacking certain features. The FX series was released in 2012 and is 5 years old at this point, and although many manufacturers have added 3rd party controllers in an attempt to keep them competitive, you probably don't have an M.2 slot for modern SSDs, USB 3.1 or USB type-C. You definitely only have PCIe 2.0, while modern Intel systems are on 3.0, though this isn't a big deal. Also, Intel CPUs use newer, faster and lower power DDR4 rather than DDR3.

Overall it isn't the end of the world. The FX is still a fair CPU, it just wouldn't have been anywhere near my first choice in a build.

 

[wogfor]

Hey Guys!
First off, I want to thank you all for your comments!
Now don't get me wrong - I am not unhappy with my system! It performs very well for what it is and I have no problems playing any of the games in my current line-up. Most seem to work at high or ultra settings with acceptable FPS rates. I see an occasional stutter here and there during intense play, but nothing that could be a deal breaker.

Keep in mind this was my first build ever, and the challenge of doing it was a heck of a lot of fun! It gave me a lot of satisfaction when I finally got it all together, hit that power button, all the light lit, fans started running, and the screen lit up with the word "ASUS"! Always a pessimist, I was fully surprised at how well it all went!

The whole reason I asked my question was that I sort of felt like that boy who saved up all his pennies for that shiny bike in the window and when he got it, it was wonderful! It looked good, rode well and took him most anywhere he wanted to go! However, when he rode down the block, he couldn't help but notice that all the other boys seemed to have better bikes! And more than a few of them seemed to be pointing at him because of the brand he had.

I don't recall what I spent for the CPU and board bundle, but the ASUS board currently lists for around $89 at Microcenter. They don't currently either in stock at the moment.

Somebody mentioned the stock cooler and indeed the first time I tried a game on my new system, that little ah heck was screaming so loud, I half expected it to lift off the desk, and fly around the room like a Harrier jump jet!

I will have to wait and see if there is another build "Ryzen" in my future. (Oops! Bad pun!)

 

[madmatt30]

If you're happy you're happy mate.
Consider dropping $19 on a decent replacement cooler though.

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/JHV48d/deepcool-cpu-cooler-gammaxx300

Absolutely worth it if you're running the stock amd cooler - think near silence under load

 

[sizzling]

For me its not did you save money now but what about the future? The FX range are about 5 years old and haven't aged well. When it comes to upgrades you have no decent upgrade path. A i3 6100 which beats the FX6300 for gaming with even a cheap motherboard would allow you to drop in an i5 or i7 later. The i3 would have supported DDR4 RAM. So chances are a CPU upgrade would have kept your system going much longer but with the FX6300 & DDR3 when you decide to upgrade your going to need a new CPU, motherboard & RAM.

 

[wogfor]

Ok, so my conclusion is that i didn't save much. I could have went Intel and spent maybe a little more to have a system with similar or a little better performance. However, I left myself with no upgrade path. Nothing currently offered by AMD will provide me with any improvement. (such as an FX-8350)

What I have now is a system I am happy with, which performs to my satisfaction with just factory overclocking/turbo settings. I have no current need to upgrade.

With the choices I made, I will have no choice but to look forward to changing CPU/MOBO/RAM whether I go red or blue when I do need an upgrade. Live and learn, I guess.

Still will be interesting to see what happens when Ryzen finally comes out as far as actual performance, and more important - pricing.

I'm in a place that is sort of like having a car that looks good, runs great, and is reliable, but a new one would be nice....

 

[wogfor]

For me its not did you save money now but what about the future? The FX range are about 5 years old and haven't aged well. When it comes to upgrades you have no decent upgrade path. A i3 6100 which beats the FX6300 for gaming with even a cheap motherboard would allow you to drop in an i5 or i7 later. The i3 would have supported DDR4 RAM. So chances are a CPU upgrade would have kept your system going much longer but with the FX6300 & DDR3 when you decide to upgrade your going to need a new CPU, motherboard & RAM.

I guess better research on my part would have helped.