Best way to upgrade my build in preparation for The Witcher 3

[MPKB]

Hello friends. My questions simple enough. I have a decent mid-range build, but The Witcher 3
has some pretty crazy specs, so I was hoping to upgrade my computer in any small way I can Im assuming the upgrade would come to CPU or GPU.

PS: My CPU and GPU are both AMD. I've heard it said games arent as well optimized for AMD cards and was wondering how true this statement was, and if it is how much of an impact it really has on performance. Thanks in advance.

Here's my build:

CPU: AMD FX 6350,6 core, [3.9GHz, overclocks to 4.2] (I havent clocked it)
GPU: AMD Radeon R7 260X
RAM: 8GB
1TB HDD, no SSD, solid mobo and power supply, not that those will really come into play when running a game. Thanks for the help.

Minimum and recommended Witcher 3 specs:

Minimum System Requirements:

Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz OR AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940
Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 660 OR AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870
RAM 6GB


Recommended System Requirements:

Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3,4 GHz OR AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770 OR AMD GPU Radeon R9 290
RAM 8GB

 

[Silverbear]

Your computer will run Witcher 3, but to get pretty good graphics at 1080p, you might have to spend close to $400 on an upgrade.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($163.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Tri-X Video Card ($223.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $386.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-04 22:10 EST-0500

 

[MPKB]

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($163.75 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Tri-X Video Card ($223.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $386.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-04 22:10 EST-0500

So if I went with this upgrade what settings am I looking at? 1080p High settings around 50 FPS or would i be running on lower settings? Also if i was going to upgrade would it be better to buy an 8350 or buy an intel equivalent at the same price? Basically wondering how well games are optimized for AMD, but I guess i would have to wait for release to see how well it runs on AMD chipsets. Thanks!

 

[Silverbear]

You're probably looking at medium-high settings with a solid 50-60 fps at 1080p. I actually had an FX 8350 and r9 280x setup until recently (I upgraded to an i7-5820k and GTX 970. Girlfriend now has the 8350, needed a computer for college.) With the 8350 I was maxing out pretty much every game, so you don't have to worry about poor optimization, that only happens with a select few games. Metro: Last Light for example does not work well on AMD cards and Hitman: Absolution does not work well on Nvidia cards, but usually, most games are on pretty even ground when it comes to optimization. I wouldn't move to Intel unless you want to upgrade your entire system. Intel is going to be coming out with many new processors soon for their X99 platform so spending a ton of money switching over to a 4690k for example would not make sense to me.

I've read a little more about Witcher 3 and it seems to get max settings at 60fps, you need a beast of a machine like an i5 4690k/i7 4790k/i7 5820k coupled with a GTX 980/GTX Titan and possible SLI.

http://wccftech.com/the-witcher-3-1080p-ps4-optimization-issues/