Choosing i5/i7 over FX 8350

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mrwarlord140

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Jan 25, 2016
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Hello everyone,
I did what I said in this thread http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2950280/gtx-980.html and got a brand new gtx 980. The difference is amazing, yet I was honestly expecting to achieve stable 60fps in games like Witcher III considering my resolution isn't even full HD.

It can either be my system's fault (yet I keep it clean and nearly nothing runs in the background) or simply the AMD processor's I have (specs of my setup are explained in the thread I linked).

I messed around with benchmarks like 3D Mark (~8-9FPS in Fire Strike Ultra combined test, 3500 points, 10000 points in a regular Fire Strike) and got a steam achievement "Brawn - Your GPU is ready to rumble, but your CPU doesn't want to play." which triggered me further to get a new processor.

That's why I'm considering an Intel, but I need another word of advice in here since I've been reading a fair amount of comments about these yet I still can't decide. I was considering either getting a great i5 (here I also can't decide whether to go with Skylake or something like 4690K) or save for a bit longer and get an i7 (same situation, socket 1150 or 1151..?).

Later this year I'll surely get a Full HD monitor and with that resolution FPS will get lower, that's why I need some advice. Shall I stay with my FX-8350 and try to overclock it or do something else to improve my gaming experience, or maybe finally decide to switch to Intel but in that case which model? Any words of advice greatly appreciated.
 
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madmatt30
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I have an ASUS M5A99XEVO mobo, the rest of my specs is in the thread I linked at the beginning, maybe that's the problem, although the thing is there aren't many good AM3+ motherboards in a reasonable price, most of them don't even have PCI-e 3.0 from what I know, or maybe I'm wrong. I regret spending money on 8350 but comparing the price of it to i7 I was thinking like "AMD can't be that bad", now I could either overclock it, get a new mobo, or spend more money and finally go with an Intel.
 
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You guys sure about a Xeon? Still not convinced about having a server processor for gaming and I heard various opinions.. Should I stay with my 8350 and spend money on a new mobo and cooler, or invest in i5/i7/xeon?
 
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Depends how much you are truly willing to pay. Budget? And this is just for gaming, right?
 
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Mostly gaming with stable 60fps. Budget? Max 2300PLN / 520EUR / 580 USD (with today's exchange rates) for probably a processor, mobo and maybe a new cooler. By max I mean I can spend that much if really necessary, paying less for great performance is always nice.
 
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Would you want a water cooler, or air? Or indifferent?
 
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I'd have to really mess with my case in order to install water cooling, it's Zalman Z3 Plus which has two fans on the top wall
 
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CPU : i5-6600k = $254 (USD)
Mobo : Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA115 = 219.99 (USD)
CPU Cooler: Cryorig R1 Ultimate = 89.99 (USD)
Total: $564.86 (USD)
Could get some very nice OC as well. Motherboard was Tweaktown's Best Overclocking Award, CPU is new and nice, cooler is very nice for air cooling.
 
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Looks good but I wouldn't want to pay even more for DDR4 since that's what this mobo uses, I also read that Skylake's purpose is to go with DDR4 so I don't think I'll have enough to replace half of my PC setup
 
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What's the issue then? I mean, I don't believe GTX 980 G1 Gaming can't handle Witcher III with 60 stable FPS on a resolution smaller than Full HD with only one monitor plugged and nearly nothing running in the background
 
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Sorry, I thought I read you had DDR4. My mistake.
Replace that 6600k with a 4790k, switch the cooler for a Cryorig H7 and switch the mobo for an ASRock z97 OC Formula. Its 1 dollar over what you have now, but you can change the cooler and mobo depending if you want to overclock. This is very nice for overclock if you would want to,

 
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The issue is the 8350 at stock speeds can drop to mid 40's at certain points in witcher 3 (at any resolution , at any settings, with any GPU)
Thats just a plain fact & is a CPU limitation.

I've said this before - a lot of games are becoming more & more multi-threaded nowadays , either 3 certainly is , amd turbo-core can play havoc with games like this because it can kick in on 2 cores to 4.3ghz but reduce speeds on the remaining cores down to 3ghz.

Really I would never have recommended a 980 with any fx chip - to me they top out with the 970/r9 390 tier of gpu's.

What performance exactly are you getting in witcher 3 that's disappointing you ?? It should still be eminently playable & look pretty lovely with it.

 
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It's just I expected something more after getting 980 but apparently my 8350 is limiting it. I get around 40-55FPS on Uber settings depending on location
 
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there are way way way too many members on here that will scream 'go intel' at you like the guy above.
& its all fine & dandy spending someone else's money on something for them.

Im assuming youre running that 8350 at stock speeds with a stock cooler ??
The thing is this ( & while intel will give you a straight up & instant performance boost on fps Im going to go on a completely different tangent with a viable alternative)
If you were building from new with a 980 I myself would 100% advise an intel chip,the fact is though you already have what is near as dammit the top amd cpu ,you also have a great quality motherboard,your psu is a little skanky on the quality front but it has least has ample headroom wattage wise to counteratct its lack of actual quality- so to all intents & purposes its in my eyes good enough.
your case ,the z3 plus,budget but one of the best there is cooling wise - youll never ever struggle with temps - that was a good choice of case for the money.

get a good aftermarket cooler,disable the turbobore ,get yourself a decent base clock increase,4.3/4.4ghz - whatever you can hit without increasing voltages to any extent.
What that will do is drop those minimums to 50fps at the lowest - not what you want I know but its still perfectly playable ,youre absolutely not going to know the difference between 60 & 50 fps if you turn off that shadowplay fps counter in the corner of your screen which is an obsession among pc builders.
set your desktop refresh rate to 50htz,enable adaptive vsync in nvidia settings,enable vsync in game.
youve then got a rock solid 50fps frame lock (not just in witcher ,but in gta v,DAI,dying light, in just about everthing apart from arma engine based games)

I challenge anyone to tell the difference once youre locked at 50fps with NO drops in fps ( thats because its impossible)

what this will do is

1. save you $300 going with an intel cpu,new mb,ddr4 ram
2. save you the trouble & aggravation of rebuilding (because thats what it is ,not an upgrade)
3.Save you losing all your current programs,games & having to do a full fresh windows reinstallation
4.Save you actually having to pay for a new windows if your current copy is OEM


- on a 60htz screen you will lose a whole 10fps max on a few games which are limited by an amd chip,weigh those 4 points up above against 10fps & ask yourself if thats worth it or not??

Youre upgrading your monitor?? If you have the money to spend on a new screen & an intel upgrade then go with what Ive said & get yourself a 1440p monitor instead, how does 1440p 50fps sound vs 1080p 60fps ??
Because as sure as s**t 99.999% of sensible gamers would go with the higher res option with a non noticeable drop of 10fps - I certainly would,Becausee thats what ive done myself.




 
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