Go with 8320 or Skylake?

[arickgabriel]

Hi. I need a very unbiased and logical advice. I want to save much money as possible, as components here in the Philippines are kinda expensive, especially new parts have limited distributors.

Down to the problem. I bought an Asus M5A99FX Pro R.2 mobo last November 2014, with my Phenom II X4 955BE sticking around, having decided that I want to pursue the AMD Budget path considering my time for gaming's only once or twice a week, and budget's very limited. Since then, I haven't been able to buy an FX 8320 and good CPU cooler because of my pursuit of different interests.

WIth Skylake being out now, I'm confused as to whether should I continue with the FX8320 build considering the emergence of DX 12 then upgrade other components like GPU and other stuff, or should I sell my mobo, wait for prices to go down (especially DDR4) and save up for a Skylake build? Below's the list for my current specs:

Asus M5A99FX Pro R.2
Phenom II X4 955BE
Inno3D GTX 460 SE (planning to replace with Gigabyte GTX 970, and hopefully SLI)
G Skill Ripjaws X 1333 2GBx4
FSP Aurum Gold 700W (planning to replace with Seasonic X850)
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
WD Black 1TB
Seagate 7200rpm 500GB (planning to replace with WD Black 2 or 3TB)

Pardon me for the outdated build. I need some help please!

 

[Rogue Leader]

If you're looking for a "Budget build" its going to be a while before Skylake fits into that category. I would say you own this stuff now, use and enjoy it. Then in a couple years build yourself a skylake based PC. The 8320 will be fine with DX12 (and it improves performance) and you can get a GPU (all of which also support DX12) that you can then carry over to your new build.

 

[tiny voices]

I would not buy an 8320. VERY old tech at this point and it shewn when even an i3 beats it in most CPU heavy games.

 

[arickgabriel]

Well I'm just worrying because I've read that AM3+ is a "dead platform". Worried because of DDR4 and USB 3.1's emergence. And because it's a 3-year old platform. Would it still be a good upgrade from a 955BE then?

 

[tiny voices]

It is dead. You will honestly see VERY little performance change from your current CPU at all in most games.

 

[geofelt]

My suggestion is to go ahead and buy your graphics upgrade first and see how you do.
Most games are graphics limited.

If you need more cpu horsepower, see if you can overclock your X4 955.

Few games can use more than 2-3 fast cores. The cores on your X4-955 are actually quite decent and comparable to the individual cores of a 8320. You would not gain much in gaming if you switched.

As to Skylake, the only currently available cpu is the i5=6600K, a $250 part which is as good as it gets for gaming today. No telling when cheaper Skylake processors will be available.
DX12 benefits are far off. It depends on individual game implementation and there are few available today.

 

[arickgabriel]

My suggestion is to go ahead and buy your graphics upgrade first and see how you do.
Most games are graphics limited.

If you need more cpu horsepower, see if you can overclock your X4 955.

Few games can use more than 2-3 fast cores. The cores on your X4-955 are actually quite decent and comparable to the individual cores of a 8320. You would not gain much in gaming if you switched.

As to Skylake, the only currently available cpu is the i5=6600K, a $250 part which is as good as it gets for gaming today.

DX12 benefits are far off. It depends on individual game implementation and there are few available today.

Then I'd have to buy a good cooler then? I've always wanted a Hyper 212X at least.

 

[arickgabriel]

If you're looking for a "Budget build" its going to be a while before Skylake fits into that category. I would say you own this stuff now, use and enjoy it. Then in a couple years build yourself a skylake based PC. The 8320 will be fine with DX12 (and it improves performance) and you can get a GPU (all of which also support DX12) that you can then carry over to your new build.

Would it be better to buy an 8320 now and a good cooler, or buy a cooler, OC the 955BE, then buy a GTX 970?

 

[tiny voices]

No do not buy an 8320. It is a waste. Get a good cooler and overclock the Phenom. Those are still good CPUs.

 

[arickgabriel]

No do not buy an 8320. It is a waste. Get a good cooler and overclock the Phenom. Those are still good CPUs.

Really? Can it OC to 4Ghz with a 212X?

 

[tiny voices]

Yeah pretty easily with your motherboard.

 

[drtweak]

Yea I agree with everyone else. if you do upgrades, do the ones that you can carry overs (GPU, Hard drives, SSD's, RAM if you go with a DDR3 build and not a DDR4 build but if you go skylake then it will be DDR4)

At my office I have a Phenom II X2 555 on a motherboard that allows me to unlock the other two cores (a 555 is just a 955 with two cores turned off). I don't play games on it but things like Video Conversion, editing, 3D animation, I don't see a HUGE difference in time between that and my 8320 OC'ed to 4.5GHZ (555 is stock 3.4 GHZ). AMD's are good for budget builds if you are doing non single threaded performance stuff. Like for me on the Video editing/Coversion my OC'ed 8320 is faster than a Xeon E3-1220v2 on our sever which is about the same performance wise as a i5 3570 due to the fact that 1) Faster Clock and 2) the program I use does one video PER core and the Xeon is only a quad core with no HT like the i5.

Other wise in gaming you'd be better off buying a high end i3 and over clocking the s*** out of it for gaming and it would probably do better.

i came for a Core 2 Quad 9550 OC'ed to 3.5 and I saw a HUGE perfrmance in my high end games like Crysis 3 and what not. I first played it on a Core 2 Duo @ 3.0 with a GTX 660 and it laaaaaged like crazy. Then on the core 2 quad with my GTX 480 (I was borrowing the 660 from a friend. Only had a 260 then) it was much better, but once i got the AMD all lagging issues went away.

But yea keep what ya got, and save for later.

Edited for language.

 

[tiny voices]

^you cannot overclock an i3.

 

[arickgabriel]

Thank you all! With that I'll buy a Hyper 212X instead and then save up for a GTX 970.

 

[tiny voices]

Good call. Glad to be able to help!

 

[drtweak]

^you cannot overclock an i3.

Touche. I just had a baby. Running on fumes here XD