Good CPU to upgrade from FX 8120?

[GeneralJim25]

So, Im looking to upgrade my processor. Ignore my sig, as that was the old version of this build. It is paired with an r9 270X. I wish AMD had more than just minor incremental stock clock improvements over this processor available, but sadly I have come to the realization, that without waiting atleast another year they likely wont release anything better. What currently released CPU would you recommend as an upgrade? I am looking to pair what ever CPU is recommended with either the GTX 970, r9 390, or GTX 1070

 

[smorizio]

to bad the amd zen line not out yet for you. right now for the money new kurby lake thta dropping for the 1151 would be the best for the money. locked i5 for 170.00 at micro center and a 30.00 instant combo on the i5 6500. the i5 6600k is a little more money. then have to get some ddr4 ram.

 

[GeneralJim25]

to bad the amd zen line not out yet for you. right now for the money new kurby lake thta dropping for the 1151 would be the best for the money. locked i5 for 170.00 at micro center and a 30.00 instant combo on the i5 6500. the i5 6600k is a little more money. then have to get some ddr4 ram.

How possible or involved is it to overclock the non K processors? At $40 less than the 6600K on newegg that definitely looks appealing if I can overclock it to atleast 3.7-4.0

Edit: I see that it is turbo up to 3.6 GHz. How much better would the 6500 be stock than my FX 8120 at 4.0, despite the clocks being .4-.8 slower?

 

[a39232]

I would wait till Zen if you can, if not I would go with the Intel 6600k for the platform capabilities and all the features. I'm waiting for Zen at the moment.

 

[GeneralJim25]

I would wait till Zen if you can, if not I would go with the Intel 6600k for the platform capabilities and all the features. I'm waiting for Zen at the moment.

Idk if I can hold out for Zen, and we have nothing really concrete on Zen that I can find at this time. Everyone keeps telling me that the FX 8120 will bottleneck the graphics card if I decide to go with a 1070 here in the next few months. Even more worrisome is that I have read people say the same thing regarding the highest standard FX processor, the FX 8350. It is a great chip and has lasted me for some time, but I feel a move to a new chip would be best and nothing currently under AMD's banner would be a massive improvement

 

[a39232]

Well I currently have my fx-8350 overclocked to 4.4 ghz and I am having a BSOD issue every two months randomly. my gtx 980 only bottlenecks three games without the overclock as far as I remember. SO no you should be ok but honestly I think its AMDs weak single core that is throwing us under.

 

[GeneralJim25]

Ive also kinda been looking for an excuse to atleast try Intel out. I dont want to bash on the competition without getting to know atleast one of their cpu line up lol Ive been AMD only since I started making computers for me and family, but I could almost never justify the price. If a 6500 would be a major improvement over what I have at only around $200, I can get on board with that for atleast one generation. If it doesnt work out, AMD will be there, cheaper than the competition as usual, and I can just jump back over. But I hope it would be worth it if I do that, as I kinda want to piece this one out between my brother and girlfriend. Upgrade my bro's Phenom 2 X4

 

[a39232]

Ive also kinda been looking for an excuse to atleast try Intel out. I dont want to bash on the competition without getting to know atleast one of their cpu line up lol Ive been AMD only since I started making computers for me and family, but I could almost never justify the price. If a 6500 would be a major improvement over what I have at only around $200, I can get on board with that for atleast one generation. If it doesnt work out, AMD will be there, cheaper than the competition as usual, and I can just jump back over. But I hope it would be worth it if I do that, as I kinda want to piece this one out between my brother and girlfriend. Upgrade my bro's Phenom 2 X4

I would recommend it. If Zen doesn't do something different I'm moving to Skylake, remember you have DDR4, M.2 USB 3.1 type-C, if you use an m.2 Slot it usually disables two sata ports as well.

 

[photonboy]

1) The FX-8350/8120 when using a GTX1070 will bottleneck many games however it varies a LOT. Anywhere from nothing to around 60% of the performance you'd get with a good i5/i7

Don't confuse "bottleneck" with unusuable. It simply means a lower frame rate than you would otherwise get with a better CPU. So a GTX1070 will give you a huge boost at times, and a good i5/i7 CPU would help more at other times.

2) The GTX1070 is by far the best upgrade.

3) i5-6600K is the way to go if you have the budget. That means new CPU, motherboard, system memory and Windows license.

 

[GeneralJim25]

I know that it would not make the card unusable, but at this point in the way games are being made, the frame rate is dropping more and more with each passing title. Doom was the most recent I tried to play on my PC, and even after the recent fixes, I can barely manage 60 FPS on medium 1080p. I know that a 1070 alone would help with that a good bit, but I feel its about to upgrade CPUs. Just need to decide on the exact model of i5 I want to get.

 

[a39232]

1) The FX-8350/8120 when using a GTX1070 will bottleneck many games however it varies a LOT. Anywhere from nothing to around 60% of the performance you'd get with a good i5/i7

Don't confuse "bottleneck" with unusuable. It simply means a lower frame rate than you would otherwise get with a better CPU. So a GTX1070 will give you a huge boost at times, and a good i5/i7 CPU would help more at other times.

2) The GTX1070 is by far the best upgrade.

3) i5-6600K is the way to go if you have the budget. That means new CPU, motherboard, system memory and Windows license.

Trust me its a bottleneck my cpu is at 90-100% on those three games, that's out of 200 games anyway.

 

[photonboy]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2012/07/27/amd-fx-8120-review/6

That's what a CPU bottleneck looks like. It's just under 60% the performance of the best CPU's.

As I've said though, this massively varies by the game. It's also worth pointing at this game still got a 70FPS average (with a GTX590) which is quite playable.

 

[a39232]

I know that it would not make the card unusable, but at this point in the way games are being made, the frame rate is dropping more and more with each passing title. Doom was the most recent I tried to play on my PC, and even after the recent fixes, I can barely manage 60 FPS on medium 1080p. I know that a 1070 alone would help with that a good bit, but I feel its about to upgrade CPUs. Just need to decide on the exact model of i5 I want to get.

its probably the SLI that is ruining some of those games I would never recommend more than one gpu for gaming especially. Causes more harm than good, even though ive never used it. I get 55-130fps in doom 4, I just finished it today.

 

[GeneralJim25]

I know that it would not make the card unusable, but at this point in the way games are being made, the frame rate is dropping more and more with each passing title. Doom was the most recent I tried to play on my PC, and even after the recent fixes, I can barely manage 60 FPS on medium 1080p. I know that a 1070 alone would help with that a good bit, but I feel its about to upgrade CPUs. Just need to decide on the exact model of i5 I want to get.

its probably the SLI that is ruining some of those games I would never recommend more than one gpu for gaming especially. Causes more harm than good, even though ive never used it. I get 55-130fps in doom 4, I just finished it today.

My computer is running a single r9 270X, unless you are referring to for other people lol The sig is kinda old at this point and I need to change it. Plus 2 GB of VRAM is a real limiter. Wish Best Buy had a 4 GB version when I snagged this one lol

 

[a39232]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2012/07/27/amd-fx-8120-review/6

That's what a CPU bottleneck looks like. It's just under 60% the performance of the best CPU's.

As I've said though, this massively varies by the game. It's also worth pointing at this game still got a 70FPS average (with a GTX590) which is quite playable.

my definition is if its running 95-100% it is a bottleneck because the cpu cannot keep up with the gpus' task and also cannot keep up with the cpu's own physics at the same time.

That game does not max out the 8150 it is simply because of its weaker and less efficient single cores.

 

[azaran]

to bad the amd zen line not out yet for you. right now for the money new kurby lake thta dropping for the 1151 would be the best for the money. locked i5 for 170.00 at micro center and a 30.00 instant combo on the i5 6500. the i5 6600k is a little more money. then have to get some ddr4 ram.

How possible or involved is it to overclock the non K processors? At $40 less than the 6600K on newegg that definitely looks appealing if I can overclock it to atleast 3.7-4.0

Edit: I see that it is turbo up to 3.6 GHz. How much better would the 6500 be stock than my FX 8120 at 4.0, despite the clocks being .4-.8 slower?

There are ways around overclocking an non K version of a Skylake but its likely not worth it. Intel is doing its best to shut down the options through bios updates and deals with motherboard manufactures. Asrock is one of the few with boards dedicated to it, but those boards get discontiuned and then pop up later as something else. Make your life easier and spend the extra $40 on a chip if you really want to over clock.

As for comparing the CPU's, its really no contest. In general they don't have anything that competes on the same level as Intels current or even last gen chips. Not saying this as a fanboy, just as a disappointed ex AMD user. Its not all about the clock vs clock, so even a 4Ghz chip can get beat out by a 3.6Ghz. Every program is obviously different and may get a perk from AMD or Intel depending on needs but yeah. Things may change once Zen comes out but we'll see where the benchmarks fall.

Guessing you're going for a gaming build, and assuming you can't wait for Zen or the Skylake refresh, then the i5-6600 or i5-6600k will give you the best speeds. Best bang for your buck will likely be either an i5-6500 or i5-6600k so you can overclock it. But that will require a Z170 series motherboard.

If you can't wait for the CPU upgrades that are coming out soon, at least wait for the GTX 1000 line up to come out. Its a few weeks away and if all the hype is to believed, till have significant improvements over the current GTX 900 series.

 

[a39232]

I know that it would not make the card unusable, but at this point in the way games are being made, the frame rate is dropping more and more with each passing title. Doom was the most recent I tried to play on my PC, and even after the recent fixes, I can barely manage 60 FPS on medium 1080p. I know that a 1070 alone would help with that a good bit, but I feel its about to upgrade CPUs. Just need to decide on the exact model of i5 I want to get.

its probably the SLI that is ruining some of those games I would never recommend more than one gpu for gaming especially. Causes more harm than good, even though ive never used it. I get 55-130fps in doom 4, I just finished it today.

My computer is running a single r9 270X, unless you are referring to for other people lol The sig is kinda old at this point and I need to change it. Plus 2 GB of VRAM is a real limiter. Wish Best Buy had a 4 GB version when I snagged this one lol

Well your profile said 2x 670s lol the 270x makes a little more sense though that and the 2gb Vram is probably one of the limiting factors.

 

[GeneralJim25]

to bad the amd zen line not out yet for you. right now for the money new kurby lake thta dropping for the 1151 would be the best for the money. locked i5 for 170.00 at micro center and a 30.00 instant combo on the i5 6500. the i5 6600k is a little more money. then have to get some ddr4 ram.

How possible or involved is it to overclock the non K processors? At $40 less than the 6600K on newegg that definitely looks appealing if I can overclock it to atleast 3.7-4.0

Edit: I see that it is turbo up to 3.6 GHz. How much better would the 6500 be stock than my FX 8120 at 4.0, despite the clocks being .4-.8 slower?

There are ways around overclocking an non K version of a Skylake but its likely not worth it. Intel is doing its best to shut down the options through bios updates and deals with motherboard manufactures. Asrock is one of the few with boards dedicated to it, but those boards get discontiuned and then pop up later as something else. Make your life easier and spend the extra $40 on a chip if you really want to over clock.

As for comparing the CPU's, its really no contest. In general they don't have anything that competes on the same level as Intels current or even last gen chips. Not saying this as a fanboy, just as a disappointed ex AMD user. Its not all about the clock vs clock, so even a 4Ghz chip can get beat out by a 3.6Ghz. Every program is obviously different and may get a perk from AMD or Intel depending on needs but yeah. Things may change once Zen comes out but we'll see where the benchmarks fall.

Guessing you're going for a gaming build, and assuming you can't wait for Zen or the Skylake refresh, then the i5-6600 or i5-6600k will give you the best speeds. Best bang for your buck will likely be either an i5-6500 or i5-6600k so you can overclock it. But that will require a Z170 series motherboard.

If you can't wait for the CPU upgrades that are coming out soon, at least wait for the GTX 1000 line up to come out. Its a few weeks away and if all the hype is to believed, till have significant improvements over the current GTX 900 series.

I know that it would not make the card unusable, but at this point in the way games are being made, the frame rate is dropping more and more with each passing title. Doom was the most recent I tried to play on my PC, and even after the recent fixes, I can barely manage 60 FPS on medium 1080p. I know that a 1070 alone would help with that a good bit, but I feel its about to upgrade CPUs. Just need to decide on the exact model of i5 I want to get.

its probably the SLI that is ruining some of those games I would never recommend more than one gpu for gaming especially. Causes more harm than good, even though ive never used it. I get 55-130fps in doom 4, I just finished it today.

My computer is running a single r9 270X, unless you are referring to for other people lol The sig is kinda old at this point and I need to change it. Plus 2 GB of VRAM is a real limiter. Wish Best Buy had a 4 GB version when I snagged this one lol

Well your profile said 2x 670s lol the 270x makes a little more sense though that and the 2gb Vram is probably one of the limiting factors.

When I have something new, Ill update that, though I did post in the first response what I was using and that the sig is old lol
But Im torn on the model of the i5 that I want to get. Might go with the 6600K after all. This is what I have so far: 16 GB Corsair DDR4 low profile ram at 2133, Asrock mobo of the z170 variety: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157652&ignorebbr=1, and the i5 660k. They run about $440 before taxes on newegg. I guess I could piece this out over the next few months

 

[a39232]

to bad the amd zen line not out yet for you. right now for the money new kurby lake thta dropping for the 1151 would be the best for the money. locked i5 for 170.00 at micro center and a 30.00 instant combo on the i5 6500. the i5 6600k is a little more money. then have to get some ddr4 ram.

How possible or involved is it to overclock the non K processors? At $40 less than the 6600K on newegg that definitely looks appealing if I can overclock it to atleast 3.7-4.0

Edit: I see that it is turbo up to 3.6 GHz. How much better would the 6500 be stock than my FX 8120 at 4.0, despite the clocks being .4-.8 slower?

There are ways around overclocking an non K version of a Skylake but its likely not worth it. Intel is doing its best to shut down the options through bios updates and deals with motherboard manufactures. Asrock is one of the few with boards dedicated to it, but those boards get discontiuned and then pop up later as something else. Make your life easier and spend the extra $40 on a chip if you really want to over clock.

As for comparing the CPU's, its really no contest. In general they don't have anything that competes on the same level as Intels current or even last gen chips. Not saying this as a fanboy, just as a disappointed ex AMD user. Its not all about the clock vs clock, so even a 4Ghz chip can get beat out by a 3.6Ghz. Every program is obviously different and may get a perk from AMD or Intel depending on needs but yeah. Things may change once Zen comes out but we'll see where the benchmarks fall.

Guessing you're going for a gaming build, and assuming you can't wait for Zen or the Skylake refresh, then the i5-6600 or i5-6600k will give you the best speeds. Best bang for your buck will likely be either an i5-6500 or i5-6600k so you can overclock it. But that will require a Z170 series motherboard.

If you can't wait for the CPU upgrades that are coming out soon, at least wait for the GTX 1000 line up to come out. Its a few weeks away and if all the hype is to believed, till have significant improvements over the current GTX 900 series.

I know that it would not make the card unusable, but at this point in the way games are being made, the frame rate is dropping more and more with each passing title. Doom was the most recent I tried to play on my PC, and even after the recent fixes, I can barely manage 60 FPS on medium 1080p. I know that a 1070 alone would help with that a good bit, but I feel its about to upgrade CPUs. Just need to decide on the exact model of i5 I want to get.

its probably the SLI that is ruining some of those games I would never recommend more than one gpu for gaming especially. Causes more harm than good, even though ive never used it. I get 55-130fps in doom 4, I just finished it today.

My computer is running a single r9 270X, unless you are referring to for other people lol The sig is kinda old at this point and I need to change it. Plus 2 GB of VRAM is a real limiter. Wish Best Buy had a 4 GB version when I snagged this one lol

Well your profile said 2x 670s lol the 270x makes a little more sense though that and the 2gb Vram is probably one of the limiting factors.

When I have something new, Ill update that, though I did post in the first response what I was using and that the sig is old lol
But Im torn on the model of the i5 that I want to get. Might go with the 6600K after all. This is what I have so far: 16 GB Corsair DDR4 low profile ram at 2133, Asrock mobo of the z170 variety: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157652&ignorebbr=1, and the i5 660k. They run about $440 before taxes on newegg. I guess I could piece this out over the next few months

should be a good build.

 

[GeneralJim25]

Then I add the cost of the GTX 1070, and it would be close to $1000 for what will essentially be a rebuild after the SSD add in as well. Itll be worth it though! lol On that topic, are there any good ways to clone the Windows OS over to an SSD, like just the OS?

 

[a39232]

I use http://www.apricorn.com/products/software/ezgig.html

I have the product for it as well, that comes with the disk I'm not sure if this is different at all.

 

[GeneralJim25]

I use http://www.apricorn.com/products/software/ezgig.html

I have the product for it as well, that comes with the disk I'm not sure if this is different at all.

ill check that out. I just dont want to have to go to the hassle of re-installing everything when I do this. Though a clean slate would likely be best. I do not know how I would go about getting Windows 10 back for free if I use my windows 8 disks to reboot, so that has me a bit cautious

 

[a39232]

I use http://www.apricorn.com/products/software/ezgig.html

I have the product for it as well, that comes with the disk I'm not sure if this is different at all.

ill check that out. I just dont want to have to go to the hassle of re-installing everything when I do this. Though a clean slate would likely be best. I do not know how I would go about getting Windows 10 back for free if I use my windows 8 disks to reboot, so that has me a bit cautious

You have no choice you have to do a clean install because it is a new motherboard the product key is tied to the motherboard if you get lucky it might work however.

 

[GeneralJim25]

I use http://www.apricorn.com/products/software/ezgig.html

I have the product for it as well, that comes with the disk I'm not sure if this is different at all.

ill check that out. I just dont want to have to go to the hassle of re-installing everything when I do this. Though a clean slate would likely be best. I do not know how I would go about getting Windows 10 back for free if I use my windows 8 disks to reboot, so that has me a bit cautious

You have no choice you have to do a clean install because it is a new motherboard the product key is tied to the motherboard if you get lucky it might work however.

Really? Ive never had that issue in the past. I have been through atleast 3 different models of motherboard and 2 different cpus. So it would have to be a brand new key?

 

[a39232]

for instance if you take a HDD or SSD fro one system and put it in a different system it may BSOD on boot because product keys are tied to the motherboard. That and it has information that the other system does not have because of hardware. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.