Graphics Card and Processor Comparison Question for Gaming PCs

[Cody Laws]

Hi there! Soon, I'm going to be building my first gaming PC. I have all my parts picked out over on PC Part Picker, but I've found myself in a bit of a conundrum that requires a personalized answer (in other words, searching around on Google hasn't gotten me the information I need.)

Anyway, I've currently got my list centered solely around AMD products. I'm looking at purchasing an AMD FX-9590 4.7GHz 8-Core Processor and 2 XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation Video Cards for 2-Way Crossfire.

The problem I'm having at the moment is that I've only ever used combinations of nVidia/Intel products in the past, so I'm unsure of whether or not the all AMD all the time route is a good one for gaming. Specifically, I'm curious as to whether or not the AMD processor is worth it or if it's overkill, like how 16GB of RAM is overkill as far as gaming goes. Would I be better off with an Intel processor of equal or maybe even lesser power? (Also, having a high clock rate on the processor is important to me because I plan to be able to emulate PS2, Wii, Gamecube games and more with this PC at full speed without having to sacrifice any graphical fidelity or improvements.)

Secondly, are 2 R9 290's crossfired worth it? I've read that Crossfire can mess with certain games and cause microstuttering issues, amongst other things. Would it be a better idea to purchase a single AMD card of equal price to the 2 R9's or to just go the nVidia route either way (SLI or a single super powerful card?) I plan to eventually use this computer to game in 4K, so please take that into account. Thanks so much for your input!

 

[ZeusGamer]

In my opinion, okay.

You'd rather go with Intel, specially with how much that 9590 costs, you can go with an i5 4690K and it'll destroy that CPU no matter where you overclock it.

As for the GPU, go with the GTX 970, as they are new and they will also beat the R9 290 in any game that you throw at it. Those are just my personal opinion.

16GB of RAM is not really overkill, it's becoming today's standards slowly, but surely. That's what I've got. But an 8GB of RAM kit would not hurt your system at all. For emulators, I believe that they work best with Intel, but don't quote me on that.

I've got two R9 280x's and I really don't like their drivers. First reason, if you're playing a game on windowed fullscreen mode, crossfire will not be activated, also, a lot of games support Nvidia's SLI more than crossfire setups do.

The GTX 970 would be great for 4K gaming as well, for a cheaper price than the R9 290's price tag!

Oh and by the way, the FX 9590 is just an overclocked 8350.

 

[someguynamedmatt]

As much as I hate to admit it (I loved my Phenom II back when I had it), Intel has AMD beat right now when it comes to the top-tier processors. I run a Xeon E3-1240v3 myself, which is essentially an i7-4770 with no IGP and support for ECC memory, and it handles things like 3D rendering wonderfully, though I mainly use a GPU for that. In terms of GPU driver stability, nVidia seems to have a bit of an edge on AMD as well - haven't had a single problem with my current nVidia card, and while both my old HD 5xxx and my friends' 7xxx cards aren't unstable by any means, they do experience a driver crash every now and then. Those are old examples, so AMD's lineup might have changed since then...

I run PCSX2 on this same system... it seems to handle games quite well as long as they're well-supported. Not much I can do about graphical problems and the likes due to poor emulation, but it holds 60FPS well enough, even in newer titles.

The FX-9590 isn't a bad performer. The problem is with the absurd amount of power it uses, and consequently the heat it puts out... as much as I hate to say it, you're probably better off going with a more efficient i5 or maybe even a Xeon or i7 than you are going with what is essentially an overclocked 8350. Efficiency on the 9xxx processors is really bottoming out - my Xeon has no trouble at all beating the 9590 in synthetic benchmarks like FutureMark, and it does that on 80W and stays quite cool.

Like Zeus said, I'd do that and go with a single GTX 970 or 980, and you'll have a much better experience. Multi-GPU setups can be a royal pain regardless of the manufacturer, and aren't really worth the effort if you can get past with a single card instead.

Just my opinion - take it for what it's worth.

 

[BigBadBeef]

My build is not exactly a secret. The CPU is much cheaper and much faster than 9590... this time! But AMD remains budget king at least.

 

[ZeusGamer]

I think Nvidia is finally coming to the budget part of the market as well lol.