How to improve my gaming rig?

[Mastersaofan]

I currently have

i5-2400
8GB RAM
GTX 1060 6GB
2560x1080p reso
700w thermaltake lite
1TB HDD


I have a few questions regarding the upgrade path I would like to take


note: getting older intel chips and boards (aside from 4th gen) is impossible for me.
I live in asia and the market for that would be hard as hell. On top of that, the chances of getting a banged up board and chip is high.



Path 1 - full skylake

Im willing to save up (will take me a month and a half) for this upgrade.

Sure, you might ask if this is the case then why not just follow this path? I'd like to save money for one, also I would like to get it soon as possible. My work leave is coming up and it's the only time I get to enjoy what I've worked really hard for.


i5-6600k
MSI Z170A G43 Plus
Seasonic 650w
120 GB SSD
16GB RAM
Deepcool Captain 120mm AIO cooler

At the moment, the games I am playing are ROTR (can't get steady 60fps outdoors even with overclock so I guess upgrading GPU would solve this?)

Witcher 3 - Happy with the settings I have .Ultra/high HW(off) - 40s-60fps mostly 60fps.

and planning to get GTA V as well.

Overall, I just want steady 60fps.


Path 2 - Just upgrading the GPU (1070)

This wont cost me as much as the skylake upgrade but I afraid ill get bottle-necked by my old rig.
Will I be able to max out these games?


Path 3 - AMD build

Yes, yes. I have asked this question before in this forum and people strongly advised me to not go this path but if anyone new might see this...hoping they would have a different opinion. Not looking for a huge improvement, saving money is also a priority and I just want to get a steady fps of 60.

AMD FX-8320
16GB RAM
MSI 970
Seasonic 650w
Deepcool Captain 120mm AIO cooler
120 GB SSD


I want to start overclocking my CPU as well.
and maybe dabble in some video editing.

My Budget would be around $650-$700 max.

Thank you.

 

[Tradesman1]

Path 1 is best bet, in Path 2, as you state, the 1070 will be bottlenecked by your CPU, and three is a dead end with no upgrade path.

 

[oobymach]

Everyone hates amd but not me, I oc and game on amd cpu's since back when they were faster than intel. Look at my sig for specifics, my rig outperforms i7's all day long with better gpu's.

I'm 48th on the catzilla 4k list, not too bad considering all around me are i7's, I'm the highest ranked amd user on their list.
http://www.catzilla.com/pl/toplist?page=3&res=2160&multi=all&ven=all&ctype=all&firm=all&max=443

Amd will be releasing new hw soon so if you don't want an 8 core that outperforms 6core 12thread cpu's and want to wait a bit and get a 16 or 32 thread cpu that's your choice but rn I'm killing every game I play, @ 4.6ghz the 8350 is noticeably fast.

 

[Mastersaofan]

Everyone hates amd but not me, I oc and game on amd cpu's since back when they were faster than intel. Look at my sig for specifics, my rig outperforms i7's all day long with better gpu's.

I'm 48th on the catzilla 4k list, not too bad considering all around me are i7's, I'm the highest ranked amd user on their list.
http://www.catzilla.com/pl/toplist?page=3&res=2160&multi=all&ven=all&ctype=all&firm=all&max=443

Amd will be releasing new hw soon so if you don't want an 8 core that outperforms 6core 12thread cpu's and want to wait a bit and get a 16 or 32 thread cpu that's your choice but rn I'm killing every game I play, @ 4.6ghz the 8350 is noticeably fast.

Wow, you are actually the very first person who shun some light on AMD.
This is very interesting. I do agree with what people say about the upgrade leg room with skylake builds but if ever I'd go with AMD it would be quite a long time till I upgrade. Eventually, I'd go for skylake of course. But right now I just want an upgrade from my current rig.

Do you think an 8320/E would perform the same?

 

[Tradesman1]

Everyone hates amd but not me, I oc and game on amd cpu's since back when they were faster than intel. Look at my sig for specifics, my rig outperforms i7's all day long with better gpu's.

I'm 48th on the catzilla 4k list, not too bad considering all around me are i7's, I'm the highest ranked amd user on their list.
http://www.catzilla.com/pl/toplist?page=3&res=2160&multi=all&ven=all&ctype=all&firm=all&max=443

Amd will be releasing new hw soon so if you don't want an 8 core that outperforms 6core 12thread cpu's and want to wait a bit and get a 16 or 32 thread cpu that's your choice but rn I'm killing every game I play, @ 4.6ghz the 8350 is noticeably fast.

________________

Interesting on the Catzilla page you show a GTX 1070 yet your score indicates it was done with XFire which are AMD GPUs????????

 

[oobymach]

Interesting on the Catzilla page you show a GTX 1070 yet your score indicates it was done with XFire which are AMD GPUs????????

It's a glitch with their ratings page, it's not recording gpu clocks either for the 1000 series yet. Idk when they'll update it again, their last update was 4k resolution.

 

[burgessanthony]

An i7 vs fx8 with 1070s in sli? No competition.

 

[burgessanthony]

It's those single thread scores. I see 2300...that can be what matters even with modern games that load single cores. Do not advise op to go down amd cpu path....dead socket and out done by i3's at times.

 

[oobymach]

It's those single thread scores. I see 2300...that can be what matters even with modern games that load single cores. Do not advise op to go down amd cpu path....dead socket and out done by i3's at times.

It's posts like these that make me want to hit that report button. Do not advise people NOT to us a certain cpu because of your severe bias on the subject.

 

[burgessanthony]

Report then. It's known to be a dead socket, no upgrade potential, single core performance is woeful, outdone by lower end intel chips for less power

I am by no means saying its not a good cpu. But it's not right to advise someone to buy am3+ and an fx8 for a new build. Almost irresponsible.

 

[burgessanthony]

I root for amd. I defend their gpus and their general approach. I try not to be biased. I read an awful lot to give sage advice.

 

[oobymach]

Report then. It's known to be a dead socket, no upgrade potential, single core performance is woeful, outdone by lower end intel chips for less power

I am by no means saying its not a good cpu. But it's not right to advise someone to buy am3+ and an fx8 for a new build. Almost irresponsible.

It's far from dead, in fact it's a requirement for most new games.

 

[burgessanthony]

Yes its a good cpu. Outdone easily by new i5s which use less power and even at lower clocks. So, for those with a dece t clocked one, its fine. For new builds, it isn't. No upgrade path, lack of mobo features and as I said, at least with dx11, single core perf matters ans your is almost half my i5s.

Bud, there are plenty of threads on all this. I'm not bashing. Just trying to give good advice to op. I've run a few amd rigs and plenty of gpus...no anti-amd here!

 

[Mastersaofan]

Thanks for your responses guys. But I am still very torn. I was already set to go for skylake but I really do believe that AMD offers gold with their prices.

I'll let this sink in for a bit. If I would go for skylake, Ill have to use my credit card or save up.

If i'd go for AMD..I can buy all of these parts already by next week.

 

[burgessanthony]

If you go amd, really really wait for their zen. That will likely be a decent cost effective move with upgradeability.

 

[Tradesman1]

If you go amd, really really wait for their zen. That will likely be a decent cost effective move with upgradeability.

_________________

+1 wait and see what Zen offers, I've got an 8370 with a Crosshair mobo and it no match for andy of my other rigs (4 in sig), nor was it a match for my previous 3570K (4.7) and 2500K (4.8) (both now sold), except in rendering

 

[Mastersaofan]

In summary,

if I go for skylake I get a guaranteed upgrade headroom.

if I go with AMD...no upgrade possibility, subpar performance but I will save a ton of money.


so in short, AMD 8320e (@4.5) or even the 8350 (stock) would still be a improvement over my i5-2400?

 

[Tradesman1]

For gaming, yes AMD can provide a slight upgrade, but it's not going to be much and it sounds like you aren't happy with the 2400 now, so you may end up with the AMD rig keeping you happy for maybe a year (????) opposed to the Skylake which should keep you happy a few years anyway, OCing it can extend that, and are open to a newer CPU down the road

 

[oobymach]

In summary,

if I go for skylake I get a guaranteed upgrade headroom.

if I go with AMD...no upgrade possibility, subpar performance but I will save a ton of money.


so in short, AMD 8320e (@4.5) or even the 8350 (stock) would still be a improvement over my i5-2400?

Basically amd is not quite as fast single threading as most intel chips, but the 8core cpu's at least are often better at multithreading. Your i5 likely has similar single thread perf as an 8350 @ 4.5ghz ish and about 3/4 of the multi thread capability (I'm comparing with an i5-2500k @ 3.3ghz).

You're also capped at 32gb ddr3 dual channel ram at ~2400mhz max compared with 2011 socket 128gb ddr4 @ 3400mhz quad channel. The quad core i7 skylake has slightly lesser (judging from cpu-z bench tool) multithreading performance than the 8350 but about 1.7times faster single thread, and it comes with a fair amount of headroom for costly upgrades.

 

[Mastersaofan]

Because based on how I see it and on the research I've done. The i5-2400 vs i5-6600k difference would not be that great either. Around 20-25%. But the money I'd spend would be insanely huge. Not to mention, I I want the upgrade asap i'd have to wait a lot longer since my 1 month's salary is only enough to get me the CPU,mobo and ram. I'd still have to wait for the PSU, SSD and the AIO cooler.

Going AMD, I could buy them all within a couple of weeks from now.


But I do really understand your advice. It will be good for a year tops, INTEL would get me steady further + upgrade-ability.



So hard to choose! its been days

 

[Tradesman1]

In most anything, the 6600K beats the 8350 with the 6600K at stock, OCed it beats it worse. Having 8 cores sounds good but when outperformed as bad as they are, there's no positive - especially when it's a dead socket. User Benchmark shows some interesting data from those that have tested at their site:

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-6600K-vs-AMD-FX-8350/3503vs1489

 

[Mastersaofan]

In most anything, the 6600K beats the 8350 with the 6600K at stock, OCed it beats it worse. Having 8 cores sounds good but when outperformed as bad as they are, there's no positive - especially when it's a dead socket. User Benchmark shows some interesting data from those that have tested at their site:

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-6600K-vs-AMD-FX-8350/3503vs1489

True true, no doubts about this. But the improvement ill get from the 8350/8320 with it's price, really isn't justifiable I guess?
I mean, upgrade headroom is good with INTEL but I don't really plan for going for the "best" I just want improvement from my i5-2400.

I really appreciate your input and I know you are just talking some sense to me and helping me avoid getting into a very disappointing upgrade.

 

[Tradesman1]

Well think of it, new AMD CPU, new mobo, new CPU cooler, prob new DRAM as I'd guess you are running 1066/1333....then you'll prob be shopping for something better in less than a year.... Question will be do you want to invest a few hundred bucks now so you can then invest even more hundreds this time next year - or invest the hundreds now and still be happy in 2-3 years? There are those that build new basically about every year (I do since I've got a systems business), but most people would like to get at least a few years out of a rig if building new and be able to expand and upgrade

 

[Mastersaofan]

Well think of it, new AMD CPU, new mobo, new CPU cooler, prob new DRAM as I'd guess you are running 1066/1333....then you'll prob be shopping for something better in less than a year.... Question will be do you want to invest a few hundred bucks now so you can then invest even more hundreds this time next year - or invest the hundreds now and still be happy in 2-3 years? There are those that build new basically about every year (I do since I've got a systems business), but most people would like to get at least a few years out of a rig if building new and be able to expand and upgrade

Thanks buddy. I can't really argue with what you just said anymore, there is really just no point for going for AMD. I'd save money yea, but you are right. I'd be unsatisfied with it sooner than later which will make me want to upgrade again thus spending money that I should have just done in the first place.



I'f im going for skylake might as well go big.

Im eyeing this mobo Z170-A ASUS
Do you think this will fit in my phanteks p400 regarding the rear fan? planning to place the AIO radiator back there.
or should I just stick to the MSI Z170A G43 Plus.

And yea, ill go for the i5-6600k

 

[oobymach]

The fx8350 is about half as powerful as the 6700k, maybe a little less but at less than half the price and it's still going to become a dinosaur when the 16/32 core chips launch so are you going to wait with your current rig, or spend $600 on a mobo/cpu to last you the same amount of time as a $300 combo. I opt for amd, even if my cpu isn't nearly as fast as the new 6700k's nothing actually requires that much power. It will be a few years until we see games that require it and by then 64core cpu's will be reality. Go amd, it's not as fast as your neighbors ferrari but it doesn't cost as much either and the reality is no single threading app is worth the double price.

My motherboard died recently, I had the option to upgrade but I bought a better mobo for the 8350 instead. I know intels shiny new chip is fast, what I'm saying is it's not worth it, unless you're addicted to new tech and have to upgrade every chance you get.

Also, both the ps4 and the xbox one use 8core amd chips.