I need help choosing a low budget CPU

[Dylan Havel]

Hello, so basically my budget for my cpu is 180CAD. However, I will be using this CPU for gaming and streaming games from The forest to Rome total war 2. Please help me find a good CPU that can go with a AM3+ socket, thanks.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

There's almost no choice if that is a hard budget. The FX8350 costs a little bit more, but less than $190, and the FX8320 is still just over $180. That would leave a FX 6300 at under $150 as your best choice. Do you have a discrete GPU?

However, it all depends on your motherboard and its power phases and VRM. What is your motherboard? It may have an AM3+ socket, but it may not handle a FX83xx or eve FX63xx well.

 

[KNARF XD]

There's almost no choice if that is a hard budget. The FX8350 costs a little bit more, but less than $190, and the FX8320 is still just over $180. That would leave a FX 6300 at under $150 as your best choice. Do you have a discrete GPU?

However, it all depends on your motherboard and its power phases and VRM. What is your motherboard? It may have an AM3+ socket, but it may not handle a FX83xx or eve FX63xx well.

the 6300 should be fine in almost all cases

 

[DonkeyOatie]

There's almost no choice if that is a hard budget. The FX8350 costs a little bit more, but less than $190, and the FX8320 is still just over $180. That would leave a FX 6300 at under $150 as your best choice. Do you have a discrete GPU?

However, it all depends on your motherboard and its power phases and VRM. What is your motherboard? It may have an AM3+ socket, but it may not handle a FX83xx or eve FX63xx well.

the 6300 should be fine in almost all cases

Not on a lot of 780, 880, and 960 chipsets, for starters.

Most 970s are good, as are all the 990s. People on a budget sometimes make unfortunate motherboard choices to save money and nail one of their feet to the ground as a result.

 

[KNARF XD]

There's almost no choice if that is a hard budget. The FX8350 costs a little bit more, but less than $190, and the FX8320 is still just over $180. That would leave a FX 6300 at under $150 as your best choice. Do you have a discrete GPU?

However, it all depends on your motherboard and its power phases and VRM. What is your motherboard? It may have an AM3+ socket, but it may not handle a FX83xx or eve FX63xx well.

the 6300 should be fine in almost all cases

Not on a lot of 780, 880, and 960 chipsets, for starters.

the 6300 has the same tpd as the 4300 (95w) and as long as you don't overclock

 

[DonkeyOatie]

I know that, but the extra module stresses VRMs built for only two and can overheat significantly, especially if they lack heatsinks. There are a lot of boards that run fine with a FX43xx that I would not want to try a FX63xx on for power delivery reasons.

 

[KNARF XD]

I know that, but the extra module stresses VRMs built for only two and can overheat significantly, especially if they lack heatsinks. There are a lot of boards that run fine with a FX43xx that I would not want to try a FX63xx on for power delivery reasons.

ah, never heard, but i believe you
never dove deep in low end motherboard, i tend to avoid that stuff

 

[DonkeyOatie]

May not be a problem. We need to check though.

 

[mjslakeridge]

I have a FX6300 at stock settings paired with a cheap Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P (760 series chipset). My Passmark CPU score is just a little over 50% of what the averages are, so the board in this case is certainly holding the CPU back. I have used this setup for about 3 years, using the iGPU to run 2 monitors, watching a lot of recorded TV, DVD's, internet browsing, and it has been fine for my needs. (Microcenter gave this board for "free" to anyone buying a FX6300 or Phenom II processors, so I have 2 of them, the Phenom II seems to work fine, I use the Phenom II 1045t in my main Pro Tools recording rig. I think they still do offer the board for no cost when buying AMD processors, which is how an unsuspecting person like me thought I was getting a great deal). That was before I got on this forum and the Pro Tools users forum.

BUT, I do no gaming whatsoever, and wouldn't recommend a low-end board for anyone who does game.

 

[Chicano]

Choose a AMD AM3+ FX CPU.
https://pcpartpicker.com/parts/cpu/#m=6&s=23&k=4&g=0&sort=a7&page=1

Those prices for FX CPUs mentioned before are a bit high... but depends where you order them from. Prices for the FX-6300 through FX-8350 range from $98.99 to $179.98

 

[superstition]

It depends on your board. If you have a low-grade board you should stick with a 6 core. If you have a good board then get an 8320E and overclock it (with a better CPU cooler than the stock one).