Is AMD FX Still Viable For a System Build? Rev. 2.0

[TechyInAZ]

At least they included the FX-8350; at the older link that you provided, testing was performed on Intel processors only. For a strange reason, people presumed (or hoped) that AMD processors would benefit from DX12 more than Intel processors, but that has no grounds since they don't benefit from Mantle more than Intel processors and DX12 is similar to Mantle (except that it isn't limited to AMD GPUs).

I can potentially see amd FX getting a boost when being benchmarked against a non hyperthreaded CPU like the i5, but for the i3 and i7, it won't win any races there.

However, the good news is that we don't have to fuss about vishera for much longer. Zen should hopefully fix all this issues.

 

[GhislainG]

Since the FX can't beat the i3-6100, it won't be competitive against an i5. Zen generates as much hype as DX12; it hopefully will deliver. Zen's IPC is expected to be 40% better than Excavator, but we don't yet know how fast it can run or how it compare to Intel.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Since the FX can't beat the i3-6100, it won't be competitive against an i5. Zen generates as much hype as DX12; it hopefully will deliver. Zen's IPC is expected to be 40% better than Excavator, but we don't yet know how fast it can run or how it compare to Intel.

Just like what others have said, Zen doesn't necessarily have to be faster than skylake in overall performance. Even if they get zen to haswell speeds it will be a HUGE success.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

I'd like to see at the very least ivy bridge speeds. Haswell speeds would be better. Imagine 6 or 8 cores at haswell speed. If they could do that simultaneously that would be interesting.

 

[logainofhades]

Yes, haswell performance, at the very least, would be a vast improvement.

 

[GhislainG]

Unfortunately Zen is hype until trusted benchmarks are released. High performance, low power and very affordable processors would be a dream come true for a lot of people.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Unfortunately Zen is hype until trusted benchmarks are released. High performance, low power and very affordable processors would be a dream come true for a lot of people.

+1. With how bad AMD has been with upgrading FX CPUs lately, it's still a good idea not to get your hopes up.

 

[Redneck5439]

Seems like we are all waiting to see what the future brings us. I for one am looking forward to actual user benchmarks for DX12 performance. Weather or not Skylake i3s can outperform FX Piledriver DX12 will still be a nice boost in gaming performance for the FX Piledriver series. IT will be interesting to see user benchmarks when DX12 games hit the market, I've seen too many of the "official" benchmarks that are very low when compared to actual user benchmarks at the same clock speeds.

As for Zen, its amazing how tight lipped AMD has been about their new flagship line. It is clear with the lack of improvements made to Piledriver and the GPU "refresh" that they did with the 390s that AMD has been focusing on Zen. The only information confirmed from AMD has stated a 40% improvement over Excavator. That really should make the IPC gain more or less equal to Haswell. Zen will also feature DDR 4 which will also help overall performance and may be able to boost Zen slightly higher than Haswell. Zen however probably won't be as efficient as Intel. Zen is slated for 14nm, however Intel has had a long time to perfect power efficiency and AMD will more than likely have to run higher clock speeds and more cores to be able to compete against more powerful arch like Skylake and Kaby Lake. Hopefully they will price Zen to keep it competitive, $1000 for the FX 9590 when it released was one of the most foolish things I ever seen AMD do, hopefully we won't see a repeat with Zen.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

DX12, Zen, Pascal, Polaris... Why do we always talk about stuff that's so far away as if we realistically have true knowledge on it?

 

[palladin9479]

Don't presume the FX performs better than the i3 when playing DX12 games: http://www.techspot.com/review/1081-dx11-vs-dx12-ashes/page5.html Mantle improved most processors (including the i3); so does DX12. It looks like the i3-6100 won't be that disappointing.

Those are the lowest scores I've ever seen on any site for the FX 8350 running Ashes on DX12. It may be that Ashes is still in beta or that DX 12 drivers are still immature, but doing a search of several sites for benchmarks on Ashes they seem to contradict each other. One site has DX 11 even benchmarking higher than DX 12 while another site has DX 12 destroying DX 11. I've seen sites placing the FX 8350 above i5s and even some i7s and I've seen others place it below the i3, (some sites never list anything about overclocking and as the article I posted says DX 12 performs favorably with many cores running at high clocks... ie overclocking will help the FX a lot). I guess this is another have to wait and see. We will have to wait till Ashes is out of Beta and Nvidia and AMD have had time to perfect their DX 12 drivers. The results are just too all over the place depending on where you go. It does give the older FX Piledriver arch a "ray of hope" for improved gaming performance in the near future though.

It's confusing because the engine benchmark / demo have a huge variety of settings that place focus on different system components. This is intentional as the developers want people to do many different tests, but not all websites release their exact settings or system configuration. One of the benchmarks posted above was with the GPU detail settings / resolution dialed down to low but the batch call and object intensity settings maxed out. This was done to place more pressure on the rendering pipeline that's controlled by the CPU instead of how fast the GPU can pump out pixels. And as we could see HT had a very small effect on the outcome while number of cores and clock speed had a huge impact. Other benchmarks had different settings and placed emphasis on different components of the system.

Ultimately DX12 is such a large change in the processing dynamic that we won't know the full impact until after large games start hitting with it. It allows the graphics code to get a bit closer to metal while also allowing the rendering pipeline to be multi-threaded. Now the games main logic thread might still be single threaded so this isn't a magic silver bullet for flat and wide processor design's but it does solve one of the bigger issues facing gaming right now.

 

[Redneck5439]

Don't presume the FX performs better than the i3 when playing DX12 games: http://www.techspot.com/review/1081-dx11-vs-dx12-ashes/page5.html Mantle improved most processors (including the i3); so does DX12. It looks like the i3-6100 won't be that disappointing.

Those are the lowest scores I've ever seen on any site for the FX 8350 running Ashes on DX12. It may be that Ashes is still in beta or that DX 12 drivers are still immature, but doing a search of several sites for benchmarks on Ashes they seem to contradict each other. One site has DX 11 even benchmarking higher than DX 12 while another site has DX 12 destroying DX 11. I've seen sites placing the FX 8350 above i5s and even some i7s and I've seen others place it below the i3, (some sites never list anything about overclocking and as the article I posted says DX 12 performs favorably with many cores running at high clocks... ie overclocking will help the FX a lot). I guess this is another have to wait and see. We will have to wait till Ashes is out of Beta and Nvidia and AMD have had time to perfect their DX 12 drivers. The results are just too all over the place depending on where you go. It does give the older FX Piledriver arch a "ray of hope" for improved gaming performance in the near future though.

It's confusing because the engine benchmark / demo have a huge variety of settings that place focus on different system components. This is intentional as the developers want people to do many different tests, but not all websites release their exact settings or system configuration. One of the benchmarks posted above was with the GPU detail settings / resolution dialed down to low but the batch call and object intensity settings maxed out. This was done to place more pressure on the rendering pipeline that's controlled by the CPU instead of how fast the GPU can pump out pixels. And as we could see HT had a very small effect on the outcome while number of cores and clock speed had a huge impact. Other benchmarks had different settings and placed emphasis on different components of the system.

Ultimately DX12 is such a large change in the processing dynamic that we won't know the full impact until after large games start hitting with it. It allows the graphics code to get a bit closer to metal while also allowing the rendering pipeline to be multi-threaded. Now the games main logic thread might still be single threaded so this isn't a magic silver bullet for flat and wide processor design's but it does solve one of the bigger issues facing gaming right now.

That really does make a lot of sense, thank you palladin9479. That is why I love this forum, I learn new things all the time😀

 

[turkey3_scratch]

I love this forum too. Have you ever seen something like the comments section on WCCFtech? It is the most absurd thing I've ever witnessed.

 

[Redneck5439]

I love this forum too. Have you ever seen something like the comments section on WCCFtech? It is the most absurd thing I've ever witnessed.

Never been to the comments section on WCCFtech, not sure I've ever even been to that site, but I have to check it out now😀

 

[turkey3_scratch]

It's ridiculous, so much trolling. So many people just saying a bunch of false crap... it's horrible, and the sad part is they get about 4000 comments.

 

[logainofhades]

DX12, Zen, Pascal, Polaris... Why do we always talk about stuff that's so far away as if we realistically have true knowledge on it?

Supposedly Broadwell-E is going to be out Q2, of this year.

 

[Redneck5439]

It's ridiculous, so much trolling. So many people just saying a bunch of false crap... it's horrible, and the sad part is they get about 4000 comments.

Yep, visited the site, have actually read and enjoyed some of the featured articles from time to time, but never bothered to scroll down to the comments section. Browsed comments section, refused impulse to post a reply and get sucked into the trollbait, returned to good 'ol Toms Hardware where things make so much more sense

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Yep, where we discuss things on an intellectual level. It's like a stampede over there at WCC.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Yep, where we discuss things on an intellectual level. It's like a stampede over there at WCC.

Agreed. Tom's is definantly has more intellectual people that most other websites like WCC.

 

[TechyInAZ]

DX12, Zen, Pascal, Polaris... Why do we always talk about stuff that's so far away as if we realistically have true knowledge on it?

Because it's the unknown. It's the one thing that people love to do because it brings excitement....

It reminds me a lot of the alien movements, it's their love of the unkown.

 

[XCalinX]

To all those AMD haters I figured I'd post a pic of my "crap" 8350 rig. specs in sig

 

[GhislainG]

It would look as good with a faster Intel CPU

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Yeah, looks good but I'm not sure what case aesthetics prove. The hundreds of dollars spent on the custom water loop could have been put into a much faster Intel setup that would be faster at stock speeds. It's shiny though

 

[Karsten75]

To all those AMD haters I figured I'd post a pic of my "crap" 8350 rig. specs in sig

Ooh shiny..... but wait. Post the PCMARK performance. That's what I drool over. That, silence and power consumption. I build in cases without windows, but with thick insulation and minimal fans. 3 fans are about my maximum.

I'm building a rig right now and I'll post my specs. Including Decibels and power consumption as measured at the wall. You want to compete with that?

 

[XCalinX]

To all those AMD haters I figured I'd post a pic of my "crap" 8350 rig. specs in sig

Ooh shiny..... but wait. Post the PCMARK performance. That's what I drool over. That, silence and power consumption. I build in cases without windows, but with thick insulation and minimal fans. 3 fans are about my maximum.

I'm building a rig right now and I'll post my specs. Including Decibels and power consumption as measured at the wall. You want to compete with that?

I got 12568 points in FS. The fans are the HP editions ones as I don't care about noise. Of course your shiny Intel CPU will beat my FX (as long as it's a modern i7) but the difference in 4K gaming will be minimal. My next upgrade is 4k

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

My next upgrade will probably be zen lol.