Is the FX -8350 CPU much better than the FX-4300

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Jamieking86

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Dec 5, 2013
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Hi guys, I've just recently upgraded my motherboard, graphics card and an extra 8GB of memory. I now have the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2,0 Motherboard, GTX 760 Graphics card and 16GB RAM. I currently have the FX-4300 CPU but i'm looking at the FX-8350 CPU, is their, and will i notice much difference? I do play games on my PC, but the newer games i get for the Xbox ONE. Is it worth paying £125 for this CPU? Thanks
 
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They are in completely different leagues. The 4300 is only recommended for general use PC's and not for gaming or anything that will need a lot of processing, just surfing the web and using office software.
 
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Out of the box the 8350 is clocked higher so in that way it is better. That is in gaming. If you are planning to overclock
then I would go with the 8320. It tends to be a better overclocker. If your are not going for Gaming or any cpu intensive stuff the 8320 would be the best bet.

 
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I'm pretty sure overclocking voids your warranty, if that makes a difference to you. I am kind of a noob, and I am running the 8350. The 8320 runs at 3.5gHz while the 8350 runs at 4.0gHz.

Basically AMD has overclocked an 8320 chip FOR YOU, and that is what the 8350 is.
 
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I see, if it easy to over clock? Do you bust use a software or do it in bios? I have built and upgraded my own pc's for over 10 years but the only thing I've never done is over clock. Would like to give it a go if there's easy guides?
 
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Contrary to what people are saying here, there is actually no difference in gaming performance between the two for the majority of games. In fact, if the game uses 4 threads or less, their performance will be almost identical. If you're running a lot of things in the background, the FX-8320 will fare better. IF you want to record games and do editing and so on, the FX-8320 is definitely a must buy. And with games that use 5 threads or more, the FX-8320 will be significantly better.

To be slightly more future proof, since games will be using more and more cores in the future, I indeed would suggest to go for the FX-8320, if you don't have the FX-4300. Since you have it already... I'd say just keep that one for now. If you still want to get it, wait until more games start using more cores, or simply wait a few months till the AM3+ platform is declared dead. There will be a lot of sales to clear the stocks of the FX-8xxx CPUs. At least you'll get it cheaper that way.

Edit: Difference in performance between FX-8320, FX-8350 and FX-8370 is negligible, especially when considering overclocking.
 
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You can overclock through your mobo software -- is it AI Suite? But you can probably achieve better results doing it manually through BIOS. There are many guides -- but I wouldn't say 'easy guides'. You will want a CPU cooler if you don't already have one besides the stock fan

http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MckeAmnDeTk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kOlBalkVyA

google search: ' overclock fx 8350 on sabertooth '
 
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Without looking im not sure if it's A I suite or not. I'll have to look on youtube for a step by step guide. I have the Hyper TX3 EVO CPU Cooler and I've just applied some new thermal paste, supposed to be the best you can get. Would that cooler be good enough? Plus I have 3 chassis fans and the gpu fan aswel

 
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Hmmmmm, you know it is stable? Did you actually stress test it for a couple hours with Prime95?
 
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Liste to NightAntilli, alot of the people here actually don't know what they are talking about. You WON'T see major deference in FPS on games. Why? because games use ur GPU mainly and they will never use the 8 cores of the FX 8350.
 
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did you end up using AI Suite? for both OCing and monitoring the temps?
 
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I did a stress test with AIDA 64 for about an hour, it got to 68c max with voltage at 1.404 max. I played an hour of splinter cell blacklist last night on max settings, it got to around 61c, which isn't too bad i believe?
 
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I just did it all through bios. Used AIDA64 for my stress test and information. I did try a torture test with prime95 but temps shot up past 75c so i stopped it their and then. I've had it running like this (4.6ghz) since friday night and it's been stable so far
 
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So I see you already made your purchase... I would still like to add a few points that no one here seems to have bothered to even think of...

First, you don't need 16GB of RAM, unless you do some INTENSE multitasking with heavy load applications.. That is way overkill. You would probably be fine with just 4GB, but 8GB would be great for multitasking. The only thing that I would have looked into with memory, is upgrading the frequency, depending on what you are currently running and what your motherboard supports.

Next, everyone is just going off of the simple frequency speeds of the CPU's, not bothering to mention cache. The 4300 has a total of 4 MB L2 cache, and 4 MB L3 cache. The 8320/50 both have a total of 8 MB L2, and 8 MB of L3. The cache actually makes quite a big difference, MUCH more than the frequency (which the 4300 and 8320/50 are close enough to not even notice). With that being said, the 8320 would have been just fine vs the 8350, but I would certainly upgrade.

Last, someone had mentioned that upgrading the CPU would not make any difference, compared to a graphics card upgrade. This is not necessarily true. While there is a lot hanging on the graphics card, and having 8 cores vs 4 cores won't break the deal, the CPU having more cache to process instructions faster and more efficiently WILL have an effect on performance. Having a more effective processor increases overall performance of the computer, which integrates into games. There is a reason a machine with an Intel Core2 Duo running at higher frequencies does not even compare to a dual core i3 CPU (Sorry, I have only started playing with AMD systems recently because of a few horrible previous experiences and know more with Intel CPU comparisons).

This may not make as big of a difference if you do not do a lot of multitasking right now, but on days that you do, you will be appreciative of the upgrade :). On another note, I would not suggest OCing your machine. As mentioned, it voids warranty. It also reduces the lifespan of your machine. To boot, Even if it is running stable and at 42 degrees C, it can still become unstable and fry the whole motherboard/CPU. OCing puts more stress on it than is really needed, especially from 3.5 to 4.6. Go up a few MHz, but you might well regret pushing it to 4.6 GHz. Running at 3.5 really is still a good speed.
 
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Thanks for your detailed response. That was quite a lesson. I have built my computers for 10 years but I am no where near knowing everything.

I understand 16gb won't be necessary but if i do things, i like to do them properly. What does L2 and L3 cache actually do then? I totally understand that about putting too much stress on the motherboard although nobody has quite explained it that way. I might knock it back down to 4.0ghz and see how that goes. Although it's very yummy having a 4.6ghz processor running how it is.
 
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