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

[Jamieking86]

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

 

[Kesef]

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.

Yeah that kind of power is nice . I think 4 GHz is a fair increase without too much stress on it. The strain might be from the CPU being pushed beyond what it is originally tested and approved for, but the CPU is pulling its power from, and running instructions/electrical pulses through, the motherboard (which also connects everything else in your system). If the CPU goes ka-blooey your motherboard is right there in the blast range .

My dad works in IT, and shared much of his knowledge with me when I was young. That is the only reason I know most of this stuff, else I never would have even bothered looking into it heh.

As for cache... In very simple terms, the cache sort of prepares data going through the CPU to help it process faster. You can compare it to streaming a Youtube or Netflix video and it buffering to help keep it going smoothly. The cache memory can process and read/write main memory much faster than the CPU, so it is ready to process BEFORE the instructions are executed, making the process faster. It is very similar to RAM, since cached memory was developed originally because of the gap in speeds between CPU and RAM, only it executes much faster.

As for the difference between L1, L2, L3, etc... Each level just helps increase performance, for simplicity's sake.

There is a lot of extra details in the cache and how it relates to RAM, but there is too much to type up in here... So here are a few good references if you want to get into the nitty-gritty crap lol:

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/188776-how-l1-and-l2-cpu-caches-work-and-why-theyre-an-essential-part-of-modern-chips

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/55662-top-tip-difference-between-l2-and-l3-cache

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_cache

 

[probal malakar]

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.

Wat this guy said is totally true...
Spend the price gap between 8320 and 8350 for a decent cooler and you are good to go.
If not overclocking, you can always turn on the turbo, which takes it to 3.8ghz. The 8320 is a great overclocker unless you are trying to break some overclocking record!!! Maybe you do, but won't help much in performance... It works best when its under 4.7ghz.

 

[saadyrt]

What's a good one?

 

[NightAntilli]

Ok thanks for the advice although I don't know how to over clock lol..how do you do thay? Is their much difference between the 8320 and 4300?

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.

It's only logical that the FX-8320 has double the cache size if it has double the amount of cores... It's not going to add anything to the performance if the cache size for each core is the same on both processors.....