Looking for optimal cpu.

basdxz

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May 7, 2014
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Hello there ;3. A while back I got myself an AMD Athlon X4 740 and MSI A55M-E33 Micro ATX FM2+ as a mobo/cpu combo for £100. But it maxes out in some more CPU demanding games like Planetside 2 and Star Citizen: Arena Commander. So I guess I need an upgrade. Im not sure if I should get an FX-6300 + New Mobo or might there be an appropriate CPU for the FM2/FM2+ socket that would suit my needs?
 


Yeah I would agree it's the best choice though much more expensive costing £180 with the cheaper config( I would recommend the better mobo though). I would say it would be worth saving up though as it's no point only upgrading a little and you dont get any upgrade paths out of sticking amd where'as intel you do.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54440
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-h81mp33
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h97manniversary
 


We cannot answer this properly until we know what your needs are. So, please answer a few questions for us:

What is your budget?
What kind of games do you play?
Do you plan to stick with 1 GPU or will you be looking at SLI/Crossfire?
What king of RAM do you currently have?
Do you plan to do any game streaming like on Twitch?

The proper fit for you could be PentiumG, FX 6300, i3, i5, FX 8350, i7 or even it's locked Xeon counterpart, depending on the answers you give.
 


Around £100-150
Most CPU demanding games I play are Planetside 2 and I would want to also get into Star Citizen.
Probably a Single GPU setup
DDR3, not sure about the clock speed not that it would matter
Nah.
 


What is your gpu?
 
There is no worthy upgrade for your board as the best of the best cpu for an FM2 is still bellow a core i3 or fx-6300.

At minimum I would save up at least enough to get an fx-8320 and a 970 chipset board.
The alternative would be an i5 + H81 board (other boards are better but H81 will be adequate).

If you are gong to do an upgrade, then stick in there just a little longer to afford one of those paths (the intel one is far better), you will get way more of an upgrade for only $50 more (vs the fx-6300 route).
 


Comparing the previously suggested I5 vs the FX-6300 shows that there is an inconsiderable performance increase for double price. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=1781&cmp%5B%5D=2017 and then theres the FX-8350, which is a little more than an FX-6300 with an extra unlocked physical core (or 2 virtual ones)?
 



Therein lies the rub. There is a crossover point for performance and you found it. It's near the top end of the AMD range, yet low- to midrange on the Ihtel range where within the same motherboard, there are still many upgrade options to increase performance.
 


There are enough upgrades from the AMD side from what I can see. Not looking for the fastest, looking for the best price to performance on a limited budget.
 




I really have to disagree you can get the i3 for the same price as the fx 6300 but the i3 has so much more upgrades an similer performance in all but video editing