Should I Stick With The FX-8350?

[ob8014]

So, I recently upgraded to a Sapphire Nitro R9 390 graphics card, and I've been giving Arma 2 and Arma 3 a go, and have noticed that I'm not really getting the FPS that I was expecting, no matter what graphic settings I am using. Yes, I understand that Arma is a CPU heavy game, and the FX-8350 has more cores but each core is weaker than an Intel.

My question here though, is should I stick with the FX-8350 and wait for maybe the DX12 update for Arma 3, or other games to be released? Or should I just stop with the AMD CPU's and switch to Intel. Will the Intel give me better performance in other games? Is it worth switching CPU's just for one games performance??

Any advice would help! Thanks guys!!

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's doubtful that it's going to just be one games performance. Going forward, games are going to tend to be both CPU and GPU intensive, because the hardware that's out there can support it on an enthusiast build. DX12 is looking more and more like a crapshoot every day, with every game and benchmark based off it having issues and pointing the finger at the game developers for bad optimization.

I think it's going to be a while before we see any successful implementation of DX12 that brings the features and performance advancements they've been promising so if you're willing to wait another year or more, that's your call, but if you want to increase your performance now and going forward, moving to the Intel platform makes a lot of sense. We recently had three of us moderators that moved to the Skylake platform from older platforms, both Intel and AMD, and the performance increases were dramatic but more importantly the overall picture was much improved.

I can't post those benchmarks here without checking with the mod that posted them, but I can assure you that we were all skeptical, despite knowing that Intel has much better IPC and clock for clock performance, but the investments we made we feel were well worth it. My minimum frame rates increased by about 20fps minimum in just about every title, regardless of settings, just by moving from an 8320 to a 6700k. Average frame rates and overall responsiveness were entirely noticeable and in fact, were prominent.

Whether it's "worth" it or not is something only you can decide though.

 

[ob8014]

It's doubtful that it's going to just be one games performance. Going forward, games are going to tend to be both CPU and GPU intensive, because the hardware that's out there can support it on an enthusiast build. DX12 is looking more and more like a crapshoot every day, with every game and benchmark based off it having issues and pointing the finger at the game developers for bad optimization.

I think it's going to be a while before we see any successful implementation of DX12 that brings the features and performance advancements they've been promising so if you're willing to wait another year or more, that's your call, but if you want to increase your performance now and going forward, moving to the Intel platform makes a lot of sense. We recently had three of us moderators that moved to the Skylake platform from older platforms, both Intel and AMD, and the performance increases were dramatic but more importantly the overall picture was much improved.

I can't post those benchmarks here without checking with the mod that posted them, but I can assure you that we were all skeptical, despite knowing that Intel has much better IPC and clock for clock performance, but the investments we made we feel were well worth it. My minimum frame rates increased by about 20fps minimum in just about every title, regardless of settings, just by moving from an 8320 to a 6700k. Average frame rates and overall responsiveness were entirely noticeable and in fact, were prominent.

Whether it's "worth" it or not is something only you can decide though.

So, if I do decide to switch over to the Intel platform, what CPU/MoBo combo do you suggest? I like my ASUS mobo right now, and would love to stick with them, but if you have other suggestions, I will take them. I want to stick around 300-400 total, and I'm willing to buy some used parts if needed.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are you in the US?

 

[ob8014]

Are you in the US?

I am

 

[Darkbreeze]

Do you currently have a good aftermarket CPU cooler and are you overclocking that FX chip at all? Are you wanting to overclock, or do you prefer to not overclock?

 

[ob8014]

Do you currently have a good aftermarket CPU cooler and are you overclocking that FX chip at all? Are you wanting to overclock, or do you prefer to not overclock?

I'm currently running a coolermaster hyper 212 evo, but I do live in California, and it's going to become pretty hot here in a few months, so I will probably switch over to some type of water cooling.

I currently am OC'd to 4.4Ghz. I'm perfectly fine with overclocking, I just want to make sure my temps are okay while I do it. I'm sure I can push this card to 4.6 or 4.7, but I'm running stable at 4.4.

 

[Darkbreeze]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($244.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $436.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-09 03:22 EST-0500

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you want to spend a little more, this would even be a better option:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($374.95 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $566.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-09 03:24 EST-0500


It's actually kind of hard to offer a really worthwhile upgrade for less than about 450 considering the need for DDR4 if you go with Skylake. It's also hard to recommend Haswell refresh, which IS less expensive, but not by that much. What is your current motherboard that FX chip is riding on?

 

[ob8014]

If you want to spend a little more, this would even be a better option:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($374.95 @ B&H)
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($153.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $566.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-09 03:24 EST-0500


It's actually kind of hard to offer a really worthwhile upgrade for less than about 450 considering the need for DDR4 if you go with Skylake. It's also hard to recommend Haswell refresh, which IS less expensive, but not by that much. What is your current motherboard that FX chip is riding on?

Yeah, its tough having to pull out that much to upgrade from where I'm at. I'm currently running a Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0 MoBo

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's a good board and a good configuration with that overclock, for an FX chip. I had a hard time pulling the trigger moving from my 8320@4.5Ghz on a Sabertooth 990fx to this 6700k, but I'm glad I did. It was well worth it. I have none of the dips, spikes or lag that I had before, and I'm thinking about moving to a Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD to eliminate load times pretty much entirely.

I'd say my gaming performance is probably 25% improved at least on the CPU side of things, whether the number bear it out or not, which I think they do.

 

[ob8014]

That's a good board and a good configuration with that overclock, for an FX chip. I had a hard time pulling the trigger moving from my 8320@4.5Ghz on a Sabertooth 990fx to this 6700k, but I'm glad I did. It was well worth it. I have none of the dips, spikes or lag that I had before, and I'm thinking about moving to a Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD to eliminate load times pretty much entirely.

I'd say my gaming performance is probably 25% improved at least on the CPU side of things, whether the number bear it out or not, which I think they do.

That's good, that's what I'm looking for, I'm just having a hard time justifying spending that much money to upgrade something that is working fairly well for now. But thank you so much for you help, I am going to take your suggestions into consideration.

One last quick question, do you the $130 price increase from 6600k to 6700k is worth it?

Thanks so much!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Um, yes. Because the full 1Ghz extra you can get from an overclock makes worlds of difference in the right situations. However, before you decide, read this. It seems they have once again flipped on the subject, and these are coming, and they will probably be worth looking at as options. Once you read the article, which I knew was coming but couldn't talk about, you'll understand why.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asrock-non-z170-bclk-overclocking-motherboards,31362.html