Should i upgrade my fx8350 to intel chipset?

[Scibbo]

Hello All
Should I consider updating my fx8350 to a i5 4690k or i74970k cpu? I am a gamer running my cpu with a stable overclock of 4430mhz @ 1.375V.

-FX8350 @4430mhz
-Asus m5afx990 pro evo 2.0 motherboard
-32gb 2133mhz ddr3 G Skill Ripjaws X
-Gigabyte HD 7950 (upgrading in 2 weeks time to gigabyte gtx970 g1 gaming).
-EVGA Supanova 750W Gold PSU.
-Corsair H100i.
Cheers

 

[RazerZ]

No. The 8350 is a solid CPU and you wouldn't gain much, if anything with the "upgrade". Get a 970 and you will see a massive difference in your gaming performance.

 

[Outlander_04]

No reason to change cpu at all

 

[menetlaus]

Personally, I would not do either upgrade: CPU or GPU.

Yes, in both cases a quad intel or 970 is an improvement on what you have. BUT I don't think you will really see enough of an improvement to truly make it worth the money.

FYI, I have an i5-2500K@4.4GHz and a 6950 and am happy with the performance at 1080P and am not considering an upgrade anytime soon. BUT if you have a pile of money and don't mind giving it away to get incremental upgrades - go for it.

 

[RazerZ]

For the price of a new motherboard and i5 he could get another 970 and sli. There's just no reason to upgrade the CPU.

 

[Scibbo]

Thank you all for your answers. I will stick with the cpu and wait till a while for next cpu update.
Though is it worth getting gigabyte gtx970 g1 in sli?

I know well enough that performance for price ratio, it is not worth putting money towards the gtx980
Waiting for the 8gb models to be released unless ur running multi monitor on 4k. I believe the gpu technology is not there yet until they can provide stable 60fps and above.

I know my psu can handle the sli well as I have already received confirmation from both evga and gigabyte.

 

[RazerZ]

If you're using a 1080p monitor @60Hz one 970 should work great.

 

[menetlaus]

If you're using a 1080p monitor @60Hz one 970 should work great.

If he's running 1080P@60Hz - his existing 7950 is probably good enough.

Scibbo - Why are you looking to do the upgrade? are you seeing poor performance issues in games, or what are you trying to be able to do with the system?

 

[Scibbo]

If you're using a 1080p monitor @60Hz one 970 should work great.

If he's running 1080P@60Hz - his existing 7950 is probably good enough.

Scibbo - Why are you looking to do the upgrade? are you seeing poor performance issues in games, or what are you trying to be able to do with the system?

the HD 7950 is a fantastic card and has served me really well the last 18 months but I am finding it is beginning to keep up with decent fps and get massive fps drops occurrences.
Hence reason for the gpu update.

The cpu was a consideration purely for the following reasons:
-better single core performance
-eliminate possible bottlenecking that may occur
-low power usage to bring the price of electricity down (Aust electricity prices are criminal).
-future proofing.

RazerZ had a good point regarding the cpu. Gains for gaming will probably be minimal, seeing i got a stable overclock and it is running approx. 15-19C idle and 46-45 on full load.

 

[menetlaus]

For lower power draw on the CPU you are probably better off to look at a broadwell CPU (4xxx series) that came out this year, or wait until the next "tick" (ETA 2106) of intel's tick-tock plan as the die shrink is where the best power savings come from.

A 970/980 won't save you much $ in power (anandtech bench has all three - 970/980/7950 within 10W of each other in crysis 3) but will give you better performance, if you are willing to spend the $ for it. Lots of places you can compare the performance improvements of either over the 7950. Up to you to decide if worth it.

FYI (if you don't know it already) - any voltage increase to the CPU (vCore) to OC it drastically increases power consumption.

 

[RazerZ]

BTW OP, have you tried out the latest Omega driver for your 7950 (Catalyst 14.12)? Supposedly there was some very nice fps gains in rage of popular games along with a few other neat features.

I also have a 7950 but my CPU is a i5 2500k... recently my BIOS was corrupted so I'm waiting for the new chip to come in the mail. Till then my gaming rig is out of use 🙁

 

[Scibbo]

BTW OP, have you tried out the latest Omega driver for your 7950 (Catalyst 14.12)? Supposedly there was some very nice fps gains in many of the games recently launched along with a few other neat features.

I also have a 7950 but my CPU is a i5 2500k... recently my BIOS was corrupted so I'm waiting for the new chip to come in the mail. Till then my gaming rig is out of use 🙁

Updated yesterday but have not had a chance to try the new omega driver.
Will be doing so very shortly.

 

[RazerZ]

Sounds good. Let me know the results.

Make sure you use driver sweeper to completely remove the old driver before installing the new one.

 

[Scibbo]

Sounds good. Let me know the results.

Make sure you use driver sweeper to completely remove the old driver before installing the new one.

im impressed with the omega driver.
85-90fps on ultra settings for cod advance Warfare
10fps boost Far Cry 3
AMD done a good job with this new driver.

 

[RazerZ]

Nice. So far I've heard nothing but good things about the Omega driver. It's really standing up to its grandiose name.