Should I upgrade to an Intel CPU?

[Dizzlepop11]

I've been wondering about this for a while now. I've recently upgraded to an FX 8320 chip not that long ago, and it was a huge step up from my previous APU that I bought. I've been trying to save up to buy a GTX 1070, but I'm starting to wonder if I should use that money for an Intel CPU and motherboard instead. My current GPU, an Asus R9 290, has bad thermal throttling issues and overheats up to 90 degrees celsius, along with some noticeable GPU sag. However, it's still consiered a powerful card today. A 1070 would be a really nice upgrade, but would an Intel one be better? Please leave any feedback below. Thanks!
~Ryan

 

[jtabb1256]

I would say get the 1070 and nice cooler for the 8320. Then overclock the 8320.

 

[cdabc123]

i would get a nice i5 and than fix the throttling issue. a i5 and a 290 will play every game VERY well.

 

[Barty1884]

An Intel CPU would be preferred, but how does the 8320 work for what you want to do with it now?

Your 8320 is likely bottlenecking the 290 a little at the moment (although with thermal throttling you won't necessarily 'see' it). Upgrading to a 1070 with the 8320 would be pretty pointless.

On a budget, you'd see some gains fromOCing the 8320 a bit (perhaps a new cooler would be required) to take advantage of the 290's potential - and deal with the heat/throttling issue of course.

How is the airflow in your case? An extra intake &/or exhaust fan (depending on your current config) would likely help with temps on the GPU. You might want to consider cleaning the GPU fan (as a minimum) or even removing the fan and reapplying thermal paste there - seems to have a better effect on GPUs over CPUs.

If you want to pick up an 1070 it would be wasted paired with the 8320. You could either replace with an Intel setup.....or I'd even suggest holding off for AMD Zen offerings to see how they compare. Certainly no harm in waiting. An OC'd 8320 + (adequately cooled) R9 290 is still a relatively viable rig.

 

[Dizzlepop11]

I would say get the 1070 and nice cooler for the 8320. Then overclock the 8320.

Already have an H55, but I might have to dig around for the Intel parts I need for it. A 1070 is a good upgrade, and I've been eyeballing the RoG Strix version that was revealed at Computex this year, but would a powerful card like that be bottlenecked by my FX 8320?

 

[Dizzlepop11]

An Intel CPU would be preferred, but how does the 8320 work for what you want to do with it now?

Your 8320 is likely bottlenecking the 290 a little at the moment (although with thermal throttling you won't necessarily 'see' it). Upgrading to a 1070 with the 8320 would be pretty pointless.

On a budget, you'd see some gains fromOCing the 8320 a bit (perhaps a new cooler would be required) to take advantage of the 290's potential - and deal with the heat/throttling issue of course.

How is the airflow in your case? An extra intake &/or exhaust fan (depending on your current config) would likely help with temps on the GPU. You might want to consider cleaning the GPU fan (as a minimum) or even removing the fan and reapplying thermal paste there - seems to have a better effect on GPUs over CPUs.

If you want to pick up an 1070 it would be wasted paired with the 8320. You could either replace with an Intel setup.....or I'd even suggest holding off for AMD Zen offerings to see how they compare. Certainly no harm in waiting. An OC'd 8320 + (adequately cooled) R9 290 is still a relatively viable rig.

I currently have a stable overclock of 4.4GHz on my CPU. I have a pretty well ventilated system, housed inside of a Corsair 760T. Here's the PCPartPicker list.

 

[Dizzlepop11]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_du7O6-QD8Y
Here's a video of somebody with the same specs as me getting 60 - 120 FPS in BF4 at the highest settings, while I struggle to achieve 60 FPS most of the time, which leads me to believe that it's mostly a thermal issue. I should also mention that my GPU's cooler is zip-tied on, because it broke a while ago... (which has nothing to do with the thermal issues, because it was getting hot before it broke)

 

[Barty1884]

Ok, given the stable, decent OC - you should have removed all but the slimmest bottleneck. If I were you, I'd attempt to get your 290 fully operational and use your current setup until Zen is released & you have options - assuming your current setup performs to an acceptable level for you today (290 heat issue excluded, of course).

If it simply boils down to you not liking the performance (from a CPU standpoint) and you're comfortable with the cost of an Intel upgrade, then certainly go for it. A n i5 setup, continuing to use your 290 in the meantime (assuming you can get it running at decent temps) would be a better performer than the 8320 - and you'd be perfectly placed to pick up a 1070 in the near future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_du7O6-QD8Y
Here's a video of somebody with the same specs as me getting 60 - 120 FPS in BF4 at the highest settings, while I struggle to achieve 60 FPS most of the time, which leads me to believe that it's mostly a thermal issue. I should also mention that my GPU's cooler is zip-tied on, because it broke a while ago... (which has nothing to do with the thermal issues, because it was getting hot before it broke)

That video is 18 months old at this point, so you're not comparing apples to apples. You may well have a driver issue and should address that.

I may be misunderstanding here, but are you actually monitoring CPU/GPU temps? Or making an assumption of poor thermals for your lower performance? If you are monitoring, what program are you using?

For AMD CPUs you should be using AMD overdrive and monitoring the 'thermal margin'. Assuming you can stay in the safe ~10+'C (thermal margin, as in 10'C to shutdown) during stress tests, your issue probably isn't thermal related.

Of course, please correct me if I've misunderstood.

 

[Dizzlepop11]

I may be misunderstanding here, but are you actually monitoring CPU/GPU temps? Or making an assumption of poor thermals for your lower performance? If you are monitoring, what program are you using?

For AMD CPUs you should be using AMD overdrive and monitoring the 'thermal margin'. Assuming you can stay in the safe ~10+'C (thermal margin, as in 10'C to shutdown) during stress tests, your issue probably isn't thermal related.

Of course, please correct me if I've misunderstood.

I'm using CPUID Hardware Monitor and also AMD Overdrive for the temps and overclocking. AMD Overdrive displays roughly the same information as HWMonitor does.

 

[Barty1884]

That can vary pretty dramatically depending on the chip &/or card, but if you're using both, you should have a pretty accurate handle on what's going on.

What are your temps (CPU and GPU at full load / stress testing) out of curiosity? Is that where the 90'C comes in? Or is that during regular useage?
Assuming that's stress testing, the 290's are known to get hot and I think I recall hearing 100'C as the max for the card.......so you might still be ok.

There's an option with MSI Afterburner to 'force fan speeds' or similar (I forget the exact phrasing), allowing you to ramp up your GPU cooler to run at max speed, rather than variable - might be an option.

 

[Dizzlepop11]

That can vary pretty dramatically depending on the chip &/or card, but if you're using both, you should have a pretty accurate handle on what's going on.

What are your temps (CPU and GPU at full load / stress testing) out of curiosity? Is that where the 90'C comes in? Or is that during regular useage?
Assuming that's stress testing, the 290's are known to get hot and I think I recall hearing 100'C as the max for the card.......so you might still be ok.

There's an option with MSI Afterburner to 'force fan speeds' or similar (I forget the exact phrasing), allowing you to ramp up your GPU cooler to run at max speed, rather than variable - might be an option.

CPU is around 20 - 30 degrees celsius idle, and gets up to 60 degrees celsius on load. GPU is around 40 degreese celsius when idle, and gets up to 90 when playing a game such as BF4.

 

[Barty1884]

How is the CPU thermal margin reported in OD? Assuming you get similar figures, you'd see 60-70'C idle to ~30'C at load?
Have you stress tested? How do they look then? You have said you OC is stable at 4.4GHz, so you should've been running stress tests to confirm - that'll give us a better idea if there's any thermal throttling. Those numbers (60 and 90 at load) shouldn't result in throttling.