Upgrade AMD CPU or Upgrade to Intel Board?

[cmoncarlo]

Hello,

I currently have an AMD A6 6400k with FM2 A88X HD3 Mobo and Radeon R7 GPU.

I'm now planning to upgrade to be able to play some new games, Will be okay to just upgrade my Processor to an A10 7870k or 7850k or Should i move to an Intel Build instead?

Thanks!

 

[KieranPCGamer]

I would go to intel, what is your budget?
we will help you put a nice pc together.

 

[madmatt30]

I'd personally just drop a 860k on your current board & spend the saving on a good GPU.

 

[WVMountie07]

May the power of AMD be with you.... Those are two pretty beastly FM2 processors. That would be my route!

 

[geofelt]

A6-6400K has a single thread passmark rating of 1409, and a total rating of 2280.
A change to A10-7870K gains you two more threads, but the single thread rating stays the same at 1452, the total goes up to 5488.
Unfortunately, few games use more than 2-3 threads making such an upgrade an iffy proposition.
Games such as sims, strategy and mmo tend to be cpu limited and dependent on the performance of a single master thread.

A intel cpu comparable in price to the A10-7870K might be the skylake I3-6100.
The total passmark rating is similar at 5498, but it shines in the single thread capability at 2058.
Yes, you are looking at changing to DDR4 ram and a new motherboard. The plus side of that is that the same lga1151 motherboard can support a i5 or i7 upgrade in the future.
The negative of a A10-7870K is that there are no useful upgrade on the same FM2 motherboard.

It may well turn out that it is your graphics capability that is the limiting factor in gaming.
You might want to try the game first to see what is actually necessary to upgrade.

 

[ComputerSecurityGuy]

Upgrading to Intel would require a new motherboard with CPU, even with the most basic Pentium G3258+ H81 board with a half decent GPU you already exceeded the cost of an Athlon X4 860K + GPU or a A10.

 

[andy_Man]

Give us your full specs and budget and we can help you better. Graphics card matters most for gaming, but your PSU must be able to handle it.

 

[Xtergo]

Upgrade to intel think ahead, about future upgrades

 

[andy_Man]

If his budget is limited and he doesn't have a great graphics card, an amd upgrade + graphics would be a better upgrade. Or just maybe a graphics upgrade.

 

[cmoncarlo]

Hello!

Thank you for all your input, i'm not planning to rebuild my whole CPU. I'm only interested at the moment to Upgrade my Processor or Change my board to an Intel.

I currently have the following
A6 6400k
Gigabyte FM2 A88X HD3
Radeon R7 260X 2gb OC ed.
8GB 4x2 Fury X
Thermaltake Smart 530W 80+ PSU

And if i'm changing to an Intel Board, I'm eyeing these 2;
i5 6400 Skylake + Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 3 or 5 Mobo..

And i'll probably upgrade my GPU next month but not the same day I upgrade my processor

Thanks!

 

[madmatt30]

A mb/CPU change to Intel isn't really an upgrade - its a rebuild.
There's a big difference between the 2 because you're looking at a reformat & fresh windows install - hopefully you have a retail windows rather than OEM although ms have been fairly lax on this since the release of win 10.

Obviously an 860k is an incredibly cheap , quick & easy upgrade but isn't going to compare to going with a skylake i5.

 

[andy_Man]

I'v been in your situation before and made the wrong choice of going with a mobo/cpu upgrade before a graphics upgrade.

I think you should put most/all your money into a gpu upgrade first. I would buy an r9 390, and if you can afford an extra 70$ go with the 860k.
This will give you much better gaming performance vs just going skylake and keeping your 260x.

 

[cmoncarlo]

Hi,

I've been considering to upgrade my GPU but i would prefer to upgrade my CPU or CPU/Mobo first..

I'll get to the GPU upgrade too, soon but not now.. because reasons.

I'll probably get the 6500 skylake and gaming 5 Z170X for now then upgrade to an R9 390 after a month or so.. i'm much interested right now in upgrading my CPU..

Your advise are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[andy_Man]

A new gpu with your current cpu will give you better performance in games than a new cpu with your current gpu.
Why do you want to do cpu before gpu?

 

[cmoncarlo]

A6 6400k is only Dual Core and most of the games right now requires at least Quad Core Processors. That's why im pushing to upgrade my CPU first

 

[cmoncarlo]

Okay, Now i'm confused.. which is better AMD A10 7850/7870K vs AMD Athlon X4 860K?

 

[madmatt30]

The 860k is the same chip without the integrated graphics for half the price.

You already have a separate GPU so buy the 860k.

 

[cmoncarlo]

The 860k is the same chip without the integrated graphics for half the price.

You already have a separate GPU so buy the 860k.

Okay, this makes sense to me now.. Yeah.. If ill be getting the 860k.. I would be able to get a highend gpu.. Is r9 390 my best choice?

 

[andy_Man]

If you are spending around $300 you can't beat the r9 390. Now you will get all the Nvidia fanboys coming out the woodwork to recommend the gtx 970.
390 has 8 gigs of ram, 970 has 3.5GB fast ram and .5 GB slower ram.
Also AMD supports async compute which is a directx 12 feature.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/213519-asynchronous-shading-amd-nvidia-and-dx12-what-we-know-so-far

Make sure you look at benchmarks, At 1080p in a few games the gtx 970 beats the r9 390 by a few fps. However, if you increase resolution or want to use more video ram the 390 wins.

 

[madmatt30]

He'd need a new PSU to run a 390 though , whereas it will manage a 970 fine.

 

[andy_Man]

The thermaltek 530 will run a r9 390.
TDP on the higher clocked 390s is 275 Watts
TDP on athlon 860k is 95
that means 370 tdp for cpu+graphics.
530-370
and 160 watts left for hard drives and such. That is plenty. Recommended PSU is always super overkill.

 

[madmatt30]

Up to you but I wouldn't run a 390 on that PSU myself.
450w on the12v & not particularly great quality.
I'd barely trust it with a 970 which has another 80w or so headroom

 

[cmoncarlo]

Thank you all super.. Ill get an 860k and r9 390 for my next upgrade.. Thanks!