Upgrade AMD FX-6350 or buy intel core I5

asiren

Commendable
Aug 31, 2016
38
0
1,540
my computer can sometimes struggle with some games and personally I think its my cpu. I am getting some upgrades and was wondering if I should get a AMD FX-8350 as an upgrade from my FX 6350 or just get a new motherboard and a i5. this however will be much more expensive.
I have a gtx 960 but upgrading to 970 or 1060


thanks
 
Solution
It's not worth it, as it only puts you up 1 tier on the hierarchy (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html). By the same token, doing a full replacement is going to be expensive, especially since you'd be replacing the motherboard, CPU & RAM (Skylake doesn't work with regular DDR3). The only reason to get an FX-8350 is if you're planning to buy a game that requires it (I know one of the upcoming releases is saying it needs the FX-8320 as a minimum, but recommends the 8350; they're virtually identical chips, which basically means you need an octa-core AMD chip to run it).

That being said...depending on the game, you'll probably see a bigger performance increase by upgrading your GPU than by upgrading your CPU. A...
It's not worth it, as it only puts you up 1 tier on the hierarchy (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html). By the same token, doing a full replacement is going to be expensive, especially since you'd be replacing the motherboard, CPU & RAM (Skylake doesn't work with regular DDR3). The only reason to get an FX-8350 is if you're planning to buy a game that requires it (I know one of the upcoming releases is saying it needs the FX-8320 as a minimum, but recommends the 8350; they're virtually identical chips, which basically means you need an octa-core AMD chip to run it).

That being said...depending on the game, you'll probably see a bigger performance increase by upgrading your GPU than by upgrading your CPU. A lot of games released over the past couple of years don't have a whole lot of performance difference between an AMD & an Intel chip -- even if the Intel chip comes out ahead, the AMD chips are still maybe 10% slower. What you should first do is check your performance against the benchmarks for those games in particular, and make sure that there's perhaps not some other issue going on (i.e. lack of RAM, slow HDD, etc.). If nothing else, replace that 960 with a GTX 1060 (or even an RX 470/480), as you'll see a noticeable improvement in your games.
 
Solution


If you play at 1080p and CPU bound games, the Intel is better.

fx-8370-vs-5960x_gaming-dota2_gtx960v2.jpg


However if you plan to play at higher resolution, the FX 8 core runs like an i7.

fx-8370-vs-5960x_gaming-witcher3_gtx970.jpg


The 970 is already in the Legacy Club, the 1060 3gb struggles at DX12 games.
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0XejmBCuEk"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0XejmBCuEk[/video]