Upgrade CPU or GPU in Christmas 2014?

Marundanation

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Sep 17, 2013
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Hello,

I am saving around $600-700 for December and I am wondering if I should get the latest whatever Intel chip or a new Nvidia GPU?

My current rig:
CPU: FX-8350
GPU: R9 270X
RAM: 8GB
PSU: 600W

As you can see, I am using an all AMD rig. But the problem I have with this is AMD is not very good at creating drivers and the FX-8350 performs very poor in many games which angered me a little bit. Also the R9 270X is good but not great. I could barely play games in 60FPS at 1080p and often drops to 40FPS. Arkham games averages 50FPS, BF4 FPS jumps between 40-80FPS frequently, BF3 only barely staying at 65 and often dropping to 55FPS. NFS: Shift 2 also has a range of 40-65, not really fun to experience. Far Cry 3 I can't even average 30FPS without AA and World in Conflict I get 23FPS!

I do notice FX-8350 is getting better with recent games (next-gen consoles, BF4 and Watch Dogs) but not really sure about the future. Should I wait for the next Intel CPU or buy a Nvidia card? I am looking forward for the next Arkham game which I hope uses PhyX thats why I opt for Nvidia this time and many of my other games has the "it's meant to be played" marketing scheme and runs poorly with my R9 270X with latest drivers.

Thank you, I hope you share your opinions.

EDIT: And the market share for Intel and Nvidia are bigger, which gives me an impression that they probably have a larger development and community support.

EDIT: If you are kind enough to recommend something, I would only like to buy from this store because it is very near from my place and I get a discount. http://www.umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=9
 
Solution

maurelie

Honorable
Hi,
You should get better performance with the FX 8350 and R9 270X, especially on BF3, BF4, NFSS 2 and Far Cry 3. Try playing these games at 1080p on Medium-High resolution with out AA. The R9 270X as you said it is good GPU, but it doesn't have enough power to play games at 1080p on Ultra settings with AA on.

Btw what motherboard are you using on your current setup?

Btw here are my benchmarks with i7 2600 and R9 270X

2014-03-16 16:33:22 - bf3 Ultra, AA on, at 1080p
Frames: 4597 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 76.617 - Min: 57 - Max: 98


2014-03-10 21:53:19 - bf4 High, AA off, at 1080p
Frames: 43110 - Time: 500812ms - Avg: 86.080 - Min: 52 - Max: 108


2014-05-28 16:34:10 - watch_dogs Texture High, other settings Medium, AA off, at 1080p
Frames: 22936 - Time: 360000ms - Avg: 63.711 - Min: 40 - Max: 91


If you are getting these FPS on your FX 8350, than there is nothing wrong with your AMD CPU.
 

Joey2oo9

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Jan 21, 2009
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Decembers a long way away, so any recommendations now are gonna be of no use. You never know what might be on offer come December. I would say from a purely gaming perspective you'd be better getting a new Nvidia card rather than a CPU. AMD are well known for poor driver support, though i don't think they're as bad as they used to be.
 

Marundanation

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Sep 17, 2013
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Thanks for the reply.

Though I prefer playing at Ultra (AA is optional for me). I really want to play 60FPS on BF4 but because its multiplayer the FPS is very inconsistent and often hitting 45FPS on Ultra (no AA). I am now very interested in the GTX 780 because it is only $580 (here in Australia) and the 780Ti is $700-900 which I will avoid. Plus it has good drivers and PhyX support.

And also I always have AA off, I kinda do want them on atleast 4x MSAA for games at Ultra so I need an upgrade like a 780.

EDIT: The reason why I want things to run at Ultra because I am an individual game developer, and when you have to make compromises in Quality settings, it will do injustice for all the effort the developer's put in their products. I know it seems odd to think it that way. But I treat games like art, entertainment and competition.
 
Solution

Marundanation

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Sep 17, 2013
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10,680


Thanks, but these are American prices though.