Upgrading from AMD to Intel

[Zeliox_]

Hello, I am heavily considering upgrading from AMD to Intel as the subject states.

I currently own an AMD A10-6800k processor, and it has served me rather well, however I find myself running into issues sometimes when I wish to multi-task while gaming. If I'm playing a semi-intensive game and have a live-stream up on the other monitor for instance; my CPU gets capped and I'm forced to either up the priority of the game in the task manager to allow it to keep running smoothly(which obviously causes the stream to stutter), or to simply shut off the stream in the worst cases. I honestly don't even know why it's so taxing for my CPU(I wouldn't think videos would be very taxing, but I admit I know little about their framework). I can't imagine it being my GPU, as I have a GTX 970, and this was occurring the same way even before I upgraded my GPU a while back. Streams in general, just by themselves, can take around 30-40 percent of my CPU. This doesn't seem normal, and at this point I've gone through enough things to attempt to fix it over the years, that I'm just heavily considering upgrading to Intel, as I've heard they tend to be much better all around, although a bit expensive.

Anyway, to my main question. What is a good CPU to upgrade to from my A10-6800k? I'd be willing to spend upwards of $500, but would be much more comfortable spending somewhere around $200-300, as I'll obviously be needing to purchase a new MB as well.

Thank you for any and all support!

 

[WiiUMasterGman]

What is your full specs?

 

[Zeliox_]

What is your full specs?

I'm not really sure what information you would need, but here goes:

CPU: AMD A10-6800k
GPU: GeForce GTX 970
RAM: 16GB (Two different brands I don't remember off hand)
MB: Asus A85Xm-a
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

 

[WiiUMasterGman]

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/BjsZLD you can change the mobo. feel free to ask questions

 

[Zeliox_]

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/BjsZLD you can change the mobo. feel free to ask questions

I'm simply curious why that CPU specifically. Is it the most price effective, or something? I am very much in the dark on Intel in general, feel free to spout off as much information you would like, as to why it is that you would pick this one over others.

 

[WiiUMasterGman]

You can always choose a different CPU but this one runs one the newest Skylake technology. There just isn't any CPU that is cheaper and gives you the same performance unless you want to go with a i5

 

[Zeliox_]

You can always choose a different CPU but this one runs one the newest Skylake technology. There just isn't any CPU that is cheaper and gives you the same performance unless you want to go with a i5

Alright, I was simply curious, I figured it was something along those lines.

I was actually looking at it more closely and noticed it doesn't have SLI support, it does seem like what I would like, but would you have a recommendation that does? I would just like to not upgrade for a good while and perhaps in a few years I may decide to go the SLI route, I'm not really sure. If you don't think it's worth it right now feel free to let me know, I'm just trying to think more for the future than I did with my last upgrade a few years back.

 

[WiiUMasterGman]

What you can do is choose a motherboard that supports 2 way SLI or you can save A LOT of your money and go with a non-K processor and buy a 1080 instead (but that's only if you have the money.)

 

[Ecky]

Some thoughts:

Skylake (6th gen Intel, socket 1151) motherboards for the most part do not support DDR3. There are a few low-end boards, such as the H110 board listed above, that have 2 slots for DDR3. I imagine most, if not all boards that have SLI support will only be compatible with DDR4, so you're faced with some decisions:

1) Skylake + low-end non-SLI motherboard + reuse your current RAM
2) Skylake + high-end SLI motherboard + replace your RAM with new DDR4
3) Older Haswell CPU (a few percent slower) + whatever motherboard you want + reuse your current RAM

You might instead choose to go with something like the i7 4790 or 4790K, and pair it with a socket 1150 motherboard of your choosing. Be aware though, that although Haswell and socket 1150 perform pretty close to Skylake / 1151, they are basically EoL; there will not be any more CPUs or motherboards produced for it.

Do you intend to overclock? How do you feel about replacing your RAM, too?

 

[Zeliox_]

Some thoughts:

Skylake (6th gen Intel, socket 1151) motherboards for the most part do not support DDR3. There are a few low-end boards, such as the H110 board listed above, that have 2 slots for DDR3. I imagine most, if not all boards that have SLI support will only be compatible with DDR4, so you're faced with some decisions:

1) Skylake + low-end non-SLI motherboard + reuse your current RAM
2) Skylake + high-end SLI motherboard + replace your RAM with new DDR4
3) Older Haswell CPU (a few percent slower) + whatever motherboard you want + reuse your current RAM

You might instead choose to go with something like the i7 4790 or 4790K, and pair it with a socket 1150 motherboard of your choosing. Be aware though, that although Haswell and socket 1150 perform pretty close to Skylake / 1151, they are basically EoL; there will not be any more CPUs or motherboards produced for it.

Do you intend to overclock? How do you feel about replacing your RAM, too?

It looks like I would go with the Skylake, a higher-end motherboard, and new RAM. I want this to be pretty future-proof, as my previous upgrades have been more short-term.

I have no problem replacing RAM, DDR4 still seems to be relatively cheap. I've also built and rebuilt this current computer (with different parts obviously) about twice now, so I am pretty comfortable with all that. As well as building computers for others, so I am at least moderately experienced with handling this. I am very glad you told me about the fact that they require DDR4, I'm sure I would have noticed it, but just in case I hadn't, thanks.

In regards to overclocking, I am not too sure, I've never done it myself as I've heard if you mess up you can completely fry your CPU. This may just be in extreme cases, but I none-the-less have never done it. I may do so in the future but have no current plans of doing such.

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

Also, I wasn't aware it was on the motherboard's end that supported SLI, so thanks for that ^^;

 

[Ecky]

Overclocking is generally safe and actually pretty easy, but there are some considerations:

-A Skylake "K" CPU that can overclock costs about $40 more than its non-K counterpart.
-Skylake "K" CPUs do not come with heatsinks, which will add a minimum of about $25 to your build cost.
-To overclock, you need a Z170 chipset motherboard. Z170 boards start at around $20-30 more than B150 motherboards. You might want one anyway, though.
-Overclocking will generally net you 10-15% extra performance, at the expense of increased power consumption and noise. You might want extra fans or a larger power supply, adding more cost.

I don't generally consider the extra performance to be worth the roughly $100 minimum extra cost for overclocking components, but this is entirely up to you.

This is probably what I'd buy:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117560&cm_re=i7_6700-_-19-117-560-_-Product


And either this motherboard and RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G3KF8868&cm_re=GIGABYTE_GA-H170M-DS3H-_-13-128-872-_-Product

+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231964


Or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157675&cm_re=Z170_motherboard-_-13-157-675-_-Product

+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232304


~

I don't think any H170 motherboards are capable of running SLI, so you'd need the ASRock Z170M for that, but any board with two slots can run Crossfire. H170 boards are limited to DDR4 2133mhz, where as you can run faster (e.g. DDR4 2800) in a Z170 board, which is worth a few percent extra performance.

 

[madmatt30]

I'd go with a has well Xeon personally , it'll enable you to keep your ram & re use it.

You can then just sell your board & CPU to recoup some cost.

That'll be a big big upgrade, excellent for streaming, & relatively cheap as you should drag $80 or so back for the sale.

PCPartPicker]http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Y4vhFT]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($77.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $317.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-09 12:48 EDT-0400

 

[Ecky]

^ I don't think the H97M will support SLI? I'm not as familiar with it as with Crossfire though.

Regardless, that's a good option, and I'm disinclined to recommend anyone go with dual cores, because of the inconsistency and issues that go with it.

 

[madmatt30]

It doesn't support sli, you're right - missed that completely.

In all honesty though I wouldn't consider sli as being of any importance , with the new cards hitting unless the 970 goes down hugely in price (it won't though) you are always 100% better off selling non & upgrading to a better single card.

Should sli absolutely be required then this is the cheapest haswell board that supports it.
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/QWH323/asrock-motherboard-z87extreme4

The original choice was simply because he currently has an matx board & hasn't listed his case model , so to err on the safety side I went with an matx board again.

 

[Zeliox_]

It doesn't support sli, you're right - missed that completely.

In all honesty though I wouldn't consider sli as being of any importance , with the new cards hitting unless the 970 goes down hugely in price (it won't though) you are always 100% better off selling non & upgrading to a better single card.

Should sli absolutely be required then this is the cheapest haswell board that supports it.
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/QWH323/asrock-motherboard-z87extreme4

The original choice was simply because he currently has an matx board & hasn't listed his case model , so to err on the safety side I went with an matx board again.

Ah, sorry about that, I have a CG Series Asus Case, it's gigantic, I'm sure it can fit any part out there.

This is the same case I currently have:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220044

I know that currently SLI isn't really that fantastic, but I was thinking maybe in the future it would become more feasible? As I've said before I'm trying to look to the future as much as possible with the upgrade, that being said, you may be right. Maybe I should just not worry about SLI and just upgrade cards as needed, which shouldn't be for a while as the 970 is pretty good as is.

Overclocking is generally safe and actually pretty easy, but there are some considerations:

-A Skylake "K" CPU that can overclock costs about $40 more than its non-K counterpart.
-Skylake "K" CPUs do not come with heatsinks, which will add a minimum of about $25 to your build cost.
-To overclock, you need a Z170 chipset motherboard. Z170 boards start at around $20-30 more than B150 motherboards. You might want one anyway, though.
-Overclocking will generally net you 10-15% extra performance, at the expense of increased power consumption and noise. You might want extra fans or a larger power supply, adding more cost.

I don't generally consider the extra performance to be worth the roughly $100 minimum extra cost for overclocking components, but this is entirely up to you.

This is probably what I'd buy:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


And either this motherboard and RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G...

+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


Or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

+

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


~

I don't think any H170 motherboards are capable of running SLI, so you'd need the ASRock Z170M for that, but any board with two slots can run Crossfire. H170 boards are limited to DDR4 2133mhz, where as you can run faster (e.g. DDR4 2800) in a Z170 board, which is worth a few percent extra performance.

Well, in terms of overclocking, I do already own a pretty good heat-sink (http://pcpartpicker.com/product/hmtCmG/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-rr212e20pkr2) I had to get a better one as the one that came default with my current CPU wasn't enough to cool it down, it would idle at around 75 Celsius and this seemed like a pretty good heat-sink that would last me through upgrades. However I don't think I will be going down the overclocking route, thanks for the info though!

Also in terms of boards with crossfire support, that's all well and good, however I don't plan on ever going with AMD video cards as I currently go with Nvidia and have not had any problems with them. Maybe I just shouldn't worry so much about SLI in general.

I'd go with a has well Xeon personally , it'll enable you to keep your ram & re use it.

You can then just sell your board & CPU to recoup some cost.

That'll be a big big upgrade, excellent for streaming, & relatively cheap as you should drag $80 or so back for the sale.

PCPartPicker]http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Y4vhFT]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($77.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $317.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-09 12:48 EDT-0400

This sounds good, however I would like to have a board that can slot upgrades in the future, where as if I'm not mistaken there won't be anymore CPUs coming out for the LGA1150 socket, no? It would be nice to be able to still use my current RAM however. I'll definitely consider this.

 

[madmatt30]

Was just a cheaper option mate that's all.
Seeing as people are still running sandy or ivy i7's from 3 generations ago with very very little reason to upgrade (apart from maybe being stuck with boards with only sata 2 ,PCI express 2 & no native USB 3 support)
& that's really exactly what the Xeon is , an i7 without the integrated graphics.
I cannot see that there would be any need for upgrades from a haswell Xeon based build for a minimum of 5 years (likely longer)& seeing as Intel have a habit of dropping an entirely new socket every 2 years or so even skylake is hardly future proof.

There is no doubt the 6700k is a better CPU , but $200+ better ??(once you've replaced your ram aswell) . not really ,at least in my opinion.

 

[Zeliox_]

Was just a cheaper option mate that's all.
Seeing as people are still running sandy or ivy i7's from 3 generations ago with very very little reason to upgrade (apart from maybe being stuck with boards with only sata 2 ,PCI express 2 & no native USB 3 support)
& that's really exactly what the Xeon is , an i7 without the integrated graphics.
I cannot see that there would be any need for upgrades from a haswell Xeon based build for a minimum of 5 years (likely longer)& seeing as Intel have a habit of dropping an entirely new socket every 2 years or so even skylake is hardly future proof.

There is no doubt the 6700k is a better CPU , but $200+ better ??(once you've replaced your ram aswell) . not really ,at least in my opinion.

Sorry, judging from your post it seems like you thought I was trying to be hostile. I really wasn't, I'm sorry if I came across as such.

If what you say is true, I'll probably just do that then, if you really think that I could stick with still using my current RAM and only having to upgrade my MB and CPU. With it still lasting a good few years.

Anyway, I did a little research and based on some sites that do CPU comparisons and I'm kind of confused. Some say my current one is better than the Xeon and some say it's worse... could you perhaps enlighten me as to how the Xeon is superior? As I am pretty clueless when it comes to anything more than number of threads and GHz, I realize that the Xeon has 8 while mine has 4, but I'm kinda just confused at the fact that I'm seeing such mixed stuff in terms of performance across multiple places.

 

[madmatt30]

No matey not at all, no hostility detected either sided here ;-)
Maybe just my blunt nature,wording gave that impression.

Cpuboss etc = waste of time.

There is that vast a performance difference between your Richland quad & a 8 threaded Xeon there isnt really a comparison.

You have to pick a highly overclocked fx 8 core or the 9590 for an and to Intel comparison & the Xeon would still leave those completely & utterly for dead.

The 8 core hyperthreading on the Xeon/i7 cpus helps tremendously for streaming, people will keep telling you that games only use 2 threads primarily & while that may have been true a year to 18 months ago it's not anymore.
That 8 thread capability give you a huge amount of background grunt for live streaming & the like (I'm assuming you maybe using obs here which is a real performance killer)


Like I said nothing wrong with going the 6700k+ddr4 ram route if you comfortably have the budget,there's a not inconsiderable price difference between the two options though.

 

[Zeliox_]

No matey not at all, no hostility detected either sided here ;-)
Maybe just my blunt nature,wording gave that impression.

Cpuboss etc = waste of time.

There is that vast a performance difference between your Richland quad & a 8 threaded Xeon there isnt really a comparison.

You have to pick a highly overclocked fx 8 core or the 9590 for an and to Intel comparison & the Xeon would still leave those completely & utterly for dead.

The 8 core hyperthreading on the Xeon/i7 cpus helps tremendously for streaming, people will keep telling you that games only use 2 threads primarily & while that may have been true a year to 18 months ago it's not anymore.
That 8 thread capability give you a huge amount of background grunt for live streaming & the like (I'm assuming you maybe using obs here which is a real performance killer)


Like I said nothing wrong with going the 6700k+ddr4 ram route if you comfortably have the budget,there's a not inconsiderable price difference between the two options though.

Oh, you have me all wrong, I'm not streaming myself, I'm watching streams and it's taking that much of my CPU. I know it's rather odd, and I don't know exactly what causes it. I've heard something to do with the way that Twitch displays their videos takes up a bit more than normal, but the extent that it does is kinda ridiculous with my current build.

I get what you're saying about the differences though, I didn't realize the threading really added all that much. I'll definitely look into it and after what you've said I'm much more heavily considering sticking with my current RAM and the like. I do currently have the budget to go the extra mile but saving money never hurts.

 

[Ecky]

I agree with madmatt30 regarding the 6700K vs Haswell Xeon. With how much progress slowed in CPU development, you'll probably still be able to use that CPU in 2025.