Upgrading from FX-6300. Help!

[BurstingRumble1]

I will be upgrading from an FX-6300 soon in order to also upgrade my GPU. I will be remaining on the AMD side because of how well my 6300 has served me these last 3 years. The GPU I see myself buying is the ever popular GTX 970, but i need a CPU to support its power. Does anyone with experience of the Fx-8350 or 8370 have any advice or suggestions for me?

I am currently using a GTX 760, does this remain competitive enough to keep a while longer? In which case, will a CPU upgrade be enough to boost my game performance? Which seems to bottleneck or throttle at times.

Many thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[Wisecracker]

The FX-6300 at 4GHz+ should work just dandy for you.

In lien of the GTX 970, you should likely wait for the 14/16nm AMD Polaris or nVidia Pascal in the next 5-6 months.

 

[Benab3]

Hey,

Unless you play very CPU bound games, the GPU is generally the component that you would spend most of your budget on. The 760 is still a good GPU, but in newer Titles like Witcher, GTA, Call of Duty, Fallout, the 970 will show a pretty large performance improvement.

As CPUs go, I haven't been a fan of the 8xxx series octa-cores, due to pretty low single core performance. I would almost always recommend a Haswell- Refresh I5 over it ( I5 4xxx ) A nice, overclockable one being the I5 4690k, but for a fair amount less the I5 4460 ( non-overclockable )

 

[BurstingRumble1]

Hey,

Unless you play very CPU bound games, the GPU is generally the component that you would spend most of your budget on. The 760 is still a good GPU, but in newer Titles like Witcher, GTA, Call of Duty, Fallout, the 970 will show a pretty large performance improvement.

As CPUs go, I haven't been a fan of the 8xxx series octa-cores, due to pretty low single core performance. I would almost always recommend a Haswell- Refresh I5 over it ( I5 4xxx ) A nice, overclockable one being the I5 4690k, but for a fair amount less the I5 4460 ( non-overclockable )

Thank you both. In the case of switching to Intel and the I5 series, will i encounter issues with my OEM copy of windows?

 

[Benab3]

You may have to do it anyway, there are lots of mixed stories when it comes to re-activating Windows and changing the CPU only. Even then, I have an AMD chip, and changed to my current I7 4790k, and I didn't have to reactivate. But my friend did.
If you do have to reactivate your Windows, you may need to contact microsoft, but you shouldn't be charged.

 

[king3pj]

First, I would not upgrade to an FX 8 core CPU. The i5 CPUs are better for gaming and the FX 8350 is built on the same old technology as your current CPU. If you were set on AMD I would suggest trying to ride it out with your FX 6300 at least until the AMD ZEN CPUs are released. If it were me I would just upgrade to an i5 now and be done with it though.

When I upgraded from a FX 6300 to my i5-4690k I did have to reactivate Windows. I bought the OEM version that is tied to a single motherboard. Switching motherboards requires reactivation whether you stay with AMD or Switch to Intel if you have the OEM version of Windows.

It isn't a big deal though. All I had to do was dial a number and enter my Windows License number. The automated system then asked if I was replacing a component. I said yes and that was the end of the process.

As long as you are replacing your old motherboard and not trying to have one Windows license installed on more than one PC it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

As said above, if you want to stay on amd, ride it out until zen later this year. If you have a decent aftermarket cooler, just overclock the fx6300 for all you can get out of it. I'm gonna stick with my 6300 until zen, then I can upgrade or switch to the blue team.