Upgrading on a budget - better CPU or Dual Graphics Crossfire?

[Cedarcomb]

Heya, I'm looking into doing a major upgrade soon - replacing the CPU, RAM, case and motherboard - so buying a new graphics card on top of that is a bit too much of a stretch at the moment. I have two major paths for choosing the new CPU, though, which is dependant on either having a slightly better CPU or a slightly better graphics performance. It's mainly going to be a gaming PC, though I'm not looking for anything ridiculously powerful - 30 fps smooth framerate on 1920x1080 would be fine by me, no need for top end effects. Looking at 8GB RAM, ideally in a single stick so I can up it to 16GB in the future if I feel the need.

On the one hand, I was considering the AMD A10-5800K or the A10-6800K because I already have a Radeon HD 6670, and these two CPU's do Dual Graphics with the 6670. I know Crossfire has a number of issues and that many games don't support it, but I'd imagine the ones that give my current PC the most trouble would do so. Eventually I'd probably be wanting to replace the 6670 with a single powerful card, so the processor would still be a 3.8 or 4.1 quad-core and I'm thinking that would be enough for some time. My main concern is that both of those processors are FM2, so even if I get a FM2+ motherboard, that's limiting future upgrade capability and the processors themselves won't be the best I could get for the money.

On the other hand I could ditch the Crossfire idea and just make do with the 6670 alone for the time being, but on a better processor than the A10's. The A10-6800K looks to go for about £100, so I guess that's about the top end of the budget. CPU's around that price look to be the AMD FX-4350 (4.2GHz, 4-Core), the AMD FX-6300 (3.5GHz, 6-Core) or a few Intel Haswells and Skylakes. While I don't think I need a hex-core as most games don't seem to really benefit from more than 4 cores, I'm concerned about the Intels being dual-cores, and if it turns out the 6670 is still too weak to run modern games it's going to be some time before I can afford to replace it.

 

[James Mason]

Keep saving your money.

What you're talking about buying is increasingly outdated hardware/technology, if you can get like 500-600 pounds together you can get a real system that will give you a vastly improved difference to your current rig.

Crossfire/SLI are both bigger hassles then they're worth.
Just an example:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Core i3-6320 3.9GHz Dual-Core Processor (£129.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: *MSI Z170-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£81.98 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: *Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£38.84 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: *A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£47.89 @ More Computers)
Video Card: *MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£239.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: *Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£24.99 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: *XFX XT 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: *Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£12.37 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: *Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) (£55.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £667.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-27 23:27 BST+0100

 

[Cedarcomb]

Hi James, thank you for your reply. While I think some of your suggestions are still a little too expensive for my budget, I will agree (after a bit of further research) that Crossfire isn't worth trying and that it would be better to build a more future-proof machine. My understanding is that the Intel Core Dual-Cores function similarly to AMD Quad-Cores of the same Ghz, only with a lower power requirement, and that DDR4 is only supported by motherboards with a LGA1151 socket anyway. How does this look for a more budget-friendly option on just the CPU, mobo and RAM, with intent to add a graphics card in the future and make do with the HD 6670 for now? I would prefer an mATX mobo/case, so I've gone for DDR4-2133/CAS13 RAM as the more budget mATX boards don't support higher frequencies than that.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/7CXdnn

CPU - Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor £95.17
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-B150M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard £62.50
Memory - Kingston Savage 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory - £29.68

 

[geofelt]

The apu was an unfortunate choice if you ever wanted to upgrade.

You buy a APU for the excellent integrated graphics.
But, there are no real good upgrades, particularly for a gamer.
If you install a superior discrete graphics card, you will have thrown away the big advantage of the APU.
Then, you are left with a relatively weak cpu. Most games depend on only a few fast cores.
The possible upgrades are to more cores, but few games will use more than 2-3 cores so 6+ cores are not very helpful.
Bottom line.....
What you get with a APU is what you will live with forever.

Today, a i3-6100 will be a much better mid range gamer.
The individual cores are much faster than any amd processor.
The i3-6100 has a single thread passmark rating of 2102.
It is dual core, but has 4 threads(two fast, two slower)
By comparison, the single thread rating of a A10-6800K is 1545.
The FX single thread ratings are similar.
Few games can actually use more than 2-3 threads.
The integrated HD530 graphics is actually a touch better than your 6670.
Perhaps you can market your cpu/motherboard/ram/graphics card.

I would buy a 2 stick kit(2 x 4gb) of ram so you get better dual channel performance.
It should cost no more. 2133 speed is fine.