whats the best cpu upgrade for around £100 for my amd rig

RobCherry

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May 18, 2014
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so my current rig is ok but some of the new games struggle slightly on the medium/high settings and i cannot afford a new gpu at the moment so im looking to upgrade my cpu....i have a fx4300 3.8ghz amd processor and i was looking at a 6-core or 8-core cpu.....specifically the fx6350 6-core @ 3.9ghz or the fx8320 8-core @ 3.5ghz....which would be better for gaming. i play battlefield 4,call of duty black ops 3 and fallout 4.......any help would be much appreciated thanks

my full rig is :
cpu- FX-4300 @ 3.8ghz
ram- 8gb 2400mhz kingston hyperX savage(2x4gb)
mb- gigabyte 78lmt-usb3
psu- coolermaster b700 700watt
gpu- Msi Gtx670 2gb power edition
os- windows 7 64-bit
monitor- BenQ gw2265 1920x1080 (22")
 
Solution
I'm running a 6300 with a 970 on the equivalent m5a78 Asus board - it does a bang up job @4.3ghz IMO.

Run a 6300@4ghz+ & it'll power a 780 absolutely fine.
I know the little gigabyte board pretty well mate, always had good results with a 6 core but with an 8 core you'll be stuck at stock speeds

6300 is the best buy , steer clear of the 6350 ,its not worth the extra £10-15 for a factory oc & a massively overinflated stock voltage

I've not seen many games make use of cores 5 or 6 , GTA v , project cars & witcher 3 are about it at the moment.
They are handy for windows background processes though & do make a difference over a quad fx.
Spend the rest on a good cooler if you don't already have one, a 6300@4.2ghz will push 1.4v on your...
go with the fx 8320 / the 8350 if you can

if the 8350 isnt possible , go for the 8320 , it will suffice all you need currently. Also i have heard that the 8320 can be overclocked to the 8350 levels

The games you mentioned are mostly GPU intensive( bf 4 taxes the cpu a bit more) , So you will be better of with the 8320 (games nowadays are increasingly scaling well on multi cores) which is better than the 6350

Hope this helps!
 


yeah i have read that you can quite easily overclock the 8320 to 4ghz so i am very tempted. so i guess the 6-core cpus are not worth considering and i should stick to a 8-core?
 


Yup

Games like MGS V and DA : I are increasingly scaling well on 4+ cores

so to be a bit future proof , the 8320 will be the way

Cheers
 
Not worth upgrading the CPU IMO.
I wouldn't run an 8 core on that board , you can run a 6300 & overclock but its not going to be a value for money upgrade

Your problem is the GPU not the CPU IMO.

All I'd do is drop an aftermarket cooler in there & push your 4300 to 4.3/4.4 GHz - that's going to drag you some extra fps.
.
 


yeah i forgot to mention my ram speeds are already at 1600mhz and i have a slight overclock to 4ghz at the moment anyway. ive read that my motherboard would be fine with a small overclock with the fx-8320 and the benchmarks between the fx4300 and the fx8320 are quite significant
 
Benchmarks are significantly higher on the 8320 but in all honesty gaming performance isn't.

You will not push 4ghz on an 8 core on the little gigabyte board mate - that's a fact

If you're really intent on upgrading then a 6300 is the best compromise , you get an extra 2 threads & because at stock its only a 95w chip you'll be able to do 4.3ghz on it.
However you can probably push 4.5ghz on your current 4300 & the difference then again becomes negligible.

I'm trying to save you from future problems here mate , nothing wrong with the 8320 BUT you honestly need a better board than you have to run one successfully at a decent clock speed.
 


yeah fair point the motherboard i have isn't the best by no means, this rig was built on a budget and i guess im sort of paying for it a little now. so for gaming i wouldn't see a massive difference between the 6300/6350 or the 8320 so logic says to go with the 6-core as there slightly cheaper. If this helps i will be looking at upgrading my gpu early next year to a gtx780
 
I'm running a 6300 with a 970 on the equivalent m5a78 Asus board - it does a bang up job @4.3ghz IMO.

Run a 6300@4ghz+ & it'll power a 780 absolutely fine.
I know the little gigabyte board pretty well mate, always had good results with a 6 core but with an 8 core you'll be stuck at stock speeds

6300 is the best buy , steer clear of the 6350 ,its not worth the extra £10-15 for a factory oc & a massively overinflated stock voltage

I've not seen many games make use of cores 5 or 6 , GTA v , project cars & witcher 3 are about it at the moment.
They are handy for windows background processes though & do make a difference over a quad fx.
Spend the rest on a good cooler if you don't already have one, a 6300@4.2ghz will push 1.4v on your board & runs fairly hot (the disadvantage of a 4 phase board is inneficient vtage regulation)
 
Solution


yeah i think i will go with the fx6300 and see how it does at the stock speeds of 3.5ghz with my gtx670 for now. its either that or i wait a little longer and save up for a intel motherboard and processor but to be fair if i did tht i wouldnt be able to afford the new graphics card early next year
 


so madmatt30 i took your advise today and went and purchased a fx6300 and ive overclocked it to 4ghz. the difference between the quad core to the 6-core isn't massive but i have defiantly seen an improvement, im gaining around 5-7 more fps on battlefield 4 on average so it was worth the purchase.
 


I knew the improvement wouldnt be anything immense mate in all honesty - a 8320/8350 would only have given you the same boost though amte for upto 50 quid more.

do you have an aftermarket cooler on there ?? id push for 4.2/4.3ghz personally.
 
i have a cooler master hyper 212 evo, its running pretty sweet at 4ghz so i dont really want to push it any more, i know its not a massive overclock but im happy with the improvements ive got so far and i should get some really good results with the fx6300 paired with a new gtx780 next year
 

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