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AMD 4170 for gaming

Xiao666

Xiao666

Xiao666

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Joined
29 Jan 2013
Posts
52
hi guys.
i bought a AMD FX-4 4170 Black Edition 4 Core 4.2GHz a few months back to upgrade from a dual 3.2 dual core, but am wondering if iv made a horrid mistake in not switching to intel.
currently i started playing WoW again and in raids my FPS is dropping to about 15-19 and this seems horrificly low for what i think my PC should handle currents specs.

My CPU is running at about 58-61C while playing, but it has gone up to about 64 at times if im watching somthing on a second screen. and wondering if this is too hot for it to preforme
 
Which dual core was it? If it was the Intel Dual core, then the 4170's architecture has lower IPC performance compared to it, and WoW itself doesn't even use more than two cores effectively, hence probably why you're seeng such bad performance.

What CPU cooler do you have? Also, what GPU are you using?
 
I guess it depends what settings you are running at. WoW likes fast CPUs and is not well threaded so if you overclock you might notice a difference with your minimums.
 
What GPU do you have as that's also a very important factor, moreso than CPU, as a rule WoW only uses up to three threads so core wise x4 for AMD or i3/i5 for Intel is the sweet spot but speed is also very important (but has diminishing returns above 3GHz) however your CPU looks like it has all the bases covered so should be enough to pretty much max out WoW depending on the GPU.
 
Sorry should have stated this in the original post

CPU: AMD FX-4 4170 Black Edition 4 Core 4.2GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 Socket AM3+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
RAM: 12GB 1 x Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Vengeance Memory Module CL10 and
2x Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 i5 Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-24) 1.65V
Graphics Card: Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
Power Supply Corsair: TXM 650W Modular PSU
Operating System: Windows 7 ultim

it was a AMD Phenom II X2 i replaced and the CPU cooler im using is Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev
 
Okay, the HD7950 can run WoW maxed out at 1080p with an i7 (used to use this combo) so its not the GPU, your cooler is fine too so throttling shouldn't be an issue.

Checklist:
  • Make sure you have the latest AMD GPU drivers
  • Make sure you are running the game in DX11 mode, not DX9 or OpenGL
  • Make sure you are running the game in 64bit mode not 32bit

What settings are you running the game at?
 
Drivers are upto date its the first thing i checked.
Using DX11
during raids im dropping my settings to the lowest they will go to try help, other than that im running most things on "good" truning off all of the shadows Liquid detail sunshafts and SSAO
i was not using the 64bit client, so i will try this next time i log on to see if it makes a differnce
 
Why do you have three sticks of RAM??

I would use the two 4GB sticks and remove the single 8GB stick.

Make sure that the motherboard is running the latest BIOS version,as some of the earlier Gigabyte 900 series motherboards had throtting issues with the BD based CPUs.
 
The 64bit client can increase FPS by up to 10 in my experience but also helps with minimums.

On my i7/GTX670 rig I have everything maxed out but on my laptop which has an i5-2520m (2c4t, 2.5GHz with 3.5 turbo) and a AMD 6970m I can easily run with the "high" preset and not "slideshow out" in raids, your GPU is obviously better than mine and your CPU is almost as good so you really should not have any issue running the "good"* preset with some things disabled, something is defiantly up here.

*for those who don't play WoW the "good" preset is actually medium settings, it goes Low-Fair-Good-High-Ultra
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Why do you have three sticks of RAM??

I would use the two 4GB sticks and remove the single 8GB stick.

Make sure that the motherboard is running the latest BIOS version,as some of the earlier Gigabyte 900 series motherboards had throtting issues with the BD based CPUs.
Click to expand...

I recived the single 8g stick for christmas although didnt ask for it, didnt think it would make anything run slower by having it in there?

and yeh the mobo came with a program to update the bios which iv updated
 
If you play WoW, your best of selling up your AMD kit and moving over to Intel.

Maybe even the 2 generation old i5 750/760 / i7 860 gear.

I was looking at the anandtech bench comparison. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/697?vs=109

The top end AMD cpu - the 8350 @ 4ghz, is slower than the 3/4 year old i5 750 @ 2.66ghz in WoW.

Pretty ridiculous really, considering you can fairly easily get a 58% increase in frequency with the i5 - to 4.2ghz. Whilst with the 8350 that would equate to over 6.3ghz - an unobtainable figure.
 
ubersonic said:
The 64bit client can increase FPS by up to 10 in my experience but also helps with minimums.

On my i7/GTX670 rig I have everything maxed out but on my laptop which has an i5-2520m (2c4t, 2.5GHz with 3.5 turbo) and a AMD 6970m I can easily run with the "high" preset and not "slideshow out" in raids, your GPU is obviously better than mine and your CPU is almost as good so you really should not have any issue running the "good"* preset with some things disabled, something is defiantly up here.

*for those who don't play WoW the "good" preset is actually medium settings, it goes Low-Fair-Good-High-Ultra
Click to expand...

Agreed,on the settings the OP is running the game should be fine.

I know a few people who play WoW,and an overclocked FX6300 for example running at a similar clockspeed to the FX4170 the OP has,with a slower card is fine.

flinco said:
If you play WoW, your best of selling up your AMD kit and moving over to Intel.

Maybe even the 2 generation old i5 750/760 / i7 860 gear.

I was looking at the anandtech bench comparison. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/697?vs=109

The top end AMD cpu - the 8350 @ 4ghz, is slower than the 3/4 year old i5 750 @ 2.66ghz in WoW.

Pretty ridiculous really, considering you can fairly easily get a 58% increase in frequency with the i5 - to 4.2ghz. Whilst with the 8350 that would equate to over 6.3ghz - an unobtainable figure.
Click to expand...

Latest expansion:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3970x-sandy-bridge-e-benchmark,3348-13.html

Anandtech is not using the latest expansion,last time I checked.

Moreover,the FX4170 is more likely to remain in a higher Turbo state than an FX8150 too,due to its higher base clockspeed.
 
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CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Latest expansion:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3970x-sandy-bridge-e-benchmark,3348-13.html

Anandtech is not using the latest expansion,last time I checked.

Moreover,the FX4170 is more likely to remain in a higher Turbo state than an FX8150 too,due to its higher base clockspeed.
Click to expand...

Before I say this I wanna stress I don't think the OP should be rushing out to buy an Intel rig, but the THG test doesn't use the current expansion either, well it is done using the current expansion but in a zone from the previous expansion, also its not as accurate as the Anandtech test as its only designed to give a basic on the spot comparison between the cards/CPU's in the test and its not a real world test (in that, it uses the game but its the equivalent of benchmarking Farcry by Frapsing the title screen).
 
ubersonic said:
Before I say this I wanna stress I don't think the OP should be rushing out to buy an Intel rig, but the THG test doesn't use the current expansion either, well it is done using the current expansion but in a zone from the previous expansion, also its not as accurate as the Anandtech test as its only designed to give a basic on the spot comparison between the cards/CPU's in the test and its not a real world test (in that, it uses the game but its the equivalent of benchmarking Farcry by Frapsing the title screen).
Click to expand...

What zone does the Anandtech test use?? What expansion?? Moreover,the Anandtech bench results for both CPU and GPU tend not to be updated. For the FX8150 they forget to update the results,with the latest Windows patches,they themselves tested. Not a massive difference but some games gained upto 5% extra.

Moreover,the TH tests does show that FX CPUs doing far better than the older Phenom II CPUs. Even gamegpu showed the same for SC2:Heart of the Storm too. The Intel CPUs are ahead,but it is with much less of a gap than with the older AMD CPUs.

WoW and SC2 don't tend to use more than two to three threads IIRC.
 
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I might look at selling up my AMD parts like suggested and moving over to intel. but does intel preform better in other games as well? such as crysis and CoD for example.

also if i do go about selling it any suggestions where to sell it in the UK?
 
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