I do not upgrade that often... Soon will be... Where should the smart money go?

Gimpymoo · 25 Nov 2013 at 15:43

The obvious choice right at this time is an i7 4770K.

HOWEVER.

Please Do not class me as mad, but would an 8 core Piledriver be that much of a bad choice? If banking on games becoming more multi threaded over the next couple of years? Mantle poses some interesting questions to.

The FX-9590 seems a beast but how much life is left in AM3+ compared to 1150?

Thoughts welcomed, thank you.

wazza300 · 25 Nov 2013 at 15:48

4770k or wait for broadwell (haswell refresh) due out next year I think?

JonSmith · 25 Nov 2013 at 15:55

It's going to depend on your budget. For example, a 4770k would take about £100 out of your budget that can be spent on a GPU.

Generally the priority is as follows:

GPU
CPU
CPU Heatsink
RAM
HDD

One of the most cost effective combinations is an AMD 8320 paired with a sub £100 motherboard with 8 power phases, such as the Gigabyte 990XA-UD3. This will give you extra on the GPU over an Intel setup and with a decent heatsink you can clock that 8320 to be as fast as the 9590.

On the other hand, with unlimited cash a 4770k will be the best.

teppic · 25 Nov 2013 at 16:10

For next gen games there's nothing much between them, so the 8320 overclocked offers tremendous value. The 4770K guarantees good performance in lightly threaded demanding games (e.g. RTS), which the FX can't compete with on the same level. For many games any modern quad or better core CPU will give the same results.

On a higher budget I'd be looking at 4770K or IB-E, on a lower budget the 8320/50. For next gen gaming I wouldn't look at the i5 myself.

Boomstick777 · 25 Nov 2013 at 16:15

The best value CPU's within their price tiers are FX 8320 and 4770K, it's worth noting that overclockable Haswell motherboards can be picked up dirt cheap, negating the higher cost of the superior chip. My 4770K and mobo combo was only £300..

AMD FX 8320 £100 - £125 budget.

Intel Core i7 4770K £239 - £270 budget.

teppic · 25 Nov 2013 at 16:19

People have a tendency to compare 8320s and high end boards (e.g. the Sabertooth) with a 4770K and a low end ASRock type board. Comparing mid with mid, the boards are around the same cost (about £100).

I wouldn't buy a 4770K at £250ish and then use a £70 board. On a very tight budget the 8320 can be paired with a £60 board and will run fine (it just won't overclock much), a total of about £170.

nikki5974 · 25 Nov 2013 at 16:21

Going by OCUK prices i7 4770k is £260 oem and £275 retail

FX 8320 is £120

So its all down to budget the FX is a great CPU for what it costs and that extra £150 ish saved can be put into the GPU like said further up

Gimpymoo · 25 Nov 2013 at 16:29

Am currently running a 6950 2GB.

I only game at 1680x1050 at present so am thinking of just splashing out on CPU/Mobo for the time being but always had value concious rigs in the past so want to throw caution to the and have something with a bit more power.

I also want to start live streaming with XSplit.

Gaming wise, most of my time is with Arma 3 at the moment which is more CPU dependent than GPU.

Martini1991 · 25 Nov 2013 at 17:48

AM3+ is a dead socket, it won't be getting any Steamroller chips.
An FX95 is a bad buy over an i7.

1150 for future proof? You've got the usual scaremongering, but I don't hold much hope with it being a platform worth much for future proofing.

I'd maybe go X79 with a 4820 and then upgrade it to a 4930K in the future.

There is nothing wrong with getting an FX8320 and board, but I'd personally want the consistency an i5 offers.

That said, what do you run now? You could be using a 5 year old i7 9XX for all we know, which are still up there.

Rroff · 25 Nov 2013 at 18:06

So far for gaming I've found that 4 core / 8 thread intel CPUs perform atleast just as well (usually better) as 8 core AMD CPUs even in games that do use threading much more and only really the 4 core / 4 thread intels suffer in that context. Atleast so far the games that have been optimised for 8 cores seem to have been optimised with relatively low performance cores (i.e. consoles) in mind and it seems the hyper-threading works almost as well as having an actual extra core with those games. (This is all specific to that context). I suspect this will continue to be the story even if games do become more optimised as a general thing for 8 threads/AMD CPUs due to things like Mantle and/or console influences, etc.

Gotta be honest while the 4/4 i5s don't have any performance issues currently for gaming I would not be buying them now if I was building a medium to high end setup for gaming.

Panos · 25 Nov 2013 at 19:31

Martini1991 said:
AM3+ is a dead socket, it won't be getting any Steamroller chips.
An FX95 is a bad buy over an i7.

1150 for future proof? You've got the usual scaremongering, but I don't hold much hope with it being a platform worth much for future proofing.

I'd maybe go X79 with a 4820 and then upgrade it to a 4930K in the future.

There is nothing wrong with getting an FX8320 and board, but I'd personally want the consistency an i5 offers.

That said, what do you run now? You could be using a 5 year old i7 9XX for all we know, which are still up there.

All Intel current sockets are dead also. Haswell-E comes out on 2011-3 socket.

X79 & 4820 is the only sensible choice if you jump into Intel right now. You have an upgrade path, to 4930K, quad channel ram, better engineered and better pci-e. And costs the same as a 4770K solution.

Except someone expects to buy a less than £120 Z87 motherboard with the 4770K, which yes is cheaper than the X79/4820K solution.

On the other hand, an FX8320 is a steal, and most with good cooling can hit 4.8-4.9Ghz, while leave enough money to put on a 290X without having second thought.

ALXAndy · 25 Nov 2013 at 19:35

Gimpymoo said:
Am currently running a 6950 2GB.

I only game at 1680x1050 at present so am thinking of just splashing out on CPU/Mobo for the time being but always had value concious rigs in the past so want to throw caution to the and have something with a bit more power.

I also want to start live streaming with XSplit.

Gaming wise, most of my time is with Arma 3 at the moment which is more CPU dependent than GPU.

If you're using Xsplit mate then you want AMD. The 8320 will easily beat the 3770k when using Xsplit. It forking loves AMDs.

ALXAndy · 25 Nov 2013 at 19:36

Here watch this.

pmc25 · 25 Nov 2013 at 20:03

ALXAndy said:
Here watch this.

Wow. I used to stream and XSplit used to favour 2011 or 11xx i7, and it was really poorly optimised for Bulldozer initially. Seems XSplit has been heavily optimised now. That's not even close ... it's a slaughter in favour of AMD.

Do you know if the FX processors thrash the Intel chips in OBS, too?

@OP. Why not go with an 8320 anyway, then spend cash saved on a new monitor and better graphics card?

gpuerrilla · 25 Nov 2013 at 20:11

ALXAndy said:
I also want to start live streaming with XSplit.

ALXAndy said:
If you're using Xsplit mate then you want AMD. The 8320 will easily beat the 3770k when using Xsplit. It forking loves AMDs.

Andy shared a great tube video on this very subject. With lots of testing to back it up the tek guys were stunned when the FX83 beat the competition. In their words 'destroys' the competition.

Gimpymoo · 25 Nov 2013 at 20:30

Th0nt said:
Andy shared a great tube video on this very subject. With lots of testing to back it up the tek guys were stunned when the FX83 beat the competition. In their words 'destroys' the competition.

Any ideas what it would do against a i7 4770K?

For those interested, I am presently running an AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz.

pmc25 · 25 Nov 2013 at 20:38

Gimpymoo said:
Any ideas what it would do against a i7 4770K?

For those interested, I am presently running an AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz.

3770k / 4770k should be practically identical in this task. I suppose using Quicksync to capture / encode may mean a slight advantage for the latter, as the GPU is an upgrade ... but almost no-one uses Quicksync as quality is pretty poor compared to CPU based software capture and encoding (though some people use Avermedia cards to capture, and software encoding).

Gimpymoo · 25 Nov 2013 at 21:08

I currently use a Live Gamer HD.

I need to embed Webcam and other items into the stream which one cannot do with the Live Gamer HD.

Lostmyrag · 27 Nov 2013 at 13:04

I currently run the 8350 to stream PC games in 720p from a single PC set up.

I also use the Live gamer HD but use it as a capture device in OBS (OBS is better than Xsplit imo, less resourceful, simple to use etc)

Gimpy, if you are running AMD, Arma 3 hates my rig for some reason, intel rigs seems to love it... might be just me though

My next upgrade will be the change over to intel though i reckon.

AngryB · 28 Nov 2013 at 12:53

I had to spec a budget rig for a friend last week which I will be building tomorrow night. Bang for buck, I couldn't look past the 8320. I use an i5 myself, but on a strict budget the AMD chips are too good. You don't just save once either, since the motherboards are usually cheaper too. You will need to spend a bit extra on the CPU Cooler, but picking up one of the Corsair Hydro refurbs will keep the cost low and give you superb performance.

This Digital Foundry Article strongly backs AMD chips too, suggesting we may see the balance shift as developers utilize the extra cores available on the new consoles.