AMD Piledriver FX-4 Quad Core 4300 3.80GHz vs i3 550 clarkdale @ 4.2

Ronson12 · 8 Jan 2014 at 23:44

hiya

I bought an OC 550 bundle from OCUK and am wondering if the AMD cpu i mentioned is an upgrade or basicly the same thing?

kinda want to sell my bundle and try use the money to upgrade/put towards an upgrade.
thanks in advance.

P.S my bundle still holds up well with todays games and i am purely after scratching my itch i am not expecting to get extra 100+ fps from an upgrade all though it would be nice lol

ALXAndy · 9 Jan 2014 at 01:50

Without benchmarks from both systems it's a tough one to call. Personally I would not touch a quad core AMD now. I would surmise (again without seeing benchmarks) that the FX 6300 would be a notable upgrade, especially with thread use starting to rise.

Do you game? if not don't waste your money. If you do then the 6300 at 4.5ghz or so would definitely net you better results in more modern titles*

*waits for the stupid CPU comparison links to be posted.

humbug · 9 Jan 2014 at 02:03

+1 ^^^ get the FX6300. £10 more and a much better option.

Ronson12 · 9 Jan 2014 at 04:50

ALXAndy said:
Without benchmarks from both systems it's a tough one to call. Personally I would not touch a quad core AMD now. I would surmise (again without seeing benchmarks) that the FX 6300 would be a notable upgrade, especially with thread use starting to rise.

Do you game? if not don't waste your money. If you do then the 6300 at 4.5ghz or so would definitely net you better results in more modern titles*

*waits for the stupid CPU comparison links to be posted.

Thanks for the replys

Yes I do nothing but purely gaming,at the moment I get 60-100 fps in most stuff I play but not consistently,plus my monitor is 60mhz so I lock my fps to that.

I have just started playing nether and 80% of the time get 60+ fps but some parts of the game it drops to 20-30 which my eyeballs can't handle.guess I will get the 6300 Or maybe push for the 8320.

Martini1991 · 9 Jan 2014 at 08:15

Probably cheaper and easier to bash in a second hand i7 860 or i5 760.

ubersonic · 9 Jan 2014 at 08:23

Martini1991 said:
Probably cheaper and easier to bash in a second hand i7 860 or i5 760.

This +1

An i7 8xx is noticeably quicker than an FX-4 at stock and has about as much overclocking headroom, plus you can pick them up used for less than a new FX-4 which although not an apples/apples comparision would mean not having to remove/change the board or anything else so a much easier upgrade.

Ronson12 · 9 Jan 2014 at 10:01

Martini1991 said:
Probably cheaper and easier to bash in a second hand i7 860 or i5 760.

The only problem with this for me is the prices,I've seen them going for £90+ which puts me off,I mean brand new chips aren't far off that that aren't on mostly obsolete sockets.

I do like this idea but they need to be cheaper for what they are.

Martini1991 · 9 Jan 2014 at 10:12

Ronson12 said:
The only problem with this for me is the prices,I've seen them going for £90+ which puts me off,I mean brand new chips aren't far off that that aren't on mostly obsolete sockets.

I do like this idea but they need to be cheaper for what they are.

The FX4300 bundle will be costing more/same than a second hand i7 860 or 750 and inferior to both.

almighty15 · 9 Jan 2014 at 13:00

Get a second hand i5 or i7..... will be a much faster and cheaper option..

humbug · 9 Jan 2014 at 17:59

A used Lynfield or Bloomfield i7 is a good option, certainly better for most games currently, you can pick the MOBO and Chip up for about £120, the only problem with them is they are quiet old now, a lot of them will have a lot of hours on them.

Ronson12 · 9 Jan 2014 at 19:46

would it be a better option to get a 8320?

as i can maybe sell my bundle to fund that.

i just can't bring my self to buy a cpu for a 1156 board

Stas823 · 9 Jan 2014 at 20:53

8320 is the best price/performance so yes
Which mobo is it going to be used with?

ubersonic · 9 Jan 2014 at 21:02

humbug said:
A used Lynfield or Bloomfield i7 is a good option, certainly better for most games currently, you can pick the MOBO and Chip up for about £120, the only problem with them is they are quiet old now, a lot of them will have a lot of hours on them.

He already has a s1156 motherboard hence why we were recommending just dropping in the i5/7.

Ronson12 said:
would it be a better option to get a 8320?

as i can maybe sell my bundle to fund that.

i just can't bring my self to buy a cpu for a 1156 board

That would defiantly be a good option as they are king of mid range CPU's ATM, however they do cost much more than a s1156 i5/7 would and you will need a good board and cooler for it (assuming you want to over clock it).

Ronson12 · 9 Jan 2014 at 21:21

ubersonic said:
He already has a s1156 motherboard hence why we were recommending just dropping in the i5/7.

That would defiantly be a good option as they are king of mid range CPU's ATM, however they do cost much more than a s1156 i5/7 would and you will need a good board and cooler for it (assuming you want to over clock it).

i would want to overclock it,but not off the bat,would be maybe 6 months later.

also i don't want to start another thread so thought i would post it here i'm having a debate with someone and they are saying that an i3 haswell standard beats the 550 OC @4.2 how true is this and can anyone give me a good explanation/comparision?

i just dont see it my self.not like they're trying to make like its 50% performance increase or something

Ronson12 · 9 Jan 2014 at 21:22

Stas823 said:
8320 is the best price/performance so yes
Which mobo is it going to be used with?

well i do like the looks of the sabortooth but if i can get similar features on a cheaper board that would be great.

O.C abilitie being a must

ALXAndy · 10 Jan 2014 at 00:15

Ronson12 said:
well i do like the looks of the sabortooth but if i can get similar features on a cheaper board that would be great.

O.C abilitie being a must

Asus M5A99X Evo R2.0. Available for about £95ish. It's basically a Sabertooth, but without the nasty colours and a few less frills. It has 8+2 VRMs, so you'll be fine with overclocking

Ronson12 · 10 Jan 2014 at 01:30

ALXAndy said:
Asus M5A99X Evo R2.0. Available for about £95ish. It's basically a Sabertooth, but without the nasty colours and a few less frills. It has 8+2 VRMs, so you'll be fine with overclocking

Thanks a lot,I'll go check that out.

Sorry for all the questions been with Intel for so long,will the 9000+ CPUs work in this board if I wanted to upgrade later

ubersonic · 10 Jan 2014 at 08:27

Ronson12 said:
Thanks a lot,I'll go check that out.

Sorry for all the questions been with Intel for so long,will the 9000+ CPUs work in this board if I wanted to upgrade later

ALX will know this for sure but I am pretty certain the 9000 series are just 8000 series with factory overclocks (the difference being ofc it's a guaranteed speed, whereas with the 8000 series its luck if you can do that speed).

Marine-RX179 · 10 Jan 2014 at 09:57

IMO just replace the i3 with a 1156 socket i7 CPU (only cost may be around £80). It wouldn't be that hugely behind a FX8 in 8 threaded games, and would be faster in games that use use 4 threads or less.

You'd lucky to get £50 for selling your i3 CPU and your board. Assume that you could get £30 for your i3 and £20 for the board:

Upgrading to 1156 i7: Cost £50 (£80-£30)

Upgrading to FX8320 (£110) and a capable motherboard (£80): Cost £140 (£190-£50...and that's assuming you can even sell the board at all)

Even if you were to get the i7 860/870 at £100, it is still half the cost of upgrading to FX8320+board.

gpuerrilla · 10 Jan 2014 at 12:25

For ease just get the i7 as suggested above.

If you want new and shiny piece of kit with new warranties then the FX8320 is nice option but something only you can decide. As nothing was coming out from both parties in 2014 I went for the FX.

You could always look into the kaveri's which are out soon which would be a nice budget system.