am3+ cpu advice

[Martini1991]

The AMD CPU's perform very poorly in the majority of latest games.

You mention in your opening post that you want a build a 'midrange gaming pc', so the I5 4690K will probably be in your price range.

You'll get way better performance in all the new games, and it will last you many years of GPU upgrades.

Sorry but what? That's outright BS.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Sorry but what? That's outright BS.

Dave2150 regularly comes out with this baloney martini. I have stepped aside lately as he seems to have a thing for me then spouts further jibber jabber.

Glad to see others are noticing the rare but strange posters on here!

If you do go with the 8320E post on the FX threads and join in with the overclocks.

 

[thebennyboy]

The AMD CPU's perform very poorly in the majority of latest games.

You mention in your opening post that you want a build a 'midrange gaming pc', so the I5 4690K will probably be in your price range.

You'll get way better performance in all the new games, and it will last you many years of GPU upgrades.

What an utter load of BS.

 

[Scurburg]

And the magic certain someone finally appears with his puff of over exagerated "facts" soon to be followed by his main act of "selected" new game benchmarks. The main trick to this act is that he changes the word "selected" in to "majority" and increases everyones budget by £100(some time more, you lucky people) in a blink of an eye.

 

[gpuerrilla]

And the magic certain someone finally appears with his puff of over exagerated "facts" soon to be followed by his main act of "selected" new game benchmarks. The main trick to this act is that he changes the word "selected" in to "majority" and increases everyones budget by £100(some time more, you lucky people) in a blink of an eye.

Yeah this guy is not a troll but a new category of forum factoider. I agree with the cherry picking and sweeping statements your highlighting scurburg.

Moderators need to rake through posts like this and understand that it is poor input (like the post above) that when there is enough evidence of potential baiting and guff do something about it.

The graphics forum is bad enough, poor and misguided advice to new posters in here or general hardware is on the increase.

 

[Scurburg]

Yeah this guy is not a troll but a new category of forum factoider. I agree with the cherry picking and sweeping statements your highlighting scurburg.

Moderators need to rake through posts like this and understand that it is poor input (like the post above) that when there is enough evidence of potential baiting and guff do something about it.

The graphics forum is bad enough, poor and misguided advice to new posters in here or general hardware is on the increase.

Everyone has the right to an opinion and its far too difficult to judge on such subjective matters. Light ridicule (not personal attacks) while highlighting the perceived problems is a better way, not to mention a bit more fun IMO.

Anyway back to the OP and topic. As I mentioned before, Dave is not entirely incorrect, the I5 and z97 are a solid choice if your budget can stretch. You'll have to ask Dave exactly what extras you will get, over amd, for the extra dough you'll have to cough up though, as I am not convinced and more in the camp of GPU power over CPU/mb tech. Would be good to hear what you decide in the end.

 

[gpuerrilla]

If you have the money then go intel, however from experience once you go down the route of performance you end up with the i7. This goes against the grain with any budget below a grand.

Personally I dont agree that the i5 stomps an FX regardless of what benchmarks people use to make a point on a forum. Where the balance lies is for a single GPU system some users would be better off going with AMD if they get a better GPU in the build.

One point I will agree with Dave2150 on is if I was buying brand new at this moment in time I would be basing the system on an i7 and save till I can afford it. A second hand i5k based system would be a good compromise, but I would not entertain anything else.

Horses for courses they say. One man's 'mid-range' is completely different to another man's idea of one - that's for sure!

 

[Dave2150]

Sorry but what? That's outright BS.

Linking these for the benefit of the OP, incase he believes that the AMD CPU's from 2011 are equal to the I5's for gaming

Skyrim:

Spoiler

Middle Earth:Shadows of Mordor:

Spoiler

Shogun 2:

Spoiler

Watchdogs:

Spoiler

Total War: Attila:

Spoiler

For an extra £110 over the FX8350, the I5 with Z97 motherboard is a much better buy. You also get onto a much more modern chipset, which will have an upgrade path to an I7 Haswell at a later date, or a whole new CPU generation with Broadwell i5/i7 later this year.

If you don't want to spend an extra £110 on the CPU/Motherboard, then the FX CPU's are the best in that price range, though they do not have as much upgrade potential, so will likely last you a few years less than the Z97 option.

 

[Martini1991]

I don't disagree that going for an i5 is a better choice, people are kidding themselves with thinking an i5 and any current AMD chip are equal for gaming overall.
Obvious budget permitting, there's price points you can't physically buy an Intel set up that would come close to the overall performance of the AMD set up (and this thread may be one that an AMD build is the best option)

But your blanket verdict on AMD chips was wrong, and your benchmarks can be dissected, but I'll do that later, I'm at nandos.

 

[gpuerrilla]

But your blanket verdict on AMD chips was wrong, and your benchmarks can be dissected, but I'll do that later, I'm at nandos.

Mmm damn you! I love nandos!

 

[Dave2150]

But your blanket verdict on AMD chips was wrong, and your benchmarks can be dissected, but I'll do that later, I'm at nandos.

You can go ahead and post your own benchmarks of games not limited by the CPU that will show the AMD being closer to the I5's/I7's, though it doesn't change the fact that there are many games that are heavily CPU limited, poorly threaded etc that do run poorly on AMD hardware.

As long as the OP is aware of this, then he can make his own decision of whether to spend circa £110 more on an I5/Z97, or save the money and enjoy an FX CPU.

 

[Scurburg]

Linking these for the benefit of the OP, incase he believes that the AMD CPU's from 2011 are equal to the I5's for gaming

Skyrim:

Spoiler

Middle Earth:Shadows of Mordor:

Spoiler

Shogun 2:

Spoiler

Watchdogs:

Spoiler

Total War: Attila:

Spoiler

For an extra £110 over the FX8350, the I5 with Z97 motherboard is a much better buy. You also get onto a much more modern chipset, which will have an upgrade path to an I7 Haswell at a later date, or a whole new CPU generation with Broadwell i5/i7 later this year.

If you don't want to spend an extra £110 on the CPU/Motherboard, then the FX CPU's are the best in that price range, though they do not have as much upgrade potential, so will likely last you a few years less than the Z97 option.

I'm just going to ask one question.
Is it normal to run 980s in Sli at 1080P with no AA, or have these settings been used to exaggerate something?

 

[Martini1991]

You can go ahead and post your own benchmarks of games not limited by the CPU that will show the AMD being closer to the I5's/I7's, though it doesn't change the fact that there are many games that are heavily CPU limited, poorly threaded etc that do run poorly on AMD hardware.

As long as the OP is aware of this, then he can make his own decision of whether to spend circa £110 more on an I5/Z97, or save the money and enjoy an FX CPU.

I'm not going to play graph wars, anyone can post a set of benchmarks to show their agenda, that's not the point.

What you said was completely and utterly wrong (For *some* games it is true (In that their performance against say the i5 is lower than the norm, and it can be construed as poor due to factors of age etc) but the latest games having *poor* performance on AMD is the exception rather than the rule). Regardless of the fact that I'm i5 > FX83.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The problem is that its about balance - most of the reviews are packing £400 to £1000 of graphics cards. The other consideration is dx12 too,so even though the core i5 is more consistent a performer it means nothing if the graphics budget is made much smaller.

 

[gpuerrilla]

I'm not going to play graph wars, anyone can post a set of benchmarks to show their agenda, that's not the point.

What you said was completely and utterly wrong. Regardless of the fact that I'm i5 > FX83.

Well said. There's a difference between an educated opinion and a witch hunt. For my opinion on this (as I have an FX) it has played all the games in my Steam library without the negatives that can happen to some people out there. I have even used different GPU's to see where there could be any bottlenecks (7770, 2x 7770, 7990, 290x).

For buying brand new on a tight budget it is still a valid choice. The extra options the i5 would bring maybe true, however I would push the boat out and play safe with an i7 that would last you ages due to games/apps now utilising more cores.

There are graphs if you want to see that prove some titles play well (on AMD) such as BF4. With the emergence of DX12 and Mantle there should be even less of a gap between this over-exaggerated difference that is highlighted.

 

[CapitalOne]

It is. He might be referring to the m5a97 r2.0 which is a 4+2.
There's so many variations I never can remember without looking

Yes sorry my bad.

 

[Martini1991]

The problem is that its about balance - most of the reviews are packing £400 to £1000 of graphics cards. The other consideration is dx12 too,so even though the core i5 is more consistent a performer it means nothing if the graphics budget is made much smaller.

Yeah, there's a point that you're compromising, it's all about balance. That would change if the i5's were better priced, but as it stands, there's price points that going for an i5 K would impede the budget a bit too much.

 

[gpuerrilla]

We need a budget and the current or intended GPU to comment further on this 'mid-range' build.