Hi All,
I am upgrading my machine specifically for gaming. I have the age old question of whether to buy AMD or Intel. Budget is not a problem but i still want value for money. i.e. I don't want to buy something that I will not get a benefit from. I want this machine to be useable for gaming for 5 years.
I saw the thread below on tom's hardware. See below and advise?
"Here's the thing. On this site you will get mostly conjecture and opinion instead of fact and sometimes when you do get the facts, they are presented in a dishonest manner trying to slant you in one direction or the other. I simply speak from my own experience (been building PCs for literally 25 years). Now, I am a gamer, in fact I am a HARD-CORE gamer. Gaming is the main raison-d'etre for me having a PC to begin with. I love running modern games completely maxed-out. Now, if you look at my specs (bottom right of this post), you'll see that my processing components (CPU and GPU) are COMPLETELY made of AMD hardware. The reasons are as follows:
1.) The Intel i5 is a faster gaming CPU, but the difference between the i5-3570 and the FX-6300/8350 is so slight that I can't tell the difference.
2.) The Intel i5 is a faster gaming CPU but only RIGHT NOW. As games (and other programs) become more and more threaded, my FX-8350's performance will INCREASE over time while the i5 will remain more or less where it is. That means that my FX-8350 will be useable and relevant for longer than the current i5 because of this. Remember that the FX series architecture is still relatively new and can only get better with more advanced program designs that can actually use all of it.
3.) The FX-6300 has almost identical gameplay numbers as the FX-8350. I only bought the 8350 because I got an "I can't say no to this" deal on it. The FX-6300 is literally half the price of the i5 and again, runs games more or less the same.
4.) The money I saved with the FX-8350 made it possible for me to get my twin Radeon HD 7970s. No game (except maybe Arma III) is even capable of making these cards break a sweat at max settings. I would have had to get weaker GPUs if I had chosen the i5.
5.) The AMD-based motherboards tend to have more features on them than Intel-based boards but are still less expensive. Now, before people start screaming about 4-channel RAM, just remember how the X58 platform with its 3-channel RAM worked out. It didn't. Before people start screaming about PCI-Express v3.0, remember that the Intel boards that have PCIe 3.0 only run multi-card in x8/x8 mode. Since PCIe 3.0 is SUPPOSEDLY twice as fast as PCIe 2.0, it means that since my 990FX chipset does PCIe 2.0 x16/x16, the speed will be the same.
6.) Remember that both the Xbox ONE and Playstation 4 use 8 AMD cores with AMD Radeon graphics. Console ports will most likely perform better on a similar design. Since most PC games are console ports, this will be a very relevant concern.
Since I wanted to have my cake and eat it too, I chose AMD because I wanted maximum performance for my dollar but still wanted maximum performance. I definitely made the right choice because given the same choice again, I would take the same route and not even think twice about it. Remember that even though Intel looks better on benchmarks, human limitations don't allow us to notice those differences. So much the better, it means we don't have to pay top dollar to get a top-shelf gaming experience from our PCs."
I am upgrading my machine specifically for gaming. I have the age old question of whether to buy AMD or Intel. Budget is not a problem but i still want value for money. i.e. I don't want to buy something that I will not get a benefit from. I want this machine to be useable for gaming for 5 years.
I saw the thread below on tom's hardware. See below and advise?
"Here's the thing. On this site you will get mostly conjecture and opinion instead of fact and sometimes when you do get the facts, they are presented in a dishonest manner trying to slant you in one direction or the other. I simply speak from my own experience (been building PCs for literally 25 years). Now, I am a gamer, in fact I am a HARD-CORE gamer. Gaming is the main raison-d'etre for me having a PC to begin with. I love running modern games completely maxed-out. Now, if you look at my specs (bottom right of this post), you'll see that my processing components (CPU and GPU) are COMPLETELY made of AMD hardware. The reasons are as follows:
1.) The Intel i5 is a faster gaming CPU, but the difference between the i5-3570 and the FX-6300/8350 is so slight that I can't tell the difference.
2.) The Intel i5 is a faster gaming CPU but only RIGHT NOW. As games (and other programs) become more and more threaded, my FX-8350's performance will INCREASE over time while the i5 will remain more or less where it is. That means that my FX-8350 will be useable and relevant for longer than the current i5 because of this. Remember that the FX series architecture is still relatively new and can only get better with more advanced program designs that can actually use all of it.
3.) The FX-6300 has almost identical gameplay numbers as the FX-8350. I only bought the 8350 because I got an "I can't say no to this" deal on it. The FX-6300 is literally half the price of the i5 and again, runs games more or less the same.
4.) The money I saved with the FX-8350 made it possible for me to get my twin Radeon HD 7970s. No game (except maybe Arma III) is even capable of making these cards break a sweat at max settings. I would have had to get weaker GPUs if I had chosen the i5.
5.) The AMD-based motherboards tend to have more features on them than Intel-based boards but are still less expensive. Now, before people start screaming about 4-channel RAM, just remember how the X58 platform with its 3-channel RAM worked out. It didn't. Before people start screaming about PCI-Express v3.0, remember that the Intel boards that have PCIe 3.0 only run multi-card in x8/x8 mode. Since PCIe 3.0 is SUPPOSEDLY twice as fast as PCIe 2.0, it means that since my 990FX chipset does PCIe 2.0 x16/x16, the speed will be the same.
6.) Remember that both the Xbox ONE and Playstation 4 use 8 AMD cores with AMD Radeon graphics. Console ports will most likely perform better on a similar design. Since most PC games are console ports, this will be a very relevant concern.
Since I wanted to have my cake and eat it too, I chose AMD because I wanted maximum performance for my dollar but still wanted maximum performance. I definitely made the right choice because given the same choice again, I would take the same route and not even think twice about it. Remember that even though Intel looks better on benchmarks, human limitations don't allow us to notice those differences. So much the better, it means we don't have to pay top dollar to get a top-shelf gaming experience from our PCs."
