Help need in deciding on a upgrade (960T 6 core to a FX 6 or 8 cores Piledriver CPU)

[Simon D]

I currently run the following:

Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3, F13,
AMD CPU 960T BE unlocked to 6 Cores @ 4.03Ghz
16 GB Crucial Ballistix 8,8,8,24,1T 1600Hz
Crossfire HD7970 @1100/1600
Creative Sound Blaster ZxR
Samsung 840 EVO SSD
HX 1000W
Dell 3008WFP

I normally play games at 2560 X 1600 if possible with all the extra eye candy turned on.

I have been waiting for AMD steamroller CPU to come out, but due to the OCuk deals running on AMD CPU at present and the delay on the steamroller CPU.

I trying to decide if a short term upgrade is worth it moving to a Piledriver FX 6 or 8 cores CPU that I could overclock to 4.5 GHz with my Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (3 fans).

I could get 8 cores FX8320 for £114 or 6 cores FX6350 for £99.

I am looking at a major upgrade in late 2014 to full Intel system but in no rush to do so now.

Cheers

Simon

 

[teppic]

Get the 8320, with your cooler you should be able to push it to 4.5GHz without any problems (maybe higher, 4.8GHz isn't that rare with high end air coolers). AMD hasn't confirmed Steamroller will be out for AM3+ yet, so I wouldn't wait around.

You'll definitely be able to run BF4 maxed out on your set up (DICE used a stock 8350 and 2x7970s for ultra).

 

[Smoogels]

8320 is good value especially when you overclock it. It should have no trouble playing newer games like BF4, Crysis etc. With my 8350 I can manage a 4.4GHz overclock on a Coolermaster evo 212 and almost 4.5GHz at a push so your cooler should be fine.

 

[Martini1991]

Get the FX8320, delay the SR and just turn it into your 2014 Intel upgrade.

 

[Simon D]

Thanks for the help in deciding.

Just order the FX8320

 

[Martini1991]

That said, there's no reason not to do your full Intel upgrade now with the 4770K, all that's out next year is a Haswell refresh.

 

[teppic]

Be sure to report back with how high you can overclock it

 

[Simon D]

Be sure to report back with how high you can overclock it

Up to 4.63Ghz just by changing the multiplier and leaving it stock voltage (1.4v), OK at present seem stable, had to increase volts (1.5v) to get fully stable under prime95

Increase volts to 1.525v now at 4.83Ghz added extra fan to cool vrm looking good running stress test now. OK but CPU temps up 75C on full load with prime95.

Drop back to 4.63GHz (1.5v) on full load with prime95 as max CPU temps was 63C