Worth going from a phenom II 960 to a fx 8350 ?

[eastyy123]

would be for mostly games and sometimes using handbrake.Graphics cards are a crossfire 6950 and have 6gb of ram (considering upgrading that as its slow ram 1333mhz though dunno if that will make a huge difference )

the phenom II i currently have does unlock to the six cores (but any over clocking at all makes it very unstable )

[inf64]

Well FX8350 is fastest chip AMD ever produced.It has better performance in games (vs X4/X6) besides being noticeably faster in some real world workloads (like handbrake). Check also anandtech's bench results here.

I would rather go with 8320 and just push the multiplier to 20x. They seem to OC approx. the same as 8350 (~4.6-4.8Ghz on good air cooling is to be expected).

[SickBeast]

Is it a drop-in upgrade?

I don't know how you can say no to the 2500k for $100 lately.

[eastyy123]

yup already have a am3+ sabretooth board

[BD231]

Dont go from one pieve of crap to another, youll just have to upgrade sooner anyway.

[Fallengod]

Id completely agree. Do people still use AMD cpu's? No offense of course.

$100 2500k. Yup, win. Dont hurt me, just sayin.

[infoiltrator]

What does the Phenom II 960 not do?
What would be worthwhile to you from the FX-8350?

Phenom II X6 1100 (960 not listed) vs FX-8350
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/203?vs=697

[Greenlepricon]

8350 keeps up with the 2500k pretty well. Of course if you had the mobo or lived close to a microcenter it might be worth switching over. If you're like me and have an AM3+ board (which you do) and live 700 miles from the nearest microcenter, you can't go wrong with piledriver.

My opinion is go for it. Get a 8320 for $170 rather than switching over to Intel for $300+.

[videogames101]

Originally Posted by Greenlepricon

8350 keeps up with the 2500k pretty well. Of course if you had the mobo or lived close to a microcenter it might be worth switching over. If you're like me and have an AM3+ board (which you do) and live 700 miles from the nearest microcenter, you can't go wrong with piledriver.

My opinion is go for it. Get a 8320 for $170 rather than switching over to Intel for $300+.

I think you mean $170

[Greenlepricon]

Originally Posted by videogames101

I think you mean $170

Find me a deal for a 2500k and mobo for $170 not from microcenter.

[Maximilian]

No, not worth it. X6 is fine and any worthwhile upgrade from that would be to an intel rig.

Only good point about the 8350 is its something new to tinker with

[pcsavvy]

Wow, you can get a 2500K and m/b that will overclock for $170. Wow, if one could do that, why wait go for it.
Go through the hassle of teariing apart your system, putting it back together, hope it works ok the first time, reactivate Windows, or reload the OS and your drivers.
Or just drop in a cpu that is newer and maybe a bit faster.
You decide.

[Vic Vega]

Do people still use AMD processors? What kind of question is that?

Is it worth it? Probably. I have an FX-8350 sitting on my desk, I just haven't gotten around to swapping it out.

I built my PC in mid-late 2010 so it's two years old now and the PII X4 really has done everything I need a PC to do from work to games to casual Internet surfing. The only reason I went with the FX-8350 is because I wanted a little more room for VMs. I'd like to be able to assign more resources to the VM and still have a completely usable desktop experience. I have that right now by the way, but being able to give each of my VMs an extra core will be nice.

[Vic Vega]

Originally Posted by pcsavvy

Wow, you can get a 2500K and m/b that will overclock for $170. Wow, if one could do that, why wait go for it.
Go through the hassle of teariing apart your system, putting it back together, hope it works ok the first time, reactivate Windows, or reload the OS and your drivers.
Or just drop in a cpu that is newer and maybe a bit faster.
You decide.

And for me that's what it comes down to. 15 minute processor swap and I'm done, move on with life.

[Rickyyy369]

Guess it depends on whether you want better gaming performance or better performance in handbrake.

If you want better gaming performance, go with intel. It will cost you $100 more to upgrade your motherboard for a combined upgrade cost of ~$320 (w/2500k/3570k)

Or you could get a 8350 for $220 and drop it in your current motherboard. You'll get better handbrake performance than you would with the 2500k/3570k while taking a hit in gaming performance and paying $100 less. You will see slightly better gaming performance going to the 8350 from your phenom II, however.

Heres a comparison of a 3ghz Phenom II x6 vs the 8350. Id say its a pretty substancial upgrade:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/697?vs=185

[richierich1212]

lol @ people using MC closeout prices. Cmon get real people.

[Jovec]

Best honest with yourself about handbrake vs gaming. To me it doesn't matter if I have a 2500k, 2600k, x6, or 8350 for video encoding - set up a batch job and let it run (overnight, in the background, etc.). For many of us, it doesn't matter if your batch encode finishes at 3am, or 5am, or even 8am. If it matters how fast your encodes complete (i.e. it makes you money), then the situation changes.

Contrast this with gaming where you generally want the best performance possible in real-time. Of course, budget factors in.

[beginner99]

Originally Posted by Jovec

Best honest with yourself about handbrake vs gaming. To me it doesn't matter if I have a 2500k, 2600k, x6, or 8350 for video encoding - set up a batch job and let it run (overnight, in the background, etc.). For many of us, it doesn't matter if your batch encode finishes at 3am, or 5am, or even 8am. If it matters how fast your encodes complete (i.e. it makes you money), then the situation changes.

Contrast this with gaming where you generally want the best performance possible in real-time. Of course, budget factors in.

Exactly! and in gaming you won't see much if any difference between the 2. The 8350 sure is faster but I would just save and invest in a new intel setup once haswell is out.

[Leyawiin]

If you lock the extra cores back up you can probably get that X4 960t to 4.0 Ghz. Chances are it would do better in many gaming scenarios (if that's what you use it for most) than the stock FX-8350. Its worth a try to see if it gives you the performance you want. Free is always the best price.

[Greenlepricon]

Originally Posted by Leyawiin

If you lock the extra cores back up you can probably get that X4 960t to 4.0 Ghz. Chances are it would do better in many gaming scenarios (if that's what you use it for most) than the stock FX-8350. Its worth a try to see if it gives you the performance you want. Free is always the best price.

Can't argue with that! The overclocked phenom II's are mean if you can get them up to a good frequency. Just make sure you have the cooling and power required. It might get you past this round of cpu's and keep you happy until next year.

[AtenRa]

Get the FX8320, OC to 4.6GHz and forget about upgrading for the next 2-3 years.

[zCypher]

Originally Posted by AtenRa

Get the FX8320, OC to 4.6GHz and forget about upgrading for the next 2-3 years.

What kind of power and cooling requirements to run it safe and stable at 4.6GHz in the long run? Honest question, coming from a Thuban/212 user that can't get a stable 4.0.

[T_Yamamoto]

I would recommend getting the 8320 since its a drop in upgrade and youll be able to keep your rig chugging along for maybe 4 years

[Abwx]

Originally Posted by Rickyyy369

Guess it depends on whether you want better gaming performance or better performance in handbrake.

Or you could get a 8350 for $220 and drop it in your current motherboard. You'll get better handbrake performance than you would with the 2500k/3570k while taking a hit in gaming performanc

Yet another post full of viral marketing....

In games the FX is faster than even a X4 980.

Here the average of tested games at Hardware.fr



http://www.hardware.fr/articles/880-17/moyennes.html

[AtenRa]

@zCypher

With your AirCooler it should be fine at 4.2 to 4.4GHz. For 4.6GHz you should need a better cooler. Your PSU should be fine for the hardware you have.