Are These Upgrades Compatible? (CPU/MOBO Upgrade)

[Ghost_Kage]

Hello!

First of all I want to say thank you to the community. A few months ago I took the plunge and upgraded my GPU, and thanks to the advice I received on this forum I have been extremely happy with the purchase.

So now, I would like to upgrade my CPU and I would like to make sure my current computer build is compatible with the upgrade. Here is what I currently have:

Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 (OC 1250 MHz)
Processor: AMD Unlocked FX-4100 Quad-Core (OC 4.2 GHz)
Solid State Drive: SanDisk Ultra II 480GB SATA III (550 MB/s)
Hard Drive: Hitachi HDS72105 500GB
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3
RAM: Kingston HyperX 16 GB (DDR3)
Power Supply: Corsair GS800 (800W ATX12V v2.3)

Here is what I would like to purchase/replace:
Processor: Intel i5-4690k
Motherboard: MSI Intel Z97 LGA 1150 DDR3 USB 3.1 ATX Motherboard (Z97 PC Mate)

Also if anyone has any opinions on the i5-4690k I would love to hear it!

Please let me know if you need more information, and thank you in advance!

 

[scannall]

You'd get more bang for your buck going with an 8320e, 480 gig SSD and a second GTX 970. Similar money, and a lot more noticeable improvement.

 

[frozentundra123456]

If you can use that motherboard and get a good overclock with it, 8320e is a nice cheap upgrade. I would not buy a 970 now for sli. Just wait for the new 14 nm gpus if you feel the need to upgrade the gpu. Sli can be a buggy solution at best, and the vram on the 970 could be a problem also for sli.

 

[nerp]

If you're going to switch to Intel, don't buy an old generation platform. Get a Skylake (6th gen) chip and an LGA1151 motherboard. You'd have to get new DDR4 memory but 16GB can be had for just over $50 now so it's not that bad really.

 

[Ghost_Kage]

Thanks for the information! I'm considering the 8320e however I am curious how much of a performance increase I would see in the upgrade? It appears to be compatible with my current MOBO so it would only be a $120 upgrade which is a plus compared to the $300 one I was looking at.

Thanks

 

[Burpo]

Current CPU..
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-4100+Quad-Core

8320e
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-8320E+Eight-Core

 

[Blue_Max]

What's your primary task? That could make all the difference! Gaming especially...

 

[dark zero]

Vishera is great ST improvement... only if you find for less than 125 dollars. And MT wise is still powerful.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Vishera is great ST improvement... only if you find for less than 125 dollars. And MT wise is still powerful.

Well, if you look at the benchmarks burpo posted, the two cpus at stock, 8320e is only about 10% faster. One really needs to overclock the 8320e to 4+ghz (which should be fairly easy with a good mb and cooler) to have good single thread performance.

People tend to forget that a lot of the gain from 8150 to 8350 was from increased clockspeed, not only from better ipc.

 

[dark zero]

Well, if you look at the benchmarks burpo posted, the two cpus at stock, 8320e is only about 10% faster. One really needs to overclock the 8320e to 4+ghz (which should be fairly easy with a good mb and cooler) to have good single thread performance.

People tend to forget that a lot of the gain from 8150 to 8350 was from increased clockspeed, not only from better ipc.

Not only that, they fixed the dissaster Bulldozer was puting them between Phenom I and Phenom II level.

Still it will outlive most Quads in some more years.

 

[Blue_Max]

Still it will outlive most Quads in some more years.

It's sure a lot cheaper option for him, given his current hardware! Unless this is for a specific game that just doesn't like AMD processors... (Some certainly exist.)

 

[hojnikb]

There is no point in upgrading that platform. Just grab a skylake mobo or wait for ZEN (OC the fx4100 in the mean time).

As for GPU, i would sell the 970 and get something in june, when new gpus come out.

 

[myocardia]

OP, which specific games are you hoping to get better performance from? Any advice given to you, before you have answered that question, is useless.

 

[Ghost_Kage]

Well the 8320e is a much cheaper alternative, however I would rather spend the additional money now than later - if it's worth it that is.. My main games are DayZ/Arma 3/Arma 2 which do not perform well with my current CPU (which is overclocked to 4.2 GHz right now). These games require good single core performance as they are not well optimized and depend heavily on the CPU and not GPU and I don't believe they utilize all of the cores.

So I guess with that being said - how does the 8320e compare to the i5-4690k in single core performance? And overall what is your guys recommendation based on my current build to be best prepared and not spend money on an upgrade for awhile?

 

[Ketchup]

This review is probably what you are looking for, as it has both the i5-4690k and 8320E compared in all tests.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8864/amd-fx-8320e-cpu-review-the-other-95w-vishera/3

I suggest you take all benches under consideration, but there is a nice single thread test on page 4, with gaming comparisons on page 5. Notice how well the AMD scales in a game like Bioshock with some overclocking. Just know that the 4690k can overclock too (although for conciseness, those numbers aren't shown here).

 

[LTC8K6]

It looks like the 4690K is crushing the 8320E at stock speeds in most things, and is about even in the few things Vishera excels at.

So, we can say that if both are overclocked, the trend will be the same.

Here is another comparison:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1402?vs=1261

 

[Headfoot]

Well the 8320e is a much cheaper alternative, however I would rather spend the additional money now than later - if it's worth it that is.. My main games are DayZ/Arma 3/Arma 2 which do not perform well with my current CPU (which is overclocked to 4.2 GHz right now). These games require good single core performance as they are not well optimized and depend heavily on the CPU and not GPU and I don't believe they utilize all of the cores.

So I guess with that being said - how does the 8320e compare to the i5-4690k in single core performance? And overall what is your guys recommendation based on my current build to be best prepared and not spend money on an upgrade for awhile?

Arma needs the fastest single core performance you can get it, absolute single thread CPU hog games. An 8320e is going to be significantly worse than upgrading to Skylake. I would not get a i5/7-4xxx chip today. I'd go straight to an i5-6600k or better. Given how long CPUs last these days, I think it is worth going to an overclocked i7-6700k and holding on to that for many years to come. Given that DX12 will reduce CPU overhead in the next few years, an i7-6700k will certainly be near the top for fastest chips for at least 5 years, and could even last 10 years before its totally outclassed if CPU development keeps on the same track it's on right now.

 

[Ghost_Kage]

Okay, thank you for all of the input guys! I will probably be going with the latest Skylake i5-6600k. So I guess I will need new RAM in addition to this? Is it worth overclocking the i5-6600k for gaming or safer to leave it the way it is? Thanks again!

 

[LTC8K6]

Just don't get bottom end DDR4-2133. Get some mid-range DDR4.

 

[Ketchup]

Okay, thank you for all of the input guys! I will probably be going with the latest Skylake i5-6600k. So I guess I will need new RAM in addition to this? Is it worth overclocking the i5-6600k for gaming or safer to leave it the way it is? Thanks again!

There have been a few exceptions* over the years, but most of the time you aren't going to see a big performance jump in overclocking right off the bat. Overclocking is more for fun. Now, 5+ years down the road, overclocking may start showing some tangible differences.

* C2Q 6600 G0, Celeron 300A, i7 920, i5 2500k