Phenom 980 or FX 8350???

[Redemption 77]

I have been bashing my head against the wall for 3 weeks now. ( and boy my head hurts. bah dum dum! lol) Here are my current system specs. (I am sure many of you have had to answer this question over and over again so sorry in advance, but I could really use the help.)

Phenom II X 4 980 3.7 gig
Asus Sabertooth 990 FX mobo
16 gig Corsair vengance 1600 mem
1tb WD Caviar Black 64mb cache
Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce GPU
Thermaltake 850 watt PSU
Win 7 pro 64

Ok so the question is...Should I upgrade to the FX-8350 or keep what I have? It seems with the more CPU intensive games my system lacks punch. I don't think adding another video card will change that. I think the bottleneck is in the CPU. Could I be right? I was thinking about going Intel but the price is just too much. Any suggestions?

 

[eternalone]

FX 8350 its got more cores and thats the most important part of a cpu, no other part of a cpu is more important than cores.

 

[Redemption 77]

ok just for arguments sake, if I were to break down and go Intel, why would I pick one of their 4 core (or six) over the 8 core FX 8350. I guess what I am driving at is, is there a plausible reason to go broke getting into Intel? Will it make that much of a difference?

 

[willomz]

"go broke"?

A 3570k is only $10 more than a 8350 on newegg (and comes with a $15 gift card!).

While the 8350 has it's uses, for gaming the Intel option is noticeably faster.

 

[Bearach]

"go broke"?

A 3570k is only $10 more than a 8350 on newegg (and comes with a $15 gift card!).

While the 8350 has it's uses, for gaming the Intel option is noticeably faster.

Think you're forgetting that AMD/Intel, aren't socket compatible. They would require a new board, so that could be what makes them "go broke".

 

[Durvelle27]

"go broke"?

A 3570k is only $10 more than a 8350 on newegg (and comes with a $15 gift card!).

While the 8350 has it's uses, for gaming the Intel option is noticeably faster.

Not really a good argument as he already has a 990 motherboard that supports the FX CPU so it would be useless to spend money on a new board and cpu useless he has the budget


@OP Phenom II 980 BE vs FX 8350

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/362?vs=697


FX 8350 has better multithreaded performance and single threaded performance and overclocks pretty good but i would oc that cpu first and see if that helps

 

[fixbsod]

do it!

 

[Torn Mind]

ok just for arguments sake, if I were to break down and go Intel, why would I pick one of their 4 core (or six) over the 8 core FX 8350. I guess what I am driving at is, is there a plausible reason to go broke getting into Intel? Will it make that much of a difference?

Each individual core is much faster at processing. To utilize extra cores, the program used must be coded to use these extra cores. Many games don't do that.

That said, FX-8350 is a worthwhile upgrade. If you want to OC, you'd want to consider an aftermarket cooler like the Hyper 212 and make sure your PSU can handle it's high wattage use at load.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

FX-6300 would be a cheaper upgrade to more cores. Overclock it to 8350 speeds if you need to.

EDIT>> For that matter, even the 8320 would be fine.

 

[Redemption 77]

Wow! Thanks for all the info! Torn Mind, I forgot to add that I do have a Corsair H100 so cooling is no problem! As for as my PSU, It ihas been really good to me but I am not sure what kind of load it can handle. The thing I like About my 990 FX Sabertooth is the one button overclocking. I dont have to mess with voltages or anything. If i could spend the money, what is the best argument to go Intel?

 

[skipsneeky2]

If you got the money,go intel i5+z77 like extreme 4 by asrock,if your on a budget of $200 max,go 8320 and overclock.

One option will cost nearly $300 assuming your swapping your memory into the new motherboard and the other option will cost about $200 max assuming you just drop it in,but if you ask me the extra $100 does offer a better overall platform.

My vote goes for i5+z77 mobo.:thumbsup:

 

[Gigantopithecus]

If i could spend the money, what is the best argument to go Intel?

At any given price point, they use less power. Sometimes a lot less electricity, like 100W+ less electricity.

Whether the Intel CPUs make more sense than the AMD CPUs depends on your usage. Check Bench to get an idea of which CPU would be better for you.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

If you got the money,go intel i5+z77 like extreme 4 by asrock,if your on a budget of $200 max,go 8320 and overclock.

One option will cost nearly $300 assuming your swapping your memory into the new motherboard and the other option will cost about $200 max assuming you just drop it in,but if you ask me the extra $100 does offer a better overall platform.

My vote goes for i5+z77 mobo.:thumbsup:

50% more cost plus hassle of swapping hardware and reinstalling OS, games, and programs for 15% more gaming performance? Eh...

 

[Redemption 77]

I just price out a Sabertooth z77 board and a i7-3770k cpu and it came out to about $560. I really like Asus for their dependability. I just am not sure If i would be spend ing almost $600 for a 10-15% increase in performance.

 

[Redemption 77]

I am trying to set myself up for the games of 2013 like Star Wars 1313 and watchdogs. I would like better BF3 performance as well.

 

[skipsneeky2]

50% more cost plus hassle of swapping hardware and reinstalling OS, games, and programs for 15% more gaming performance? Eh...

Op is already playing with the idea of going intel anyways,obviously the op knows the hassle and the work that is required with such a swap.

Up to the Op of course which option makes more sense but lately intel has had the edge over amd.

 

[Torn Mind]

Wow! Thanks for all the info! Torn Mind, I forgot to add that I do have a Corsair H100 so cooling is no problem! As for as my PSU, It ihas been really good to me but I am not sure what kind of load it can handle. The thing I like About my 990 FX Sabertooth is the one button overclocking. I dont have to mess with voltages or anything. If i could spend the money, what is the best argument to go Intel?

You get lower power consumption.

Better single-core performance, as I've mentioned already. The FX-8350 has to be overclocked to match an i5 chip close the single-core performance gap between it and the i5. Whether this point matters will depend on the specific programs you use. Some games do like more cores, others don't. Video encoding scales well over cores.

 

[Torn Mind]

I just price out a Sabertooth z77 board and a i7-3770k cpu and it came out to about $560. I really like Asus for their dependability. I just am not sure If i would be spend ing almost $600 for a 10-15% increase in performance.

What specific games do you play? That can help folks give you more tailored advice. In general, I'd just second AnonymouseUser's suggestion, get an FX-6300 and then overclock the chip.

Now if it were me, I'd track Intel's Haswell news and reviews after it's release, wait for bugs to be ironed out and prices to drop, and then if I deem it necessary, get a Haswell system.

 

[Durvelle27]

Like i mentioned above i think you should OC your CPU first and see if you get better performance

 

[Abwx]

"go broke"?

A 3570k is only $10 more than a 8350 on newegg (and comes with a $15 gift card!).

While the 8350 has it's uses, for gaming the Intel option is noticeably faster.

For gaming undoubtly but in MT the 8350 can have as much as 50%
better perf than the 3570K.

http://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/13

Of course , as times goes by you can expect thoses 15% to shrink
since games are progressively improved MT wise....

 

[Vsync]

The 8350 would not be a big upgrade gaming and you probably wont hit 4ghz on the 980 without a ton of voltage. You dont need to spend anywhere near $500+ for a new intel board and cpu though thats just a waste, $300-350ish is doable and would go a lot further for you in the long run.

If youre one to play games a lot youre not doing yourself any good with piledriver. Imo the gains you get arent worth the power consumption, especially if you play mmo's that keep your computer at near full load for hours on end.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Think you're forgetting that AMD/Intel, aren't socket compatible. They would require a new board, so that could be what makes them "go broke".

That is true, but first the OP says intel plus a new mb is too expensive: ok, I can accept that. But then he says, what if I did it "for argument's sake". If he already has made the decision, what is the point of bringing up theoretical arguments? Plus considering the OP can afford a GT670, I seriously doubt the 20 dollars extra for the 3570K plus maybe 100 dollars for a mb would make him "go broke".

 

[Gikaseixas]

OP if you want to save some $$ then get the FX (great cpu for the price) but if you can spare some more then go Intel because it's a better option for gaming.

 

[nenforcer]

FX 8320 / 8350 is the way to go. You might want to wait until June when Haswell gets released and you might see some prices drops on the AMD FX series by then.

Otherwise its the most cost effective option available for your current system today.

 

[grimpr]

The FX 8350 is a very good upgrade to the Phenom II X4 980 make no mistake about it.