Should I get an AMD CPU for gaming?

[norseamd]

relax bro; he just got carried away a little.

not trying to insult. but it often is better to point things out to people.

 

[AtenRa]

the 760k is $35 cheaper than the 4130 at the moment, I think the 4130 is more logical choice to be honest, if you are going to pay an extra for MB and cooling,

faster with mantle and other games, and is fine with stock cooling and $50 MB

they problem being that the OC motherboard and cooler make the setup just as expensive as an intel based one without offering a huge advantage.

BF4 64-player maps is (besides RTS like SC2) the most CPU demanding scenario in gaming.

There is no need for expensive Motherboard or extra cooler. The default Heat-sink is adequate for 4-4.2GHz using the cheapest FM2/FM2+ motherboard.

 

[guskline]

Remobz, if you don't give us a budget it's really difficult to help. Tell us what parts you need to finish the computer and what your MAXIMUM limit is on $$$.

 

[sm625]

The best budget chip is a used 2500K.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Anyone remember the days when Pentium 4 3.2Ghz, 3.6Ghz, etc? End of netburst, and early AMD64 days? The AMD64 chips were overall more respected because their performance was usually a bit better at the time.

Well, I've discovered something. I rebuild PCs for a local charity, and we get nearly free non-profit licenses of Windows 7. Given that most of the PCs we're refurbing are old, I almost always install Windows 7 32-Bit Home Premium, as 64-Bit only pays off with 4GB+ of ram.

Now that I've explained that, what I've discovered is that all other things being equal or near equal (eg; 250GB SATA 7200RPM HDD, 2GB DDR2 Memory, Onboard Video, OEM mobo with no OC), the Pentium 4's with Hyperthreading ALWAYS outperform the single-core Athlon 64s of similar model in Windows 7 and modern software (LibreOffice, newest IE/Firefox/Chrome/Foxit/Youtube/etc). At the time it didn't seem to work all that great, but these days it's quite amazing really.

A clean install of W7 32 SP1 with 2GB of ram and a P4 3.4 actually is usable. So are the AMD boxes, but they just aren't as responsive. Strange but true. I'll make a video next time I get in a similar pair. Power on to desktop time, desktop time to open common apps, time to play youtube 480p, etc. Just better on the much maligned P4.

Once you get to the Athlon X2s, the P4s are absolutely left behind though, ditto Pentium Ds even. The single core AMDs though really bog (and the non HT P4s!).

Slightly OT, but...

The P4 600-series is quite good for such an "old" CPU actually. The 500-series is passable. Though I'm wondering if that "snappiness" you describe has to do with the fact that the 600-series has 2MB L2 cache. Far as I remember those early Athlon64's only had 512KB. The Socket 939's actually perform reasonably well when equipped with DDR400, even today. The Socket 754's just don't, however.

Early Athlon64's also benefit tremendously from some kind of discrete graphics card. Same goes for P4's actually. About the best you can hope for is the GMA910/15. I wouldn't want anyone to suffer Intel "Extreme" Graphics...

 

[kawi6rr]

how would a 280x with overclocked 8350 work together

That's the system I just built and it's a beast, handles everything I can throw at it with ease.

OP just keep in mind that it all depends on what you're doing with the system. AMD chips work great for gaming it just depends on what you want to do.

 

[Remobz]

Remobz, if you don't give us a budget it's really difficult to help. Tell us what parts you need to finish the computer and what your MAXIMUM limit is on $$$.

I would say my limit would be $500 or maybe $600 USD.

I will ONLY use a single graphics card and one monitor.



This is what I have already............

Asus PA238Q 23 inch 1080p monitor

8gb of samsung 1600mhz

128GB Samsung 840pro SSD

1 TB Western Digital HDD

AMD twin frozr 3 7850 2GB


I do not have a Case, CPU, motherboard and PSU yet.

I was hoping to get something that could handle the heavy load of BF3 64 player maps in MP. I guess I can hold off on BF4 until I can get a better graphics card in the future. However, it would be nice to get a CPU that can handle my future graphic card upgrades for awhile if possible?

 

[AtenRa]

I would say my limit would be $500 or maybe $600 USD.

I will ONLY use a single graphics card and one monitor.



This is what I have already............

Asus PA238Q 23 inch 1080p monitor

8gb of samsung 1600mhz

128GB Samsung 840pro SSD

1 TB Western Digital HDD

AMD twin frozr 3 7850 2GB


I do not have a Case, CPU, motherboard and PSU yet.

That is not low budget

You can get a Core i7 with that budget

Core i7 4770K = $340
ASRock Z87E-ITX mini-itx = $140 or $130 AR
SeaSonic S12G-450 450W 80 Gold Plus , Intel Haswell ready = $80
BitFenix Prodigy Midnight Black = $70

Total = $630 or $620 AR

That PSU is enough to drive even a R9 290X.

 

[Headfoot]

As far as im concerned, if you're upgrading from a 7850 2g then it's not a budget build any more. That's a solidly midrange card and anything above it is upper-midrange or high end.

EDIT: just saw your last post

A few things here:
BF4 is easily playable with high settings on a 7850 2g. I got a buddy who plays it at high settings on a 5850 w/ a i5 750 @ 4ghz, though his FPS tolerance is lower than mine. Especially with Mantle. Don't worry about your gfx card at this point for a mid range build. It is so much easier to upgrade the GPU as time goes on compared to CPU. Further, CPU speed increases are diminishing while GPU speed increases are staying relatively constant. A more cost friendly approach would be to replace your 7850 when you can feel it chugging, which won't be for a while at 1080p. In the meantime you can overclock the 7850 as you can gain a solid 20% additional speed from that or more if you have a great chip.

With a $500 budget I would definitely get at least the 4670k with a decent aftermarket cooler like the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo (2 fan configuration). AtenRa's build looks pretty nice. I personally would get a larger PSU just so that in the future if I added more HDD's or video cards I'd have a little bit of breathing room. I love my Corsair Modular 750w ($65 AR at Microcenter!)

 

[Remobz]

As far as im concerned, if you're upgrading from a 7850 2g then it's not a budget build any more. That's a solidly midrange card and anything above it is upper-midrange or high end.

EDIT: just saw your last post

A few things here:
BF4 is easily playable with high settings on a 7850 2g. I got a buddy who plays it at high settings on a 5850 w/ a i5 750 @ 4ghz, though his FPS tolerance is lower than mine. Especially with Mantle. Don't worry about your gfx card at this point for a mid range build. It is so much easier to upgrade the GPU as time goes on compared to CPU. Further, CPU speed increases are diminishing while GPU speed increases are staying relatively constant. A more cost friendly approach would be to replace your 7850 when you can feel it chugging, which won't be for a while at 1080p. In the meantime you can overclock the 7850 as you can gain a solid 20% additional speed from that or more if you have a great chip.

With a $500 budget I would definitely get at least the 4670k with a decent aftermarket cooler like the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo (2 fan configuration). AtenRa's build looks pretty nice. I personally would get a larger PSU just so that in the future if I added more HDD's or video cards I'd have a little bit of breathing room. I love my Corsair Modular 750w ($65 AR at Microcenter!)

You made some interesting points. I was eyeing the 4670k but I made this thread wondering if AMD has anything better than 4670k for a much cheaper price that might last for awhile longer?

Oh and what is the model of your PSU? Any newegg or amazon links?

 

[OCGuy]

You made some interesting points. I was eyeing the 4670k but I made this thread wondering if AMD has anything better than 4670k for a much cheaper price that might last for awhile longer?

You are wondering if AMD has a chip that is better, cheaper, and will have more longevity?

AMD's CPU issues are no secret. They have their niches where they excel, but being all three of those is not likely.

 

[crashtech]

AMD doesn't have anything better than the 4670K for gaming, except perhaps in situations where other CPU intensive tasks are to be run concurrently with the game, in these niche scenarios a 9370 can shine. But it's single-threaded performance falls way behind the 4670K, and hence will be slower at everything that needs fewer than 4 cores, which is almost everything, lol.

 

[Morbus]

to make flat statements about 10 years in the future is just being ignorant. you have no idea what 10 years from now will really be like and no one else does either.

Less than 10 years ago, in 2014, a very expensive, very high end computer would have included an Athlon 64 (that's a SINGLE CORE x64 CPU) on a system with 512/1024MB of RAM and a 6xxx GeForce...

It's impossible to think of that as a relevant machine these days. Even five years ago, it was hardly a relevant machine. No. Current CPUs won't be relevant in 10 years time, even if you cling to the old days.

 

[coolpurplefan]

I just completed a build with a CoolerMaster K280 case and Seasonic S12II 520 watt power supply.

The only thing with the K280 case is there's already a hole in the case perhaps for a video card. If your video card does not install in that hole, you need to cover it up if you don't want dust to come in.

 

[Blue_Max]

AMD doesn't have anything better than the 4670K for gaming, except perhaps in situations where other CPU intensive tasks are to be run concurrently with the game, in these niche scenarios a 9370 can shine...

That shine is the glow of searing heat from 220W of power being sucked through it!! D:

Seriously... that's almost TRIPLE the wattage of an i7!

What you may save up front will be slowly eaten away in electricity cost...

 

[JumBie]

You tell me.
Source: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-4670k-4670-4570-4430_5.html#sect0

AMD FX-8350 $219.99@Newegg
i5 4670K $254.99@Newegg
For $35 dollars more I personally think the i5 4670k is worth it. If were just strictly talking gaming that is.

 

[FalseChristian]

I tend to agree. My next upgrade will be a i7-3770K which my Sandy Bridge mobo supports.

I do like the AMD FX-8350, though. It roughly equals my stock i5-2500K and it has 8 cores.

My CPU overclocks a lot better, though. An i7 4770K is your best bet. The i5 4670K isn't much faster than my i5 2500K, though it does have a little better single-threaded and multi-threaded performance.

If you can grab a used i5 2500K for, like, $75, then it's a no-brainer. This chip easily overclocks to 4.5GHz with the right mobo (Go with a used P8Z68-V/GEN 3). It supports 2-way SLI and XFire.

 

[JumBie]

I tend to agree. My next upgrade will be a i7-3770K which my Sandy Bridge mobo supports.

I do like the AMD FX-8350, though. It roughly equals my stock i5-2500K and it has 8 cores.

My CPU overclocks a lot better, though. An i7 4770K is your best bet. The i5 4670K isn't much faster than my i5 2500K, though it does have a little better single-threaded and multi-threaded performance.

If you can grab a used i5 2500K for, like, $75, then it's a no-brainer. This chip easily overclocks to 4.5GHz with the right mobo (Go with a used P8Z68-V/GEN 3). It supports 2-way SLI and XFire.

$75 woah, sign me up for one of those, actually sign me up for 20.

 

[Maximilian]

Buy one of these:

FX 8320 - if you want to save some cash

i5 4670k - if you dont and want to overclock

i5 4570 - if you dont want to overclock

These 3 chips will be relevant for a long time! My crystal ball says around 5 years, probably more. i7 920 from 2009 is still relevant today, still a beastly chip. Q6600 is still decentish, it will run a lot of games well, struggle with others and thats 2006? tech.

 

[grimpr]

Get the i5 4570 if you dont overclock, pair it with a decent H87 board and you're set. Its a full featured Core i5 Haswell with all extensions included compared to the crippled K chips. Personally i dont buy K chips anymore since they had become cripples by Intel marketing.

http://ark.intel.com/products/75043/Intel-Core-i5-4570-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_60-GHz

http://ark.intel.com/compare/75048,75043

 

[lakedude]

crippled K chips?

 

[TerryMathews]

crippled K chips?

Yes. There are a number of features fused off on the 4770k that are active on the 4770.

 

[lakedude]

What do you know. Learn something new every day.

 

[Jovec]

Yes. There are a number of features fused off on the 4770k that are active on the 4770.

Though all of which are arguably irrelevant for desktop and gaming users. The K premium is probably worth it for users that don't plan to OC now, just to have that option later on. That is probably more useful than VPro, TSX, VT-d, and Trusted Execution.

 

[grimpr]

Irrelevant or not, i refuse to buy cripples and pay more for them, simple as that. K chips dont have for me the resale value of proper full featured Core i5/i7s since the extensions are architected in the core and artificially fused off by Intel marketing in the K series, they are cripples and nothing less.