Should I upgrade my CPU platform now (AM3+/FX-8350), or should I wait a little while?

[Dankk]

I'll keep this short: My FX-8350 is feeling long in the tooth. I'm talking about video games. Frankly, its gaming performance is depressing in most scenarios, and I can actually feel (and measure) its hindrance in some more demanding titles. Benchmarks clearly show it too.

AM3+ is a dying platform. AMD has no visible plans for high-end desktop CPUs for the forseeable future. I would really love having a big boost in CPU gaming performance right now, and it looks like the only direction for me to go is Intel, which means a new motherboard altogether.

My question: Is it worth it right now to upgrade to, say, an i5-4690k? Or is the improvement too marginal to bother with? Is Haswell a good buy at the moment or is it worth waiting for Intel's new CPUs presumably coming out in 2015? (I don't actually follow Intel's release schedule too closely, so sorry if I'm off-base).

What's weighing on me even more, is that DDR3 memory is on its way out and DDR4 has already started trickling in. But the only way to get DDR4 right now is to use one of those really expensive Haswell-E i7 CPUs, right? How much longer until Intel comes out with a next-gen i5, presumably with a DDR4 memory controller? Maybe at that point, DDR4 memory will be cheaper as well, faster, and it would be an overall better investment? What do you think?

With Christmas and end-of-year bonuses from work, I have money to burn, and could easily upgrade right now (if it's a good idea). But if it's better to wait a few months, then I am patient enough to wait. Please advise. Thanks in advance.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Skylake desktop is around summer 2015 on LGA1151 with the 100 series chipset. Dual and quadcores.

Gaming wise anything would be a huge upgrade for you.

The question you need to ask is, when do you need it. Else you could as such wait forever.

 

[schmuckley]

doo eet! do eet naow!
4690K + Biostar z97we

 

[Arachnotronic]

I say get the 4790K + Z97 board and make the most of the DDR3 investment I see in your sig :thumbsup:

 

[TheELF]

Skylake desktop is around summer 2015 on LGA1151 with the 100 series chipset. Dual and quadcores.

Actually production is supposed to start summer 2015 ,so you probably won't be able to buy them before the end of the year.

Performance boost from haswell in new well threaded games will not be high enough * to justify the high price of changing the platform,in other games you will see a big improvement.

Slow ddr4 is the same as fast ddr3 so you will have to spend a lot of money if you want to have something better than fast ddr3 speeds,and even then in gaming it won't have a real effect.

* 8350 gets well over or close enough to 60fps for it to make any difference

 

[ShintaiDK]

Actually production is supposed to start summer 2015 ,so you probably won't be able to buy them before the end of the year.

Performance boost from haswell in new well threaded games will not be high enough * to justify the high price of changing the platform,in other games you will see a big improvement.

Slow ddr4 is the same as fast ddr3 so you will have to spend a lot of money if you want to have something better than fast ddr3 speeds,and even then in gaming it won't have a real effect.

* 8350 gets well over or close enough to 60fps for it to make any difference

Last I checked it said summertime for actual products.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I agree it may not be worth it to upgrade. It depends on what games you play, and the settings. I definitely would go with intel if starting a system from scratch, but the 8350 is decent to quite good depending on the game. What sort of performance issues are you seeing, and what games do you play at what resolution and settings?

A summary of recent well threaded games on game.gpu shows about a 25% improvement with a 4670k over an 8350, both at stock, average of 8 games. Min framerates were almost 30% better. More single threaded games will show a bigger improvement of course. I guess you have to decide if this level of improvement is worth it.

However, if you do decide to upgrade, I would go to the 4790k as another poster already suggested. Hyperthreading is starting to show some benefits in selected titles. Since you have a pretty good system, you could of course wait for skylake and Broadwell K, but I am not anticipating any great increase in cpu performance. I am not sure either when DDR4 will reach the mainstream intel platform, but it will offer little improvement with a discrete gpu. Again as another poster suggested, I would make use of the ram you currently have.

 

[Ramses]

What games are giving you grief?
I'v'e been wondering the same thing, except out of boredom lol.
I have had zero issues with my 9590 and crossfire 280x setup, it eats up anything
I've tried to play on it at 1080p, sometimes I'll lower some setting a bit, nothing crazy.
But I'm a pretty laid back "gamer" these days, but I can't think what it would be down right depressing on other than a handful of titles unless something is amiss.

Tried bumping the clock speed a bit to hold you over?

 

[Enigmoid]

I agree. What is wrong with the 8350?

 

[Headfoot]

I'd say call this the "Last of the DDR3" upgrade and don't worry about DDR4. Use your existing DDR3 and put it into a 4790k board. You keep 8 threads, gain a ton of single thread performance. Performance upgrades between generations has been so weak in CPUs lately that I wouldn't worry about the next gen. I bet it'll get talked up like its going to be the greatest thing ever and then there will be maybe 10% improvement again.

 

[positivedoppler]

I think the best bang for your buck that will offer you the best overall gaming improvement while giving your spending the longest life is to upgrade to a Freesync monitor. It's suppose to be released next month so it might be worth your while to wait for the reviews to come out. Your 290X already support it and if it works as well as advertise it probably will provide you more benefit than adding a few more FPS with a cpu upgrade.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Just in the interest of saving some bucks, sell your 8350 and get a 9370. Vishera sees a considerable increase in performance from 4.4ghz and up
Next year get skylake and DDR4

 

[Chevron]

I seriously doubt there's any game you're playing now that doesn't give you 60FPS. If there is it's not the CPU holding back.

I'd rather spend the cash on a proper larger capacity SSD so you can install your games on it.

 

[escrow4]

5820K. If you upgrade now go big. And if you still think FX is half decent:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-4-benchmark-performance-review,4019-4.html

Look at the minimum for FX at the bottom. It WILL dip. It won't sustain high minimum's which is even more important than average.

 

[Bradtech519]

I have the same CPU you have. I mainly do distributed computing and occasional gaming on newer titles. The 4790k murders the 8350 or even the 9590 in CPU tasks on some DC projects. Talking about 5 minutes per task.. I've given serious consideration to getting a 4790k/Motherboard & quality aftermarket cooler.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I'd say if you know the CPU is holding you back enough to bother you, then upgrade. That's the point at which I start looking around for what deals I can find on new hardware. Also, 4.2GHz isn't too big of an overclock. I was able to go well above 5GHz on an MSI 990FXA-GD80, you could always go for more clock speed (not that another 10% will likely make a huge impact, worth looking into).

 

[Dankk]

What sort of performance issues are you seeing, and what games do you play at what resolution and settings?

I'm frustrated with games like Hitman Absolution, which will always dip down to ~40fps in scenes with lots of crowds (I game at 1080p). Or games like ARMA 3. Planetside 2. MMOs such as Guild Wars 2. And - some people will slay me for saying this, but - some Ubisoft games could really benefit from an upgrade too, such as Far Cry 4. These are some examples of titles that make me feel CPU bottlenecked.

I'd say if you know the CPU is holding you back enough to bother you, then upgrade. That's the point at which I start looking around for what deals I can find on new hardware. Also, 4.2GHz isn't too big of an overclock. I was able to go well above 5GHz on an MSI 990FXA-GD80, you could always go for more clock speed (not that another 10% will likely make a huge impact, worth looking into).

People always say the FX-8350 is absurdly easy to overclock; but I think I must've lost the silicon lottery. I can barely push my chip to a stable 4.4GHz without feeding it lots of Vcore, and even then, I don't bother with it because the temperature ends up going too far out of my comfort zone on full load (over 60 degrees).

I'm seriously considering just building a new 4790k rig at this point.

 

[Ramses]

Couple of those games are one's I have to back a few things to high rather than ultra-high or whatever on but they aren't offensive at all. But if it's bothering you it's bothering you. Go for the upgrade, if you can't overclock it isn't worth bothering with a 9590 or 70 unless you find one super cheap. After which you'll want more GPU.
I'm in the ddr4 not worth the bother right now camp as well, least for the cost in the foreseeable future.

 

[Bradtech519]

Mine doesn't OC well ether. Others do have better luck it seems.

I'm frustrated with games like Hitman Absolution, which will always dip down to ~40fps in scenes with lots of crowds (I game at 1080p). Or games like ARMA 3. Planetside 2. MMOs such as Guild Wars 2. And - some people will slay me for saying this, but - some Ubisoft games could really benefit from an upgrade too, such as Far Cry 4. These are some examples of titles that make me feel CPU bottlenecked.




People always say the FX-8350 is absurdly easy to overclock; but I think I must've lost the silicon lottery. I can barely push my chip to a stable 4.4GHz without feeding it lots of Vcore, and even then, I don't bother with it because the temperature ends up going too far out of my comfort zone on full load (over 60 degrees).

I'm seriously considering just building a new 4790k rig at this point.

 

[Jovec]

I'm frustrated with games like Hitman Absolution, which will always dip down to ~40fps in scenes with lots of crowds (I game at 1080p). Or games like ARMA 3. Planetside 2. MMOs such as Guild Wars 2. And - some people will slay me for saying this, but - some Ubisoft games could really benefit from an upgrade too, such as Far Cry 4. These are some examples of titles that make me feel CPU bottlenecked.

HW i5/i7 will game better than FX, without question. CPU heavy games like MMOs and Blizzard titles will show a larger-than-normal Intel bias. Some games like Arma3 probably chug no matter the system. Even if average and max FPS are close, minimum FPS will often be noticeable better on Intel. HW will also get you:

- an IGP (backup GPU, quicksync, future use as office/htpc box)
- a better SATA controller (real-world usefulness debatable)
- lower idle and load power consumption
- SSD caching with the right chipset (real-world usefulness debatable given current SSD pricing)
- AVX2 (real-world usefulness debatable) and broken TSX (on non-k / DC)

If you are running stock cooling on FX then you may need to include an after-market HSF with a HW upgrade.

It won't be a night-and-day difference, but I have no doubt that gamers would pick HW over FX given otherwise identical systems in a blind play test 9 out of 10. It's up to you if you want to spend the money. There is a reason than 8350 launched at $200 and can be had for around $170 now. In fairness, most would classify the 8350 and HW i7 as being in different CPU classes due to the price difference., and rightly so.

People always say the FX-8350 is absurdly easy to overclock; but I think I must've lost the silicon lottery. I can barely push my chip to a stable 4.4GHz without feeding it lots of Vcore, and even then, I don't bother with it because the temperature ends up going too far out of my comfort zone on full load (over 60 degrees).

I'm seriously considering just building a new 4790k rig at this point.

I need 1.5v with high LLC on a lapped 8350 paired with a lapped NH-D14 to be p95 stable at 4.8Ghz. These settings also exceed TCTL_max by about 2C, and require me to disable APM and turbo (i.e. the things that keep FX at 125w) so it pulls ~390w at the wall on a gold SS PSU running P95. It is a first batch / early batch 8350, so later models may have better luck, but it is still a YMMV situation.

 

[Abwx]

5820K. If you upgrade now go big. And if you still think FX is half decent:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/far-cry-4-benchmark-performance-review,4019-4.html

Look at the minimum for FX at the bottom. It WILL dip. It won't sustain high minimum's which is even more important than average.

Because the 5820 is so good for Arma.?.

This is at 1080p ultra without AA in a heavy scene.

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/924-15/jeux-3d-crysis-3-arma-iii.html

 

[tential]

Nothing really will be worth the cash you get from upgrading right now.
Wait til Skylake and see how that performance pans out.

Just because you have money to burn doesn't mean you should burn it.
Save it and wait for the real deals to come along.

 

[Enigmoid]

Because the 5820 is so good for Arma.?.

This is at 1080p ultra without AA in a heavy scene.

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/924-15/jeux-3d-crysis-3-arma-iii.html

I think it goes without saying he will overclock.

 

[Abwx]

I think it goes without saying he will overclock.

One should read Hardware.fr protocol page in the article i linked, they removed HT on some games as it reduce perfs by as much as 15%, overall it s is not a clearcut situation on the graphs, more HT threads is not forcibly better with Intel s CPUs when it comes to games.

https://translate.googleusercontent...t.html&usg=ALkJrhggdacQNemUJ2_DzAPhaJ3AaPbKog

 

[Ramses]

lot of money for 10fps, this is why I'm still waiting too. drag