[Solved] AMD FX 6300 or wait for Steamroller

[gx_saurav]

Hello, I need some advice regarding my next PC upgrade. My current configuration is as follows.

• AMD A6 3500 APU
• Crucial Ballistix 8 GB DDR3 1866 RAM
• MSI A75MA-G55 motherboard.
• Samsung P2370MS Monitor at 1080p
• Cooler Master hyper TX3 CPU cooler.
• Corsair CX500 v2 PSU.

I am able to play occasional games at mid settings with this APU such as Tomb Raider, Deux Ex, Rage, Batman Arkham series, etc. I am into FPS & survival type games like these or Crysis. No strategy, MMO or online gaming.

The most CPU intensive task I do on my system is transcoding videos for my Lumia 920 & working with Photoshop (many layers) and Visual Studio (app designing and development). Other then this it is regular browsing, watching movies etc.




I want to upgrade to a new gaming system and want to reuse as many existing components from my PC as possible. Not many choices are available here under my budget so I have shortlisted them to the following. I don't overclock.

• AMD FX6300
• MSI 970A-G43 motherboard.
• Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 1 GB OC from Amazon.
• Use my existing cabinet, CPU cooler, RAM and power supply.

I am not aiming for ultra quality gaming. I usually play at 1366x768px but would like to play at 1600x900 or even 1080p if possible but not a must. Add to it tessellation, anti-alliasing etc. Is the above configuration ok for these?

Should I wait for AMD Steamroller? I just heard the news that Steamroller based FX CPUs will come by May 2014 only and Steamroller based APU are also delayed now so is going with AMD FX 6300 a good idea considering I won't be upgrading CPU/Motherboard/GPU for next 2 years.

Another cheap upgrade I can do is to buy an AMD A8 3870k CPU which I can use on my existing motherboard and upgrade to a Steamroller CPU some time next year.

Now, I am skeptical if A8 3870k will bottleneck HD 7850 if playing games at resolution of 1600x900. Even if it does then how much?

 

[NTMBK]

We're not sure whether there will be any Steamroller FX parts, sadly. There's been no sign of them on any roadmap, and none of the low-end Opterons which share a die with the FX parts are getting updated to Steamroller. The APUs may be your only option for Steamroller.

I'd put myself in the "wait and see" camp. Put a discrete GPU in your current rig (that 7850 you listed looks pretty good) and you'll already see a very noticeable improvement over the 3500's integrated graphics. It should be enough to keep you going until a decent improvement comes along.

As for a 95W TDP CPU- really don't worry about it. That 7850 you want has a 130W TDP

 

[USER8000]

I would get the FX6300(I had a SB Core i3 BTW) if you need to get a CPU now. Rage due to its use of megatexturing does better on multicore CPUs:

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph4955/41704.png

TR runs better on the FX6300:

http://gamegpu.ru/images/stories/Test_GPU/Action/Tomb%20Raider%20%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%20GPU%20v%202/tr%20proz.png
http://techreport.com/r.x/a10-6800k/tr-fps.gif

Batman does better on the FX6300:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/cpu/fx-8350-8320-6300-4300/batman.png

Deus Ex should run fine a tad better on the Core i3 I suspect.

OTH,you might just be able to use your current CPU with a new graphics card.

Have you tried overclocking it??

 

[Jimzz]

I would just add a GPU and get a faster CPU for the board you have.

The Athlon II X4 651k or A6-3670K shoud be cheap. The high end cpu for that board is the A8-3870K but offers little over the last 2 if you overclock.

 

[blckgrffn]

I vote the same - better APU for the current board and a solid discrete card + save the rest and wait as long as you can.

A higher end CPU in your system will really help out, I think.

The CPU portion of the APU you have is pretty exceptionally weak.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?...FUJlMgodgTQAlQ

That bad boy is going to be another full FPU/core, + 900 mhz per core without even overclocking! I always get this messed up, but that is as much as 50% faster per core, not to forget about the additional core. 3.4Ghz with minimal effort I think is pretty typical from these CPU's. $73 shipped is a easy drop-in upgrade. Ebay/Craiglist your current CPU and recoup what you can.

Not sure if you can order from Superbiiz, but you can order from Amazon?

 

[gx_saurav]

We're not sure whether there will be any Steamroller FX parts, sadly. There's been no sign of them on any roadmap, and none of the low-end Opterons which share a die with the FX parts are getting updated to Steamroller. The APUs may be your only option for Steamroller.

Damn. This is very sad. Even so, how much performance is expected from Steamroller over Piledriver? APU is going to be pretty much useless for me as I will have a discreet GPU anyway so it is only the CPU part which interests me.

I'd put myself in the "wait and see" camp. Put a discrete GPU in your current rig (that 7850 you listed looks pretty good) and you'll already see a very noticeable improvement over the 3500's integrated graphics. It should be enough to keep you going until a decent improvement comes along.

I would get the FX6300(I had a SB Core i3 BTW) if you need to get a CPU now.

Assuming the GPU is finalized, will an AMD A8 3870k bottleneck this GPU at around 1600x900px resolution? The reason for this is because I am getting A8 3870k at $70 after selling my existing APU.

This is a very cheap upgrade possible for me right now. If this CPU can hold my gaming needs then I can save money and buy Steamroller APU/FX after a year.

 

[gx_saurav]

That bad boy is going to be another full FPU/core, + 900 mhz per core without even overclocking! I always get this messed up, but that is as much as 50% faster per core, not to forget about the additional core. 3.4Ghz with minimal effort I think is pretty typical from these CPU's. $73 shipped is a easy drop-in upgrade. Ebay/Craiglist your current CPU and recoup what you can.

Thanks for link to that Athlon. I wasn't aware that there are Athlon CPUs for FM1 socket too. Also, I don't overclock so going to be with stock speeds only. Let me check Amazon and eBay. I am getting A8 3870k at the same price after giving my A6 3500.

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[blckgrffn]

You should not be "unreasonably" bottle-necked at that resolution given a GPU like a 7850.

Undoubtedly some games that are GPU-lite and CPU (especially single-threaded) heavy like StarCraft 2 will be slower than they could be with an i7 or something, but this isn't going to be the difference between playable & unplayable. More like "frame so so high it doesn't matter" and "incredibly high frame rates that still don't matter."

It's going to be a huge lift over what you have now. That super-low for a desktop 2.1ghz clockspeed is really holding you back right now.

Having that A8 will be nice in that you could always use the onboard GPU if something happened to your graphics card or you decided to turn this rig into a secondary HTPC in the future, etc.

 

[gx_saurav]

@griffin

Ok. What about the PSU? Is it ok for a AMD FX 6300 later or should I get a higher power PSU? This is my current PSU http://www.corsair.com/builder-series-cx500-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html PSU is the last thing I will upgrade so this will very well stay for 3 years easily or even more.

Which are single threaded games? I don't play games like Starcraft so don't know if Single threaded performance will be bad with games like Tomb Raider, Crysis, Alan Wake etc.

I am going to check in the local market on Saturday to see if 3870k/Ahtlon is available or not.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

@griffin

Ok. What about the PSU? Is it ok for a AMD FX 6300 later or should I get a higher power PSU? This is my current PSU http://www.corsair.com/builder-series-cx500-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html PSU is the last thing I will upgrade so this will very well stay for 3 years easily or even more.

Which are single threaded games? I don't play games like Starcraft so don't know if Single threaded performance will be bad with games like Tomb Raider, Crysis, Alan Wake etc.

PSU is fine.

 

[gx_saurav]

So far this is the current upgrade list considering I am tight on budget.

1. Get AMD A8 3870k APU and sell existing APU.
2. Get Radeon HD 7850 GPU.
3. Keep existing motherboard, RAM, Cabinet, power supply, Fan etc.

Since I only get time to play games on weekends and on weekdays my usage is less, this looks sufficient till July 2014. By that time we will know the condition of Steamroller FX/Kaveri and then I will see if I should upgrade to AMD FX or Intel Haswell.

Let me inquire about availability in local market and get back to you. Thanks for clearing my doubts. This forum rocks when it comes to technicalities.

 

[SPBHM]

what is the cost of the upgrade to the 3870K?

if possible get a 650 Ti boost or 7850 with 2GB of memory.

 

[sm625]

That is a very slow processor. 3 cores at low clock speed. An upgrade to an A8-3870k would get you 25% more clocks and 33% more cores. And you can overclock it at least a little bit. But that's $87. If you can get $40 for your chip then I would order the A8-3870k the same day you ship your A6-3500. That upgrade is definitely worth $47.

 

[SPBHM]

That is a very slow processor. 3 cores at low clock speed. An upgrade to an A8-3870k would get you 25% more clocks and 33% more cores. And you can overclock it at least a little bit. But that's $87. If you can get $40 for your chip then I would order the A8-3870k the same day you ship your A6-3500. That upgrade is definitely worth $47.

yes but, if he overclocks the 3500 the gain will be smaller,

I think FM1 could work with the "FSB" at higher rates, like 133, and I think he can change the multiplier to the maximum turbo mode for all the cores, so something like 24x133 should be possible (3.2GHz), obviously it would only have 3 cores...

but as you said, $50 for this upgrade is not to bad.

 

[gx_saurav]

what is the cost of the upgrade to the 3870K?

On eBay Global it is available for $120 (I know this is costly) so I want to check in local market here in New Delhi. My existing APU can be sold for about $ 50.

AMD FX 6300 is also costing $ 120 here but that also needs a new motherboard which is costing me another $ 100 which is why I want to stick with current motherboard and spend saved money on GPU.

if possible get a 650 Ti boost or 7850 with 2GB of memory.

GeForce 650 Ti boost and Radeon HD 7850 overclocked are costing me about the same so will check warranty and availability here first. I don't think 2 gb will help in my gaming scenario as I won't be playing at high resolutions so I can save some money by going with 1 GB edition.

 

[SPBHM]

On eBay Global it is available for $120 (I know this is costly) so I want to check in local market here in New Delhi. My existing APU can be sold for about $ 50.

AMD FX 6300 is also costing $ 120 here but that also needs a new motherboard which is costing me another $ 100 which is why I want to stick with current motherboard and spend saved money on GPU.



I just checked the price of GeForce 650. Looks nice cost wise. Let me see if this is available here.

be careful with the 650,

the 650 Ti Boost is equivalent to the 7850
the 650 Ti is equivalent to the 7790 or less
the 650 is equivalent to the 7750

maybe you should try overclocking the 3500 and buying the new card, if you feel it's not enough than you should go for a faster CPU (and motherboard) because you can also sell the Fm1 board later... $120 for llano don't sound good.

I don't think 2 gb will help in my gaming scenario as I won't be playing at high resolutions so I can save some money by going with 1 GB edition.

it really depends on the game,
I had some vram problems with 1GB testing in 1280x1024 with Skyrim (ultra settings, AA, high quality textures DLC) and swtor (max settings), hitting the 1024MB limit and causing some stutters and other issues...
but in most games it's ok.

 

[blckgrffn]

PSU is fine.

Yes, it is. :thumbsup:

As for single threaded games, StarCraft 2 is currently the best example I can even come up with of a "modern" game where it really seems to matter.

There are plenty of very well read/experienced folks here who likely have better answers though

 

[gx_saurav]

be careful with the 650,

the 650 Ti Boost is equivalent to the 7850
the 650 Ti is equivalent to the 7790 or less
the 650 is equivalent to the 7750

Yes, I checked. Galaxy 650 Ti Boost is costing me more then 7850 so I will go with the same Gigabyte 7850 1 GB OC.

maybe you should try overclocking the 3500 and buying the new card, if you feel it's not enough than you should go for a faster CPU (and motherboard) because you can also sell the Fm1 board later... $120 for llano don't sound good.

My past experience and fear of overclocking is the reason I don't overclock.

$120 for Llano is from eBay global & yes it is costly. Local market is usually less costing. Let me check first.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yes, it is. :thumbsup:

As for single threaded games, StarCraft 2 is currently the best example I can even come up with of a "modern" game where it really seems to matter.

There are plenty of very well read/experienced folks here who likely have better answers though

Total War series comes to mind. Shogun TW totally pegs one core of my i5 2320 and hardly utilizes the other cores at all.

 

[USER8000]

Assuming the GPU is finalized, will an AMD A8 3870k bottleneck this GPU at around 1600x900px resolution? The reason for this is because I am getting A8 3870k at $70 after selling my existing APU.

This is a very cheap upgrade possible for me right now. If this CPU can hold my gaming needs then I can save money and buy Steamroller APU/FX after a year.

@griffin

Ok. What about the PSU? Is it ok for a AMD FX 6300 later or should I get a higher power PSU? This is my current PSU http://www.corsair.com/builder-series-cx500-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html PSU is the last thing I will upgrade so this will very well stay for 3 years easily or even more.

Which are single threaded games? I don't play games like Starcraft so don't know if Single threaded performance will be bad with games like Tomb Raider, Crysis, Alan Wake etc.

I am going to check in the local market on Saturday to see if 3870k/Ahtlon is available or not.

I would look at the Athlon II X4 651K,651 and 640. These are basically FM1 A6 and A8 CPUs with the IGP deactivated. They tend to be cheaper than the APU parts.

Regarding CPU performance they should be around the same as a Phenom II X4 at the same clockspeed and are faster than the AM3 Athlon II X4 CPUs. The extra core and big gains in clockspeed over your A6 3500 should be a decent boost. Look at the benchmarks I listed in my previous post in my thread.

Alan Wake is not that CPU intensive TBH:

http://gamegpu.ru/images/stories/Test_GPU/Action/Alan%20Wake%20American%20Nightmare/test/an%20proz.png

How much will your CPU and motherboard sell for you out of interest?? The MSI motherboard is not a cheap one,so it should have a reasonable secondhand price.

However,the FX6300 would be a bigger boost overall in some games.In Crysis3 it should do well for a CPU in its price range:

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/scree...ntel-Dualcore-Haswell-4570T-Crysis-3-pcgh.png

http://gamegpu.ru/images/stories/Test_GPU/Action/Alan Wake American Nightmare/test/an proz.png

However,if you are on a tight budget upgrading just your CPU would probably cost less.

 

[gx_saurav]

I would look at the Athlon II X4 651K,651 and 640.

I will look in the market if these are available. Judging by the cost, here they are similarly priced in which case I would prefer to have onboard graphics as a backup solution in case my GPU ever malfunctions.

How much will your CPU and motherboard sell for you out of interest?? The MSI motherboard is not a cheap one,so it should have a reasonable secondhand price.

I purchased both CPU and motherboard for about ₹ 8,000 which is around $ 143 as per today's conversion rate. It is one year old so for around $ 90 easily in local market but not more than that.

Alan Wake is not that CPU intensive TBH:

I thought so too. Am I correct if I say that FPS and TPS are more GPU dependent then CPU? For MMO and online gaming like BF3 a faster CPU may make sense due to all the AI.

FX 6300 will indeed be a big boost but if I consider that I will also have to change my motherboard. If I am changing CPU + motherboard then I would rather prefer to go with Haswell/Steamroller all together so I believe CPU upgrade should be able to hold my gaming needs for 1 more year before I upgrade to Steamroller or even an Ivy Bridge Core i5. I can very well save around $400 by then only for the CPU + motherboard and use everything else from current build.

 

[USER8000]

I will look in the market if these are available. Judging by the cost, here they are similarly priced in which case I would prefer to have onboard graphics as a backup solution in case my GPU ever malfunctions.



I purchased both CPU and motherboard for about ₹ 8,000 which is around $ 143 as per today's conversion rate. It is one year old so for around $ 90 easily in local market but not more than that.



I thought so too. Am I correct if I say that FPS and TPS are more GPU dependent then CPU? For MMO and online gaming like BF3 a faster CPU may make sense due to all the AI.

FX 6300 will indeed be a big boost but if I consider that I will also have to change my motherboard. If I am changing CPU + motherboard then I would rather prefer to go with Haswell/Steamroller all together so I believe CPU upgrade should be able to hold my gaming needs for 1 more year before I upgrade to Steamroller or even an Ivy Bridge Core i5. I can very well save around $400 by then only for the CPU + motherboard and use everything else from current build.

Thats the thing,going by your earlier posts the FX6300 and a 970 motherboard would be around $200 equivalent,so that means the FX6300 would be $110 equivalent after selling your old bits. You say that selling your current CPU and getting an A8 3870K would cost around $70 equivalent.

Hence for the extra $40 equivalent the FX6300 would be worth the extra IMHO.

However,I think you need to see what the actual prices are in the market first!

If you get a good deal on a cheap CPU to plonk into your motherboard, then that would probably be more cost effective and also give you a decent performance boost too.

Regarding FPS games,I actually ran a few on an overclocked HD5850 1GB on a mildly overclocked Q6600 and an A6 3670K(in a secondary rig),and it was not too bad TBH. However,I did not try any of the latest titles released in the last 9 to 12 months or so on them,as they both are not my current main system.

 

[gx_saurav]

You can also see the current rate list in local market here. Not all possible CPU/GPU are mentioned here as this is list for just 1 shop out of many, for reference. http://www.costtocost.in/list/pricelist.pdf AMD FX 6300 + Asus M5A97 R2.0 is costing me $ 228 from this shop.

So 228 - approx 90 for my existing setup + new GPU. Black Friday deals are coming soon in 3 months so I think by then I can get better deals on GPUs from Amazon then. Right now Radeon HD 7850 is costing me $ 200 including import fees duty in India. It costs $ 250 in local market.

What is the state of new HD 9xxx series Radeon GPU coming? Is it worth waiting for a mid range 9850 or 9750? The only benefit I can think of is reduced power usage which is good but also something to consider in case of a desktop tower.

 

[USER8000]

ATM,only the top end AMD HD9000 graphics cards will be released in a few months,probably followed by the lower end cards after that. That is usually what happens unless of course AMD goes for a full refresh over a few weeks.

 

[gx_saurav]

ATM,only the top end AMD HD9000 graphics cards will be released in a few months,probably followed by the lower end cards after that. That is usually what happens unless of course AMD goes for a full refresh over a few weeks.

Judging by the current condition, it is highly unlikely. Those Radeon HD 9850 will be out sometime in January 2014 only which is 6 months away.

I will go with 7850 only for now.