New PC, AMD?

Hey guys.

I need a new PC. I was thinking of the Intel EE's that just came out, only thing is they are very bloody expensive. Everythings expensive, the CPU, Motherboard, even the memory.

So I was thinking that the FX-8370 and the ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer with 32Gb G.Skill Trident 2133Mhz memory would be a good more sensible budget option.

Now if I went with that and not an Intel build I could afford an R9-295x2.

Bear in mind I love gaming and plan on enjoying Star Citizen. So the question is, if as SC will be using, all 8 cores to the max. Will I get a good few years out of life from such a system? Is the FX-8370 a good CPU or am I wasting money?

I'm scratching my head, but would rather advice from AMD fans, you have all had experience, not hear-say.

What should I go for?

 

As an AMD owner, skip the FX and the 295 and go for an i5 with a pair of 970's.

 

Don't most of the i5's only outperform the FX because of poorly threaded games?

 

Check this link on farcry 4 performance, a game that is heavily threaded. Scroll down to the cpu section.

To summarise the intel 8 core i7 and 4 core i5 have the same performance and AMD's fastest CPU the FX 9590 (4.7/5.0Ghz) comes in 3rd.

 

+1, the i5 + 970's will be a much wiser move all round.

 

that's not the best example that is at 1920/1080
crank the res up and the number tighten a little.

but yeah 4690k and a cheap 97 board with ddr3 and either a 970/or faster 290x would do the job and not break the bank.


the current amd setup is a bit of a dead end so buying in now is like boarding the titanic 2 minutes before the iceberg(if you are looking at upgrading to there new gear later down the track that is not that AMD are sinking )

 

Socket 1150 is where Intel has good value. Any i5 will do, if you are doing any heavy multi-threaded tasks like lots of video editing / encoding the i7 might be worth going for.

 

The only reasons I didn't suggest the AMD cards is the extra 150w per gpu at load, the 295's cooler can handle it and stay fairly quiet but the performance per watt on that thing is atrocious. Basically the same performance as 2x 970's (both 5% faster/slower in certain titles) for 1.5x the power consumption and even with the aio liquid cooler the 295 is still warmer and slightly louder.

 

aparently start citizen is built on the crytek engine, so the Crysis3 benchmarks should be apparent here.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crysis-3-performance-benchmark-gaming,3451-8.html

the game was patched to 1.2 at the time of the benchmark..

im running an 8350 with a R290 and have not had too many issues with farcry 4.. with each patch release the game gets better.. and im able to crank up the graphics more. unfortunatly it was released by the pile of shit producer ubisoft, but this was not the unplayable pile of fecal matter that watchdogs was.

 

Star Citizen uses Cryengine but it's heavily modified, even including full 64Bit double precision that Cryengine currently doesn't have. The game will on release use every core a computer has (apparently). Also it will support Mantle.

I'm just thinking that now the consoles are octacore CPU based, more games will be properly multithreaded.

 

This is the system I'm thinking of.

This is what I'm thinking of, naturally if I look around I can get better pieces, but partspicker had these listed.

CPU: AMD FX-8370 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($259.00 @ Mwave Australia)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V8 GTS 82.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($96.00 @ IJK)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Killer ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($169.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($225.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($225.00 @ CPL Online)
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($412.00 @ IJK)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290X 4GB DirectCU II Video Card ($509.00 @ Scorptec)
Case: Cooler Master HAF XB EVO ATX Desktop Case ($125.00 @ CPL Online)
Power Supply: Aerocool GT1050S 1050W Power Supply ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($82.00 @ IJK)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar Phoebus 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($209.00 @ PLE Computers)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($106.00 @ IJK)

 

Not to sure why you even asked the original question as you seem to have already made your mind up despite most of the AMD fans here recommending an Intel based system

 

This is an idea, I haven't made my mind up yet, the only issue is that if I go Intel with the features I want, I will need to add another <>$600 to the budget.

Knowing what I have in mind, would I be better doing that or sticking with this build? I want at least 6 physical cores btw. Quad is a no go.

 

After you mentioned this, I did a little research and found that many people were seeing only 4 of their cores been used. Given that none of the reviewers are showing core utilization when they benchmark. Makes it hard to know if it was the cpu been slow or just not been used to its full potential.

 

Doesn't AMD use modules and not cores or something like that?

Yes games will be heavily multi-threaded. The processor in the consoles is quite average what single thread performance is concerned so they have no choice. It's got its origins on netbook processors like the E-300.

 

Any reason for this? Most games can't even fully utilise four cores. By the time this changes, it will be upgrade time again.

 

Two main reasons. Star Citizen will utilize all 8 cores effectiveness, in fact the recommended specs suggest that many. Secondly, thanks to the PS4 and XboxOne, new games will be programmed for a minimum of 6 cores.

Also I do video editing...

 

Depending on the application, this might make sense, but if this is only an afterthought because you want to run Star Citizen as best as possible you'd be better off pursuing the Intel / Nvidia (or Intel / AMD GPU route) route.

Despite developer overtones indicating that they will support extra CPU cores, there's no way in the world that they will release (or patch in at a later date) a game that doesn't perform well on 95%+ of the high end gaming computers and instead focus their efforts on the 5% (or less) 8 core AMD cpu's.

Edit - I thought that this was a PC release only, not a console release so not much point in optimising for their architecture?

 

Ah I use multiple applications for video. Messing with 3D camera footage isn't a one app task. Takes a damned long time too. Yes I do allot of video.

As for Star Citizen, CIG has partnered with AMD and will even use Mantle.

Oh and Star Citizen may not be a console game, but they're will be a Hell of allot that will be.

 

Ok you're set on AMD all good, again I'm an AMD user here too. For video editing I'd still go intel (ie the xeon E3 1231 V3 for $329) and for Mantle the 290x but up to you, have fun with your new rig.