gaming needs and cpu choosing

[Panavee]

Hello guys!!!I'm glad to actually be a member of this community now!I've been reading quite a bit here for the past few months...

The reason i registered is because i need some advice.I recently decided to build my own pc for general purposes(word,excel,internet etc...)but i thought to spend a bit extra so i can play a game once in a while.

the problem is i'm not sure what cpu to choose to fit my gaming needs,so here we go...

What i want is to be able to play games like borderlands 2 and sleeping dogs on ultra settings.For that reason i hear a gpu like radeon hd 7850 or 7870 is enough so that is what i am going to choose.

Now i know the i5 are the best.BUT i am not interested in playing games as good as possible in 2 years from now with a gtx 670.I will only be interested in gaming for the next year propably.....

So my question is should i go for AMD FX 4170 instead of an i5 to save that money and maybe get a better gpu later on?Is FX 4170 good enough to play games for about the next year on ultra?

Or,to rephrase it: Given the gpu is good will my gaming experience ever be held back due to the FX 4170 in the next year?

Thanks so much!!

 

[nyker96]

welcome to the forum. I'd say for most gaming situations, a decent GPU is more important, although personally i get a intel for gaming since they are less bottlenecked. still gaming experience is mostly gpu.

 

[toyota]

so you want to save about 10-15% of the total cost of your new pc to have an inferior cpu that will already limit a card's potential right now? spend a little more now and you have a much better cpu now and for down the road when you upgrade to another gpu.

 

[inf64]

FX4170 is probably good enough but you should pick 3570K and don't look back. It costs more but performs better (and OCs great too).

 

[Maximilian]

Hate to say it but when it comes to gaming intel is the only way to go. That FX4170 will hold back your 670, so forget about upgrading the GPU for extra performance. Go with the quad core i5, it will serve you well for much longer.

 

[Durvelle27]

Hate to say it but when it comes to gaming intel is the only way to go. That FX4170 will hold back your 670, so forget about upgrading the GPU for extra performance. Go with the quad core i5, it will serve you well for much longer.

not true at all. a FX 4170 would be fine with a GTX 670 or HD 7950


http://lab501.ro/placi-video/gigabyte-radeon-hd-7970-oc-partea-iv-scalare-cu-procesorul

 

[toyota]

not true at all. a FX 4170 would be fine with a GTX 670 or HD 7950


http://lab501.ro/placi-video/gigabyte-radeon-hd-7970-oc-partea-iv-scalare-cu-procesorul

yes it is most certainly true and has been proven over and over and over.

 

[Pilum]

What i want is to be able to play games like borderlands 2 and sleeping dogs on ultra settings.For that reason i hear a gpu like radeon hd 7850 or 7870 is enough so that is what i am going to choose.

For an optimal Borderlands 2 experience you'll need an Nvidia card for the PhysX support. Otherwise you won't get ultra quality.

As for the CPU: if you plan to keep the machine for a few years, going Intel is a safer bet. Some games do need rather high single-threaded performance, where AMD is severely behind. An i5 should serve you nicely and would be more future-proof than any current AMD offering. If you buy cheap you have to buy more often, which really isn't cheaper in the long run.

 

[Maximilian]

not true at all. a FX 4170 would be fine with a GTX 670 or HD 7950


http://lab501.ro/placi-video/gigabyte-radeon-hd-7970-oc-partea-iv-scalare-cu-procesorul

Those benches are all 1080p ultra with goblets of AA. Yeah ofc its its fine like that, but when upgrading to a better GPU 1-2 years down the line the framerate on an FX setup wont improve as much as on an i5 setup.

 

[Durvelle27]

Those benches are all 1080p ultra with goblets of AA. Yeah ofc its its fine like that, but when upgrading to a better GPU 1-2 years down the line the framerate on an FX setup wont improve as much as on an i5 setup.

and by then you can still just get a new cpu like Piledriver

 

[toyota]

and by then you can still just get a new cpu like Piledriver

lol, please give up and accept the fact that the i5 is the smarter long term solution.

 

[Durvelle27]

lol, please give up and accept the fact that the i5 is the smarter long term solution.

i'm not saying its not as i know an i5 is 10x better than an FX 4100 but i rather put more money into the gpu

 

[toyota]

i'm not saying its not as i know an i5 is 10x better than an FX 4100 but i rather put more money into the gpu

well if building a gaming pc from scratch that will use higher end gpus now with plans to upgrade to an even faster gpus later then you also need that cpu power. it makes more sense to do it right from the beginning plus it will cost less in the long run as the i5 has way more staying power. I knew this when I built my pc and did not try to skimp there. I had to wait a couple of extra weeks to get the gpu I wanted at the time but it it was worth it. I have a pc that will not limit any high end card for quite some time where the AMD cpu will already limit one right now. btw I had a gtx570 but sold it for a gtx670 which I returned so thats why I have just a gtx560 se for the time being.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Oh I feel a deja vu.

I wonder if the OP will return. The others didnt.

 

[Durvelle27]

well if building a gaming pc from scratch that will use higher end gpus now with plans to upgrade to an even faster gpus later then you also need that cpu power. it makes more sense to do it right from the beginning plus it will cost less in the long run as the i5 has way more staying power. I knew this when I built my pc and did not try to skimp there. I had to wait a couple of extra weeks to get the gpu I wanted at the time but it it was worth it. I have a pc that will not limit any high end card for quite some time where the AMD cpu will already limit one right now. btw I had a gtx570 but sold it for a gtx670 which I returned so thats why I have just a gtx560 se for the time being.

lets benchmark your rig agaisnt mines XD


Edit: i'm crossfiring my HD 6950 next week

 

[Maximilian]

and by then you can still just get a new cpu like Piledriver

All indications point to piledriver being similar to bulldozer in gaming, 7% faster.

 

[toyota]

lets benchmark your rig agaisnt mines XD


Edit: i'm crossfiring my HD 6950 next week

with the same card as you, I would most certainly have better overall performance.

 

[Durvelle27]

All indications point to piledriver being similar to bulldozer in gaming, 7% faster.

oops i meant Steamroller not piledriver

 

[Durvelle27]

with the same card as you, I would most certainly have better overall performance.

ok lets see

 

[Klunt Bumskrint]

Remember with CPU's you get what you pay for.

 

[Yuriman]

Checking Anandtech's bench, there are places where an i5 is as much as 75% faster than an FX-8150 (per clock) in games. My guess is that these are scenarios in single or 2-threaded tasks where you're not CPU limited. The FX-8150 is just twice an FX-4xxx.

What it boils down to is, do you really need a CPU that's 75% faster? Will you run into other bottlenecks before that becomes your limiting factor?

 

[Panavee]

Thank you so much for answering.I don't think you understand what i meant though and this is probably my fault.

I don't really care about gaming in,say,2 years from now.By then if i'm interested in gaming i will have probably built a whole new pc with everything better including the case etc...

The only thing i care about is games coming out in the next 6 months or 1 year.

So let me rephrase the question:

Let's say i go out tomorrow and i build 2 gaming rigs.Both are identical and have the radeon hd 7870 for a gpu.One has fx 4170 and the other i5 3450.Will the fx one have lower fps compared to the i5 one in the same games given everything else(including gpu)stays the same?

 

[Durvelle27]

about 1-5 FPS difference in most and in some games maybe 10 FPS like SC2 and WoW

 

[AtenRa]

Let's say i go out tomorrow and i build 2 gaming rigs.Both are identical and have the radeon hd 7870 for a gpu.One has fx 4170 and the other i5 3450.Will the fx one have lower fps compared to the i5 one in the same games given everything else(including gpu)stays the same?

Depending on the game but if you play at 1080p and above you will not see a substantial performance difference between the FX and the Core i5 in the majority of the Games.

Better get the FX4170 with GTX670 than Core i5 with HD7870.

 

[SammichPG]

Thank you so much for answering.I don't think you understand what i meant though and this is probably my fault.

I don't really care about gaming in,say,2 years from now.By then if i'm interested in gaming i will have probably built a whole new pc with everything better including the case etc...

The only thing i care about is games coming out in the next 6 months or 1 year.

So let me rephrase the question:

Let's say i go out tomorrow and i build 2 gaming rigs.Both are identical and have the radeon hd 7870 for a gpu.One has fx 4170 and the other i5 3450.Will the fx one have lower fps compared to the i5 one in the same games given everything else(including gpu)stays the same?

You didn't say your budget but from your words gaming would be very casual and it doesn't make sense to spend the money for a i5+7850.

A trinity APU (5700k) or a i3+discrete 75-100$ Nvidia (lower value, but has physix which is supported in few games) or ATI card are your best choices, spend the saved money in a good ssd which will benefit on a daily basis.

There are several articles regarding those two builds, bottom line is that they perform roughly the same and intel leaves room for upgrading to current i5 and maybe haswell (they like to change sockets a lot, wouldn't bet on it).
Personally I like the apu concept and since I'm into overclocking intel is not a viable choice in this budget (I really hate locked i3s), the intel build might use less power though and if you would just need the igp for office usage intel would be the best choice.

PS if you buy an APU spend the extra 15-20$ for ddr 1866 memory since the gaming performance really benefits from it.