Is FX-6300 still a good gaming CPU in 2015?

[throwa]

With Skylake pentiums/i3's right around the corner, is this chip still a good buy?

I'm thinking of putting together a cheap AMD machine for a family member who is computer illiterate, said family member will provide money for parts and I'll be putting it together for him. His budget is $550, with not much more room. He'll be doing light gaming and internet browsing on his 1680 x 1050 screen. I'm thinking the FX-6300 would be more "future proof" with the extra cores.

Also, what AMD motherboard brands are "best" or "most reliable"? I know for Intel the "best" brands are ones like ASRock, Gigabyte, Asus, etc but I have no idea what the "preferred" brands are for AMD. I am an Intel guy myself, and haven't really "kept tabs" on AMD since about 2009.

What say you on this matter, andandtech? Verdict?

thanks

EDIT: I forgot to ask but, is the FX-6300 stock cooler sufficient on it's own? or would an aftermarket cooler be necessary? This is important because it may or may not mean an extra $30-$40 added on the final price.

 

[jhu]

With Skylake pentiums/i3's right around the corner, is this chip still a good buy?

I'm thinking of putting together a cheap AMD machine for a family member who is computer illiterate, said family member will provide money for parts and I'll be putting it together for him. His budget is $550, with not much more room. He'll be doing light gaming and internet browsing on his 1680 x 1050 screen. I'm thinking the FX-6300 would be more "future proof" with the extra cores.

Also, what AMD motherboard brands are "best" or "most reliable"? I know for Intel the "best" brands are ones like ASRock, Gigabyte, Asus, etc but I have no idea what the "preferred" brands are for AMD. I am an Intel guy myself, and haven't really "kept tabs" on AMD since about 2009.

What say you on this matter, andandtech? Verdict?

thanks

EDIT: I forgot to ask but, is the FX-6300 stock cooler sufficient on it's own? or would an aftermarket cooler be necessary? This is important because it may or may not mean an extra $30-$40 added on the final price.

What game(s)? (E.g. Guild Wars 2 or World of Warcraft: will be pretty adequate)

 

[Ranulf]

I lean towards gigabyte but the big names all seem to be good for mobos. 970 chipset or 760G depending on your budget. Stock cooler is fine for stock if you dont mind noise, a hyper 212 evo type cooler would be best.

 

[throwa]

What game(s)? (E.g. Guild Wars 2 or World of Warcraft: will be pretty adequate)

He plays pretty light duty stuff, he has a WoW subscription and dabbles in Robocraft as well. He also plays League.

 

[AtenRa]

I would go for the Core i3 6100, those games dont need more than 2 threads and the socket 1151 platform is new.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I would go for the Core i3 6100, those games dont need more than 2 threads and the socket 1151 platform is new.

This.

 

[Leyawiin]

I would go for the Core i3 6100, those games dont need more than 2 threads and the socket 1151 platform is new.

Good luck finding one.

 

[AtenRa]

Good luck finding one.

heh, they are available in Europe and i thought they would be in the US as well.

 

[SPBHM]

yes I think Skylake i3 is a better option for most games,

if you can't find one yet it might be worth waiting a little bit, the 6100 seems to have the best price/perf

the only concern that I have is memory, DDR4 is a little bit more expensive and I don't know how well 1.5v DDR3 will work with the cheapest 1151 DDR3 boards, and if they even allow you to undervolt (probably not)

 

[svenge]

The FX-6300 was never a good gaming CPU to begin with (except for highly GPU-bound games).

 

[AtenRa]

The FX-6300 was never a good gaming CPU to begin with (except for highly GPU-bound games).

Many latest Games are performing equally/better than the Core i3 Haswell with the FX6300. And at DX-12 games the FX6300 will gain more.

But for the games the OP want, even a Pentium/Athlon 860K will do more than fine.

 

[scannall]

With Skylake pentiums/i3's right around the corner, is this chip still a good buy?

I'm thinking of putting together a cheap AMD machine for a family member who is computer illiterate, said family member will provide money for parts and I'll be putting it together for him. His budget is $550, with not much more room. He'll be doing light gaming and internet browsing on his 1680 x 1050 screen. I'm thinking the FX-6300 would be more "future proof" with the extra cores.

Also, what AMD motherboard brands are "best" or "most reliable"? I know for Intel the "best" brands are ones like ASRock, Gigabyte, Asus, etc but I have no idea what the "preferred" brands are for AMD. I am an Intel guy myself, and haven't really "kept tabs" on AMD since about 2009.

What say you on this matter, andandtech? Verdict?

thanks

EDIT: I forgot to ask but, is the FX-6300 stock cooler sufficient on it's own? or would an aftermarket cooler be necessary? This is important because it may or may not mean an extra $30-$40 added on the final price.

For that budget, the 6300 should be fine. The stock cooler will be fine as well, unless you want to really push hard on overclocking. The budget is just too small to use an Intel CPU, as you'll be stuck with a dual core something or other and dual cores are rapidly headed to irrelevance in gaming.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I would not promote a pentium for gaming these days, but a dual core i3 is still faster than the FX 6300 in all but a few games. And in games that demand fast single or dual thread performance, it is a lot faster than a stock FX6300.

That said, I think the FX6300 is decent for the price and would satisfy the needs of the OP. I hardly think hyperthreaded dual cores are going to become irrelevant soon in gaming though.

 

[dark zero]

I would go for the Core i3 6100, those games dont need more than 2 threads and the socket 1151 platform is new.

I3? Even with Pentium or Cherry Trail is enough!

And AMD Fx is useless unless you OC it. When do that, becomes aceptable

 

[eternalone]

Yes just overclock you will be fine till Zen, Intel is faster but only has 2 cores dont put money into dual cores for gaming anymore, other than that get an i5 if not the 6300 overclocked is a nice chip.

 

[Headfoot]

another vote for i3 6100 + modern platform here. Then a few years down the line if he wants to upgrade again you can just swap CPU and GPU without having to do a full system rebuild

 

[iSkylaker]

Many latest Games are performing equally/better than the Core i3 Haswell with the FX6300. And at DX-12 games the FX6300 will gain more.

But for the games the OP want, even a Pentium/Athlon 860K will do more than fine.

Are you sure?

Wait a bit more and get the newer tech, go for the i3 IMO, don't forget it also consume half of its power.

 

[Leyawiin]

The guy the OP is building it for is computer illiterate and is only going to use it for light gaming and browsing on a 1680x1050 monitor. Get an FX-6300, 970 AM3+ mobo, 8GB of memory, a 240GB SSD and a lower-midrange GPU. He'd be happy and it should still come in about $50-$75 under his budget max.

 

[superstition]

Are you sure?

Wait a bit more and get the newer tech, go for the i3 IMO, don't forget it also consume half of its power.

Ashes is looking like Starcraft all over again. So much for using a lot of cores... This seems to be a consequence of the shrinking PC industry. Gaming is going to be forever targeting the dual core 4 thread i3.

I guess the 8 core FX chips do better than the 6300 because of the extra cache.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yes just overclock you will be fine till Zen, Intel is faster but only has 2 cores dont put money into dual cores for gaming anymore, other than that get an i5 if not the 6300 overclocked is a nice chip.

This "computer illiterate" user is going to overclock?

In any case either the 6300 or i3 will be fine for the OP. I just dont agree with your "dont get a dual core" advice. An i3 is faster than FX6300 in the vast majority of games, and is close to or faster than FX8350 in a lot of them.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Ashes is looking like Starcraft all over again. So much for using a lot of cores... This seems to be a consequence of the shrinking PC industry. Gaming is going to be forever targeting the dual core 4 thread i3.

I guess the 8 core FX chips do better than the 6300 because of the extra cache.

FX8350 also has higher clockspeed.

 

[dark zero]

This "computer illiterate" user is going to overclock?

In any case either the 6300 or i3 will be fine for the OP. I just dont agree with your "dont get a dual core" advice. An i3 is faster than FX6300 in the vast majority of games, and is close to or faster than FX8350 in a lot of them.

Err... A 4.5 Ghz G3258 could beat even the Skylake i3 in ST games

 

[crashtech]

Err... A 4.5 Ghz G3258 could beat even the Skylake i3 in ST games

How many games are pure ST? Even Haswell i3s were beating an OC'ed G3258 overall. I can't wait to try out some low-midrange Skylake builds.

 

[throwa]

What are your guys thoughts on the AMD APU's in this price-range?

Just today while doing some brainstorming the APU's in this price-range crossed my mind. For example the A8-7600, which is also a 65 W part and costs around $90.

Because his monitor only has a measly 1680 x 1050 resolution, I imagine an APU just might be able to handle the games he plays. He plays mainly WoW as a casual, he plays around 3-4 hours after he gets home from work. He also dabbles in "Robocraft" and League of Legends, usually on the weekend.

Then again, even the "lowest of the low" dGPU's outperform AMD's iGPU's. For example R7 250X sells for like $60, and is much faster than current iGPU's. Also the low-end GTX 750 is not much more expensive, at around $80-$90.

 

[scannall]

What are your guys thoughts on the AMD APU's in this price-range?

Just today while doing some brainstorming the APU's in this price-range crossed my mind. For example the A8-7600, which is also a 65 W part and costs around $90.

Because his monitor only has a measly 1680 x 1050 resolution, I imagine an APU just might be able to handle the games he plays. He plays mainly WoW as a casual, he plays around 3-4 hours after he gets home from work. He also dabbles in "Robocraft" and League of Legends, usually on the weekend.

Then again, even the "lowest of the low" dGPU's outperform AMD's iGPU's. For example R7 250X sells for like $60, and is much faster than current iGPU's. Also the low-end GTX 750 is not much more expensive, at around $80-$90.

I played WoW for a while on a laptop with the A8 4500m. And it had decent performance on medium settings. It's a 45 watt part. The A6 would likely play well at that resolution and medium settings as well. The 860k is decent, and around $70 to $75. Matched to a cheap dGPU would perform better by a little anyway.