Why do you need a better CPU?

[Deserter15]

I have a fx-4130 oced to 4.1 ghz and I haven't noticed any problems with it.  I tend to have 30 tabs open, youtube/streaming on twitch, and playing a game at the same time, but I haven't had the cpu load go above 70%.  Why is it that everyone says you need to get an i5-4670k or some better cpu for gaming?

[mr.skyrim_pc]

You probably arent playing anything all that demanding.

[Thermite]

I have a fx-4130 oced to 4.1 ghz and I haven't noticed any problems with it.  I tend to have 30 tabs open, youtube/streaming on twitch, and playing a game at the same time, but I haven't had the cpu load go above 70%.  Why is it that everyone says you need to get an i5-4670k or some better cpu for gaming?

The only reason is that you will have a better experience, but I would say you should upgrade your graphics card before cpu. It is what determines game performance more than anything. (not that your cpu doesn't affect it just that its not as big of an impact)

[AnnoyedShelf]

I have a fx-4130 oced to 4.1 ghz and I haven't noticed any problems with it.  I tend to have 30 tabs open, youtube/streaming on twitch, and playing a game at the same time, but I haven't had the cpu load go above 70%.  Why is it that everyone says you need to get an i5-4670k or some better cpu for gaming?

The i5 will have better single-threaded performance, so you may get performance gains in certain games.  Not to mention the i5 has better moduling.

[ShadowCaptain]

I have a fx-4130 oced to 4.1 ghz and I haven't noticed any problems with it.  I tend to have 30 tabs open, youtube/streaming on twitch, and playing a game at the same time, but I haven't had the cpu load go above 70%.  Why is it that everyone says you need to get an i5-4670k or some better cpu for gaming?

 

Because in games especially when using a high end GPU, you will be bottlenecked by a weaker CPU

[Thermite]

I have a fx-4130 oced to 4.1 ghz and I haven't noticed any problems with it.  I tend to have 30 tabs open, youtube/streaming on twitch, and playing a game at the same time, but I haven't had the cpu load go above 70%.  Why is it that everyone says you need to get an i5-4670k or some better cpu for gaming?

Also Intel tends to have better single core performance.

[Thermite]

Because in games especially when using a high end GPU, you will be bottlenecked by a weaker CPU

this is true, but his cpu isn't that bad. He should be fine to play any modern game with a good gpu to match.

[Joshua Ondangan]

for me would be all for self satisfaction.

[Thermite]

for me would be all for self satisfaction.

I know that is why I bough one of the new processors from intel. X99 platform.

[typographie]

Why is it that everyone says you need to get an i5-4670k or some better cpu for gaming?

 

Its not that you "need" it for gaming… most of the time. But there are some games out there that really strangle a CPU, and the i5 will always come out far ahead of the FX-4130 in any CPU-bound situation. To put it another way, you don't need it until you do.

 

There are some very recent games with rather intense CPU workloads, such as Watch Dogs, that I very much doubt you would get to 60 FPS using an FX-4130 at any overclock. And if you are trying to game on a 120/144 Hz monitor, you can often hit CPU limitations even in games that were fine at 60 FPS.

[Enderman]

Your CPU is a bottleneck. It has horrible single core performance, which basically means you get 10-20% less fps in games than you would with an i5. If you have a decent graphics card the games you play may still be playable, but you are not getting the full performance out of your graphics card because your CPU is bottlenecking its potential.
 

Also your CPU does not have to be at 100% to give reduced performance. It can be a bottleneck even below 50% usage.

[typographie]

Your CPU is a bottleneck. It has horrible single core performance, which basically means you get 10-20% less fps in games than you would with an i5. If you have a decent graphics card the games you play may still be playable, but you are not getting the full performance out of your graphics card because your CPU is bottlenecking its potential.

 

Well, no. That depends on the game. In a given game, the CPU is capable of X framerate and the GPU is capable of Y framerate. There's only a bottleneck if X < Y (and its less than your preferred framerate). There's still a lot of games out there where an FX-4170 will get you to 60 FPS just fine, and in that case the i5 won't make any difference. A lot of newer games push the CPU pretty hard, though.

[Faa]

Well, no. That depends on the game. In a given game, the CPU is capable of X framerate and the GPU is capable of Y framerate. There's only a bottleneck if X < Y (and its less than your preferred framerate). There's still a lot of games out there where an FX-4170 will get you to 60 FPS just fine, and in that case the i5 won't make any difference. A lot of newer games push the CPU pretty hard, though.

A CPU doesnt render frames.

[typographie]

A CPU doesnt render frames.

 

I didn't say it did. It "allows" the GPU to render those frames, though. And as long as its fast enough to allow your preferred framerate, its fast enough.

 

My point is there is no blanket percentage that will be taken off the top of your performance if you have a particular CPU, which is a really popular idea in tech forums. Sometimes a slow CPU will matter a lot, sometimes not at all.

[Joshua Ondangan]

@TS if you're happy with your cpu and doesn't feel the need to upgrade nor want eye candy right now why not just keep it? save more money until you can go all nuts on a new rig.

[Enderman]

Well, no. That depends on the game. In a given game, the CPU is capable of X framerate and the GPU is capable of Y framerate. There's only a bottleneck if X < Y (and its less than your preferred framerate). There's still a lot of games out there where an FX-4170 will get you to 60 FPS just fine, and in that case the i5 won't make any difference. A lot of newer games push the CPU pretty hard, though.

No, thats not how it works.

If the graphics card is something like a 260x/750ti or better, your performance in games with an i5 would be X, but the performance in games with the 4170 (and the same GPU) would be X-10%

So in fact the amount it bottlenecks will depend on the game, but it will bottleneck any game that can fully utilize the graphics horsepower that the graphics card has.

[typographie]

No, thats not how it works.

If the graphics card is something like a 260x/750ti or better, your performance in games with an i5 would be X, but the performance in games with the 4170 (and the same GPU) would be X-10%

So in fact the amount it bottlenecks will depend on the game, but it will bottleneck any game that can fully utilize the graphics horsepower that the graphics card has.

 

That doesn't make any sense. If a game is not restricted by your CPU's performance, the framerate you get will be entirely what the video card is capable of rendering (thus those nice even graphs in BF4 single player CPU benchmarks). Its only if your CPU is too slow to allow that you will see any CPU-related limitation, and even then it will often fall behind your framerate cap anyway.

[Enderman]

That doesn't make any sense. If a game is not restricted by your CPU's performance, the framerate you get will be entirely what the video card is capable of rendering (thus those nice even graphs in BF4 single player CPU benchmarks). Its only if your CPU is too slow to allow that you will see any CPU-related limitation, and even then it will often fall behind your framerate cap anyway.

Games are both restricted by CPU AND GPU performance at the same time. There is no CPU that causes 0 performance decrease from your GPUs performance.

If you get an 8350, it will be a few frames slower than a 4690. Even a 4690k is a few frames slower than a 4790k. etc...

Unless its a 10 year old game then it will be affected by your CPUs performance.

[PutuLips]

Game Engines work by processing data, then rendering the frame (buffer). So if your CPU isn't fast enough to process the data before the GPU is, then it is a bottleneck.

For the average person with an average mid-range GPU, anything better than a Core 2 Quad Q6600 / Phenom II X4 945 should run about anything. The problems come in where you want to play Crysis 3 with 4 GPUs @ 120Hz -- then you need a better processor.

[rentaspoon]

Me because of star citizen and I like being able to be lazy and have stuff running in the background, as for 4670k or better that's pretty much the forum trend running at the moment.

If you don't need to upgrade, don't upgrade.

[typographie]

Games are both restricted by CPU AND GPU performance at the same time. There is no CPU that causes 0 performance decrease from your GPUs performance.

If you get an 8350, it will be a few frames slower than a 4690. Even a 4690k is a few frames slower than a 4790k. etc...

Unless its a 10 year old game then it will be affected by your CPUs performance.

 

I gave the BF3/BF4 single player example above: http://www.techspot.com/review/458-battlefield-3-performance/page7.html, http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/page6.html

Tomb Raider behaves similarly: http://www.techspot.com/review/645-tomb-raider-performance/page5.html

 

I am aware these are extreme cases, but these are relatively new games where the FX-41xx will perform within the margin of error of an i5 under controlled conditions. Sometimes all you need is a bare minimum to get GPU-determined performance. Step back 1-3 years and there's actually quite a lot of games that will perform similarly.

 

I'm not trying to argue that the FX-4170 isn't slow; I know many newer games in the same vein as Watch Dogs are going to be noticeably bottlenecked with that chip. What I said was that anytime CPU performance is making a difference, the i5 is vastly superior.

[Deserter15]

So, which should I upgrade first?  Gtx 660 or the fx-4130?

[PutuLips]

So, which should I upgrade first?  Gtx 660 or the fx-4130?

Depends what you play. If it's MOBAs and strategy games, go for a new CPU. If it's graphically demanding titles like Battlefield, then definitely GPU.

[i_build_nanosuits]

So, which should I upgrade first?  Gtx 660 or the fx-4130?

both need an upgrade, you should look for a core i5-4460 and a cheap H97 motherboard and then grab a GTX 970