Wait for steamroller or switch to intel?

[crystal6tak]

I was really hoping amd releases steamroller at the end of this year or early next year but I'm starting to think it's coming much later. Currently I run a Phenom x4 II 970 oced to 4.1 ghz with a 7970 GE so cpu bottlenecking is an issue right now. The motherboard I use is AM3+ so I won't need to switch board if I continue and wait for steamroller. I can also just give up on steamroller and switch to intel but that means I'll need to get a motherboard as well which means more money down the drain. So what route should I go? Continue to wait for steamroller while my cpu bottlenecks by gpu or switch to intel? I can add any additional information if necessary.

[Dave :)]

I take it you are looking at gaming performance? If so - what games are you currently playing? As you say, Steamroller seems to be a fairly long way away; it may be a better idea to jump ship now and make the switch. The socket 1150 is brand new, so it will have at least another generation of CPU with it; and Intel CPUs do generally provide better allround performance and would certainly prevent bottlenecks for your system.

[YellowDragon]

I would say wait for steamroller, it comes out early 2014. Since you are already Invested into the AM3+ platform it is unnecessarily costly to switch platforms especially since its already confirmed steamroller is going to be Am3+, if the socket is not dead then whats the point of jumping ship is what im saying.

[Dave :)]

I would say wait for steamroller, it comes out early 2014. Since you are already Invested into the AM3+ platform it is unnecessarily costly to switch platforms especially since its already confirmed steamroller is going to be Am3+, if the socket is not dead then whats the point of jumping ship is what im saying.

 

It really is cost versus performance. I mean, Steamroller won't be able to compete with the high - end next generation of Intel line up on the 1150 socket. Although AM3+ isn't a "dead socket", it also isn't the best performing socket.

[Morfy]

Think very well about what do you want NOW. Forget the future, you may not even be willing to game in late 2014. So if you want to game now, you have 2 options: dish your cpu and buy an 8350 or dish the mobo+cpu and get a socket 1150 intel upgrade.

[Theo]

Im switching, i currently have a 1090T with a crosshair IV Formula but im going to a 4770k and Asus z87 Deluxe ( if only this mb wasnt gold lol)

[Dr3nz4r]

dish the mobo+cpu and get a socket 1150 intel upgrade.

 

Doesn't work that way.. Intel is way more expensive then AMD, so i woudl highly suggest dishing your CPU and getting a 8350 chip, because it performs just as good in games as a 4670 does, and the update will cost you much less

[MdX MaxX]

The FX-8350 is at a great price and will be more than enough for your 7970; I'd say go for it now.  Or you can wait for steamroller.

 

I wouldn't recommend switching to Intel; it's not worth going through the switch unless you really need Intel's processing power for other things.

The socket 1150 is brand new, so it will have at least another generation of CPU with it.

I personally think that's a silly reason to recommend any socket.  It's not like anyone with a 2500K will benefit from upgrading to a 3570K/3770K.  The situation will likely be the same with Haswell and its die shrink.

[YellowDragon]

It really is cost versus performance. I mean, Steamroller won't be able to compete with the high - end next generation of Intel line up on the 1150 socket. Although AM3+ isn't a "dead socket", it also isn't the best performing socket.

If your quoting Broadwell, I think the performance would be similar to haswell, look at the generational gap between sandy bridge to haswell, there wasn't much improvement overall and those are 3 generations of CPUs. If he really needs an upgrade now an FX 8350 would be fine as it competes with the i5's of Ivy Bridge and Haswell and seeing as hes only gaming and I7 would be wasteful as hypertheading nets maybe 3FPS increase. If he can wait go with steamroller, games are programmed for as broad of hardware as possible so that game companies can make money, being that now there is a push for multi-core friendly programs CPUs will remain relevant in gaming longer as they would no longer be dependent on a single core and the IPC of a single core. Untapped potential, any chip from the past 3 generations on Intel still has performance to give, programs are holding them back being poorly coded most of the time. the same is true for the FX series, they only get better with a more threaded friendly program. Point is the top end chip inst needed for gaming and both a FX8350 or steamroller or Intel i5 or i7 is already more then any game currently requires, incurring an extra costs for an intel platform just is not worth it if your already invested into AM3+.

That being said you are right that the newest intel stuff would be better, well isnt the newer stuff always better then the previous generation. We have no idea how steamroller will perform or what AMD has done to improve the chip, so its a toss up really, the question is whether he wants to wait or invest now, depends on how well he thinks his computer is serving him currently.

[Dave :)]

If your quoting Broadwell, I think the performance would be similar to haswell, look at the generational gap between sandy bridge to haswell, there wasn't much improvement overall and those are 3 generations of CPUs. If he really needs an upgrade now an FX 8350 would be fine as it competes with the i5's of Ivy Bridge and Haswell and seeing as hes only gaming and I7 would be wasteful as hypertheading nets maybe 3FPS increase. If he can wait go with steamroller, games are programmed for as broad of hardware as possible so that game companies can make money, being that now there is a push for multi-core friendly programs CPUs will remain relevant in gaming longer as they would no longer be dependent on a single core and the IPC of a single core. Untapped potential, any chip from the past 3 generations on Intel still has performance to give, programs are holding them back being poorly coded most of the time. the same is true for the FX series, they only get better with a more threaded friendly program. Point is the top end chip inst needed for gaming and both a FX8350 or steamroller or Intel i5 or i7 is already more then any game currently requires, incurring an extra costs for an intel platform just is not worth it if your already invested into AM3+.

That being said you are right that the newest intel stuff would be better, well isnt the newer stuff always better then the previous generation. We have no idea how steamroller will perform or what AMD has done to improve the chip, so its a toss up really, the question is whether he wants to wait or invest now, depends on how well he thinks his computer is serving him currently.

 

I agree. If OP wants to upgrade now, i would say grab an 8350 on the cheap. However, if he's looking for the future, then i only see Intel paving the way. Do we know how long AM3+ socket will last? I can't imagine it will be for more than 3 generations of CPU...

[OuchMyFaceyHole]

If your playing games that are cpu dependent (World of Tanks is one) then get yourself an intel. You will see a nice difference.

[YellowDragon]

Dave :), on 27 Jun 2013 - 10:53 AM, said:

I agree. If OP wants to upgrade now, i would say grab an 8350 on the cheap. However, if he's looking for the future, then i only see Intel paving the way. Do we know how long AM3+ socket will last? I can't imagine it will be for more than 3 generations of CPU...

Well Steamroller is the last of the Am3+ socket, Excavator is going to be a new socket entirely, LGA 1150 only has 1 more CPU for it with Broadwell, then its a new socket for skylake.

[Dave :)]

Well Steamroller is the last of the Am3+ socket, Excavator is going to be a new socket entirely, LGA 1150 only has 1 more CPU for it with Broadwell, then its a new socket for skylake.

Exactly. So at this point in time, you have to eliminate the fact that AM3+ "has more longevity". Both sockets will be "dead" within 2 years - if not sooner. As a result, you have to look at performance, and Intel simply wins in that department.

[crystal6tak]

I take it you are looking at gaming performance? If so - what games are you currently playing? As you say, Steamroller seems to be a fairly long way away; it may be a better idea to jump ship now and make the switch. The socket 1150 is brand new, so it will have at least another generation of CPU with it; and Intel CPUs do generally provide better allround performance and would certainly prevent bottlenecks for your system.

As of currently I play bf3 and CoH most of the time and CoH is heavily single threaded. Bf3 is multithreaded but my cpu still isn't keeping up sadly. However I do have a lot of games I would probably play in the near future which sadly are all single threaded games. (Their mostly old games I play with my friends as my friends' pc can't run new games). That is not to mean I won't play newer titles in the future though.

 

Thanks for all the replies! I have considered getting the 8350 a while ago but I backed away from the single thread performance. But as YellowDragon said, multicore may be more supported in the future. However I'm still worried about single thread performance. Hmmm, I have another thought, about how much do I have to overclock the 8350 until I see a significant single thread performance over my current phenom ii x4 970 at 4.1 ghz?

 

As for getting intel, apparently if I want to go haswell it will be extremely expensive... I need to get a new motherboard, chip, and a psu (my current psu don't support haswell i think). So haswell is out to the question. It's way too costly. So If I'm going intel I'll be going ivy bridge.

 

Longevity is not an issue. I'll be leaving my country in 2 years for college and I'm not sure if it's a good idea to ship a full tower pc. So I'll probably get a decent laptop by then. With this in mind I think changing the cpu as fast as I can would be top priority. So sadly I really might have to give up steamroller.

[YellowDragon]

crystal6tak, on 27 Jun 2013 - 12:05 PM, said:

As of currently I play bf3 and CoH most of the time and CoH is heavily single threaded. Bf3 is multithreaded but my cpu still isn't keeping up sadly. However I do have a lot of games I would probably play in the near future which sadly are all single threaded games. (Their mostly old games I play with my friends as my friends' pc can't run new games). That is not to mean I won't play newer titles in the future though.

Thanks for all the replies! I have considered getting the 8350 a while ago but I backed away from the single thread performance. But as YellowDragon said, multicore may be more supported in the future. However I'm still worried about single thread performance. Hmmm, I have another thought, about how much do I have to overclock the 8350 until I see a significant single thread performance over my current phenom ii x4 970 at 4.1 ghz?

As for getting intel, apparently if I want to go haswell it will be extremely expensive... I need to get a new motherboard, chip, and a psu (my current psu don't support haswell i think). So haswell is out to the question. It's way too costly. So If I'm going intel I'll be going ivy bridge.

Longevity is not an issue. I'll be leaving my country in 2 years for college and I'm not sure if it's a good idea to ship a full tower pc. So I'll probably get a decent laptop by then. With this in mind I think changing the cpu as fast as I can would be top priority. So sadly I really might have to give up steamroller.

The single threaded performance on the Fx8350 would be overkill for older Pc games, even without overclocking. Though it ddepends on what you would call old, is Crysis considered old in your book or something more like Quake, command and conquer generals? Regardless when it comes to older games modern processor wont have a single bit of trouble, as your more likely to encounter problems with OS incompatibilities then a CPU bottleneck. If you current machine runs older games fine now, then the 8350 will only make things better.

The step up from Phenon II to an FX8350 would be like night and day as the 8350 is comparable to intel i5s of haswell and ivybridge.

[MdX MaxX]

Any PSU supports Haswell. The whole "Haswell ready" thing is kind of marketing BS.

If you have an older PSU, you may not be able to use the super-low power states that Haswell introduces, but that doesn't mean your CPU won't work.

[crystal6tak]

The single threaded performance on the Fx8350 would be overkill for older Pc games, even without overclocking. Though it ddepends on what you would call old, is Crysis considered old in your book or something more like Quake, command and conquer generals? Regardless when it comes to older games modern processor wont have a single bit of trouble, as your more likely to encounter problems with OS incompatibilities then a CPU bottleneck. If you current machine runs older games fine now, then the 8350 will only make things better.

The step up from Phenon II to an FX8350 would be like night and day as the 8350 is comparable to intel i5s of haswell and ivybridge.

CoH is heavily bottlenecked by my current processor. My gpu usage hovers around 33% and drops to 15% at times. So no my current machine is unable to run old games I play that's single threaded now without bottleneck.

[crystal6tak]

Any PSU supports Haswell. The whole "Haswell ready" thing is kind of marketing BS.

If you have an older PSU, you may not be able to use the super-low power states that Haswell introduces, but that doesn't mean your CPU won't work.

Oh is it? Great! Then Haswell is an option then. Sorry for posting 2 times rather than 1 post. I can't seem to place a quote while editing a post.

[YellowDragon]

CoH is heavily bottlenecked by my current processor. My gpu usage hovers around 33% and drops to 15% at times. So no my current machine is unable to run old games I play that's single threaded now without bottleneck.

The single thread performance on the FX8350 is not that good in comparison to the intel chips, however the Fx8350's single thread performance is magnitudes better the the X4 your running, so I dont think you would have a bottleneck with the newer FX.

[beefalo]

I would upgrade now.  Might as well get the performance you've paid for with the 7970.  Once amd and intel both start using new sockets in 2 years or so look at another upgrade.

[Semi1114]

Just get a fx 8350

[Humbug]

I would say wait for steamroller, it comes out early 2014.

Are you talking about the high end streamroller- successor to fx-8350?

 

CoH is heavily bottlenecked by my current processor. My gpu usage hovers around 33% and drops to 15% at times. So no my current machine is unable to run old games I play that's single threaded now without bottleneck.

Heavily bottlenecked at what framerate?

[Mombasa69]

I was really hoping amd releases steamroller at the end of this year or early next year but I'm starting to think it's coming much later. Currently I run a Phenom x4 II 970 oced to 4.1 ghz with a 7970 GE so cpu bottlenecking is an issue right now. The motherboard I use is AM3+ so I won't need to switch board if I continue and wait for steamroller. I can also just give up on steamroller and switch to intel but that means I'll need to get a motherboard as well which means more money down the drain. So what route should I go? Continue to wait for steamroller while my cpu bottlenecks by gpu or switch to intel? I can add any additional information if necessary.

Don't listen to people trying to make you waste your money, just get an FX-8350 and slot it right into your exising board. Next gen console ports are all written for AMD hardware now as that's what PS4 and Xbox1 use, most PC games are ported.

 

You can already see Crysis 3 an FX-8350 runs just as well as a top i7 (because C3 is a true multi core using game), and costs far, far less, next ports are true 8 core using games, next year AMD will be the CPU to use.

 

Save your cash stick with the best platform for the future, game developers aren't going to bother writting games for Intel in mind. They're developing for AMD 8 core CPUs which the new consoles use, and just knock out a quick port to PC as an after thought.

 

Pretty obvious what the new ports will run better on.

[ExDreamer]

CoH is heavily bottlenecked by my current processor. My gpu usage hovers around 33% and drops to 15% at times. So no my current machine is unable to run old games I play that's single threaded now without bottleneck.

I would suggest you to get 8350.Even though it has lower single threaded performance than intel,you wont notice it at all because it not so bad until games become unplayable.Like others have said,multi core is way of the future.Plus you could save money by using same mobo

 

 

The conclusion for this video is pretty simple to me. The 3570K runs away with single threaded performance, but in games that really take advantage of multi-core (and this will become more common in the future) the FX-8350 will take the crown.The other thing to consider is that while the FX-8350 may be outperformed by the price-competitive Intel equivalent, it's never to the point where a game is playable on Intel and NOT playable on AMD.

 

Quote from http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/6782-i5-3570k-vs-fx-8350-showdown-part-1-1080p-no-aa/

[Godlygamer23]

Don't listen to people trying to make you waste your money, just get an FX-8350 and slot it right into your exising board. Next gen console ports are all written for AMD hardware now as that's what PS4 and Xbox1 use, most PC games are ported.

You can already see Crysis 3 an FX-8350 runs just as well as a top i7 (because C3 is a true multi core using game), and costs far, far less, next ports are true 8 core using games, next year AMD will be the CPU to use.

Save your cash stick with the best platform for the future, game developers aren't going to bother writting games for Intel in mind. They're developing for AMD 8 core CPUs which the new consoles use, and just knock out a quick port to PC as an after thought.

Pretty obvious what the new ports will run better on.

And if Intel comes out with an affordable eight core chip?