CPU upgrade - from AMD to Intel

[Buendiger]

Hello everyone,

My current rig:

Amd Fx 8320 (@4ghz cooled by corsair H60)

Gigabyte GA 970A UD3P

16 GB DDR3 1600Mhz G.Skill ram

Palit Geforce GTX 970 Jetstream

BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530w

128 GB ADATA SP900 ssd

1 TB WD Black HDD

1 TB WD Blue HDD

Enermax Ostrog case

After using my Amd fx for quiet some time now i feel like it is time for a powerful replacement. The only problem is that my budget is kind of limited, so overall i would say i could spend like 500€ on new parts. The reason for my upgrade is my aged amd processor. My personal experience is that it really bottlenecks the gtx 970 in some games (GTA 5, Total war games, etc.) so i would love to get a nice new intel cpu which hopefully performs much better than my current cpu. I started looking at different options and i would like to hear your opinions to finally decide which cpu i should buy. I cannot see any difference in performance for DDR4 so far so is it worth it ?

1. option would be an i7 4790k with a Z97 motherboard. Here i could use my still reasonable good performing DDR3 16gb kit to save some money. potential cost around - 480€

2. option would be an i5 6600k with a new z mainboard and new ram for sure. Although i would love to have 8 threads i have not had an core ix cpu in my entire life so i really don't know which one is the best for me.

My computer is used to play really demanding games (Gta 5, Total war: Attila, Battlefield 4, Star wars Battlefront and maybe The Division if it finally comes out). I mainly want to know: What should i expect with the upgrade to an i7 4790k ? Is it still fast enough to destroy my fx 8320 in modern or older single-threaded games ? This is quiet a lot money but i definitely want to upgrade now. 

Thank you all in advance for helping out an old AMD fan boy who finally decides to switch over to the far superior platform by now.

Greetings from Germany, Leon.

 

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

Personally I would go with i5-6600K but all the other guys on the fourm are going to say i7-4790K

[glitchmaster0001]

have you ever tried overclocking that AMD CPU? i mean i made fallout 4 work with an old Phenom X4 9750 and a gtx 950

[Nena Trinity]

In modern not by to much but in old probably by a whole lot! (depends on how much you OCed your chip etc...)

[Troyathy]

I would go for the i7 if I were you, it has a lot more power, but the i5 is still a solid option. 

[Guest]

If you can save up for the 6700k, it is that much more worth it over the 6600k, and you will save money if you ever wanna upgrade in the future

 

[Prysin]

6600k for sure.

 

i went from a 8320 to i7 4790k myself.... not really THAT worth it...

going from FX to skylake is better, due to faster CPUs, but also much better motherboards in terms of featuers and OC

[Buendiger]

Just now, glitchmaster0001 said:

have you ever tried overclocking that AMD CPU? i mean i made fallout 4 work with an old Phenom X4 9750 and a gtx 950

Okay thank you for sharing, why do you think the i5 is the better option for me ? Is it due to the new socket and ddr4 ? I am a bit scared of a quad core cpu. But the i5 will outperform my fx 8320 anyway i think.

 

2 minutes ago, glitchmaster0001 said:

have you ever tried overclocking that AMD CPU? i mean i made fallout 4 work with an old Phenom X4 9750 and a gtx 950

Yes is overclocked it from 3.5 ghz (stock), to 4ghz with no more voltage needed (vcore). It runs perfectly stable but i could not recognize any major improvements. The main reason i want to switch to intel is that i feel like this Amd is outdated compared to the newer intel cpus which probably deliver much more performance at lower heat. And i would really like a bit more horsepower even though i cannot complain about the Amd fx 8320 as far as multimedia usage goes. I generally realized that i want stronger cores than the ones i have right now, so overclocking more is not an option for me.

[Buendiger]

6 minutes ago, Ronnie76 said:

If you can save up for the 6700k, it is that much more worth it over the 6600k, and you will save money if you ever wanna upgrade in the future

 

I have read many things about some weird bugs with the new skylake cpus (Bluescreens, freezes, etc.) Is that true, or better asked: Is it fixed right now ? The problem with the i7 6700k for me is, that it is all in all with a more expensive mainboard and new (imo for gaming purposes useless) DDR4 ram, much more expensive than an upgrade to the Haswell based i7 4790k. And the performance gains are rather minimal (at least in games which i have seen on youtube so far). Also would a Xeon cpu still be good choice ? And how long do you guys think an i7 4790k will last from now on? How will it do against the new Amd zen cpus coming out this year ? I know those are really though questions but i think everyone considers that before buying a higer end product like an i5 or i7. 

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Buendiger said:

I have read many things about some weird bugs with the new skylake cpus (Bluescreens, freezes, etc.) Is that true, or better asked: Is it fixed right now ? The problem with the i7 6700k for me is, that it is all in all with a more expensive mainboard and new (imo for gaming purposes useless) DDR4 ram, much more expensive than an upgrade to the Haswell based i7 4790k. And the performance gains are rather minimal (at least in games which i have seen on youtube so far). Also would a Xeon cpu still be good choice ? And how long do you guys think an i7 4790k will last from now on? How will it do against the new Amd zen cpus coming out this year ? I know those are really though questions but i think everyone considers that before buying a higer end product like an i5 or i7. 

Okay, you have to look at the long term investment DDR4 is now on the mainstream, Don't hold out for Zen, its not gonna be worth it to wait a couple of months, build when you can. But if its the difference between i5's and i7's, you should wait because the i7 will last a months longer than the i5 would.

DDR4 is most likely mainstream now too since price drops and its on the consumer grade CPU's

[Buendiger]

33 minutes ago, Ronnie76 said:

Okay, you have to look at the long term investment DDR4 is now on the mainstream, Don't hold out for Zen, its not gonna be worth it to wait a couple of months, build when you can. But if its the difference between i5's and i7's, you should wait because the i7 will last a months longer than the i5 would.

DDR4 is most likely mainstream now too since price drops and its on the consumer grade CPU's

Okay thank you, so i should definitely go for an i7 6700k to be at least somewhat futureproof with ddr4 and all the new features. But another question, will my current corsair h60 water cooler be compatible with the new socket intel is using for their skylake cpus ?

EDIT: Which rather cheap motherboard would be a good fit for an i7 6700k ?