Which one is better for gaming?

[GTFREAK]

FX 8350 oc 4.8ghz vs i5 6500 stock 3.2 ghz

[SeraphicWings]

The i5 is better

[Gravemind]

People will say the i5 is better, but as somebody who actually uses AMD's FX series CPU's, it's totally fine and you won't run into any problems with a CPU bottleneck.

[Imakuni]

3 minutes ago, GTFREAK said:

FX 8350 oc 4.8ghz vs i5 6500 stock 3.2 ghz

The i5 is a better fit.

[GTFREAK]

Just now, Imakuni said:

The i5 is a better fit.

How? In cpubench the fx 8350 scored higher stock

 

[Imakuni]

Just now, GTFREAK said:

How? In cpubench the fx 8350 scored higher stock

Because cpubench is not a game. It's a completely different workload than that of a game.

[GTFREAK]

Just now, Imakuni said:

Because cpubench is not a game. It's a completely different workload than that of a game.

so the i5 is better in gaming for now until zen my friend

[LeStringMan]

1 minute ago, GTFREAK said:

How? In cpubench the fx 8350 scored higher stock

 

The i5 would likely be better, most games are heavy on FPU of a cpu, the FX "eight core" cpus only have 4 FPU, just like a core i5, but the core i5 has much better ipc.

[Imakuni]

Just now, GTFREAK said:

so the i5 is better in gaming for now until zen my friend

I wouldn't keep my hopes up on that.

 

While I certainly wish for Zen to be amazing, I just don't see it actually happening. AMD is not exactly on the best situation ever, they quite desperately need a good CPU. And if they really had the killer product they claim, it would be out by now. The fact that Zen has been hyped for so long and it's still not out (and when it finally comes, it's going to be in APU form) just helps to support that claim.

 

Again, I really want Zen to be good. Like, REALLY good. But from everything we've been shown, I have a feeling that's not going to be the case.

[kirashi]

As someone who has built multiple AMD and Intel systems in the last year alone, I can say the the FX-8350 will outperform the i5-6500 in many tasks that can actually utilize 2 or more cores efficiently. The single core workload of the i5-6500 can perform better in some cases, but for the most part you'd want to go with the unlocked i5-6600K if you want an Intel system that outperforms the AMD FX-8350.

However, keep in mind that depending on the game and workload you throw at the CPU, your actual performance will vary. Sure, the benchmark scores for the FX-8350 are higher, but you'd actually be better off with the i5-6500 if you were calculating digits of Pi or prime numbers, for example.

 

The $50 difference between going i5-6500 or FX-8350 isn't as much as the $150-$200 difference between an unlocked i7 CPU and the FX-8350 though, so mileage may vary when it comes to actually getting the best bang for your buck. I've seen the FX-8350 on sale for about $175 though, so if you keep an eye out, you can save more money there for a better graphics card.

 

In a recent build of mine, we opted to go for an FX-8350 over an unlocked i5 or i7 because my friend both wanted the more expensive case and GPU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($209.99 @ NCIX) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($126.15 @ DirectCanada) 
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($124.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($88.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($108.98 @ DirectCanada) 
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  ($85.75 @ shopRBC) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card  ($409.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX Glass ATX Mid Tower Case  ($249.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($112.98 @ DirectCanada) 
Total: $1517.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-01 21:20 EDT-0400