Cheapest DDR3 Compatible CPU For R9 290x

[BigDamn]

Hey there fellas. I plan on upgrading my R9 290x here in my main rig soon and will be dropping it down into my second rig which currently has a FX 8320 and HD 7870. I have already ran the 290x with the 8320 and it is severely bottlenecked in CPU heavy games such as Battlefield 1 (and BF5 when it releases). Seeing as how its my second rig I plan on spending as little cash as possible on it. Upgrading to Ryzen seems to pricey considering I would have to buy at least 8 gigs of DDR4. There doesn't seem to be any AMD FX CPU that can keep up with the 290x, with the closest being the 9590, which isn't supported by my board and will probably more power than my PSU can provide (Corsair RM650).

 

So with all that out of the way, is there any cheap Intel CPU's that would be better suited with the 290x and support DDR3? I am not super familiar with Intel's lineup of CPU's and I'm not sure where to start. If anyone knows any cheap reliable motherboard to go with it, that'd be great.

 

Thanks!

[Rainbow Dash]

Yeah, the FX 9590 is basically not even a big step up from your FX 8320, my FX 8350 overclocked still is basically horrible for gaming use. For Intel you can go for LGA 1155, LGA 1150 socket CPU which you can still find used for a cheap deal. Maybe the i5 2500k, i5 2550k, i7 2600k, i7 2700k, i5 4670k, i7 4770k, or i7 4790k that is if you can find a good board. Though LGA 1155 boards would be hard to find, you can still find LGA 1150 boards such as H81 chipset ones for a decent price new.

[Lemtea]

I think your best bet would be to overclock the fx8320 and save up for a new ddr4 platform. If you really want something else, then you best 'cheap' bet would be to go for a 1156 motherboard and a xeon x3440 although again you would still need to overclock it to make the most of it. You can buy cheap x3440s on aliexpress for 18$. Also you best 'cheap' upgrades will be used so take that as you will. Have a look around for some used platforms for some good deals. 

 

 

TL;DR: Overclock the FX8320, take the chance of buying used or save up and buy something new (taking the hit with ddr4 prices). 

[Taf the Ghost]

3rd or 4th gen i5 would be the target CPU/Mobo combo.

[Taf the Ghost]

The problem with any of the AM3 parts is the internal bottlenecks. It's why clocks really don't matter too much to them.

[3rrant]

18 minutes ago, dogger20011 said:

Hey there fellas. I plan on upgrading my R9 290x here in my main rig soon and will be dropping it down into my second rig which currently has a FX 8320 and HD 7870. I have already ran the 290x with the 8320 and it is severely bottlenecked in CPU heavy games such as Battlefield 1 (and BF5 when it releases). Seeing as how its my second rig I plan on spending as little cash as possible on it. Upgrading to Ryzen seems to pricey considering I would have to buy at least 8 gigs of DDR4. There doesn't seem to be any AMD FX CPU that can keep up with the 290x, with the closest being the 9590, which isn't supported by my board and will probably more power than my PSU can provide (Corsair RM650).

 

So with all that out of the way, is there any cheap Intel CPU's that would be better suited with the 290x and support DDR3? I am not super familiar with Intel's lineup of CPU's and I'm not sure where to start. If anyone knows any cheap reliable motherboard to go with it, that'd be great.

 

Thanks!

I had a similiar setup prior to Ryzen and I did step up from a 8350 to a 9590 with a very high overclock (at the time, I paid about 90e for the FX9590). I totally don't recommend it. It just won't change much or anything. Also keep in mind that the 9590 is a huge oven, you need impressive cooling just to run it at stock.

 

For Intel, I used a Asus H170-PLUS D3 in the past to avoid going for DDR4 and it works fine with 6th generation CPUs. You can pair it up to a 7700K with bios update but remember the OC limit.

If you want to go with this route, I suggest to find a used or discounted i7-6700.

[Rainbow Dash]

3 minutes ago, ErrantNyles said:

I had a similiar setup prior to Ryzen and I did step up from a 8350 to a 9590 with a very high overclock (at the time, I paid about 90e for the FX9590). I totally don't recommend it. It just won't change much or anything. Also keep in mind that the 9590 is a huge oven, you need impressive cooling just to run it at stock.

 

For Intel, I used a Asus H170-PLUS D3 in the past to avoid going for DDR4 and it works fine with 6th generation CPUs. You can pair it up to a 7700K with bios update but remember the OC limit.

If you want to go with this route, I suggest to find a used or discounted i7-6700.

I though you need like DDR3L RAM for the new CPUs using DDR4? Since 1.5v would fried those memory controllers.

[3rrant]

8 minutes ago, Rainbow Dash said:

I though you need like DDR3L RAM for the new CPUs using DDR4? Since 1.5v would fried those memory controllers.

I used it in combination with a i5-6600 and 32gb of HyperX 1866Mhz DDR3 memory at 1.5V

Haven't notice any problem until now, also the voltage and speed should be auto underclocked to 1333-1600 if you keep it to default

[bimmerman]

Overclocked X58 does pretty well with my 290.

[AskTJ]

Don't upgrade on the FX series. It is garbage for gaming. You want something like a Haswell i5, or more modern, a Ryzen 5 1600 which uses DDR4 ram. Your best off saving up right now.

[BigDamn]

1 hour ago, Lemtea said:

I think your best bet would be to overclock the fx8320 and save up for a new ddr4 platform. If you really want something else, then you best 'cheap' bet would be to go for a 1156 motherboard and a xeon x3440 although again you would still need to overclock it to make the most of it. You can buy cheap x3440s on aliexpress for 18$. Also you best 'cheap' upgrades will be used so take that as you will. Have a look around for some used platforms for some good deals. 

 

 

TL;DR: Overclock the FX8320, take the chance of buying used or save up and buy something new (taking the hit with ddr4 prices). 

I actually overclocked the 8320 up to 4.6ghz and didn't see a huge performance gain in BF1 (to my surprise). Since this is my secondary rig I am trying to spend the least amount on it as possible. The build is mostly made up of my old parts that were once in my main rig. As for that Xeon CPU, would that be much better than my 8320? They are roughly the same age, but the Xeon is actually clocked much lower. Thanks for your reply!

[Lemtea]

30 minutes ago, dogger20011 said:

I actually overclocked the 8320 up to 4.6ghz and didn't see a huge performance gain in BF1 (to my surprise). Since this is my secondary rig I am trying to spend the least amount on it as possible. The build is mostly made up of my old parts that were once in my main rig. As for that Xeon CPU, would that be much better than my 8320? They are roughly the same age, but the Xeon is actually clocked much lower. Thanks for your reply!

Here is a video comparing an overclocked x3430 (4 core  4 thread) against the 8700k. 

You should expect sightly better performance than this with an overclocked x3440 as it is 4 core 8 thread.

 

 

Edited June 21, 2018 by Lemtea

[BigDamn]

11 minutes ago, Lemtea said:

Here is a video comparing an overclocked x3430 (4 core  4 thread) against the 8700k. 

You should expect sightly better performance than this with an overclocked x3440 as it is 4 core 8c thread.

 

 

Damn thats impressive! This may be the route I go. Thanks man!

[auspotta]

honestly just get a 2700 plus some good 3200 and oc it.