Worth switching to Intel from AMD?

[Betts961]

I'm thinking of selling my AMD setup and switching to Intel in the next couple of months. just wondering if its worth the extra money and if id see much of a difference?
I'm currently on a Sabertooth 990fx with a FX 6300, Radeon 7850. Ive always stuck with AMD cause its been the cheaper option lol
thanks.

[DanceswithUnix]

Depends on what you are doing with it, and whether every last drop of performance matters to you.

Is the 6300 overclocked? Getting that up to just stock 6350 speed would be a nice upgrade for free.

Edit to add: It also depends on how strapped for cash you are. If the money is burning a hole and you want a new toy it is a whole lot easier to justify.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Are you have issues with any games ATM??

If not I would not bother and TBH I would just overclock the FX6300 if you need extra CPU power. With things like Mantle and DX12 in the next year or so I expect the FX6300 will hold up well.

On of my mates on thos forum,ie,Bagnaj97, has a FX6300 running at 4.4GHZ with an HD7870LE/XT and he has 100s of games on Steam,and they seem to run fine.

The 990FX motherboard you have is one of the best AMD motherboards,and you should be able to get a very decent overclock with it,if you have sufficient cooling IMHO.

[Taniniver]

You haven't specified what you are doing with the computer.

In general though apart from certain specific workloads that scale perfectly with 8 cores (3D rendering for example) Intel have better CPUs than AMD at almost every price point - AMD can only compete at the very low end.

[DanceswithUnix]

You haven't specified what you are doing with the computer.

In general though apart from certain specific workloads that scale perfectly with 8 cores (3D rendering for example) Intel have better CPUs than AMD at almost every price point - AMD can only compete at the very low end.

Well the OP's price point for the 6300 is zero, as they already own it. That's a pretty compelling price, ignoring the aggro of probably having to re-install Windows when you change the motherboard from underneath it or risk niggling problems in the future. If this was a new build then I think what you say is debatable (I don't know what you think can compete with the Fx8350 for the money), but here starting with such a good motherboard I have to wonder what else can be changed for best effect.

[Betts961]

I've overclocked the 6300 to 4.1 GHZ, the computer is mostly used for gaming and converting DVD's. (probably should of mentioned that before)
I'm just thinking of future proofing myself with some new toys and most people are saying Intel is the way forward. It doesn't really struggle with any games atm but Dayz can get abit choppy and high player count servers on bf3/4

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I've overclocked the 6300 to 4.1 GHZ, the computer is mostly used for gaming and converting DVD's. (probably should of mentioned that before)
I'm just thinking of future proofing myself with some new toys and most people are saying Intel is the way forward. It doesn't really struggle with any games atm but Dayz can get abit choppy and high player count servers on bf3/4

The thing is games are starting to thread better,so TBH the FX6300 should be fine for many games. Also,you can probably get a higher overclock with your motherboard.

With BF4 I would suspect your graphics card might be holding you back too. DayZ possibly an Intel CPU might help, but even people with overclocked Core i5s suffer with framerates with games based around the Real Virtuality engines made by Bohemia Interactive.

Have you tried overclocking your HD7850 a bit??

The longer you wait the better the upgrade you can get. Broadwell and Skylake should be launching over the next year and a half too. I think your current setup could last until then especially with a graphics card upgrade at some point.

[Betts961]

Well ive been looking at this card but then i started doubting my cpu and ended up looking at Intel rigs...
maybe i should buy an 8 core and that GTX 770 instead?

[DanceswithUnix]

Well ive been looking at this card but then i started doubting my cpu and ended up looking at Intel rigs...
maybe i should buy an 8 core and that GTX 770 instead?

Well that should give some extra grunt to your games http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1076?vs=1037

I would upgrade the graphics card first, and then see if you are happy with the result.

[Betts961]

Okay, cheers. Suppose i cant really go wrong with getting the card first... I'll get it ordered next week.
Thanks!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well ive been looking at this card but then i started doubting my cpu and ended up looking at Intel rigs...
maybe i should buy an 8 core and that GTX 770 instead?

Just overclock your HD7850.

Plus you can get an R9 290 for a few quid more:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sapp...ria-pc-1933918

The GTX770 is overpriced especially with the price drops on the R9 280X and R9 290. Also,the Sabretooth supports XFire,so this might be a cheap way to get some more peformance I suspect.

BF4 also supports Mantle too,which runs on AMD cards.

However,TBH I would just overclock your CPU a bit more and your graphics card.

What case,CPU cooler and PSU do you have??

What model of HD7850 do you have??

[Betts961]

Graphics card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB OC GDDR5
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 with all fan slots being used
Cpu Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO with 2 fans
PSU: Corsair CX 500W

CPU-Z Link (I think the temperature is wrong, no way is it only 19.4°C)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The temperature is probably not correct - try the Asus software. You could probably get one of the refurbished H80 or H100 coolers for £35 to £60 from a retailer like Scan or Ebuyer if you wish to get the maximum overclock from your rig and on top of this if you do upgrade to an Intel K series CPU in the next two years,you can carry the cooler over too.

That Sapphire has a decent cooler too,and you should be able to get the GPU to around 1GHZ to 1.1GHZ:

http://www.kitguru.net/components/gr...ion-review/20/

[DanceswithUnix]

Just for BF3 there doesn't seem to be much in it, but most other games the R9 seems to have quite an advantage.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1068?vs=1037

But I'm not so convinced by Cat here with overclocking the 7850. That is a huge gap to close over getting a new card.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU14/807

[Betts961]

Ive never overclocked a GPU before but it seems pretty straight forward. Could i copy those setting on that link with it being the same card?

Downloaded 3dmark and heres the results...
Before
After
Improvement after pushing the cpu a little more

[mikeo01]

Overclocking is hit and miss and you probably won't see a major boost. It would probably be easier to buy another HD 7850 (they are getting cheap on eBay now to be fair).

But as mentioned above, the GTX 770 is unfortunately overpriced. The R9 280 (non-X) is getting ridiculously cheap, MSI/XFX + 3 free games. I mean why not? Even the 280X starting at £200 is a good buy.


One thing I can mention is DayZ is Intel bound (as are all the other ARMA games - I play too much of them ). That is seriously one of the only games where an AMD chip will hold you back by a lot. But then does that justify a whole new rebuild (not including time and money) for one game? Judge your other games first and how well they play.


You could easily reach a high overclock with the 6300 and most games will run fine with it. But then OP would have to purchase a new cooling solution to hold it. Also I personally wouldn't bet on a refurb, it only has 1 year warranty - new would net you 5 year warranty with Corsair with cover.


Besides it may work out cheaper (/performance wise) to go with a low end Intel board + I5 (with stock cooler) than it is to purchase an AIO liquid cooling solution.