I need some advice for my computer build !

KevinBrits · May 2015

So i'm currently gaming on a AMD machine.

It has a AMD FX 6300 FX running at 4.2Ghz (Liquid cooled) paired with a R9 270X and 8GB Crucial Ballastix Sport RAM 1600MHz.
This machine has been serving me for 2 years now but it's falling apart performance wise and i want to upgrade BUT.
My Budget at the moment is not that high and i've a small income. So right now i can either buy a i5 4690k with MSI MOBO included or stick with the AMD cpu and buy a new GPU which is going to be the R9 290x 4GB

Any thoughts ?

DivZero · May 2015

first world problems.. (upgrade cpu)

Bouvin · May 2015

You'd be better off going AMD than i5. If you go intel really need to go i7 to get the performance you want.

Also, MOBO for AMD is a tad cheaper because the memory controller is intergrated into the processor.

Just something to think about. I run AMD and has served me well..

Also, consider what MOBO comes with that i5. A cheap mobo will bottleneck performance more than anything. I highly suggest investing in a good mobo even if you get a cpu that's a little bit slower. You can always upgrade the CPU later.

Sacadon · May 2015

When you say falling apart performance wise. Please provide some examples of the behavior.

BTW, a safe answer for now is that you are pretty tight on RAM if you're running Win 8.1. Please share the OS you are running too.

Egonieser · May 2015

That CPU is more than sufficient to run any games smoothly, and so is the RAM. Your downfall is the slow 270 GPU.
Save your money and upgrade the GPU to 290 or gtx 970. You will be wasting perfectly good parts when all you really need is a better GPU.
Also a SSD also works wonders when it comes to loading times and booting up etc. Get something like samsung evo 840 for gaming and a 120gb equivalent for OS and you will see huge performance increases across the board.

Bouvin · May 2015

Egonieser wrote: »

That CPU is more than sufficient to run any games smoothly, and so is the RAM. Your downfall is the slow 270 GPU.
Save your money and upgrade the GPU to 290 or gtx 970. You will be wasting perfectly good parts when all you really need is a better GPU.
Also a SSD also works wonders when it comes to loading times and booting up etc. Get something like samsung evo 840 for gaming and a 120gb equivalent for OS and you will see huge performance increases across the board.

Agree about the SSD.

It'll also make the game run smoother, because textures load faster when entering new areas or new stuff pops up on screen.

My SSD died a while back and I had a spare HDD. It's almost painful using the HDD after being on an SSD for so long.

Sacadon · May 2015

Egonieser wrote: »

That CPU is more than sufficient to run any games smoothly, and so is the RAM. Your downfall is the slow 270 GPU.
Save your money and upgrade the GPU to 290 or gtx 970. You will be wasting perfectly good parts when all you really need is a better GPU.
Also a SSD also works wonders when it comes to loading times and booting up etc. Get something like samsung evo 840 for gaming and a 120gb equivalent for OS and you will see huge performance increases across the board.

Not having any further info, I tend to agree with this. I'm running way slower CPU than you but running NVIDIA 780ti goes a long way and things run very well for me.

KevinBrits · May 2015

I'm considering buying the MSI Z87-G43 mobo paired with a I5 4690k.
Right now Windows 8.1 is my OS and i already have a 240GB SSD aswell.
The current mobo i bought with the AMD cpu is a very cheap one too...
And the Performance is just going down due new games that require more power like Dying Light which caps at 28 fps no matter what settings i put it on. ESO is 50-60FPS in world but 30 in citys. GTA V is around 40-60 fps. Diablo III is a stutter mess while it runs on my friends Intel pc smooth. Call of Duty Advanced Warfare unplayable, But Battlefield Hardline 50-60 fps. I just don't get it. Some games run horrbile on AMD cpu it seems. I just want a stable 60 FPS and i don't want to cause bottlenecks aswell with this current CPU pairing High-end GPU's with it while it can't even handle it.

EDIT: I've never seen my ram going over 6GB under load.

Paulington · May 2015

Bouvin wrote: »

You'd be better off going AMD than i5. If you go intel really need to go i7 to get the performance you want.

Also, MOBO for AMD is a tad cheaper because the memory controller is intergrated into the processor.

Just something to think about. I run AMD and has served me well..

Also, consider what MOBO comes with that i5. A cheap mobo will bottleneck performance more than anything. I highly suggest investing in a good mobo even if you get a cpu that's a little bit slower. You can always upgrade the CPU later.

What makes you believe that? The only advantage an i7 has is hyperthreading for the most part and ESO does not utilize HT, ESO is a completely single-threaded process and that negates essentially all the advantages the i7 has over an i5. If you had an i5-2500K and an i7-2600K you'd probably see 1-2% more FPS in ESO, not really worth the price for people who are strapped on cash. An i5-4690K will just obliterate this game and the extra £100-£150 or so to go to an i7 really isn't worth it for people who are on tight budgets.

Furthermore, this game runs better on Intel hardware than AMD, so he's better off going with an Intel CPU, this is because, once again, ESO is single-threaded and Intel CPUs have better single-thread performance than AMD.

As for motherboards, any decent motherboard of around £100 will be just fine. One of the best bang/buck is the ASRock Z97 Extreme4 in my opinion. Contrary to popular belief you do not need £400 motherboards and they definitely won't "bottleneck performance" in any meaningful way.

In my opinion the OP would be best buying something like the i5-4690K with an MSI Z97-G45 motherboard and calling it good. ESO, being an MMO, is absolutely 100% CPU limited. The R9 270X is an ageing GPU but for ESO on "High" settings with a good CPU it should manage 30-40 FPS, easily 60 FPS on Medium settings with an i5-4690K.

So @KevinBrits, that's my opinion based upon my experience and what I have seen. I would suggest in the future after these upgrades you save for a GTX 970 to add to the parts you will get as it will destroy an R9 290X for ESO and it is cheaper.

Hope that helps!

Valymer · May 2015

Paulington wrote: »

Bouvin wrote: »

You'd be better off going AMD than i5. If you go intel really need to go i7 to get the performance you want.

Also, MOBO for AMD is a tad cheaper because the memory controller is intergrated into the processor.

Just something to think about. I run AMD and has served me well..

Also, consider what MOBO comes with that i5. A cheap mobo will bottleneck performance more than anything. I highly suggest investing in a good mobo even if you get a cpu that's a little bit slower. You can always upgrade the CPU later.

What makes you believe that? The only advantage an i7 has is hyperthreading for the most part and ESO does not utilize HT, ESO is a completely single-threaded process and that negates essentially all the advantages the i7 has over an i5. If you had an i5-2500K and an i7-2600K you'd probably see 1-2% more FPS in ESO, not really worth the price for people who are strapped on cash. An i5-4690K will just obliterate this game and the extra £100-£150 or so to go to an i7 really isn't worth it for people who are on tight budgets.

Furthermore, this game runs better on Intel hardware than AMD, so he's better off going with an Intel CPU, this is because, once again, ESO is single-threaded and Intel CPUs have better single-thread performance than AMD.

As for motherboards, any decent motherboard of around £100 will be just fine. One of the best bang/buck is the ASRock Z97 Extreme4 in my opinion. Contrary to popular belief you do not need £400 motherboards and they definitely won't "bottleneck performance" in any meaningful way.

In my opinion the OP would be best buying something like the i5-4690K with an MSI Z97-G45 motherboard and calling it good. ESO, being an MMO, is absolutely 100% CPU limited. The R9 270X is an ageing GPU but for ESO on "High" settings with a good CPU it should manage 30-40 FPS, easily 60 FPS on Medium settings with an i5-4690K.

So @KevinBrits, that's my opinion based upon my experience and what I have seen. I would suggest in the future after these upgrades you save for a GTX 970 to add to the parts you will get as it will destroy an R9 290X for ESO and it is cheaper.

Hope that helps!

Yes I agree, Intel architecture far surpasses AMD for this particular game. And an i5 is plenty powerful enough, the game will never utilize its full power.

KevinBrits · May 2015

Alright fair enough.

Thanks for the information guys. I will be ordering my i5 tomorrow

!

LEGENDARYYY · May 2015

Paulington wrote: »

Bouvin wrote: »

You'd be better off going AMD than i5. If you go intel really need to go i7 to get the performance you want.

Also, MOBO for AMD is a tad cheaper because the memory controller is intergrated into the processor.

Just something to think about. I run AMD and has served me well..

Also, consider what MOBO comes with that i5. A cheap mobo will bottleneck performance more than anything. I highly suggest investing in a good mobo even if you get a cpu that's a little bit slower. You can always upgrade the CPU later.

What makes you believe that? The only advantage an i7 has is hyperthreading for the most part and ESO does not utilize HT, ESO is a completely single-threaded process and that negates essentially all the advantages the i7 has over an i5. If you had an i5-2500K and an i7-2600K you'd probably see 1-2% more FPS in ESO, not really worth the price for people who are strapped on cash. An i5-4690K will just obliterate this game and the extra £100-£150 or so to go to an i7 really isn't worth it for people who are on tight budgets.

Furthermore, this game runs better on Intel hardware than AMD, so he's better off going with an Intel CPU, this is because, once again, ESO is single-threaded and Intel CPUs have better single-thread performance than AMD.

As for motherboards, any decent motherboard of around £100 will be just fine. One of the best bang/buck is the ASRock Z97 Extreme4 in my opinion. Contrary to popular belief you do not need £400 motherboards and they definitely won't "bottleneck performance" in any meaningful way.

In my opinion the OP would be best buying something like the i5-4690K with an MSI Z97-G45 motherboard and calling it good. ESO, being an MMO, is absolutely 100% CPU limited. The R9 270X is an ageing GPU but for ESO on "High" settings with a good CPU it should manage 30-40 FPS, easily 60 FPS on Medium settings with an i5-4690K.

So @KevinBrits, that's my opinion based upon my experience and what I have seen. I would suggest in the future after these upgrades you save for a GTX 970 to add to the parts you will get as it will destroy an R9 290X for ESO and it is cheaper.

Hope that helps!

Great to see someone who doesn't just post assumptions and bullcrap. This is spot on.

KevinBrits · May 2015

LEGENDARYYY wrote: »

Paulington wrote: »

Bouvin wrote: »

You'd be better off going AMD than i5. If you go intel really need to go i7 to get the performance you want.

Also, MOBO for AMD is a tad cheaper because the memory controller is intergrated into the processor.

Just something to think about. I run AMD and has served me well..

Also, consider what MOBO comes with that i5. A cheap mobo will bottleneck performance more than anything. I highly suggest investing in a good mobo even if you get a cpu that's a little bit slower. You can always upgrade the CPU later.

What makes you believe that? The only advantage an i7 has is hyperthreading for the most part and ESO does not utilize HT, ESO is a completely single-threaded process and that negates essentially all the advantages the i7 has over an i5. If you had an i5-2500K and an i7-2600K you'd probably see 1-2% more FPS in ESO, not really worth the price for people who are strapped on cash. An i5-4690K will just obliterate this game and the extra £100-£150 or so to go to an i7 really isn't worth it for people who are on tight budgets.

Furthermore, this game runs better on Intel hardware than AMD, so he's better off going with an Intel CPU, this is because, once again, ESO is single-threaded and Intel CPUs have better single-thread performance than AMD.

As for motherboards, any decent motherboard of around £100 will be just fine. One of the best bang/buck is the ASRock Z97 Extreme4 in my opinion. Contrary to popular belief you do not need £400 motherboards and they definitely won't "bottleneck performance" in any meaningful way.

In my opinion the OP would be best buying something like the i5-4690K with an MSI Z97-G45 motherboard and calling it good. ESO, being an MMO, is absolutely 100% CPU limited. The R9 270X is an ageing GPU but for ESO on "High" settings with a good CPU it should manage 30-40 FPS, easily 60 FPS on Medium settings with an i5-4690K.

So @KevinBrits, that's my opinion based upon my experience and what I have seen. I would suggest in the future after these upgrades you save for a GTX 970 to add to the parts you will get as it will destroy an R9 290X for ESO and it is cheaper.

Hope that helps!

Great to see someone who doesn't just post assumptions and bullcrap. This is spot on.

Exactly ! Thumbsup !

SoonerMagicEE · May 2015

I'm a big proponent of the i7 processors, but not for gaming...yet. If you need to do other high-end CPU-intensive tasks, such as encoding/decoding, encryption/decryption, big-data analysis, or 3D graphics design, then an i7 makes sense. Otherwise, the i5 is essentially just as good. @Paulington's assessment is 100% correct.

However, I would consider bumping your RAM to 16GB. While you haven't noticed it go above 6GB, your system is likely paging (using virtual memory) quite a bit, and you should see a small bump in performance with a bit more RAM, especially if you're running other applications, such as a browser, voice chat, etc., while gaming. 32GB is definitely overkill unless you're running specific applications that need it...but you'd know if you were. One thing to note: however much RAM you're using, you should be splitting it evenly across all 4 slots on your motherboard (assuming it has 4 slots). This will help the speed of data transfers to/from RAM. If you currently have 2 4GB sticks, adding 2 more will essentially double the transfer rate.

Audigy · May 2015

As someone else said,

the I5 is sufficient for any game currently on the market. No game is able to really use the full horse power of an Intel CPU these days, its always the GPU that bottlenecks first. The reason for this is that our games don't utilize the full potential of our systems unless we talk about Mantle based programs such as Thief and BF which can really use what we have to offer.. So whatever CPU you get, I5 or I7 - it wont matter as no game will really use them properly and the "one core" job is less than 5% in difference. It would be a different topic if you would work with your CPU, like video encoding, sound design, there an I7 makes a lot of sense.

All of this however can change with DX12 in Fall this year, but I assume it will take at least one or two more years until our current CPU´s or the generation before that (intel) will start to bottleneck our systems in gaming.

That said, AMD has huge problems in single core performance and because of this games run worse on their CPUs. Unless you want to run some crazy Overclock, AMD is not advisable in non Mantle games.

As for the GPU.

I am a big supporter of AMD, as the cards are cheaper and offer more utility for their money than a Nvidia card. I run a 280x myself and would had to pay 50 bucks more for the same performance at Nvidia and I would lose very important gaming & video features with it.
That said, if money doesn't matter and you only play ESO then any card will do, be it Nvidia or AMD. How they perform with DX12 we don't know yet, heck we don't even know if ZOS will add DX12 support...

As example, I was running ESO on Ultra with a 6950 before. So don't think that buying a 500$ GPU will do wonders, the difference is quite small, maybe 10 FPS to what you currently have.

I however want to point something out. Only AMD cards have ACE, while with Dx11 this isn't important, it will be with DX 12. To explain what it does would go to far, but lets say that it allows multitasking so that your graphics card will now do the work on different tasks at the same time and not after each other. (Lightning, Shadows, Memory, Physics...)

So yes, go and get the intel CPU and MOBO, ASRock does good ones - (intel chipsets don't work on MOBOs made for AMD) so you must get a new one too, plus new Ram! Don't try to plug in your old RAM into the new MOBO, this can fry your system / if they even fit, which they most likely wont.