Upgrade FX8320 tips?

[Splinterdog]

I've been running an FX8320 on a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P rev 1.0 for about five years now, upgrading the GPU from a Sapphire 7950 Vapor X, to an MSI GTX970 and to what I have now, an Asus ROG Strix RX580 8Gb with only a few niggles, mainly with the motherboard.
With prices here in Buenos Aires sky-rocketing due to 60% currency devaluation and 30% inflation, I've decided to buy a Ryzen CPU, Asus mobo and DDR4 memory during my next trip to the UK in August and I'm considering the following:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six-Core Processor with Wraith Spire Cooler
Asus ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING AMD AM4 X470 ATX Motherboard
HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit

It seems the Ryzen 2600X price is on a par with the 1600X and I won't miss my current mobo too much due to double booting issues and the VIA sound which isn't on a par with with Realtek (Windows 10 updates didn't help either)
Also, my Corsair H100i V1.0 will fit the Asus mobo without the need for a new bracket apparently and I do like the Aura lights on Asus mobos too. I don't need WiFi but good sound is important, which this mobo seems to have.
Or perhaps I should consider:
8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 8600K 3.6GHz

I usually can't afford to go Intel, but any other suggestions would be welcome. Intel better for gaming? This is the primary use for my main PC.

 

[Vario]

Looks good. The 8600k is slightly better for gaming if you are playing at very high frame rates, competitive shooters such as Overwatch or CS Go, or if you are playing a CPU intensive strategy game such as Starcraft2 or Total War. Ryzen 2600X has an additional 6 threads which is good for video compiling. The 8600K can overclock higher and is capable of running faster ram. It is kind of a toss up and really depends more on what you intend to do with the machine. Make sure you buy ram that is on the QVL. If you buy the AM4 motherboard you will have the possibility of putting newer CPUs into it as time goes on. If you buy the Intel motherboard you are locked into the current 8 gen core processors (Coffee Lake).
I would go for the 2600 over the 2600X, they are basically the same thing but you can save £40 that way. The 2600 at £169 looks a better value over the 8600K at £223.

 

[Splinterdog]

That's great advice @Vario . Also the 2600 is a 65W CPU as well. That's quite a saving there ££.
The Hyper X memory is on the Asus QVL too.
PS
I forgot to mention that I mainly play FPSs, such as FC5, Sniper Elite 4, the latest Tomb Raiders and racing games like Forza Horizon 3 and Forza Motorsport 7, with Forza Horizon 4 incoming later in the year.
I don't play any multiplayer games at all.

 

[cucker tarlson]

You should consider the i5 8400 and b360. It's faster in gaming than both 2600x and 2700x, despite being a locked cpu (no oc). If you decide to choose ryzen,then look for good deals for 1st gen 1600X and b350 to save some money for faster memory. 1st gen ryzen with ddr4 2933 is going to run faster than 2nd gen ryzen with ddr4 2400. I'd get 8400,b360 and ddr4 2666, that's probably the best price/performance setup you can get for gaming ATM.

 

[Vya Domus]

It seems the Ryzen 2600X price is on a par with the 1600X

Get the 2600X , the higher boost clock is worth it.

 

[Vario]

That's great advice @Vario . Also the 2600 is a 65W CPU as well. That's quite a saving there ££.
The Hyper X memory is on the Asus QVL too.
PS
I forgot to mention that I mainly play FPSs, such as FC5, Sniper Elite 4, the latest Tomb Raiders and racing games like Forza Horizon 3 and Forza Motorsport 7, with Forza Horizon 4 incoming later in the year.
I don't play any multiplayer games at all.

If you play at higher resolutions like 1440+ or if you play at 60Hz you are less likely to notice a difference between the i5 and the 2600. Racing games, you might benefit from the i5, might be fewer frame rate drops or stutter and therefore less in game accidents.

Get the 2600X , the higher boost clock is worth it.

You may be right, though you can overclock the 2600 to the 2600X speed.

 

[Vya Domus]

you can overclock the 2600 to the 2600X speed.

Unfortunately that may not be the case , Ryzen 2 seems to have less overhead , most of the the time an all core OC wouldn't reach the max turbo clock. Which is why I said the 2600X is worth the extra , or not I guess , 60hz is nothing for any modern CPU with 6 cores anyway. OP has a freesync monitor as well.

 

[Splinterdog]

This Intel combo works out cheaper than my previous choice and I'm not married to AMD; it's always been a question of price where I live.
Is this better than Ryzen for gaming?

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 8500 2.8GHz Socket LGA1151 (Coffee Lake) Processor

Asus ROG STRIX B360-F GAMING LGA 1151 B360 ATX Motherboard

HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit

All for under £500

Also my H100i V1 will fir in an LGA1151 apparently.

 

[HD64G]

Main point in going with AM4 is the upgreability in the next 3 years with any new Ryzen cpu. That will help any badget conscious pc owner who don't want to change platform every 3 years. I would go only Ryzen platform given that future-proof. And with RX580 you will not see difference in gaming performance. Only in 1080P and with 1080Ti or Vega 64 difference is close to 10% between 8700K and 2700X in some games and even less in more.

 

[Vario]

This Intel combo works out cheaper than my previous choice and I'm not married to AMD; it's always been a question of price where I live.
Is this better than Ryzen for gaming?

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5 8500 2.8GHz Socket LGA1151 (Coffee Lake) Processor

Asus ROG STRIX B360-F GAMING LGA 1151 B360 ATX Motherboard

HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit

All for under £500

Also my H100i V1 will fir in an LGA1151 apparently.

I'd probably do that. First thing to consider is you can upgrade your processor in 3 years to the latest and retain your motherboard if you go with the AM4. However you are already 5-6 years (I assume) into your current, if you want to go another 5 years onto the next machine it won't matter. DDR5 will be out at some point and you will want to get onto a newer platform at that point. Second thing to consider is whether you need 12 threads or is 6 adequate. The i5 8500 will boost to 4.1 so you aren't losing much over an 8600k. I have not found that overclocking my 8600k has made any perceived difference in any game. Third, whether you want to go even cheaper and do an i5 8400, which will boost to 4.0 Ghz.

TPU review says the following on the 8500

The data above reveals that the Core i5-8500 reaches its maximum Turbo Boost multiplier of 41x (4.10 GHz) only with single-threaded workload, which is as expected. It quickly drops to 40x (4.00 GHz), which is more or less sustained throughout 2-thread, 3-thread, and 4-thread workloads, with a slight decay of 25 MHz as you go down from 2-thread to 3-thread. The processor sustains 39x (3.90 GHz) comfortably across 5-thread and 6-thread workloads. So for all intents and purposes, you can overlook the 3.00 GHz nominal clock of this chip. It's really a 3.90 GHz chip that gains 100-200 MHz at less parallelized workloads. In our testing, we found it difficult to keep the chip confined to single-threaded workload clocks as background tasks of the OS would make the chip invoke its 2-thread boost-state, which is why the maximum observed clock wasn't strictly 4100 MHz.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Core_i5_8500/16.html

I think that the i5 8400 will stay at 3.8 Ghz for 6 core load turbo but I am not sure.

 

[Splinterdog]

I read that threads are more important for gaming than core count. How important is that?

 

[Komshija]

Upgrading to Intel CPU isn't a very wise decision. Much better, cheaper and future-proof option would be AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X if your budget allows it.

Here is one suggestion for a very good upgrade: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Rr33RJ

A little bit better upgrade, if you can afford it: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6dMQRJ

Prices above are changing frequently, so there might be some variations.

Forget Intel...

 

[cucker tarlson]

It's important to choose a CPU that has a fast single core,and then choose the model that has enough cores/threads not to bottleneck your performance in multi threaded games. That's why the new 6 core i5s are a sweet spot. They've got a fast single core performance, they have enough cores (4 core i5 would often get bottlenecked but with +50% more cores that's no longer the case), and they're fairly cheap.
Games can now utilize a lot of threads,but there's no equivalency between faster core vs more cores. A CPU with a faster single core performance will beat the CPU with more threads as long as the first one has enough.

https://www.purepc.pl/karty_graficz...5_pc_wymagania_adekwatne_do_grafiki?page=0,10

 

[JRMBelgium]

Forget Intel...

Indeed. We don't need them anymore for good performance

 

[Komshija]

Indeed. We don't need them anymore for good performance

Intel had their chance. It's not brand-hating, but they have very clearly shown that they don't care about their customers. At all.
AMD now offers similar and even better performance for a lower price, so the choice is pretty much clear.

 

[Vya Domus]

I read that threads are more important for gaming than core count. How important is that?

A minimum of 8 threads for a modern CPU.

Thread =/= cores , threads ensure a core achieves higher utilization.

 

[JRMBelgium]

lol how does am4 provide better upgrade path in the future ? he can go with 8400 now and upgrade to 8700k or 9th gen i7 later.

I think he means that there is an actual upgrade path. ( To ryzen 2 or perhaps even ryzen 3) Upgrading to 8400 and then to 8700k is a waste. Core i7 9th gen CPU's will be very expensive. I will never understand upgrades in the same generation....

 

[hat]

You should consider the i5 8400 and b360. It's faster in gaming than both 2600x and 2700x, despite being a locked cpu (no oc). If you decide to choose ryzen,then look for good deals for 1st gen 1600X and b350 to save some money for faster memory. 1st gen ryzen with ddr4 2933 is going to run faster than 2nd gen ryzen with ddr4 2400. I'd get 8400,b360 and ddr4 2666, that's probably the best price/performance setup you can get for gaming ATM.

You sure about that? It only turbos to 3.8. While not slow, I'd be kicking myself for not springing for the 8600k, which seems to be no stranger to 5GHz... and also being locked down to slower RAM as well. There's way faster than 2666 available, and memory has been shown time and time again to have an effect on gaming performance.

 

[Vario]

You sure about that? It only turbos to 3.8. While not slow, I'd be kicking myself for not springing for the 8600k, which seems to be no stranger to 5GHz... and also being locked down to slower RAM as well. There's way faster than 2666 available, and memory has been shown time and time again to have an effect on gaming performance.

I haven't observed that effect myself. I run mine at the stock speeds, both the ram and the CPU. I have tried 5 GHz and memory over 4000 when I bought the system and it makes no observable difference to me in any game except more heat.

A minimum of 8 threads for a modern CPU.

Why do you say this? To imply i5 6 core is not modern?

I think he means that there is an actual upgrade path. ( To ryzen 2 or perhaps even ryzen 3) Upgrading to 8400 and then to 8700k is a waste. Core i7 9th gen CPU's will be very expensive. I will never understand upgrades in the same generation....

Would be pointless anyway, the 8700k and 8400 perform nearly exactly the same in games.

Also as far as threads vs cores
Here is 6 core 8700K (HT OFF) vs 12 thread 8700k (HT ON)

Notice the CPU performs better with 6 cores and 6 threads.

AMD SMT on vs OFF
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2835-amd-ryzen-r7-1700-smt-off-overclock-benchmarks

SMT is largely inconsequential on or off for games. Many results where it performs better turned off.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Grab ryzen and don't look back - Purely because amd has better socket longevity and I'm fed up of socket refreshes.

 

[Splinterdog]

Upgrading to Intel CPU isn't a very wise decision. Much better, cheaper and future-proof option would be AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X if your budget allows it.

Here is one suggestion for a very good upgrade: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Rr33RJ

A little bit better upgrade, if you can afford it: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/6dMQRJ

Prices above are changing frequently, so there might be some variations.

Forget Intel...

Thanks for the tips mate.
I have a Corsair H100i water cooler, so I don't need an air cooler. Also I've pretty much decided to get an Asus ROG mobo whether it's Intel or AMD, because I just fancy it and it goes with my Asus ROG GPU.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Thanks for the tips mate.
I have a Corsair H100i water cooler, so I don't need an air cooler. Also I've pretty much decided to get an Asus ROG mobo whether it's Intel or AMD, because I just fancy it and it goes with my Asus ROG GPU.

I'd highly recommend a ryzen 2 cpu - AM4 is here to stay, and this is coming from a mostly intel cpu owner.

 

[JRMBelgium]

So weird. Amd wouldn't even come up two years ago in a thread like this
Loving the change

 

[RealNeil]

they have very clearly shown that they don't care about their customers. At all

It looked to me like a form of disdain for those of us who wanted better prices and more innovation for money spent. We were ignored because they could get away with it.
Suddenly they're interested in us again, simply because we now have viable choices.

While I really love a lot of their products, they remain far too expensive and that has to stop. This is a good enough reason to buy AMD instead. (if it meets your needs)

I've supported AMD for a long time, but not exclusively. I have a Ryzen 1700X and a Ryzen 1600X here. Both are decent gamers that love fast RAM and upscale GPUs.
I just migrated the 1600X to my wife's office system. (mainly due to its performance and reliability)
It's installed into a very small mid-tower case with OK airflow, but it stays pretty cool.

I donated a Ryzen 1500X CPU and Crosshair VI Mainboard to the annual Memorial to Kreij giveaway because I feel confident that it will be a good system for someone going forward.

 

[Vario]

Seems like you guys are steering him to an actually more expensive and slower choice all for the dubious benefit of 6 more threads and some misplaced brand loyalty. Remember, his intent is purely to play games on it. If it were me I'd just do an i5-8400 and a B360. Next time you upgrade it will be DDR5 and new motherboards anyway.