I am building a new system bit by bit monthly (this is my second gaming system at another location I stay at for work). So I already have a Corsair 540 air case, 22" Benq screen, Keyboard, mouse, mechanical HDD and a 750 PSU. After the mobo, CPU & memory I will add a video card (something like a 7950/7970 or GTX 760/770), then SSD, then additional 8GB memory, then liquid cool the CPU, then another video card in SLI/crossfire which I may add to the cooling loop.
This system will be for gaming and no adobe stuff and I will want to OC as much as possible CPU & GPU(s). So the biggest choice at this stage is the CPU..Intel or AMD.
Given that the costs are so close I am assuming Intel as a little more rounded for gaming. I currently have Intel 2500K @ 4.5Ghz with GTX 460 x2 SLI OC'd which I like but kinda curious about AMD just for a change. However, if I read this post I would suggest Intel as my recommendation but keen to get some feedback please.
Should I be considering future gaming at 8 cores like the new consoles are?
Well the CPUs are nearly identical in performance maybe the 8350 comes out a little bit on top. but the FM3+ socket is still living and will still see new motherboards and CPUs come out for it where as LGA 1155 is dead, there are no more CPUs coming out for it and most likely not any more motherboards for it.
EDIT: Although its kinda obvious Which I would prefer I never explicitly said so. I would go for the 8350. And yes because of the consoles perusing 8 core gaming i think games for PCs will be better with 8 cores then they are right now.
utter waste of money either choice. you will get zero performance gains when gaming and very little every where else. certainly less than 10% gains even with a 4.5+oc as opposed to your already 4.2 you already sport on the 2500k...
seriously mate unless you are just spending money for the sake of it. upgrading to either ivy or vish is an utter waste. better to get another gfx card and go sli or big single card.
yeah go with the AMD FX8350 its a great cpu, and it beats an i5 8 out of 10 times in gaming, some games run better on intel some better on amd its how games are designed, but the AMD wins 8 out of 10 times, and its also cheaper then the i5, so yeah the AMD is the best bang for buck, in my opinnion. The most important part of a gaming rig is still the gpu,
i would go with an FX8350 Asus Sabertooth 990Fx R2.0 mobo, and a MSi 7950 twinfrozer. and g-skill sniper 2x4GB 1866mhz. that would be a very nice bang for buck rig.
Now I still think the 8350 Is your best choice, I'm simply giving you this just if for some reason you really like haswell, Which it seems you don't so this isn't very relevant. Still go with the 8350.
It does depend on the games. I think games that are a little more CPU bound, like Skyrim or Total War (it has been said), do run better on Intel. For the most part, it doesn't matter. I'd recommend AMD 9 times out of 10.
This gen games do run better on Intel, but that is because most games are poorly optimized and only use 1-2 cores.
I know of a bunch of games that are utilizing more and more cores, which means the 8 cores will be fully used. Planetside 2, and Natural Selection 2 are some big titles that are optimizing for more cores.
Becuase thhe 8350 has 8 cores, it will run faster when both cpus are pushed to the limit.
From benchmarks I see, intel cores have a single core performance of 9.5 while the amd core is only 8.2. But when you think about it, that means put togather, the intel chip as a whole has a combined performance of 38 (4*9.5) and the amd part has 65.6 (8.2*8). So when games like planetside 2 get that optimization, it's almost a fact (as factual as the foreseen future can be) amd's 8 cores will out perform the intel's 4 core. (Remember, the amd part is 20-50$ cheaper too).