Hi there im looking to build a new system later in the year and im wondering which is best fm2+ or am3+.
i have quite a old system and want to be able to play the latest games, although i can still play some of the newer games at the moment
i had been looking at an fm2+ motherboard and a processor from the amd apu A4/6/8/10 family i would have bought what was best at the time of buying but i was looking at the newest games and came across one that i liked the look of - Quantum Break and the minimum reqs are CPU - FX-6300, Windows 10, Geforce 760 or Radeon R7 260.
So by the looks of it and looking at the requiremnts on the Game Debate Website that i would have bought above, the game wouldn't play on that system but i found out that the FX CPU is from the AM3+ CPU Family and would be more expensive to build that than the one i was going to.
So what im wondering is, is fm2+ much different from AM3+ and is there an fm2+ equivalent of the am3+ FX-6300 CPU. and which is actually best FM2+ or AM3+
Thanks in advance for any help
FM2+ and AM3+ are a lot different. FM2+ uses a "unified" chipset (normally in the A series i.e A68x/A78x/A88x)and runs the APU line of processors A4/A6 and so on. AM3+ uses the ageing 970/990FX north-bridge with normally a SB9xx south-bridge, they normally run the Athlon FX/Phenom processors (that have no on-die graphics).
Tbh if you're planning to build one later in the year I would wait as Zen is meant to be released and that basically voids the older platforms as It's been said to use a new Socket AM4 that supports DDR4 and there wont be a split like there is now between the APU and CPU lineup.
Oh and to answer the question "which is best" at the moment I would say FM2+ as all the new processors (even the Athlon X line are done on FM2+.
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The answer is AM4 later this year.
In general I would have answered FM2, but Asrock and Gigabyte had released some really quality motherboards, that compensate for the shortcomings of AM3... So at the moment with the existing lineup of CPUs - AM3 is better...
However, later in the year AM4 will be the best AMD option...
ok thanks for the answers im actually on a budget and im assuming AM4 will prob be quite expensive, more than what i can spend anyway
Well AMD has a history of actually being rather "cost effective" especially when compared to Intel. I wouldn't count them out just yet.
If you have to make a choice though and aren't planning an upgrade path (i.e changing just CPU/Memory) then either the FM2+ or AM3+ will do you well. Depending on you're choice is where the limit will come, the FM2+ will allow you the use of the APU which are really good bang for the buck. The AM3+ will give you a little more "raw firepower" when used with decent cooling and often have a higher OC ceiling (at least from what I have seen) you also get to choose the Graphics be it Nvidia or AMD. Also as @psycho_666 mentioned Asrock and Gigabyte have been releasing some kick a** boards with AM3+.
ok thanks so is there an fm2+ cpu equivalent for an am3+ fx-6300
Hmm well there isn't a 6-core on the FM2+ (that I know of) but I guess performance wise it would probably be the Quad-Core Athlon X4 860K (or around that).
no i was looking at that earlier when i realised the fx 6300 was 6 cores and i couldn't find an fm2+ equivalent, but ive not kept myself uptodate on pc's for a couple of years now so dont really know what im looking for im kind of using that new game as a benchmark for what i should be buying, as alot of new games will probably use the same requirements, as i said in my main post the games i want to play just now i can on my pc, so im not rushing to buy anything new right now but could be in 6 months time or so
No... 860K is slower in multithreaded applications, like editing, streaming, recording, whatever, because of the extra cores... And despite being newer architecture, 6000 and 8000 series still outperform it slightly...
I actually have the 7850k upstairs and the 8320e downstairs with a gtx 770. Kid got the 7870k (far better bargain, the cpu cooler alone is worth the 20 bucks) The FM2+ w/ APU is more flexible since:
You can play the latest games now on low or medium setting
You can use a really crappy old PSU and upgrade that later.
You can decide how much GPU power you want later and wait for a good sale.
Pcie3 standard may be used by future GPU's
Can overclock either/both the iGPU and CPU
8320e:
Slightly better framerates, plenty of videos on youtube.
Consoles have 8 cores and eventually game developers will go wide IMHO. That means writing multi core game engines to take advantage of all 8 cores.
Has an L3 cache
When I am downloading stuff, scanning for viruses and have 8 tabs on firefox I can game on it without closing anything. Not so much on the A10.
Is a better overclocker. People have reached 4 ghz on 4+1 power and 4.6 with 8+1 MB's I'm lazy, I went with the "press D for overclock" option:)
DDR3 speed not as important for performance like it is on the A10
If you have an MC nearby you can get the combo deal on either for dirt cheap with the 68 chipset FM2+ MB's going really really cheap. The Asrock 970 pro3 MB the 3 year protection plan was 5 bucks.
Hope this helps:)
Well technically speaking AM3+ would still be the better platform.
Allthough FM2+ offers newer technologies like pci-e3.0, the platform is still limmited to Quadcore chips that only have 2 fpu´s.
On the am3+ you have the choice of cpu´s with more cores.
However if you have plans to build a system later this year?
then i would recommend to look at it later and see whats out then.
Because zen might be released this year, but there is also intel.
personally im waiting to see what AMD brings to the table with zen before i make any upgrades i built my pc in 2011 and theirs that side of me that really wants to upgrade, but then theirs that side that says my pc still capable of any thing i need it to do..lol go fx 8120 and HD6870
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