Okay, so I am considering moving from an FX-8320 I've been using for two years to something like an i5-4690k, and am wondering if that is even worth the trouble/money on a system that is mainly used for gaming.
Current specs are: AMD FX-8320 ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16gb DDR3-2133 MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G Samsung 840 EVO 250gb SSD EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 PSU Corsair H100i CPU cooler Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
I believe I could get away with just changing the CPU/MB and continue with everything else I have as far as the internals go, I just don't know if the performance gain would allow me to justify the $350-ish cost for the CPU/MB.
In all honesty, part of this is also because I kind of want to transition to Micro ATX and a cube case, and also because I've been having issues with my ASRock MB downclocking my RAM when I try to overclock my CPU, no matter what I've tried to manually prevent it. (I found out too late from research this board seems very picky with Ram and OCing) I know the RAM speed doesn't matter a whole lot since I have a dedicated GPU, but it just bothers the heck out of me.
So, sound like a bit of a waste of money or should I go ahead and use an Intel processor for the first time ever?
I wouldn't bother changing, also its a really bad time to change.
I personally use an i5k series... In all honesty an GPU upgrade will make a lot more of a difference, and I'd wait until 2016 to upgrade.
The main reason is DDR4. If you buy (I presume) a 1150 i5k or equivalent it doesn't support DDR4, so next year you'll have to swap everything out. Also DX 12 is rumored to use all the FX series cores, so your processor may become more powerful than my i5K...
That was something of my thought too, as I know there will be new stuff coming out soon-ish, as well as DX12. I just kind of wanted and excuse to play with new toys if I'm being perfectly honest, as my PC has no issues running games right now anyway.
depends allot on what kind of games you play basicly. In some games the gain can be allot, especialy in MMO´s and RTS. But in AAA games the performance gain wouldnt be that big.
The only way i would go to the intel side is if you went x99, i went from an 8350 to a 4670k and it WAS NOT worth it, i since have upgraded to x99, which is definitely worth it :)
Turns out I wasted everyones' time. When I went home for lunch I took a 15th crack at it and found the multiplier settings I'd somehow missed every time I'd searched the BIOS before.
I've now got the 8320 at a comfy (for me) 4.1Ghz overclock and the memory is at the correct 2133mhz. Getting that all working correctly squashes my desire for an early and generally not needed upgrade, at least until I see what's coming out next year.
Unless you are seeing a problem in-game with regard to your cpu's performance, I wouldn't bother. It would be better to invest in a better monitor or something like that. That said, I would look more towards freesync than g-sync as I don't like proprietary things and the added expense, but you already have an nVidia card soooooo. Other than that, I would just wait. Your rig is solid at the moment. Next year, we might see both Zen and 14nm gpus so I would wait for the time being.
I would consider waiting for Skylake. I know you don't want to wait forever, but my personal plan is to retire my old 8350 for Skylake, then wait for Gen 2 Zen.
Well, I've had a G-Sync monitor for since last December, so I'm firmly in bed with Nvidia for a good number of years yet. :p
I already had the GTX 970 at the time, so if I'd wanted to go Freesync I'd have had to get a new video card and a new monitor anyway. Maybe the monitor would've been cheaper by some amount, but I'd still have had to add the cost of the new card. A horse apiece I guess.
Good to hear you sorted the OC out. I personally am waiting for Zen to see what I switch to. I should have stayed AM3 instead of dropping the $500 on Mobo and CPU to make the switch to Intel. I could have gone from my 8120 to an 8350 or 8320 and been just fine.