Hi everyone,
I'm looking to build a first PC for gaming. My budget is ~$1300. I've put together an AMD build and an Intel build, and I just wanted peoples opinions as to which is better. If you think that I should be using different parts in either build, please let me know.
AMD: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/deemfingtee/saved/2Oem
Intel: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/deemfingtee/saved/2Oes
Prices are in Canadian dollars, which does change the costs of each system slightly. I already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. I'd like to be able to get maximum FPS on the highest settings at 1080p, while still staying in the stated price range. I also don't have a copy of windows 8, and I was wondering if the windows 8.1 OEM needs windows 8 to already be installed, or if it is an install from scratch package.
Thanks!
You would probably see about the same performance on both of those, barring Mantle titles. AMD would obviously be the choice to go with if you plan on playing a lot of Mantle titles.
BF4 is the only Mantle one that comes to mind. I wonder if it would be worth holding off to see just how much performance Mantle can add.
An AMD rep said during the Tom's Hardware AMA that they wouldn't bother putting in all of this effort if the yields were only ~5% (I can't remember the exact number he used, but you can go read the thing yourself). Also:
https://teksyndicate.com/users/commissar/blog/2013/11/06/star-citizen-w-mantle
Thief and a few others will be using Mantle too, but what you have to realize is that it isn't title based. It is engine based (if my knowledge is correct), so any game made with Frostbite 3 should have Mantle support. Back in that AMA on Tom's they listed a bunch of companies that will have Mantle support.
Those two are pretty even. If you want to overclock go with the Intel build. If you Stream/record game footage the amd build will be for you. Amd Also has some boosts with running well with linux So if you plan for steam os get the amd. If you got the amd build you cold get more memory or a bigger ssd
yeah this is a difficult choice, because the performance will be a bit equal depending on which games you gonne play. games that gonne use mantle you could probably see some performance boost on the amd build. in other titles it will be a close call.
But on the other hand the amd build is allmost $100 cheaper. if you put that extra money in a better gpu like R9-290 or GTX780. that could be an performance boost for highres gaming.
but for 1080p you would be also fine with either a R9-280X or GTX770. so yeah its a difficult choice. Notice that 3GB of Vram on the R9-280X realy can come handy with heavy modded skyrim games and such.
I would definitely like to record to some degree, and I will also overclock either system. If I were to add $100 to the AMD build, would SSD, GPU or RAM be the most worthwhile?
Also, is the Windows 8.1 OEM 64-bit OK to install on a fresh build, or is it an upgrade version for people who already have windows running?
Thanks for the input!
well 8 GB of ram will be still plenty for gaming. 16GB of ram won´t give you any performance boost, unless you realy need it for editing and stuf. same counts for a bigger SSD. 128GB ssd is plenty for an os and some program´s. extra storage will also not give you any performance boost. But with a better GPU you will offcourse get a performance boost. for 1080p maybe overkill, but if you ever wanne go on multiple monitor gaming or highres gaming it could be handy.
But my biggest point is that i would personaly choose for a R9-280X over a GTX770 2GB because of the Vram. But yeah both builds are realy good. psu maybe a bit overkill.
Would 750W be a better idea for the PSU? Some day I'd probably like to add another gpu someday, but that would not be for a few years.
750W will be fine for pretty much all dual-GPU setups. Just make sure to get one of decent quality.