So I am planning to finally build myself a new gaming pc after 5 years of solid gaming on my current system. I pretty much nailed down all the parts except the CPU and GPU. Let me break it down.
For my CPU choices its either between the amazing bang-for-your-buck FX 8350 or the solid-performance 4670k or just spend more money and buy the 4930k. I REALLY like the FX 8350 because of the price-to-performance ratio. But I wouldn't mind spending more money for even more performance. With me so far? Now this is where it gets kind of fuzzy. With the AMD hardware in the new consoles, I predict console ports will run more efficiently on the AMD parts compared to the intel. So if I did pick up the 8350, It might actually be able to keep up with the 4670k and maybe even the 4930k. Then again if it doesn't turn out to give much benefit to the AMD hardware over the Intel than I would want to get the intel hardware.
The GPU portion is between R9 290X and the 780 TI. Similar reasons; AMD has Mantle (better performance in the future compared to the NVIDIA counterpart) but Nvidia's Shadowplay and G-sync is looking very nice.
Help me please, I just can't make up my mind!
Haha alright buddy. As far as consoles go, I think PC ports will run better on ALL x86 processors including AMD and intel. If you got the money, get the 4670k. The 8350 may have a better price to performance ratio, but the i5 has more performance...period.
I would personally love to get my hands on a 780ti lol. You may be missing out on mantle, but we don't know how that's going to turn out honestly. with nvidia you'll get some features you won't get with amd so its kinda a tossup
4670k has better performance... period? Mm me thinks not.
From the perspective of someone who has a 3570k and an 8350, it is a toss up. In certain games the 8350 is better with the i5 better in others. In certain games, especially when streaming, at higher resolutions (1440p +), and when using Crossfire or SLI, the 8350 kills the i5. Productivity wise, especially for rendering, the 8350 also wins, at least in my experience.
More and more games are being optimized for more and more cores so the 8350 will get more efficient as time goes on.
The bigger issue I have is that AM3+ is an aging socket. It still has plenty of life in it but as time progresses it may turn out to be a dead end.
As for the GPU, lets wait until some R9 290Xs are out with aftermarket coolers. The current ones are loud and hot with thermal throttling affecting performance. The GTX 780 Ti is great and I love my regular 780, but not great to compare the two right now.
Just my thoughts.
if you want an 8 core processor get an i7... (hyperthreading outperforms actual 8 cores from amd by a good margin)... if not... AMD isn't a horrible option... the i5 is a very good processor as well... it depends on what you're going to use if for really...
if you want price/performance on a graphics card.... wait a month and get the r9 290 after aftermarket coolers get on it and don't look back.... for $400 that's a BEASTLY card that can be overclocked to a R9 290x on most builds