Really Confused i5 vs i7 vs FX- 8350, and other GPU questions

Hardware CPU
1

I have posted a lot of things regarding PC builds lately, and honestly, i am nervous.

The world of PC gaming is just multiple paychecks away from me, and i want to make sure im spending my money wisely, but not diverting away from performance. I have done a lot of research, mainly on GPU and CPU. I am stuck between i5, i7 and AMD FX-8350. To make it short:

1. I play lots of games, that is my main purpose, i do some video editing but not enough that i would want one specifically for it (video editing is really not a priority, its just something to mention)

2. I really want to run things on Ultra. Games like Metro Last Light, Battlefield 4, Assassins Creed 4, and so on

3. I am stuck between the 3 cpu's listed above. Im really interested in the fx-8350 but im confused in how the i7 will outperform in certain areas. I know that some games are starting to utilize more cores (Battlefield 4) and what not, and there is also this new API (i think thats what its called) that is going to "replace" directx11, and is that only for AMD? 

4. If im focusing all gaming, and the way it looks, being able to run multiple things at once, possibly stream what CPU is best for me?

5. GPU i am pretty settled on, my choice is probably gonna be the ASUS HD 7970, because the price is very good for what it is, and soon to be released r9 280x might make the 7970 go down in price. (If i got a 280x how much of a difference would it make? Would it be utilized fully on most games with the fx-8350?)

6. Again, i pretty much have it all settled out, just the CPU and GPU, also my budget is like $800/900 (just for computer)

7. And for all this stuff (and future upgrade) what would be a good PSU wattage? 750?

 

Thanks for anyone who tries to help me sort things out, i keep asking questions because the people on the forums here are so nice and just helpful im starting to understand a lot of these things, obviously not these 2 things yet!

 

2

As a balanced, "all-round" choice, you should give strong consideration to the 8350. It is equal to the i5 in gaming, very useful in editing and streaming. The i7 is equal to the i5 in gaming, but better at productivity than the i5 and the 8350. So if you did a lot of heavy editing, the i7 would be a solid choice.

Any single high-end GPU will allow you to play pretty much any game with ultra textures at 1080p. That would be the GTX760 or 7950, and upwards of those cards.

The new API, called Mantle, is open source. This means that Nvidia and Intel might choose to utilise it, but we know that it will benefit AMD from its introduction.

The multiple cores of the 8350 is great for streaming and multitasking. The i7 would be better than the i5 for streaming. But the 8350 is the obvious choice in terms of price/performance.

7970 is a good card. Many of the newer cards are just rebrands. Though, I would give strong consideration to them, because of some architectural improvements. Their performance should improve with newer drivers, too.

The entire system will run on a good 500W. I'd recommend the XFX 550W bronze. If you want to crossfire, a good 650W silver/gold supply would be sufficient.

Final bit of information. Would be to get a 990 chipset motherboard for the 8350 processor. Something like the ASUS M5A99 Pro, maybe the Sabertooth. Lower motherboards will not suffice, because they have crap voltage regulation and power delivery.

3

I really like the ASUS m5a99fx pro r2.0 but just 1 question. I was looking at the fx-8350 4.0ghz (do they sell models that provde more ghz?) and it said the socket it needed was AM3+, but the pro r2.0, the one i am looking at socket is AM3, not AM3+, should i buy the am3+ model? Or does that not mean it wont fit on an AM3 socket? Again thanks for the help, im more settled on the FX now, its what i need! And the motherboard situation is getting better for me, thanks!

4

+1

5

according to Asus, that motherboard supports AM3+ processors, so it's just fine with the FX. There are FXs with higher clock but they are too expensive imho. I'd rather overclock the 8350.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A99FX_PRO_R20/#specifications

6

8350. Why?

It's about 5% slower than an i5-3570 in some games. Other games it's 5% faster. Many people have different experiences with it. And as you may consider streaming, I would say an 8350 is your best bet.

The i7's are not for gaming. At all, these are work horses. They're made to handle rendering and editing, and handle these very well. Hyper threading is only beneficial in certain programs, none of these involve games. But due to the cost of i7's, they're usually only worth considering when your budget is in excess of $1k, as a decent GPU will set you back $250-$400, the CPU will be around $210-$350. This is already a large part of that $1k gone on just two components.

So yes, for your budget, I would highly recommend and 8350. 

7

I'm sick and tired of all these guys claiming to be editors or whatever just so they can throw out the idea of an i7. Over the past few months, it seems everyone and their grandmother (dead or alive) is a freaking editor now. No, just no. If you were an editor, you would know what to buy. If you were a serious editor, you wouldn't be so clueless and you would've gotten plenty of info elsewhere. Spending an hour a week on a silly youtube vid doesn't make you an editor.

This wasn't really directed at the OP, I just needed to get this out.

That said, get the 8350 with a good motherboard (do some research on that, good phases and cooling will go a long way) and you can overclock it a lot. The sabretooth is a pretty good board for that cpu. You could easily OC to 4.6ghz and if you're lucky 4.8 and beyond, but keep in mind you'll need better cooling for the cpu too. You could run stock for a while till you got some more budget for a good cpu cooler or watercooling if it doesn't fit in your current budget.

Getting an i7 in your case would be good money thrown away on something you'll barely use.

The i5 is about just as good probably, but not sure how it measures up when overclocking. In general though, Intel is more expensive, giving less bang for buck, and an (overclocked) 8350 should be plenty for the coming years.

My thoughts are that with the new consoles, more games will take advantage of the 8 cores being available and you might be better off with the 8350 for that reason. Sure people will say that Intels quadcores will be "good enough" too (and they won't be wrong for at least some time), but when the first quadcores came around those same people swore by them and found dualcores to be inferior (while dualcores were also "good enough" till very recently).

8

I concur. I guess that ripping videos off Youtube counts as editing nowadays, or something otherwise sketchy.