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"I need a New PC!" 2013 Part 2. Haswell = #IntelnoTIM, but free online. READ THE OP.

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Ty4on

Member
*Graphs of the i3 4340 doing really well*

Also if he's not the sort of person who'd upgrade then make him save up more. Going AMD FX makes no sense right now.
Wow. Glad to finally see some proper benchmarks of the i3s, but had no idea it would do that well. Still quite expensive so I wonder how the much cheaper 4130 would do. 0.2Ghz lower clocked and 25% less cache. Cache seems to make a difference as otherwise the 3240 (same numbers as 4130) shouldn't be so far behind the 4340.
 

Diablos

Member
The CPU still matters.

The argument "well what about when it's overclocked, etc etc". The benchmarks are performed at stock speeds, obviously. That means the 8350 has a 600MHz advantage over the Sandy/Ivy/Haswell.

Overclocked, you can get a 20-35% linear bump with the Intel processors. With Vishera, it's more like 10-25%. Now, where things really start to go wonky, is that Vishera will be using 225-275W when overclocked, and also requires a decent motherboard. So you end up spending a bit more with 8 phase power compared to 4 or 6 that you can use with Intel.

As much as I like AMD they don't make sense to buy.
For a budget build a 6300 is great. I love mine. Even at stock, if you have the right GPU you will get excellent performance in all your games. Plus it is better for anything that does multithreading. Even lightly OCing it will give you a decent performance boost, and since it is 95W it shouldn't fuck with your VRM if you don't go crazy.

I paid $109 (normally $119) for mine, for that price it gives me lots of multithreaded muscle and good single-core performance that, again, can be offset with the right GPU. By default that is a good value in my eyes.
 
Downsample question for you guys.

I was following the GAF guide and the 'test' was successful @ 2560x1440 and everything my monitor was smaller than usual (it was looking like it was @ 2560x1440 even though my monitor is only 1080p). Is that usual? Do I then set my PC resolution back to 1080p and then change the game to the higher resolution?
 

kharma45

Member
Wow. Glad to finally see some proper benchmarks of the i3s, but had no idea it would do that well. Still quite expensive so I wonder how the much cheaper 4130 would do. 0.2Ghz lower clocked and 25% less cache. Cache seems to make a difference as otherwise the 3240 (same numbers as 4130) shouldn't be so far behind the 4340.

Gonna try and hunt out some more stuff after the Spurs-United game.

For a budget build a 6300 is great. I love mine. Even at stock, if you have the right GPU you will get excellent performance in all your games. Plus it is better for anything that does multithreading. Even lightly OCing it will give you a decent performance boost, and since it is 95W it shouldn't fuck with your VRM if you don't go crazy.

I paid $109 (normally $119) for mine, for that price it gives me lots of multithreaded muscle and good single-core performance that, again, can be offset with the right GPU. By default that is a good value in my eyes.

It's excellent at stock if you consider performance from 2009 excellent.
 

Addnan

Member
Downsample question for you guys.

I was following the GAF guide and the 'test' was successful @ 2560x1440 and everything my monitor was smaller than usual (it was looking like it was @ 2560x1440 even though my monitor is only 1080p). Is that usual? Do I then set my PC resolution back to 1080p and then change the game to the higher resolution?
Yes, only change it to 1440p in the game. Desktop res stays at 1080p
 
So when people say "Don't buy prebuilt", is that in reference to going to the local Best Buy and buying the most expensive thing or are they talking about machines from iBuyPower and CyberPower etc?
 
Yes, only change it to 1440p in the game. Desktop res stays at 1080p

Great!

Is there a guide to say how much FPS hit you take for each increase? FYI, I'm using a i5 4670k and GTX780 if that matters.

By increase I mean 1080 -> 1440 -> 1620 -> 1800?

So when people say "Don't buy prebuilt", is that in reference to going to the local Best Buy and buying the most expensive thing or are they talking about machines from iBuyPower and CyberPower etc?

Yes. There are sites that will build a PC for you and send it to you when it's finished if you want a desktop.

edit: The problem with prebuilt is that if you want to upgrade anything at all you run into problems usually. If you want to get an actual video card or a better one you almost always need to buy a new PSU as well. The motherboard might be really dated.
 

Smokey

Member
So when people say "Don't buy prebuilt", is that in reference to going to the local Best Buy and buying the most expensive thing or are they talking about machines from iBuyPower and CyberPower etc?

Mixture of both, especially the former. Occasionally there will be builds from the manufactures that you mentioned that may be close to what you would get building yourself, but you'll still end up being better off if you sit down and do it yourself.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
So when people say "Don't buy prebuilt", is that in reference to going to the local Best Buy and buying the most expensive thing or are they talking about machines from iBuyPower and CyberPower etc?

Don't buy from a name brand. Dell, HP, etc.

The ones you listed use off the shelf parts, put them together for you, and then charge a markup for labor. They aren't manufactured PCs like the name brand ones, and they don't come with the same limitations.

Still, going that route costs more than doing it yourself. Another option is NCIX where you load up a cart like you would at Newegg, and just use their option to build it for you. Instead of having markup on the components they charge a $50 (at least in Canada) build fee which also includes testing, so you shouldn't have to worry about getting a bad stick of RAM or a bum HDD.

If you're really against building for whatever reason I'd check that route first. Not sure what other sites do it than NCIX. Then CyberPower etc.
 

AJLma

Member
Running an AMD 6350 here.

Hard to believe that an i3 is a better value over the FX-63 or 83 series, especially the 6350, 8350, or any overclocked variant.

Maybe if you're going for a bare minimum rig made to run 2010-2013 games, but it seems silly to recommend a dual-core processor going forward when we're on the edge of games utilizing proper multi-core scaling.
 

kennah

Member
On the edge of we don't know what is going to happen.

The dogma of this thread is to recommend for the 'now' with room to upgrade to the 'later'

By the time programmers learn to finally take advantage of those extra cores another generation or two of cpus will have come and gone.

I'd rather recommend an i3 with room to go to an i7 than a 8350 with room to go ... Nowhere?
 

kharma45

Member
Running an AMD 6350 here.

Hard to believe that an i3 is a better value over the FX-63 or 83 series, especially the 6350, 8350, or any overclocked variant.

Maybe if you're going for a bare minimum rig made to run 2010-2013 games, but it seems silly to recommend a dual-core processor going forward when we're on the edge of games utilizing proper multi-core scaling.

It is hard to believe but that's how poor AMDs offerings are.

We've apparently been on the edge of proper multi threaded usage for a long time, it's still not happening.

On the edge of we don't know what is going to happen.

The dogma of this thread is to recommend for the 'now' with room to upgrade to the 'later'

By the time programmers learn to finally take advantage of those extra cores another generation or two of cpus will have come and gone.

I'd rather recommend an i3 with room to go to an i7 than a 8350 with room to go ... Nowhere?

Exactly. This sounds like me being a dick but I have to be blunt. AMD buyers, stop trying to defend your CPUs to the wall. They're not as good as what Intel offer in most gaming scenarios, that's not debatable.
 




Thanks for the replies! I actually have a hand me down, hand built one from a friend and was entertaining the idea of building a new one this year from scratch against taking the ibuypower route. It's nice to know that going from scratch might save me alot with deals and rebates and the like. The only thing is I am deathly afraid of destroying something if I'm a little bit staticy.
 

kennah

Member
Thanks for the replies! I actually have a hand me down, hand built one from a friend and was entertaining the idea of building a new one this year from scratch against taking the ibuypower route. It's nice to know that going from scratch might save me alot with deals and rebates and the like. The only thing is I am deathly afraid of destroying something if I'm a little bit staticy.
Static hasn't been a problem for years. You can build on carpet if you wanted to (though it isn't recommended)
 
Metro Vacuum ED500 DataVac 500-Watt 0.75-HP Electric Duster
www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001J4ZOAW/

mCsIopo.png

And just a couple of weeks ago I was looking at this and some other options. I'll take this as confirmation of what to go with.
 

Pocks

Member
I'm updating the GPU in my nephew's rig, budget is about $150. Right now I'm leaning toward the ASUS 650 Ti OC 2GB. My only concern is that he has the CX430 430W ATX12V v2.3 for a PSU. Is that going to work OK?

Suggestions for other cards in a similar budget would be appreciated as well.

Here's the Speccy screenshot: http://imgur.com/R4JEAXu
 
Quick questions:

1) Is the performance difference between a sc acx GTX compared to the regular activated out of the box or is it something I have to manually do myself?

2) If I have the GTX 780 sc acx, is it worth upgrading to a GTX 780 ti sc acx? Is there any significant difference in performance?

3)...or should I just wait a couple of years for a Maxwell card?

Thanks.
 

thespot84

Member
Posted this in the race your PC thread but it's kinda dead, so looking for advice here:

So i'm RMAing my h100i for a new one, I'm back with stock cooler and aftermarket thermal paste (cleaned and reapplied every time. Shit gets expensive).

I'm idling at 35C and prime95 kicks me up to ~92-95C. Refresher: this is a 4770k/Gigabyte UD4H at stock 3.9GHz and 1.065 Vcore. Battlefield (1080p on ultra) runs @ ~62C

Should I be worried about that Prime95 temp? I'm hoping to push this to 4.6 or so when i get the h100 back. is it feasible or did i lose the silicon lottery?
 

Thorgal

Member
The problem with this logic is that the "new" is sometimes not worth waiting for. Other times it's totally worth waiting for. It's generally irrelevant when you're first building though because you're going from nothing -> something. It's when you start upgrading that I think the questions of "worth waiting?" start coming into play.

The R9 series, unless you were interested in paying for 290/X tier performance, wasn't worth it because it was rebadges. About the same for the 700 series. In fact even disregarding mining you were better off buying early while 7950s for $200ish while the R9 series released, much better bang for buck than you can get right now.

Die shrinks and new dies or architectures could be worth it if you know when it's coming, but right now we really don't.

Sorry for late response :

I fully agree with you but a friend of mine got stuck in that mindset for a while where he constantly said he wanted to buy a card but wanted to wait till new and better cards arrived .

Eventually i convinced him that no matter when you buy your card . there will always be cards on the horizon who will be better then what you buy now .

Eventually you have to put your foot down and choose one .
 

kharma45

Member
I'm updating the GPU in my nephew's rig, budget is about $150. Right now I'm leaning toward the ASUS 650 Ti OC 2GB. My only concern is that he has the CX430 430W ATX12V v2.3 for a PSU. Is that going to work OK?

Suggestions for other cards in a similar budget would be appreciated as well.

Here's the Speccy screenshot: http://imgur.com/R4JEAXu

R7 260X will give better performance. If you can find a 7850 or even a 650 Ti Boost they're even better again but none seem to be appearing under $150.

Quick questions:

1) Is the performance difference between a sc acx GTX compared to the regular activated out of the box or is it something I have to manually do myself?

2) If I have the GTX 780 sc acx, is it worth upgrading to a GTX 780 ti sc acx? Is there any significant difference in performance?

3)...or should I just wait a couple of years for a Maxwell card?

Thanks.

1) It's out of the box

2) I wouldn't bother
 
R7 260X will give better performance. If you can find a 7850 or even a 650 Ti Boost they're even better again but none seem to be appearing under $150.



1) It's out of the box

2) I wouldn't bother
Yeah, I did some comparison between the reviews and I was looking at the wrong GPU, the regular 780 which was significantly weaker. The acx differences weren't too much and not worth it for the upgrade.

Thanks for the reply though.
 
Hay guys,

What my best options if I want to capture and stream gameplay, both of PC games and 360/WiiU/PS3/4 Games? Is there a good PCIE card that does it all or am I best off buying a elgato?
 
Hay guys,

What my best options if I want to capture and stream gameplay, both of PC games and 360/WiiU/PS3/4 Games? Is there a good PCIE card that does it all or am I best off buying a elgato?
Open Broadcasting Software is pretty good for handling the PC streaming, but I'm not sure about console streaming. OBS also requires a bit of settings tweaking to get the quality you want.
 
Hey guys, I had a question about gaming on the TV.
I'm about to move to a new place and will be purchasing a 70 inch LED TV. I remember trying to hook up my gaming PC a few years ago to a 42 inch 1080i plasma. Things just looked off, and I couldn't even read the text because it was so small and distorted. I would be building a new PC along with the new TV. are these issues still around, or is there some way to get around that? I would mostly be using it for games with a controller, but i'd also like to play dota/MMOs that have text, so being able to read those clearly is a big concern.
 
Hey guys, I had a question about gaming on the TV.
I'm about to move to a new place and will be purchasing a 70 inch LED TV. I remember trying to hook up my gaming PC a few years ago to a 42 inch 1080i plasma. Things just looked off, and I couldn't even read the text because it was so small and distorted. I would be building a new PC along with the new TV. are these issues still around, or is there some way to get around that? I would mostly be using it for games with a controller, but i'd also like to play dota/MMOs that have text, so being able to read those clearly is a big concern.
There are Windows options to make the text larger, but there are limits to the enlarging and you'll have to tweak some apps individually.
 
Lots of games don't have text scaling options, unless there are .ini variables or something for that.

so would you say this is still a legit concern, or do enough people do it that new hardware should work no problem? 60-70inch 1080p LED tv and a new gaming PC (probably around $1000 build)
 
I'm just about to buy a GTX 780 but should I wait it out until Maxwell is announced?
Unless you've got a game you need the graphics horsepower for, I say wait (unless you can get a good deal on a 780 between now and when the 20mm Maxwell cards come out).
so would you say this is still a legit concern, or do enough people do it that new hardware should work no problem? 60-70inch 1080p LED tv and a new gaming PC (probably around $1000 build)
It's definitely a big concern. There was even a thread about it a while ago.
 

kennah

Member
Back up your data folks. I just lost the last 9 months thanks to a corrupted backup and a suddenly dead MacBook Pro (son spilled my beer on it)
 

Garou

Member
Back up your data folks. I just lost the last 9 months thanks to a corrupted backup and a suddenly dead MacBook Pro (son spilled my beer on it)

A spilled beer might kill your motherboard but not your hard drive I think? Stick the drive in another computer.
 

kennah

Member
I know what I'm doing ;)

OCZ SSD. They die when brushed by a feather. Have already put it in another computer. Won't even detect in the bios. Trying to recover what I can off the hdd. But fusion doesn't make this stuff easy.
 

Diablos

Member
It's excellent at stock if you consider performance from 2009 excellent.
Uh, my 6300 suits all of my needs at stock, it is never slow. Great multicore performance too. It performs quite nicely as a media server. And as stated before you'd be selling yourself short if you think a dual core CPU is going to be future proof. Multicore (as in FX 6 or 8 core, has clear advantage over any dual core, i3 or otherwise) + offset single-core performance with a good enough GPU and you have what you need. And if you are budget-oriented in your build, you are saving money by putting basically another $120 or so towards a better GPU that you would have instead been spending on, say, an i5. Say you really want a SSD too, this again helps you save money. If you are going to cheap out on the CPU a bit you want something that is still going to give you solid performance, and the FX series does just that. Despite lackluster single-core performance the overall strength of the FX series is indeed impressive given its age and price; it holds its own, and it isn't going to bottleneck future GPU upgrades. Hard to complain about that, again, given its price (particularly the 6300).

If you have more money and don't require a budget build then yeah, by all means get a Xeon/i5/i7, it would be foolish not to. Or if you want get the most expensive board and sophisticated cooling for your FX chip and OC it like crazy; kind of silly but if that floats your boat, go for it. Either way the FX series is probably the best bang for your buck for a budget build because it doesn't come up too short if you have the right GPU, and really for any multicore app/process in general it is still quite impressive.

Really getting tired of the whole "AMD is garbage" mantra. You really can't go wrong with the FX series. If you want something better, spend more money -- but let's not act like there's no reason whatsoever to buy these CPU's.
 
Well, all I'm trying to say is that multicore isn't going anywhere and will only become more prominent as time goes by.

Not really for gaming. Developers are going to prefer to just use fewer threads as possible and prefer the single threaded performance when feasible. The first 2 cores are still the most important when i comes to pc gaming that wont change much in the future i don't think. Even AMD's next cpu is going to be a quad core.
 
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