Hello all, I have been doing some searching around the internet for what people think about the fx 8350. It seems that all I can find is people asking whether or not to buy it as an upgrade over BD/Phenom. Most people that reply to the threads just jump bandwagon and say “get the i5’s as they are better for gaming.”
So, I am here to clear some things up.
1) Yes, MOST games don’t use 8 cores (bf3 multiplayer being an exception to that) and 4 cores is becoming more main stream. So, why get the 8350? Well, out of all of the amd processors the fx 8350 has the most powerful cores and is the highest binned chip so it get the best ocing potential. So, even if you aren’t using all 8, the 4 that you are using are the best in socket, and you have 4 cores left over to multitask with. woot.
2) “8 cores is a waste”. This cant be more false and half of that was covered in 1). The other half I will cover here. The majority of people with good pc’s own bf3. bf3 runs off of the frostbite 2 engine, and frostbite 2 has shown support for 8 cores in bf3 multiplayer. Now, take that knowledge and couple it with the fact that frostbite 2 is the engine that will be featured in almost all of EA’s upcoming titles. Also, more cores ALWAYS ages better than less cores with more power per core. This is so because as games progressively move more towards multithreading (as they will be now with next gen consoles having huge multi-core cpus), you will need more threads to run games optimally. Hence why if you play farcry 3 and compare a core 2 duo to a Phenom x4, the phenom x4 will destroy it. That is also why in bf3 multiplayer an fx 8350 > an i5 3570k.
Now, here are my games that I currently play:
BF3
Tribes Ascend
GW2
My Rig:
fx 8350
radeon 7950
16 gb ram
1080p
vsync
In BF3 I play with everything maxed out, and I get 60 fps the majority of the time and occasionally take a dip to 45-50. I am sure that vsync has something to do with this. My gpu usage is at a constant 99% meaning that there is no cpu bottlenecking going on.
Next Tribes Ascend I play at max settings and inject x8 AA into the game (which unlockes visuals such as jetpacks lighting up that the game doesn’t support with it’s ingame settings. Kind of like a hidden setting. Its kind of weird.). I Never dip below 60 fps.
Finally GW2, I play maxed out including SS. I get a constant 60 fps in sPVP, get 30+ in LA, and get 60 fps while exploring. The lowest I have ever gotten was 17 fps during a dragon event with a $* ton of people zerging it. That was closely followed by 18 fps in a wvwvw zerg that I would have to estimate had about 70+ people in it.
I have done some research and people have been complaining that their i5’s oced to 4.4 ghz+ dip below 20 fps in wvwvw zergs. This, by all accounts, should beat my fx 8350 handily do to public perception. However, from my experience, it doesn’t. This low fps may be caused by the client bottlenecking itself and/or an internet speed issue (although I have Verizon FiOS).
So, if you are thinking about upgrading your old cpu to the fx 8350, I would say do it. There is honestly no reason not to if you have already have a am3+ socket mobo. Don’t be perturbed by from buying this thing because the public perception is that it isn’t for gaming. I upgraded from an fx 4100 @4.3 ghz to this and gained 15+ fps in all of my games except gw2 zergs (which leads me to believe that its a client issue more than anything), I went from 9- 11 fps in zergs to sub-20.
