AMD 8350 & 7970 Gaming Rig Review

[Zoot]

Now while I agree the 6100 is a horrible chip, a 8350 is not and it's fast enough to feed any single card so that you're getting relatively the same frame rates as with an Intel at least close enough that you wouldn't notice in real world gameplay.

To be fair, it's not *that* bad given its price. I mean if you were on a budget, you could save on the 6 core FX over an i5 and then a 7870 could become a 7950 for instance, and you'd have a better gaming rig for the vast majority of games on your hands then.

As for Hitman Absolution, Tom's results here have the FX performing pretty well, only a handful of frames behind the socket 2011. Was it a different part of the game to what others have been testing it at or something?

 

[MacLeod]

To be fair, it's not *that* bad given its price. I mean if you were on a budget, you could save on the 6 core FX over an i5 and then a 7870 could become a 7950 for instance, and you'd have a better gaming rig for the vast majority of games on your hands then.

As for Hitman Absolution, Tom's results here have the FX performing pretty well, only a handful of frames behind the socket 2011. Was it a different part of the game to what others have been testing it at or something?

No it kinda is pretty awful.

Trust me, I'm probably the biggest AMD fanboy on here and even I can't defend them. Now the 6300's are good. They're faster per clock than Phenom so they're a worthy successor to the X6 Thuban.

The problem with the 6100 is that it's slower per clock than Phenom so unless you overclocked the nads off the thing it would be SLOWER than a X4!

As for price, you do have a point that they have decent value and will be perfectly fine for the majority of consumers but as long as the Phenom II X4 965 is still out there for $85, it's hard to make a case for buying any Bulldozer aside from the 8100's. Now the Piledrivers are a whole other story and all of them are worthy buys.

 

[alienware]

As for Hitman Absolution, Tom's results here have the FX performing pretty well, only a handful of frames behind the socket 2011. Was it a different part of the game to what others have been testing it at or something?

I doubt it. There's an inbuilt benchmark for Hitman.

It probably addresses 8 cores tbh which wouldn't surprise me given it's one of AMD's evolved titles.

 

[tinytomlogan]

I doubt it. There's an inbuilt benchmark for Hitman.

It probably addresses 8 cores tbh which wouldn't surprise me given it's one of AMD's evolved titles.

It is...... But the thing to realise is its still behind.

 

[MacLeod]

It is...... But the thing to realise is its still behind.

By only 3 fps while costing much less.

(just going off the text because I can't see the benchmarks because Flash doesn't work on Android 4.1 )

 

[Zoot]

Just for giggles lets do some power calculations for the AMD systems Vs the Intel ones in gaming. Using Tom's own figures (with a 7970 for the CPU & GPU load), and the current cost per KWh here in Ireland.

Intel i5-3570K + 7970 = 320W Power Draw
Cost = 0.32*€0.1895 = €0.0606/hour.

AMD FX-8350 + 7970 = 370W Power Draw
Cost = 0.37*€0.1895 = €0.0701/hour.

Lets say you do 4 hours gaming per day:
i5 Cost/year = €0.0606*4*365 = €88.53/year
FX Cost/year = €0.0701*4*365 = €102.36/year

Considering the FX is cheaper (about €25 looking at the retailer I get most of my PC hardware from), it'll take me nearly 2 years (discounting inflation etc.) before the Intel actually would save me money on power consumption.

And for the record, I don't game 4 hours a day, somewhere around 10 per week would be a better approximation, then the time is over 6 years. :lol:

Of course if you're stressing the CPU 100% 24/7 the picture changes drastically, but I don't really have any interest in doing that.

No it kinda is pretty awful. :biggrin:

I suppose I should have mentioned I was really referring to the Piledrivers.

I'll definitely admit to being an AMD fan myself, but in all practicality and bleakness the FX-8350 could be the last AMD processor I have on the desktop. It's extremely hard to know what'll happen to AMD in the future.

 

[AverageNinja]

^^ that's quite interesting!
Now I don't game every day, but if I do, I game long days and nights
Never thought you could save so much money on power consumption with PCs.
Always good to learn things

 

[Zoot]

Never thought you could save so much money on power consumption with PCs.

You don't. That's the point. €12 for the year isn't much of a saving.

It would take the KW/h charge to be significantly higher to present a considerable saving.

Although, using the same figures, a 24/7 load for the whole year on the GPU and CPU would favour Intel to the tune of €116.

 

[NeverBackDown]

^^ that's quite interesting!
Now I don't game every day, but if I do, I game long days and nights
Never thought you could save so much money on power consumption with PCs.
Always good to learn things

May i ask how one can game on a PC with the hardware you own? The one in your signature that is

 

[eastyy]

seem to recall seeing a story about a update for am3+ piledriver processors in june is that true?

 

[AverageNinja]

May i ask how one can game on a PC with the hardware you own? The one in your signature that is

I don't
Well, I only play LoL.
I game on my PS3, and in June, I'm getting a new pc

 

[AMDFTW]

Awsome

 

[MacLeod]

seem to recall seeing a story about a update for am3+ piledriver processors in june is that true?

There have been rumors but I think theyre just that.

There was something about AMD releasing a 5GHz processor but it was going to be like $800 or something stupid like that. The Tech Report

Then there was the rumor of something else as a CPUZ screenshot of a 8750 or something like that started making the rounds. Pretty sure that was a fake though.

I cant believe AMD would ride out the same old Piledriver chips til next spring when Steamroller is supposed to be released. I hope they are going to be releasing a little refresh chip sometime in June or July cause Haswell will be out in a couple weeks and AMD will need something to give us a reason to care about them. Im not holding my breath though but Im still hopeful.

 

[Tripp]

There have been rumors but I think theyre just that.

There was something about AMD releasing a 5GHz processor but it was going to be like $800 or something stupid like that. The Tech Report

Then there was the rumor of something else as a CPUZ screenshot of a 8750 or something like that started making the rounds. Pretty sure that was a fake though.

I cant believe AMD would ride out the same old Piledriver chips til next spring when Steamroller is supposed to be released. I hope they are going to be releasing a little refresh chip sometime in June or July cause Haswell will be out in a couple weeks and AMD will need something to give us a reason to care about them. Im not holding my breath though but Im still hopeful.

amen to that

 

[SieB]

Yep, a CPU-Z of a 8570 has showed up

http://www.eteknix.com/amd-fx-8570-and-hd-8970-show-up-in-cpu-z-database/

I read a thread on another random site when googling about it that the CPUZ validation was fake, don't know if it's true or not though. If AMD did have engineering samples of the 8570 around i'm sure there would be news about it though.

For a CPU to be under development, be in the engineering stage and there not be news of it, is not heard of, so unfortunately it looks like it may very well be be fake.

 

[MacLeod]

Yeah thats kinda what I thought it was, an engineering sample from Steamroller maybe. I hope they do something like they did with the Phenom line when they came out with C3 stepping that made for better overclocks.....lot better overclocks actually.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Hopefully amd can get the 4xxx/6xxx/8xxx to compete with their respective catergories such as i3/i5/i5 or i7.

 

[Zoot]

Yeah thats kinda what I thought it was, an engineering sample from Steamroller maybe.

That's pretty unlikely since Steamroller is supposed to be on a different process (28nm).

But then again, who knows?

 

[alienware]

Yep, a CPU-Z of a 8570 has showed up

http://www.eteknix.com/amd-fx-8570-and-hd-8970-show-up-in-cpu-z-database/

I read a thread on another random site when googling about it that the CPUZ validation was fake, don't know if it's true or not though. If AMD did have engineering samples of the 8570 around i'm sure there would be news about it though.

For a CPU to be under development, be in the engineering stage and there not be news of it, is not heard of, so unfortunately it looks like it may very well be be fake.

MB brand - Asrock
MB model - Crosshair VI Extreme.

So basically it's running on a board that doesn't exist on a bios that doesn't exist.

 

[MacLeod]

MB brand - Asrock
MB model - Crosshair VI Extreme.

HA! What you mean you havent heard yet? ASRock has bought out Asus. It was only a matter of time. :rollinglaugh: