Been saving this for a bit for an CPU upgrade... Current system. AMD FX-8350 16 GB ram MSI R290 4GB Samsung 500GB SSD WD Black 1 TB Hdd @2560x1440 on 32 inch monitor. My first thought is a i7 4790K and mobo and just use the same ram. The 6700K though is mighty tempting, although I have heard conflicting reports on being able to resuse the DDR3 ram with it? Should I just get the i7 4790K and be happy? Wait a bit for Skylake? And what about using the ddr3 ram with the new skylakes? Sorry ive always been AMD and not very familiar with Intel What say you?
For gaming? Considering 2560x1440, I'd say sell 290 and consider FuryX / R9 NANO or 980Ti. With any video card above you should be able to get stable 60fps on any game with highest settings. If you want to get pass around 80fps mark, you will indeed need Intel CPU, AND better GPU. In that case 6600k skylake should be good fit. FX8350 is not that bad, really.
Yes, you will need new RAM with Skylake. To be 'worth it' you would really need to go to a 6700K, but that costs considerably more than a 6600K. Now a lot of people would say upgrade, however it all depends on your ability to upgrade at a later date, like end of next year for example. How long will you want your upgrade to last? If it is just a year, then maybe go for it, however if you want it to go a couple of years I would wait until AMD Zen comes out and do a proper upgrade then. By that point you would have a new CPU, new motherboard, new graphics card, new RAM, new SSD, and probably new PSU required at least. Even if you don't go AMD Zen (a lot of people are pessimistic about it, but don't discount it until PROPER reviews are done of it), there is Intel Kaby Lake to consider. So, it would be best to save up further and do a proper upgrade later. Put that $500 in a high interest bank account and add say, $10 a week to it. By the end of next year that will give you enough money for a full, decent upgrade.
Yes the CPU stinks in some titles, but in DirectX 12 it really won't be as bad as under DirectX. It all depends on the OP's intended upgrade cycle. If you are willing to spend $500 now (which wouldn't cover the CPU, decent RAM, and decent motherboard), and willing to spend again next year, then go ahead! Otherwise, it may be more beneficial to save up and do a full upgrade like I mentioned earlier.
That goes all and well until OP decides to replay his 2011 favorite games like Skyrim or Far Cry 3. @ 30 fps...
Well the i7-4790K is a little cheaper than Skylake and didn't require new memory. I guess if money must be spent now, an i5-4670K and a Z97 motherboard may be the way to go. If not, the OP will end up going over the $500 budget, and there's still the issue next year of paying for a new graphics card (Greenland), and whether they want to upgrade to AMD Zen/Intel Kaby Lake or not.
Well thanks everyone, im really confused now. In your opinion/s what would you say the weakest link is?
I hate deciding what to upgrade to it is so stressful. I normally advise get the newest and best but that's when budget is high your budget is good but not high enough. Z97 you could get top board with the rest of your budget the best CPU you can use the same RAM and that would be an awesome upgrade to what your already using Performance is not really moving that quick with Intel sky lake is not that much quicker unless you want to use built in GPU
That's why I suggest saving up more (putting aside say, $15 a week) and do a full upgrade end of next year which would definitely be worth it then (AMD Zen or Kaby Lake, new graphics card etc). Sure, DirectX 11 performance with the FX-8350 isn't the best, but as DirectX 12 games become available the need for a new CPU diminishes greatly.
Its basically i3 level performance, again. Like i said, FX CPU's wont be magically faster, it is what it is and it will stay there.
What you use your PC for? Is it mainly for gaming? What monitor resolution you play on? What games you mainly play? We need that info, so we can help you more specifically, and not just blowing random facts. Don't go crazy about CPU upgrade, realize what needs performance boost 1st.
You can in fact use DDR3 with Skylake as it does have a DDR3/DDR4 compatible memory controller. This is motherboard dependent though. Not all of the Z170 motherboards support DDR3. ASUS Z170-P D3 and ASRock Z170 Gaming K4/D3 are the only 2 boards I'm aware of that currently support DDR3/DDR3L for Skylake. I was looking at both boards for my build because I had 16GB of DDR3-2133 that I didn't want to let go of.
All that graph shows how bad the NVidia DirectX 12 driver/capability is. DirectX 12 should not be slower than DirectX 11 for the same graphics regardless of whether you are using a fast CPU or not. If you use the chart as proof, then you must also accept the proof that at 1080P, high quality, pretty much what a typical gamer games at, that Directx 11 is significantly FASTER than DirectX 12, 58.4 fps vs 50.1 fps. So, it makes sense that the FX cpu isn't properly represented either. AMD is currently much better at DirectX 12, and the OP has AMD GPU.
Mainly gaming and internet surfing@ 2560x1440. I love the Total War series but AMD especially the FX series perform horribly with the warscape engine. Ark survival evolved, which seems to run very good on mix of high/ultra with shadows, SSAO on low/off Witcher 3 which runs very well.
Why extra RAM when I have 16 GB? The R290 isn't a slouch and I cant see upgrading to the R390/X for a minimal performance gain. I think I might wait until the end of September to see if any prices go down on any of the i7/Devils Canyon or maybe even get a Skylake.
I was refering to the 8 gigs you have put in your bio at the side. Not the "16" gigs you stated elsewhere.