[AMD FX-8350] Most future-proof say devs....

[Fijiandoce]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...c-for-next-gen

if, like me, you put off upgrading your PC until the next-gen specs were revealed then it will make for an interesting read.
(if you are a PC god it will probably enrage you )

We approached a number of developers on and off the record - each of whom has helped to ship multi-million-selling, triple-A titles - asking them whether an Intel or AMD processor offers the best way to future-proof a games PC built in the here and now. Bearing in mind the historical dominance Intel has enjoyed, the results are intriguing - all of them opted for the FX-8350 over the current default enthusiast's choice, the Core i5 3570K.

"I'd go for the FX-8350, for two reasons. Firstly, it's the same hardware vendor as PS4 and there are always some compatibility issues that devs will have to work around (particularly in SIMD coding), potentially leading to an inferior implementation on other systems - not very likely a big problem in practice though," he says."Secondly, not every game engine is job-queue based, even though the Avalanche Engine is, some games are designed around an assumption of available hardware threads. The FX-8350 will clearly be much more powerful [than PS4] in raw processing power considering the superior clock speed, but in terms of architecture it can be a benefit to have the same number of cores so that an identical frame layout can be guaranteed."

"This (Sony) approach of more cores, lower clock, but out-of-order execution will alter the game engine design to be more parallel. If games want to get the most from the chips then they have to go 'wide'... they cannot rely on a powerful single-threaded CPU to run the game as first-gen PS3 and Xbox 360 games did....

good news for me as i asked here a few months ago about this very topic
AMD 8350 it is for me then

[keefy]

Been thinking about slotting in an 8350 into my existing AM3+ board for a few months.
some games have had trouble with the piledriver architecture and crash big time though and a few benchmarks suggest the "upgrade" isn't a such a big upgrade"

[SupraGaz]

Been using the 8350 for about 2 months now. Pleased with it to say the least and haven't thought about over clocking it yet. Was using the fx-4100 before so it's a significant upgrade to the system.

Brief spec is fx-8350, sli geforce gtx660 2gb OC editions, 8gb corsair vengeance ram, 120gb ssd. Handles anything I've thrown at it with ease with everything maxed graphically, 1920*1200 res.

Only recently started gaming on PC again so haven't tried many games on it but so far in my steam and origin list is black ops 1&2, Mw2&3, dirt 2&3, Bioshock then bad company and BF3. All have been excellent.

[BoyBettaKnow]

Read this article on Sunday. Don't think it's swayed me to go for an AMD CPU. I'm still content on buying a 6 core i7 3930k next month.

Buying my case, PSU and hopefully motherboard on friday - so excited

[Cyn]

Have never bought an AMD CPU, not even considered it but it's a fair point about the next consoles and all. I'll build a new system in 18 months-2 years, whenever Star Citizen comes out (if they stick to their no console version guns) so have some time to see how it plays out. It's not the fact that they don't have an answer to the 6 core i7 that puts me off because I only buy mid-range anyway, it's the fact they have higher power consumption and don't overclock well

[John25]

Been thinking about slotting in an 8350 into my existing AM3+ board for a few months.
some games have had trouble with the piledriver architecture and crash big time though and a few benchmarks suggest the "upgrade" isn't a such a big upgrade"

Was thinking about doing the same to replace my 1100T as I could just straight swap into my AM3+ MOBO with the 4ghz Vishera Chip

[Fenix]

Was actually planning my next PC build and had a AMD FX-8350 as a possible CPU (Im an AMD fan, mostly for how damn cheap they are) This kind of gives me hope that that will be a good call (Or its successor, not sure when ill have the money lol)

[Varsh]

Seeing as I've had a new build since late October and getting the most out of everything I'm still highly content and this rig should easily last me for a good few years before any sort of upgrading. It was the first Intel build I've built since the Pentium 1 days (K6-2 onwards for me was AMD). AMDs new architecture I do like however as it's still fairly new I'm going to hold off on my opinion of it until it matures a bit more.

[MATRIX 2]

The entire idea behind this line of thinking is flawed. You can't really predict what things are going to be like 1,2,3+ years down the road. Too many variables to consider, too many potential changes.

So that leave you with focusing with what is going on now, and Intel clearly wins today. I don't see how they can recommend an inferior cpu that performs worse than comparable intel's today based off the premise that it may be better than current intel's in the future.

By the time the next gen consoles start to have a tangible effect on game development and pc hardware requirements, a gaming PC built today will be nearing the end of its optimal service life.

[Fijiandoce]

The entire idea behind this line of thinking is flawed. You can't really predict what things are going to be like 1,2,3+ years down the road. Too many variables to consider, too many potential changes.

So that leave you with focusing with what is going on now, and Intel clearly wins today. I don't see how they can recommend an inferior cpu that performs worse than comparable intel's today based off the premise that it may be better than current intel's in the future.

By the time the next gen consoles start to have a tangible effect on game development and pc hardware requirements, a gaming PC built today will be nearing the end of its optimal service life.

i can't speak for everyone, but i was right with my decision for 'more cores' when the Core 2 chips were being produced and that was 5 or so years ago.

with the industries focus on multithreaded tasks, and the FX 8350 being second only to the i7 3770 in that aspect, it does make for an interesting future.

but as you say, for the here and now the AMD chips simply lack the brute force power per core compared to the intels.

having said that, the CPU is seldom the piece that holds back games. Open world games lean on the CPU but those are few and far between. though i wouldn't mind seeing an open world game coded for a fast high core processor (manufacturer irrespective).
Crysis 3 uses 4 cores if im not mistaken and again (if i recall) the 8350 runs second to the i7, how many cores does Skyrim use? (general question)

Read this article on Sunday. Don't think it's swayed me to go for an AMD CPU. I'm still content on buying a 6 core i7 3930k next month.

Buying my case, PSU and hopefully motherboard on friday - so excited

you're going to have to start putting more of your Day-Z pics in the screenshot thread when you get that beast
6 cores of unyielding power!!!
at one point i was looking at the 3930 i7 but alas, its way too much for what i perceive to be the direction the industry in going (GPU powerz!!)

[BoyBettaKnow]

Oh believe me when this thing is built i'll be uploading many more pictures. It's going to cost me a lot of money hence why I am building it over the course of 5 maybe 6 months but the end result should be something special. A GTX Titan and i7 3930k both will be watercooled (with a hefty OC on the CPU, Aiming for around the 4.8Ghz mark what is easily achievable under water) and i'll be having 16GB of DDR3 1866Mhz ram. 2 SSD's (one for my OS and the other for most used applications) and 2 1TB HDD's in RAID 0 or 1

Good things will be going down in BBK's world soon!

[keefy]

Titans are limited in numbers, better hurry.

[BoyBettaKnow]

Eh, I don't think they'll be selling out by the time I want to buy one. I'm more concerned about the cooling blocks running out for the model I want before the actual GPU does.

[keefy]

Aria only has 2 left
Overclockers has sold out of all except 1 type which comes with a waterblock

[BoyBettaKnow]

Scan has a few left over. I won't be able to afford it right now so if it does sell out i'm going to need to re-evaluate what i'll be getting. Hopefully they'll still have them in a few months time other wise I might have to go the dual card GPU route, not what I wanted to do.

[keefy]

Rumours say there my be a Titan LE with 5GB RaM and slighty less CUDA cores and a GTX Titan ultra with even more than the original.
So the wait may play in your favour if this is true.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing...n-ultra-leaked

[BoyBettaKnow]

That won't be surprising but I'm pretty sure I'll want the one that is out now. I know it sounds pathetic but (assuming that LE is Lite Eidition) I want the full-fat Titan, not a scaled down one.

edit: Hopefully though if those rumours are true the Titan as we know it will continue to get released. I don't see a 780 out performing the Titan though so not much point in me waiting for the 7 series of cards.

If i'm lucky it also means prices will fall down a little bit. Oh i should be so lucky.