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AMD upgrade

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madman7

Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Location
South East Ohio
Hi everyone. It's been a few years since I've been on here. I have missed a lot since then. I want to upgrade my FX-8350 running at 4.6 to a Ryzen. I don't want the GPU in the CPU and I don't want onboard graphics. I see that the Ryzen line has been around for awhile. I want to get an 8 core because I do mostly gaming and read that the 8 core is good for that. What's the difference between Gen 2 or Gen 3? The difference between Zen 2 and Zen 3. It looks like there are only 2 options.

One other thing. I see where AMD has some new AM5 socket processors. What is the difference between the AM4 and AM5?

Thanks

It bad to be out of it this long and not knowing all the new things.
 
Depending on your budget, you'd want the latest and greatest... at least with the AMD chipset. If you go X670/B650, you get support for not only the 5000 and 7000 series but the 9000 series that's coming out in a couple of weeks (in other words, a drop-in upgrade is still available).

If you're mostly a gamer, maybe start with B650/X670 board and a X3D chip like the 7850X3D... or even the 5800X3D and updgrade the CPU to the 9000 series later.

What's your budget?
 
Zen 3 main advantage for gaming is you have a unified block of 8 cores, where with Zen 2 you get two blocks of 4 cores, and games don't like that so much. Zen 3 is a bit better per core too. From a pure gaming perspective, 5800X3D is the way to go on AM4.

If AM5 is open, it gets you access to DDR5 ram and forward support of new CPUs, like Zen 5. The best overall gaming CPU you can get today is the 7800X3D. Even if you drop to a 6 core like 7600X, because it is newer/faster in general, it'll compete with the best AM4 CPU in gaming.
 
AM4: X570/B550 motherboard chipsets with Gen 4 PCIe, Zen2 (3000 series) & Zen3 (5000 series) processors, DDR4 RAM.
I would say a B550 motherboard with a 5800X or 5800X3D CPU with DDR4-3200 or 3600 RAM could make a nice lower budget build in 2024. The platform is EOL though.

AM5: X670/B650 (X670e/B650e) motherboard chipsets with Gen 5 PCIe, Zen4 (7000 series) & upcoming Zen5 (9000 series) processors, DDR5 RAM.
Considering you are looking to update an FX build, this is where you want to be looking. It will be a relevant platform for a much longer time.

Once you pick CPU, mobo, RAM, & M.2 NVME be sure to take a sedative before looking at Video Card Prices! You've been warned. :shock: :ROFLMAO:
 
Unless you are looking at used parts/prices I would not spend money on new AM4 parts. The biggest advantage of AM5 is memory bandwidth. DRR5 has already eclipsed even the best DDR4.


I would take a look at this and make adjustments as you see fit. A similar AM4/DDR 4 build with the same GPU will net about 15% less performance but wont save you 15%.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Ccdz34 AM4 version
 
If you DO NOT need Ray Tracing for your games you can still grab a GTX-1080 and/or 1080 Ti for under $150.
If you shop ~ You should be able to grab a AM5 x670(E) and the DDR5-6600/6800 for less that $400 :cool: I snag a set of G.Skill DDR5-7200 z5 RGB in April from Newegg for $125. There’s currently several 7800x3d CPUs for ~$300.
 
I have the 3700 for my media server and a 5700 for my main rig. Both are rock solid and give me all of the performance I need. I selected the 5700 over the 5800 based almost solely on the TDP. I want as much power with as little waste heat as possible.

That said, if I was buying today, I would give a close look to newer chips than the 5800x. However, if the 5800x fits your needs better, I'd do it. I do like mine (5700x).
 
Thanks everyone for your educated input. I think I'll wait and see what comes out early next year. My rig still works like the day I built it. Most what I do is still handled by it but as some games do updates I've noticed it takes longer sometimes to refresh between game screens. I still have a GTX 1060 with 6GB ram. I know what you guys mean about VC prices. I'll probably run it and try to find a better used card.
Thanks all

I just noticed my profile is missing. Boy I've been gone along time.
 
Upgrade the GPU now and the rest later. While CPU can bottle neck, going from a 1060 to a 4060 (as an example) will seem like day and night.
 
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THat's not a bad idea... I'm sure you'll see some improvement, but that 8350 is........oof, today for 1080p gaming/driving 'fast' GPUs (read, ones that are several generations past the CPU).
 
Upgrade the GPU now and the rest later. While CPU can bottle neck, going from a 1060 to a 4060 (as an example) will seem like day and night.
dear god, dont get a 4060, its the WORST of all the nvidia options.... also, if anyone is a gamer dont get less than 12gb of VRAM.
Post magically merged:

Thanks everyone for your educated input. I think I'll wait and see what comes out early next year. My rig still works like the day I built it. Most what I do is still handled by it but as some games do updates I've noticed it takes longer sometimes to refresh between game screens. I still have a GTX 1060 with 6GB ram. I know what you guys mean about VC prices. I'll probably run it and try to find a better used card.
Thanks all

I just noticed my profile is missing. Boy I've been gone along time.
next gen AMD is shipping next month in July. So no need to wait long to see if its worth investing in.
 
also, if anyone is a gamer dont get less than 12gb of VRAM.
I mean, if dude is happy with a 6GB card today........... LOL


But being serious, 12GB is plenty for 1080p gaming (and enough for 2560x1440) for years to come. 4K, I wouldn't, lol.... but there aren't many titles today that would eclipse that amount at 4K, even (you're lacking in horsepower with a 4060-class card at 1440+ anyway).
 
I mean, if dude is happy with a 6GB card today........... LOL


But being serious, 12GB is plenty for 1080p gaming (and enough for 2560x1440) for years to come. 4K, I wouldn't, lol.... but there aren't many titles today that would eclipse that amount at 4K, even (you're lacking in horsepower with a 4060-class card at 1440+ anyway).
There is about to be a digital cliff at 12gb because developers are tired of trying to optimize for low amounts of vram, and the PlayStaion and Xbox both have more than 8GB now. So sure, maybe today its fine, but within the year i would expect all new games to require 12gb or better.

Lots of games from the last 5 years already look like crap with 8gb already.
 
Within a year you'd expect all games to require more than 12GB? Sorry, but no way at 1080p or even 1440. 4K... not all, but, I wouldn't rock 12GB 4K today either. But.....most cards with 12GB don't have the horsepower to push 4K anyway so, there's that.

The Playstation and Xbox have been out for nearly 4 years, right? What's the tipping point for using the additional (which much is shared with the system and not all available to the GPU) RAM available all of the sudden?

Lots of games from the last 5 years already look like crap with 8gb already.
I don't know what this means. And for most titles at 1080p/ultra, 8GB is fine anyway!

Take a look at TPU's game reviews. The measure vRAM. I think there's ONE title out now that's more than 12GB at 1080p. A majority of the rest are mid single-digit with settings on ultra. There's also the consideration of how games respond to a lack of it. It isn't uniform... some titles can get hitchy, others, it doesn't matter. You can also turn settings down with a negligible hit on IQ to save some vRAM. For sure buying a video card today for 4K, 12GB would be the minimum (I'd be happy at 16GB). But for less than that, I wouldn't worry over the typical lifespan of the cards (3-4 years). :)
 
There is about to be a digital cliff at 12gb because developers are tired of trying to optimize for low amounts of vram, and the PlayStaion and Xbox both have more than 8GB now.
Consoles have unified ram. Total 16GB, with around 2.5GB taken up by the OS leaving 13.5GB for both CPU and GPU usage. Up to the dev how to split it, but they're unlikely to use 12GB for graphical content as that'll leave practically nothing for game code. That's ignoring the Series S which has even less and causes game devs no end of headache optimising for it.

So sure, maybe today its fine, but within the year i would expect all new games to require 12gb or better.
Not going to happen. Maybe the odd cutting edge showcase/tech demo might do something like that. Definitely not for anything mainstream.

Love it or hate it, we have Steam Hardware Survey is an indicator. Rounding numbers from May's data, we have 34% on exactly 8GB. The next most popular step is 12GB at 17%, then 6GB at 14%. If we start grouping it, "above 8GB" could be about 28% without exactly adding the decimal parts. The minimum usable will likely remain at or below 8GB for a long time yet. Games can scale up from there.

Lots of games from the last 5 years already look like crap with 8gb already.
Such as? At what setting? We have to differentiate between some users with unrealistic setting expectations, and games that are basically broken on release. I can only think of one image quality example for the latter, which is TLOUP1. Textures at launch were overly compressed as delivered. They fixed it in a later patch and now it looks within realistic expectations.
 
My 3070Ti only has 8GB, and it still looks great. Lol erryone wants to be hardcore. Oh input lag, 0.1% lows. Stop being gay.

12GB will be just fine. I just bought some games from the summer sale. The recommended setups are a joke, let alone base requirements.
 
Second @freeagent, my 3070 8gb still plays everything I want her to at 1440p 100fps+ with a little help from DLSS quality, and even though I've got an upgrade coming in the next month or so (3080ti 12gb), she's done her job admirably so far considering it's undervolted most of the time 🤷🏻‍♂️ as ED said, 8gb is still more than good enough for now at 1080p and 1440p most cases, especially if you don't mind the maaaaaaaaaaaassive difference that is lowering settings from ultra to high on the very few games that need it 😂
 
I also have an old computer with an AMD FX-8350 CPU that I built in 2011. I built another computer in 2017 with an AMD Ryzen CPU. These are #3 and #1 in my profile. I still have both computers.

The older computer with the AMD FX-8350 originally had 3 x 1TB 3.5" SATA HDDs. Replacing those with 3 x 2.5" SATA SSDs really helped with the performance of that computer.

I am overdue for another desktop computer since even the newest one is now 7 years old. I started out wanting to build one with an AMD 5800X3D CPU. Last year that turned to 7800X3D. Now with new AMD 9000 series do by the end of July I am waiting to see how they perform.
 
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