Upgrading CPU & Mobo

[falconandeagle]

[color=#000000]Post: #1[/color][color=#000000]Upgrading CPU & Mobo
[/color]
[color=#000000]Hi guys,

My current PC set up is:

Asus AM3 Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9 GHz CPU
Sapphire Radeon 7850 1 GB Dual Fans Graphic Card
FSP Hexa 500W Bronze 80 Plus PSU
6 GB Corsair DDR3 1333 MHz RAM
Windows 7 64 Bit Professional

I want to upgrade my CPU and MOBO cause my CPU just isn't good enough for any kind of emulation.

Currently my options are:

1)
CPU: AMD FX 6300 3.5Ghz: 120$
Motherboard: I dont know which motherboard to buy for this CPU.. cause this CPU is very overclockable, so I want a motherboard that I can do a mild overclock on. I dont want to do a crazy overclock, even a mild one is good enough for me.


2)
CPU:
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P32 : 65$
CPU: Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz : 190$

Ok so I have a budget of around 250$, 270$ max. So which of these CPU's will be better for Dolphin in general. Games that I would like to play are Xenoblade Chronicles, Tales of Symphonia and Sonic Colors.

The AMD one seems like it will be cheaper, but to overclock I will have to get an extra cooler and get a good motherboard which I think puts it slightly over my budget. I was thinking of getting an i5 4670k but that is a bit too expensive and even with that I would have to get a z87 motherboard and that is just not possible with my current budget.[/color]

[xRyudo]

The i5 might be a bit more expensive vs the FX 6300, but the performance is also better when it comes to that.

I'd go with #2 personally.

[admin89]

Even if you overclock that FX 6300 madly , there's no way in hell a mid range CPU could reach the level of high-end CPU
In Dolphin , i5 4670k stock speed beat OCed FX-8350 @ 4.52GHz by a mile or so . i5 4570 is just 200MHz slower than i5 4670k (doesn't make any difference in Dolphin . At least , the difference is not noticeable)
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-the-legend-of-zelda-the-wind-waker-cpu-benchmark

[ExtremeDude2]

#2 definitely

[falconandeagle]

OK. I have decided to go for the second option. Thanks a lot for the help

[pauldacheez]

FYI, a 4670K would be better than a plain 4570 if possible. Not just 'cause it's 100-200MHz faster (fuck if I remember/care ATM), but it's overclockable in case you need a few hundred more MHz. I've seen folks with theirs perfectly fine at 4.3 GHz, and Dolphin almost never slows down on a CPU that fast.

Emphasis on the "if possible", of course – the 4570 will still be perfectly fine for 90% of the cases a 4670K can handle.

[ExtremeDude2]

He'd also need a new mobo then

[rokclimb15]

The 4670K + Z87 mobo is great, but will run at least $330 total. With those options, I'd take #2.

[LordVador]

Alternatively he could also go for 3570K + Z77

[falconandeagle]

Hey guys just to update. I went for the second option and I am quite happy with the results.

So Currently I have only tested a few games, anyway Ill just list the benchmarks.

Donkey Kong Country Returns, LLE Audio, 3x Native, 4x Anti Aliasing, 16x Anisotropic, Per Pixel Lighting: Constant 60 FPS
New Super Mario Bros: Same setting but with no aliasing: Constant 60 FPS
Sonic Colors: Same settings with Aliasing: Constant 30 FPS
Xenoblade Chronicles: Same settings: Constant 30 FPS
Zelda Twilight Princess: Same settings: Constant 30 FPS (I had to manually limit frames at 30 FPS cause I was getting 15 fps with frame limiting on.. weird issue).