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FarWest

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Oct 20, 2009
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The motherboard in my trusty gaming system finally went out. Since it's almost 3 years old, I've been buying parts for an upgrade. It's time to select the processor now and I'm looking for help.

I'm looking at an FX-4170 (4x4.2 GHz), but would like to know if a higher core count such as a FX-6200 (6x3.8 GHz) would be better. I mostly play COD4, Black Ops and BFBC2.

I've already picked up the motherboard, so I'm stuck with an AM3+ socket CPU. My video card is a Radeon 6870 driving a 23.5" monitor at 1920x1080. Pretty basic, but it's been good enough.

The current rig ran ok before it failed it was an Athlon X2 5600 with 4GB DDR2 and the same video. COD4 and BFBC2 seemed to run well. BlackOps was little bit choppy.
 
well the 6200 would be better for the games that support more cores (rare), otherwise the higher clock speed of the 4170 would be better.

if your going to overclock go with the 6200.

I would have gone Intel if your primary concern was gaming performance though.
 
FarWest said:
The motherboard in my trusty gaming system finally went out. Since it's almost 3 years old, I've been buying parts for an upgrade. It's time to select the processor now and I'm looking for help.

I'm looking at an FX-4170 (4x4.2 GHz), but would like to know if a higher core count such as a FX-6200 (6x3.8 GHz) would be better. I mostly play COD4, Black Ops and BFBC2.

I've already picked up the motherboard, so I'm stuck with an AM3+ socket CPU. My video card is a Radeon 6870 driving a 23.5" monitor at 1920x1080. Pretty basic, but it's been good enough.

The current rig ran ok before it failed it was an Athlon X2 5600 with 4GB DDR2 and the same video. COD4 and BFBC2 seemed to run well. BlackOps was little bit choppy.
Click to expand...

With the games you mentioned I would go for the 4170 unless you were going to overclock. The only one of those that may even use a 6 core slightly is BFBC2 and I doubt even it would.

ebduncan said:
well the 6200 would be better for the games that support more cores (rare), otherwise the higher clock speed of the 4170 would be better.

if your going to overclock go with the 6200.

I would have gone Intel if your primary concern was gaming performance though.
Click to expand...

He already said that he has purchased the AM3+ board.
 
Don't waste your money buying a higher clocked processor when you can simply ramp the mp up on the cheaper models. They are all unlocked..why throw cash away?
 
If you can wait a little bit, the new Vishera models should be out within the next 2-3 weeks.
 
4170 is bad,d00d..real bad..2 cores..2 modules..4 threads.. with low IPC..I'd avoid @ all costs.
965 BE or ..as a last resort fx-6***
Thuban would be good, too..960T/1075T/1090T/1100T
New cpus should be out the 23rd of this month.
 
Last edited:
schmuckley said:
4170 is bad,d00d..real bad..2 cores..2 threads with low IPC..I'd avoid @ all costs.
965 BE or ..as a last resort fx-6***
Thuban would be good, too..960T/1075T/1090T/1100T
New cpus should be out the 23rd of this month.
Click to expand...
What he said.
 
4170 is bad,d00d..real bad..2 cores..2 threads with low IPC..I'd avoid @ all costs.
965 BE or ..as a last resort fx-6***
Thuban would be good, too..960T/1075T/1090T/1100T
New cpus should be out the 23rd of this month.
Click to expand...

its not 2 cores, its 4 cores. or Two modules, each module has 2 integer cores which share other resources. So its a quad core part.

Its the opposite of intel Hyper threading. Where softtware is used to vitrually create another thread and pass down though the pipeline. Amd approached it as a hardware design, rather than software. Both ways have their limitations.

but the fx4170 is a 4 core part, or more importantly it processes up to 4 threads at a time.

Anyways the fx 4170 trades blows with the thuban core parts. Mainly depends if the game supports more cores. Single thread performance is pretty much the same at stock speeds. (4.2ghz(4.3ghz turbo) on the fx and 3.3ghz(3.7ghz turbo) on the 1100T)

Just wait for Piledriver would be your best bet, its like 2 weeks away.
 
bang for the buck, i think thuban is the way to go. should be able to pick one up for around $100. I am anxious to see how the 8350 performs, but i dont think thuban prices are going to drop anymore then they already are. I think the thuban is a lot more future proof then say a FX 4170. Im sure the 4170 would be fine for your current needs, its just why not have six independent cores with good IPC then have two modules that share resources and need 600mhz+ clock speed to match the previous arch.
 
If you have a microcenter near you the 1045T is $89. Then just OC.

Otherwise a 965 at $89-$99 is a great deal too.

Btw if you really want a 4170 newegg has a $15 off code on it.
 
Bulldozer was a disspointment for sure. My 3570k is my first intel part in years. I agree with everyone else you should wait a few weeks for piledriver. If IPC matches thuban it's a start back in the right direction. For the COD games they don't use more then 2 cores. BF3 WILL use 6 cores if you have them. My 1100T was at 4GHz and I would see all six cores at nearly 100% all the time while in game. My 3570k is at 4.5GHz and I see the four cores usually hover around 80/85%.
 
yea wait for Vishera the piledriver cores will hopefully offer some improvement and if anything it could force prices on the older models down. Nothing to lose really by waiting and seeing how things pan out.
 
ebduncan said:
its not 2 cores, its 4 cores. or Two modules, each module has 2 integer cores which share other resources. So its a quad core part.

Its the opposite of intel Hyper threading. Where softtware is used to vitrually create another thread and pass down though the pipeline. Amd approached it as a hardware design, rather than software. Both ways have their limitations.

but the fx4170 is a 4 core part, or more importantly it processes up to 4 threads at a time.

Anyways the fx 4170 trades blows with the thuban core parts. Mainly depends if the game supports more cores. Single thread performance is pretty much the same at stock speeds. (4.2ghz(4.3ghz turbo) on the fx and 3.3ghz(3.7ghz turbo) on the 1100T)

Just wait for Piledriver would be your best bet, its like 2 weeks away.
Click to expand...
Bolded part is misinformation.Thuban has quite a bit higher IPC and 6 real cores (unless it's a 960T) 4170 trades blows with Pentium 4s.
 
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