Time for a New CPU?

[Deleted5387618User]

I think it's about time that I get a new CPU for my heavly modded skyrim however I think that I need some advice on which new AMD Processor which I should get and how much of a difference it'll be for the game because I'm getting sick of sound delays, and mini freezes lol... Just to make this short here's my current specs:

 

GPU: GeForce GTX 770 (4 GB)

CPU: AMD FX- 4130 Quad-Core 3.8 GHz

Memory: 8 GB RAM

 

and Here's what I plan on getting:

 

AMD FX-9590 Vishera 4.7GHz - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113351

[Thor.]

You should get the highest clocked, sense amd i don't think will be in the market for much longer when it comes to cpu's, i suggest go full out. Get the best one you can find. Like the one you posted.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Thor.

[Aegrus]

Why? It's tied by an i5 4670 which costs over $100 less. Yes, you heard that right. The quad core at 3.4 ghz performs the same as the oct-core at 4.7 ghz. No, I'm not kidding. Here you go: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4670-vs-AMD-FX-9590

 

Even though the benchmarks show it tying, that 4670 will actually perform better than it in Skyrim specifically, because it's quad core, and Skyrim uses only 4 cores, so the AMD CPU's last 4 cores would be. . literally useless. You would have to cut the 9590's power in half to find out how it would perform in Skyrim. And then it gets slaughtered by the 4670. Heh, it gets slaughtered by my 4590. In any game which uses 4 cores or less (which is almost every single game ever made), you have to just discount the last 4 cores of an AMD CPU and act like it's a quad core. AMD is a joke in the CPU market. They cost more than intel, run hotter than intel, and even at double the supposed specs, draw huge amounts of power (which will hurt your electricity bill and also demand a better PSU), and they perform worse in games.

Edited August 7, 2014 by Aegrus

[Thor.]

Quad cores these days are not up to standards when it comes to system requirements, games like Project cars, Watch Dogs, Elite dangerous will be pushing for more threads per core, Crysis 3 is another good example.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/10/08/watch-dogs-system-requirements-announced-specify-64-bit-os-and-minimum-6-gb-of-ram/

 

this is going to be a normal for games these days, hopefully not though. My pc right now is even struggling, i may need to upgrade to 16gb of ddr3 for Project cars, especially on Ultra settings. its going to be a killer when it comes to pushing hardware to the limit.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Thor.

[Lord Garon]

The only real difference you'll see in a newer AMD CPU will be from whatever difference in clock speed you get. Skyrim was designed for the XBOX 360. That's important, because it was designed to run on two main threads (two cores in a 360 were the primary application cores, the third was primarily a system task core). Of course, Windows will spawn as many threads as needed (my dual-core system spawns 27 threads when Skyrim starts), but about 95% of Skyrim/Steam CPU time is used by two main threads and 5% by the other 25 threads combined. Pretty much what you'd expect from a console port. That means, basically, that more cores won't really help.

 

A 9590 will be a very expensive way to get ~10% performance boost in Skyrim. Unless you're doing other CPU intensive things while you play Skyrim, I would pick a new AMD CPU based upon the requirements of some OTHER program you use a lot. In any case, I doubt an FX-9590 will have the best Price/Performance ratio for a 4130 upgrade.

[Thor.]

More games coming out are more likely to be optimized for pc. Its a pc revolution we are currently having sense the new consoles finally went the way of 8 core cpu's and the ram as well. You will be getting more of that in the future. Mark my words Witcher 3 is going to be the big one.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Thor.

[Lord Garon]

More games coming out are more likely to be optimized for pc. Its a pc revolution we are currently having sense the new consoles finally went the way of 8 core cpu's and the ram as well. You will be getting more of that in the future. Mark my words Witcher 3 is going to be the big one.

 

Yeah, looks to be an interesting time for games coming up. Both CPU makers are reluctant to keep desktop CPU development going in a decreasing PC market. But, more and more gamers are going to the PC. If the game studios can make multi-threading really useful in their games, which the current console hardware "seems" to be predicting, AMD is poised to really take control of high performance gaming. They have the console hardware, from which the next generation of game "ports" will come, they have Mantle, they have discrete AND imbedded graphics, just the whole package needed for gaming. Whether or not the game studios can use the resources and actually produce efficient, multi-threaded games is the question. Don't think we'll know that for a while, though.

 

It's strange, in a way. Most businesses are market driven and cater to the apparent wants and desires of the market. But, the gaming market is different; the quality of the product is what counts. Every game studio is completely in control of it's own success. A great game is a great game and gamers will buy it for that reason alone. That fact is eventually lost on every game studio I've ever seen. They come into existence with a hit, CREATE their own market, then the "marketing" and business people kill it off. You can't analyze and quantize "fun" in an attempt to maximize ROI, but the studios incessantly try, and fail, to do so. Making an idea tangible is a creative act and the poor game programmers (and modders) are artists. Certainly, a basic business model is needed in any business, but that model has to recognize an artistic basis if it exists. I'm not a game programmer, but I do know a couple. A couple ex-game programmers. Both quit gaming for less demanding, higher paying programming and IT jobs. You can't force an artist to make good art; they just "do it" if allowed to. That's why our modders here make stuff Bethesda wouldn't, or couldn't, make in the studio.

 

Okay... I'm ranting. Not sure how that happened. I guess its related, somehow, to what I meant to say, but is way off topic now. Sorry. AMD has a chance to really move PC gaming platforms forward. I just hope the studios see the potential in it.

[Thor.]

Developers just need to catch up with the multi threading to make full use of the latest hardware, its only a matter of time until that happens. then we can see some insane performance gains from older hardware, which today is current hardware. Unless some revolutionary chip comes out that changes everything.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Thor.