Help with CPU choice

Kkronnoss

Kkronnoss
Hi,

I am trying to upgrade my CPU without changing my motherboard which means getting a processor that is compatible. I will also be upgrading my GPU (possibly the R9 480X) and have 16GB RAM. My current processor is an AMD A8 7600 CPU speed: up to 3.1 GHz (max turbo boost - 3.8 GHz although i dont think i've seen it get past about 3.3), CPU cores: 4, CPU Cache: 4 MB. Currently I have an MSI Orchid2-S motherboard.

I know nothing about processors [noob] and so would like advice on which of the below would be best for a VR set-up (Rift), if any. I would prefer not to have to change the motherboard if i can, however, if all these are garbage then i guess i'll have no choice...

The following processors are compatible (am sure the A4-A6 dual core's will be no good but they're on the list so included them):

Kaveri Quad-Core A10-7850B


Kaveri Quad-Core A10-7850K


Kaveri Quad-Core A10-7800


Kaveri Quad-Core A10-7800B


Kaveri Quad-Core A10-7700K


Richland Quad-Core A10-6700


Kaveri Quad-Core A8-7600


Kaveri Quad-Core A8-7600B


Richland Quad-Core A8-6500


Kaveri Dual-Core A6-7400K


Kaveri Dual-Core A6-7400B


Kaveri Dual-Core A4-7350B


Kaveri Dual-Core A4-7300


Richland Dual-Core A4-6300


Richland Quad-Core FX670K

Thx in advance, any and all advice is appreciated.
 

Gortron

Gortron
I've had a little look for you and unfortunately it looks like there is almost not benefit in upgrading your CPU with the selection availble to you, which are all APUs. The best of the bunch appears to be the AMD A10-7850K but it is only marginally better that what you already have... to compare http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A8-7600+APU vs http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A10-7850K+APU even this considerably more expensive one doesn't gain you much http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A10-7890K It seems that main gain with all of them is with the onboard graphics. I think you can get AMD APUs to work with AMD GPUs in Crossfire (so get a graphic improvement) but don't know if crossfire is compatibe with Elite, I'm pretty sure Nvidia SLI isn't so doubt it.

If I were you i'd get a new motherboard and CPU (perhaps and FX-8350 if sticking to AMD) or as shadragon says, wait for Rzyen and see how that performs.
 

Kkronnoss

Kkronnoss
Gortron said:
I've had a little look for you and unfortunately it looks like there is almost not benefit in upgrading your CPU with the selection availble to you, which are all APUs. The best of the bunch appears to be the AMD A10-7850K but it is only marginally better that what you already have... to compare http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A8-7600+APU vs http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A10-7850K+APU even this considerably more expensive one doesn't gain you much http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A10-7890K It seems that main gain with all of them is with the onboard graphics. I think you can get AMD APUs to work with AMD GPUs in Crossfire (so get a graphic improvement) but don't know if crossfire is compatibe with Elite, I'm pretty sure Nvidia SLI isn't so doubt it.

If I were you i'd get a new motherboard and CPU (perhaps and FX-8350 if sticking to AMD) or as shadragon says, wait for Rzyen and see how that performs.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the responses everyone!

Gorton - I actually stumbled across that page after writing this thread and compared those two cpus too and came to the same conclusion.

SO, if you were me and wanted (had) to replace your motherboard AND cpu and not break the bank (let's say around the $300 mark) to start building a VR ready (but not super-duper system, just something that will run it ok) what would you go for? I would prefer to spend my money on the GPU as I already have a decent Thermaltake 550W PSU and the cases are cheap - I hope the HDD is easily compatible with a new card? Even though i've been doing loads of research, I am very confused and still have no idea... :(

Next will be the GPU (as my R9 380 OC is, annoyingly, no good for VR). I was going for a RX480 as they're pretty cheap and support VR apparently but worried about the fact it's only 4GB (have read that 6 and 8 is better or even necessary) but have also heard the Sapphire version is a bit rubbish... http://www.newegg.com/global/au/Pro...PD2kVCfY_3xO5ur2a7h0yXufCRbele0OlCBoCOBvw_wcB

Any thoughts on whether NVIDIA would be the go and, if so, whats best bang for buck in their range for VR (no experience with NVIDIA)?
 
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Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
Right now, I'd wait until RyZen is released - it would seem to be able to offer very decent performance and *should* be competitively priced.
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
I'd just wait for a while until AMD release something that can be reliably tested with VR.

Even so - that PSU is a bit weak, and AMD have historically been power-hungry. I really hope they can pull something good out the hat though - AMD were capable of real innovation back in the x64 and X2 days.
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
Robert Maynard said:
The RyZen TDP quoted for their test against 6700K and 6900K was 93W.
Click to expand...

That's very nice - as long as it outperforms an ancient 3570k with 77W TDP.

The only AMD machine I have here to play around with at the moment is a E1 - and it's worse than awful. Even an Atom N270 wets its pants laughing at it.
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
Asp Explorer said:
That's very nice - as long as it outperforms an ancient 3570k with 77W TDP.

The only AMD machine I have here to play around with at the moment is a E1 - and it's worse than awful. Even an Atom N270 wets its pants laughing at it.
Click to expand...

I expect that it will - as the 8C16T Ryzen seems to offer about 80% more performance than the FX-8350.
 

shadragon

shadragon
Robert Maynard said:
I expect that it will - as the 8C16T Ryzen seems to offer about 80% more performance than the FX-8350.
Click to expand...

"Now a benchmark has leaked early by French publication CPChardware.com which shows that the AMD Ryzen features similar performance to Intel Core i7-6900k."

Note this was at base clock speeds and no one has independently corroborated this yet. Should be out in a month or two then we can all compare directly. We can then see what OC level the new chip is capable of, but I hear through industry contacts that 5.0 GHZ+ (stable) is possible.

Source: https://mspoweruser.com/leaked-benc...rable-to-intels-1000-core-i7-6900k-processor/
 
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shadragon

shadragon
Kkronnoss said:
Any ideas on the price of the Ryzen yet?
Click to expand...
Nothing official. However, estimates do exist.

AMD Ryzen UK price rumours: How much will the AMD Zen cost?
As the chips have only been recently announced, there is no current news about its price.
However, we'll stick our neck out and predict a few price points:

Ryzen Quad Core: £200 inc VAT
Ryzen Six Core: £300 inc VAT
Ryzen Eight Core: £400-600 inc VAT
APU Ryzen Quad Core: £250 inc VAT

We predict Ryzen coming in four initial models. However, we do see a dual-core APU (£40), a 16-core (£250) and even a 32-core server-type (£400) processor being released too. These predictions are purely based on previous generation models and based upon its competition - Intel.

Source: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-prod...or-release-date-price-specs-features-3643552/

Speaking personally, I'm hoping the Eight core comes out for £299 - 399. That would give it a huge boost right out of the gate.
 

vic

V
shadragon said:
Nothing official. However, estimates do exist.

AMD Ryzen UK price rumours: How much will the AMD Zen cost?
As the chips have only been recently announced, there is no current news about its price.
However, we'll stick our neck out and predict a few price points:

Ryzen Quad Core: £200 inc VAT
Ryzen Six Core: £300 inc VAT
Ryzen Eight Core: £400-600 inc VAT
APU Ryzen Quad Core: £250 inc VAT

We predict Ryzen coming in four initial models. However, we do see a dual-core APU (£40), a 16-core (£250) and even a 32-core server-type (£400) processor being released too. These predictions are purely based on previous generation models and based upon its competition - Intel.

Source: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new-prod...or-release-date-price-specs-features-3643552/

Speaking personally, I'm hoping the Eight core comes out for £299 - 399. That would give it a huge boost right out of the gate.
Click to expand...

Would 8 core really benefit Elite as I don't think Elite even uses 4 cores based from my tests?
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
Apparently, AMD are aware of a scheduler problem in some games (that seem to be optimised for Intel CPUs) that may be causing some issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5x4hxu/we_are_amd_creators_of_athlon_radeon_and_other/def4wcj/

Game developers would also seem to be aware of the optimisation potential for Ryzen: https://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/AMD-responds-1080p-gaming-tests-Ryzen

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some issues due to code being compiled with ICC - as it has been known to force non-Intel CPUs to use sub-optimal code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_C++_Compiler#Criticism
 
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-VR- Max Factor

-VR- Max Factor
Some of the Review motherboards had a problem with the bios which has caused a lot of inconsistancies with the reviews. Some reviews are very good, some are not so good depending on motherboard.

I will wait until the Bios problem gets sorted and new benchmarks are created before making up my mind.
 
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Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
There's a rather interesting thread on anandtech that suggests that Windows 10 is somewhat "broken" for Ryzen:

CoreInfo Output said:
Maximum implemented CPUID leaves: 0000000D (Basic), 8000001F (Extended).

Logical to Physical Processor Map:
**-------------- Physical Processor 0 (Hyperthreaded)
--**------------ Physical Processor 1 (Hyperthreaded)
----**---------- Physical Processor 2 (Hyperthreaded)
------**-------- Physical Processor 3 (Hyperthreaded)
--------**------ Physical Processor 4 (Hyperthreaded)
----------**---- Physical Processor 5 (Hyperthreaded)
------------**-- Physical Processor 6 (Hyperthreaded)
--------------** Physical Processor 7 (Hyperthreaded)

Logical Processor to Socket Map:
**************** Socket 0

Logical Processor to NUMA Node Map:
**************** NUMA Node 0

No NUMA nodes.

Logical Processor to Cache Map:
*--------------- Data Cache 0, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
*--------------- Instruction Cache 0, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
*--------------- Unified Cache 0, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
*--------------- Unified Cache 1, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
-*-------------- Data Cache 1, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-*-------------- Instruction Cache 1, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
-*-------------- Unified Cache 2, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-*-------------- Unified Cache 3, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
--*------------- Data Cache 2, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
--*------------- Instruction Cache 2, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
--*------------- Unified Cache 4, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
--*------------- Unified Cache 5, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
---*------------ Data Cache 3, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
---*------------ Instruction Cache 3, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
---*------------ Unified Cache 6, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
---*------------ Unified Cache 7, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
----*----------- Data Cache 4, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
----*----------- Instruction Cache 4, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
----*----------- Unified Cache 8, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
----*----------- Unified Cache 9, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
-----*---------- Data Cache 5, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-----*---------- Instruction Cache 5, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
-----*---------- Unified Cache 10, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-----*---------- Unified Cache 11, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
------*--------- Data Cache 6, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
------*--------- Instruction Cache 6, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
------*--------- Unified Cache 12, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
------*--------- Unified Cache 13, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
-------*-------- Data Cache 7, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-------*-------- Instruction Cache 7, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
-------*-------- Unified Cache 14, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-------*-------- Unified Cache 15, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
--------*------- Data Cache 8, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
--------*------- Instruction Cache 8, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
--------*------- Unified Cache 16, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
--------*------- Unified Cache 17, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
---------*------ Data Cache 9, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
---------*------ Instruction Cache 9, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
---------*------ Unified Cache 18, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
---------*------ Unified Cache 19, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
----------*----- Data Cache 10, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
----------*----- Instruction Cache 10, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
----------*----- Unified Cache 20, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
----------*----- Unified Cache 21, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
-----------*---- Data Cache 11, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-----------*---- Instruction Cache 11, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
-----------*---- Unified Cache 22, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-----------*---- Unified Cache 23, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
------------*--- Data Cache 12, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
------------*--- Instruction Cache 12, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
------------*--- Unified Cache 24, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
------------*--- Unified Cache 25, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
-------------*-- Data Cache 13, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-------------*-- Instruction Cache 13, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
-------------*-- Unified Cache 26, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
-------------*-- Unified Cache 27, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
--------------*- Data Cache 14, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
--------------*- Instruction Cache 14, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
--------------*- Unified Cache 28, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
--------------*- Unified Cache 29, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64
---------------* Data Cache 15, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
---------------* Instruction Cache 15, Level 1, 64 KB, Assoc 4, LineSize 64
---------------* Unified Cache 30, Level 2, 512 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64
---------------* Unified Cache 31, Level 3, 16 MB, Assoc 16, LineSize 64

Logical Processor to Group Map:
**************** Group 0
Click to expand...

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/ryzen-strictly-technical.2500572/
 
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shadragon

shadragon
Thanks Robert. I saw that too in another forum.

Adored TV just dropped an interesting vid on the subject. Time will tell.

[video=youtube_share;ylvdSnEbL50]https://youtu.be/ylvdSnEbL50[/video]
 
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