Maxing out my AM3+ socket

[kcducttaper]

I'm going to start this off by saying that, for 'hardcore' gaming, the AM3+ socket is ancient and a dinosaur. That said, I'm not a heavy gamer and am not looking to drop $2,000 on a new rig when I can still play current racing titles at 60 fps with high settings at 1080p. I'm looking to extend my AM3+ platform as long as I can to let the new tech become as awesome as possible before pulling the trigger in the next couple years (thinking Ryzen 3000 or better).

Here's my current rig's relevant specs:
AMD Phenom II x6 1100t overclocked to 4.0GHz on air
16GB (4x 4GB sticks) G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1600 MHz
Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
Asus GTX 1070

I've considered grabbing an FX-8370, but the general consensus seems to be that they're not really any better than the 1100t due to it sharing cache across the cores where the 1100t is a true 6-core with a separate cache for each core. I could throw more memory at it, but I'm not anywhere near running out of memory, so that won't gain me any performance. Just wondering if there's anything else to do to effectively max out my socket or if I'm already there?

[kcducttaper]

So this is strange. I can get an FX 8350 for $65 shipped on NewEgg. Used 1100T's are going anywhere from $75 to $125 shipped on ebay. What's up with that?

[vadim]

Escrito originalmente por kcducttaper:

So this is strange. I can get an FX 8350 for $65 shipped on NewEgg. Used 1100T's are going anywhere from $75 to $125 shipped on ebay. What's up with that?

Both are rubbish these days. Garbage does not have reasonable market value.

[upcoast]

Escrito originalmente por vadim:

Escrito originalmente por kcducttaper:

So this is strange. I can get an FX 8350 for $65 shipped on NewEgg. Used 1100T's are going anywhere from $75 to $125 shipped on ebay. What's up with that?

Both are rubbish these days. Garbage does not have reasonable market value.

Rubbish that gets the job done, seriously you keep dissing on the FX but they keep plugging away I'm not saying they're perfect but cut the rubbish crapola.


As far as PII pricing if a dough head wants to pay $125 for a x6 then that's the way it is, Ive personally seen PII x6 1090t/1100t for $50/$60CAD over the last year so what's it really worth in USD on fleabay a person can ask for $125 but a person can also dream in technicolor.

[kcducttaper]

Eh, just ignore him. He's not adding anything to the conversation, is not staying in line with the topic, and doesn't even address the question he quoted. I figure it's not even worth entertaining those kinds of posts.

That's what they're actually selling for though. I was looking at the 'sold' section and not just the listing page. I wonder if they're starting to become a collector's item or something...? Just seems weird that I can buy a new CPU and sell my older, slower CPU for a profit (or at least break even).

[Snow]

Escrito originalmente por kcducttaper:

Eh, just ignore him. He's not adding anything to the conversation, is not staying in line with the topic, and doesn't even address the question he quoted. I figure it's not even worth entertaining those kinds of posts.

That's what they're actually selling for though. I was looking at the 'sold' section and not just the listing page. I wonder if they're starting to become a collector's item or something...? Just seems weird that I can buy a new CPU and sell my older, slower CPU for a profit (or at least break even).

PII 1100T BE was released at $265 price, while FX-8350 was $195. FX ones got this modular architecture which let AMD save a bit of money, as it's not a usual 8-core, but 4 modules with 2 cores each, sharing decoder, FPU, L2 cache etc. within a module. 1100T is also the top dog for AM2+, allowing to max out old AM2+ PC, pretty much like you want to do for AM3+ of yours. Oh, and also this magic trick of multi-socket CPU, allowing to use 1100T with AM2+, AM3 and AM3+. I hope this kinda explains why FX-8350 is cheaper.

[_I_]

pii was made for am3, but with the ddr2 and ddr3 imc
making it capable of runing in 125w capable am2+ boards, but at netfed fsb/ram/ht specs

fx was a step backwards in amd core performace, but has higher freq/fsb to help make up for it

lateral move to fx8
go to a new build for a much better improvements

[LiMpY]

Escrito originalmente por kcducttaper:

I've considered grabbing an FX-8370, but the general consensus seems to be that they're not really any better than the 1100t due to it sharing cache across the cores where the 1100t is a true 6-core with a separate cache for each core. I could throw more memory at it, but I'm not anywhere near running out of memory, so that won't gain me any performance. Just wondering if there's anything else to do to effectively max out my socket or if I'm already there?

I'm in a similar boat and not about to throw money at a new system, so yesterday I received my price reduced 8350 and going to replace my 6350 later this morning. I'm expecting a 10-17% increase in average fps which isn't much but should bring up the minimums. With the RX580 this should keep the ol girl playing at or near Ultra vsynced 1080p settings for another year or so.
This is probably a good time to do some OCing too.. if necessary.

[Snow]

Escrito originalmente por LiMpY:

Escrito originalmente por kcducttaper:

I've considered grabbing an FX-8370, but the general consensus seems to be that they're not really any better than the 1100t due to it sharing cache across the cores where the 1100t is a true 6-core with a separate cache for each core. I could throw more memory at it, but I'm not anywhere near running out of memory, so that won't gain me any performance. Just wondering if there's anything else to do to effectively max out my socket or if I'm already there?

I'm in a similar boat and not about to throw money at a new system, so yesterday I received my price reduced 8350 and going to replace my 6350 later this morning. I'm expecting a 10-17% increase in average fps which isn't much but should bring up the minimums. With the RX580 this should keep the ol girl playing at or near Ultra vsynced 1080p settings for another year or so.
This is probably a good time to do some OCing too.. if necessary.

FX chips absolutely do love OC. Just keep in mind CPU-NB and RAM frequencies matter a lot for those due to low amount and low speeds of L3 cache. And yeah, newer games will definitely benefit from this little upgrade.

[kcducttaper]

Escrito originalmente por Snow:

PII 1100T BE was released at $265 price, while FX-8350 was $195. FX ones got this modular architecture which let AMD save a bit of money, as it's not a usual 8-core, but 4 modules with 2 cores each, sharing decoder, FPU, L2 cache etc. within a module. 1100T is also the top dog for AM2+, allowing to max out old AM2+ PC, pretty much like you want to do for AM3+ of yours. Oh, and also this magic trick of multi-socket CPU, allowing to use 1100T with AM2+, AM3 and AM3+. I hope this kinda explains why FX-8350 is cheaper.

It does! That was actually a really good brief explanation. Thanks!

Well, I'm $65 poorer, but with an FX-8350 order heading my way! Hopefully, I can get it all hooked up, OC'ed, stable, and then sell my 1100t for....heck, maybe even a profit? I'm curious to see what sort of FPS gains I can get from this considering my games use all 6 cores pretty evenly right now.

[_I_]

windows does a good job at balancing core load
if its not using 100% of the pii x6, it wont use 75% of the fx8

a single thread program will only use about 16%(on 6 core cpu), showing some usage on all cores

[kcducttaper]

I'm hoping so. Maybe I can achieve a true 60fps lock where I'm mostly hovering in the high-mid 50's now. I'm curious to see how far I can OC it too. My 1100t is OC'ed to 4.0GHz on air, which is a 21% increase I think just by upping the FSB and decreasing the memory profile to keep the memory from getting out of control. To get the same 21% OC on the FX, I would be running at 4.85GHz.It would be cool to hit 5, but I'll just have to wait and see what things look like when I start to fiddle with it. I haven't been in the OC game for a while, so I'm rather rusty and will have to do a bit of research on OC-ing an FX processor before taking a stab at it.

Escrito originalmente por _I_:

a single thread program will only use about 16%(on 6 core cpu), showing some usage on all cores

I'm curious how this works. If windows balances across all cores, why are Intel's preferred for gaming due to their historically higher IPC over AMDs, which generally had more cores for a similar price? Just for the total amount of time for a thread to be processed?

[Snow]

Escrito originalmente por kcducttaper:

To get the same 21% OC on the FX, I would be running at 4.85GHz.It would be cool to hit 5, but I'll just have to wait and see what things look like when I start to fiddle with it.

This is exactly the opposite of what you should do. Even at stock clocks FX-8350 already suffers a bottleneck caused by L3 cache. No matter how high is the core clock, if the game can utilize more than 4 threads, and especially all 8 - you'll see little to no performance difference between stock and 5GHz. It will just change how often your cores cry "I've no data in cache!". Make sure to clock memory and CPU-NB at least to 2400 before doing any core OC. A lot of FX mobos tend to ignore multiplier values on CPU-NB, so adjust via bus frequency.

[kcducttaper]

With the 1100t, I had dropped the memory profile to 1333, which caused the actual frequency to be a tad over 1600 after the FSB bumps. I don't know much about OCing memory, but I would get random freezes and BSODs with anything faster than that and I wasn't comfortable messing with voltages at the time. Checking the interwebz, it looks like the 1100t really didn't like anything over 1600 anyways. The FX seems to like faster memory much more than the 1100t.

[upcoast]

All you really need to do with the fx8350 is set windows power options to high then in bios disable c1e, turbo core and cool quiet. 4.4ghz takes very little voltage just over 1.35v vs 4.6-4.8ghz.

Ps, if you don't disable turbo core the constant kicking in and out makes for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gaming experience .


https://techreport.com/review/23750/amd-fx-8350-processor-reviewed/13

[Omega]

Disabling CoolnQuiet will do the exact same thing as setting Windows to high performance.

And why do I never hear people mention Intel Speedstep? It's litterally the same thing. 🤔

Disabling this will nuke your power efficiency.