PART 2 - Core i5 3570k vs FX-8350 Gaming WITH AA Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,340 words · ~6 min read
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This video is brought to you by our trusted graphics partner
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NVIDIA. Welcome to part two of our 3570K
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versus 8350 testing. So, just to
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reiterate, we've already done no anti-aliasing on a number of popular
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games. Now, what we've decided to do is crank up the details. Now, any of the
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games where the maximum presets were already factoring in high anti-aliasing
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settings, those ones you're going to discover actually haven't changed.
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Whereas everything else, what we're doing is we're taking our GTX 660Ti,
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which is the card we're using for our standard test bench, and we are taxing
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it. So, we're looking at sort more of
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the GPUbound scenario. What happens to
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the CPU in this situation? Because a lot
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of the hubbhub right now is the 8350,
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which is an 8 core processor. So, we're running that on a Crosshair 5 formula.
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The 8350 is a very legitimate choice for
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a gaming platform if you're running at realistic settings. Now, of course, you
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could all day we could run Quake 3 flybys and uh you know, time how long it
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takes to run and run at 640x480 and that
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would really separate out the singlethreaded CPU performance of every
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chip on the market. But it's not realistic. So, that's why we're taking
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this this realistic approach where we have two identical test platforms. In
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fact, it's this test platform except over there. So, we're running uh the
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8350 overclocked to 4.6 GHz. We're
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running our 3570K overclocked to 4.4 GHz. The reason we chose those numbers
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was that we wanted something that is realistically attainable by you like 99%
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of the time. So, almost anyone running these chips can reach those frequencies
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with guides that have actually been published in videos that I've done in the past. So, there's really no excuse
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for not being able to do that. Um, so that's why we ran at those settings.
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We're running 8 gigs of Mushkin uh,
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whatever it's called, blackline memory, 1600 MHz CL9. Nothing special about it.
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We're running a 128 gig Vertex 4 SSD and
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Republic of Gamers motherboards for both platforms. Some in-win power supply that
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doesn't really affect performance in any meaningful way. And we're liquid cooling
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the CPUs using an H100 from Corsair just
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so that we get good stability at those overclock settings. So let's start with
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Metro 2033. In Metro 2033, the 3570K
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really pulls ahead of the 8350. So this is on the high preset with an isotropic
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filtering at 16x and anti-aliasing at 4x. Our next one is dirt 3. And in Dirt
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3, we see the same situation where the 3570K pulls ahead by about 10%. So, this
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is out actually. Yeah, this is a tangible win, but not something you're
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actually going to feel when you're playing the game itself. In Skyrim, we
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see another victory for the 3570K.
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However, it should be noted that in Skyrim, we're running 18 aftermarket
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mods from the Steam Workshop, and we're not sure how those affect any
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optimizations that are made on a platform byplatform basis. So, it's
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possible that our particular Skyrim setup is inherently runs better on
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Intel, and unfortunately, there's not really a whole lot we can do about that.
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Up next, we've got Battlefield 3, where the FX8350 actually comes out ahead.
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Now, Battlefield 3 was one of the first really multi-threading aware AAA gaming
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titles that you started to see a tangible benefit with more cores. So
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FX8350 doing well here actually makes a lot of sense because it is clocked a
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little bit higher. Did I say 4.4 GHz for the 3570K? Because what I meant was 4.2.
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Sorry about that guys. So what we see here is that with its higher frequency
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and the fact that it's multi-threading aware, it does really well. So we're
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running um four times MSAA
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anti-aliasing. Next up we've got Crisis
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3. So, this is one of the ones where there's been a lot of discussion about
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how Crisis 3 is heavily multi-threading aware and I've seen I've even seen
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proclamations that the 8350 just, you know, wrecks the
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3570K, but those seem pretty isolated
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and uh the most of the data out there seems to support our conclusion, which
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is that the 3570K ees out a victory
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here. It's not by much. It's only by about 10%. But that for all intents and
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purposes, they are very close in performance. And I mean, uh, okay, we're
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going to move on to our last benchmark here, which is that's not our last one.
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Um, yeah, they're very close in terms of performance. So, we're not really seeing
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the whole huge difference in performance um, favoring the 8350. Far Cry 3 is a
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different situation with the 8350 winning by 10%. Now, the weird thing is
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both of these games are based on Cry Engine 3. So, it looks like whatever
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individual optimizations the game developers have put into their their
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titles, um, for whatever reason, one of
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them favors AMD more than the other one does. So, it tells us a couple of
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things. Number one, Crisis 3 doesn't necessarily run better on AMD, but
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number two, Cryine 3 can. Starcraft 2,
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we're including just kind of for lols, but Intel runs away with this one. And
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Starcraft 2 seems to be heavily singlethreaded performance dependent.
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And our last title is Crisis 2. So not
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Crisis 3, Crisis 2, where we see a very similar story to Crisis 3 with the 3570K
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coming out by about out ahead by about 10%. So what does all this mean? Like
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what CPU should you actually buy? Because remember guys,
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3570K doesn't have hyperthreading. So, when you have a heavily threaded
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workload, say for example, you're doing video rendering, 3D rendering, um, heavy
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heavy Photoshop use, where you're going to be able to take advantage of those
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multiple cores, the 8350 may actually be
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a better choice for you because the 3570 is quad core and the 8350 is four
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bulldozer modules, each of which is kind of like a core and a half. So, you're
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going to have just more horsepower, more
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oomph to throw at heavily multi-threaded applications. With that in mind, I don't
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know what you're gesturing. We have three minutes left in the video. Oh,
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okay. Uh, with that in mind, the 3570K does pull ahead in the
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singlethreaded heavy applications and does run cooler and does consume less
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power. So, depending on how much power costs in your particular area, that may
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be a factor for you. But it should be noted that you're looking at probably a
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few dollars a year um in terms of the
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actual power difference depending again on how much power costs in your area.
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Here in BC, Canada, it's cheap. So, it's not something that we think about nearly
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as much as if you lived say for example in California where it can be very
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expensive. So, I think that pretty much wraps it up. They're both viable gaming
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platforms. At the end of the day, you have to look at the results. Go, okay, this is the average FPS. Am I going to
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notice the difference between 5 FPS or 3 FPS or 10 FPS here and there? If you
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think you will, go for whichever one comes out on top. And if you think you
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won't, then go for whichever one is going to serve you better as an overall
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platform. Thanks for checking out this video on Linus Tech Tips. As always,
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don't forget to subscribe.