Confused on Steam Play and Proton? Be sure to check out our guide.
Moving to AMD CPU, looking for advice and insight.
Page: «2/2
  Go to:
Nanobang Jan 30, 2020
Quoting: The_Aquabatsome b350/370 motherboards like mine can run pcie 4. but for what it's worth you'll only gain 2 or 3 fps, so it's not really important. If I were you I'll save those bucks for a better gpu instead. Or maybe for better ram, ram frequency matters a lot in AMD. Ram frequency in some cases can give better fps if the game is reliant on memory rather on gpu chip/core speed..

I suppose if you plan to keep your 1070 even with a 2600x you'll notice a lot of improvement I'm just guessestimating maybe 50%/40%, (at least) . When I switched from my old fx 6300 my FPS almost doubled (with the same gpu) but again a fx 6300 it's lot less powerful than your current intel.

I'll probs be getting an x570 mobo, not just for the PCIe4, but for all the little speed improvements likely to be on board: improved RAM frequency, USB3, NVMe M2, etc.

Your comment about how RAM frequency matters with AMD really jumped out at me. That's exactly the sort of insight I was hoping to get by posting this subject. I've got some decent Corsair sticks in there now, but I've no idea what their frequency is. I'll be taking a closer look now, so I'm glad you mentioned that.

I'm pleased, too, to hear your comment about how I might see a jump in FPS from my 1070. I just bought that last year and will be keeping it for the foreseeable future, so it's very exciting to think it'll see new life with my decision to get an AMD CPU! Thanks again! :)

Last edited by Nanobang on 31 January 2020 at 1:15 pm UTC
wvstolzing Jan 30, 2020
A little off-topic here, but does anyone have links to some reliable tests and the like for the ECC ram usage on Ryzen? (Specifically with Linux & ZFS)

The most 'official' pronouncement that AMD ever made on the topic, is I think the following reddit AMA with AMD engineers: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5x4hxu/we_are_amd_creators_of_athlon_radeon_and_other/def6vs2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x Otherwise there's a dearth of information; at most you get a forum or reddit thread that devolves after a couple of comments into a quarrel between people who are clearly out of their depth, and people who know stuff but can't be bothered to explain anything to their less fortunate peers.
Koopacabras Jan 30, 2020
I don't know if your CPU is the K (unlocked) or the standard version

here is a comparison on windows a 4790k vs 3600 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBjHr78q9FY .... So I was wrong, definitely there is an improvement, but not the amount I was thinking. I guess when I upgraded it was a combo of stuff in my case that made my fps jump, I was running a really cheap AM3 mobo and my ddr3 memories didn't have the best speeds. But anyways in some games even on that video there is 20% (yeah I know on other games is less)... I remember that what improved a LOT for me was OpenGL games, vulkan games didn't improve that much in comparison.

EDIT: here is a more accurate comparison of a 3700X vs i7 4790k...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dCiGVKKloY

so yeah your mileage may vary but right there is an improvement of 20% at least on mostly every game (with the exception of the witcher 3 at 4K) and as much as 30%/35% ... it's clear that with 2070 or a 2080 the 4790 bottlenecks a lot.

(the guy is using a x570 and ddr4 3600 mhz ram)

imho looking at these benchmarks seems to me that the 3700x is the cpu you should get at least, getting weaker cpus is not worth it.

Last edited by Koopacabras on 30 January 2020 at 3:32 pm UTC
buono Jan 30, 2020
If you are going for an x570 then as far as can tell anything around the £200 mark and above are all good. If you are looking for linux friendly then I'd go for asrock. I do have my eye on the taichi for the future.
tuubi Jan 30, 2020
Do any benchmarks actually show a noticeable difference between a good x470 and a x570 with the same CPU and RAM? They didn't when I bought mine. Definitely not enough to justify the 100€ difference back then. I used some of that cash to get better RAM instead.
Koopacabras Jan 30, 2020
Quoting: tuubiDo any benchmarks actually show a noticeable difference between a good x470 and a x570 with the same CPU and RAM? They didn't when I bought mine. Definitely not enough to justify the 100€ difference back then. I used some of that cash to get better RAM instead.
getting a x570 it's not a bad idea also remember that mobo manufacturers update their bios for 3 or 4 years. So I don't know if my b350 is getting bios updates anymore, I don't know if it will support ryzen 4000.

too bad there is no budget x550 because that will probably be also good enough.

Last edited by Koopacabras on 30 January 2020 at 10:10 pm UTC
Nanobang Feb 2, 2020
Just to close out this thread. I've decided to either get a 7 3700X or a 9 3900X, both of which are way more than I've currently got, so I'll just keep saving. the 3700X is, of course, amazing --- especially at 65W!

But then again, by the time I've saved that much, I'm within striking distance of the Hive Queen herself: the 3900X. Granted she comes in at 105W, but that's still --- wow --- still so, so cool given her power!

The kicker to all this is that the i7 4790 I'm currently using guzzles a whopping 85W! Yow!

Thanks to everybody who helped me out with guidance and insights; you folks are great! I'll try and remember to post one more time once I've actually made the purchase, sometime in the (hopefully, not too) distant future. :)
Nanobang Feb 23, 2020
Well folks and friends, I put in my order for my new AMD CPU today! It cost me about the same as my first entire gaming computer build to buy it and a new AMD motherboard, but I believe it's worth it.

In the end I bought the mighty Ryzen 9 3900X! Back and forth, back and forth I danced between this and the righteous, much more efficient Ryzen 7 3700X. In the end, the angelic choir singing "Holy, holy, holy, 12 core, 24 thread, 70MB GameCache almighty, Aaaaaamen!" seduced me.

To house this heavenly tabernacle of divine power, I ordered a Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite motherboard.

So, that's it. Goodbye to my Intel i7 4950 and the old Asus mobo it's been living in, and hello to (what I hope will be) the last CPU I'll need for a long time. Thank you, again, to everyone that helped and guided me with this very big decision. Change, in any form, requires strength, so thank you, too, for sharing with me the strength of your experience.

And thank you, lastly, to Liam for this wonderful space for Linux gamers!

Last edited by Nanobang on 23 February 2020 at 4:57 pm UTC
HendrinMckay Feb 23, 2020
Yep, went 3900x as well. Figured with compiling, rust development and some other stuff can make use of the extra cores plus higher max boost on a single core. Also went with the same motherboard. Seems to be working fine for me and like the quality of the board so far! Enjoy the mobo! Only thing I adjusted was the fan curve(you can adjust this in the bios, there is an F? key that takes you right to it), basically let it be a more gradually ramp up of speed so it isn't such a spin up when the temperature spikes.

Enjoy!
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Login / Register


Or login with...
Sign in with Steam Sign in with Google
Social logins require cookies to stay logged in.