reaper71129 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 I redoing my pc's.... i currently have 3 pc's that i am using and i am trying to make sure i use the best for each purpose.... i will list the current way i am setting things up and if anyone has any advise or anything it would be greatly apprecated. 1. gaming/emulation pc... windows 10...i7 3770 cpu, 8gb ram, 1050ti video card... 240gb ssd and multiple external usb 3.0 drives for storage. 2. plex/multimedia server pc... windows 10.....amd fx8300, 8gb ram, 1050ti video card... 240gb ssd and multiple external usb 3.0 drives for storage 3. general use/web surfing pc... ubuntu linux... i7-860, 8gb ram, 750ti video card... 128gb sdd.. with 4tb external usb 3.0 drive for storage.. would the i7-3770 or fx 8300 be best for emulation?... i would like to try ps2 ,ps3 ,wii and wii u emulation... do you think that the cpu could handle that?... gpu?? Any input would be greatly appreciated.. thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 For emulation you want the best instructions per clock cycle CPU and faster clock speeds which is generally going to be the newer Intel chips over anything AMD. That isn't to say that AMD is incapable, I use an AMD 8350 @ 4GHz and it's fine with PS2, Dolphin and some Wii U emulation. With Wii U emulation it will depend on the game and how well it runs, for example Mario 3D Worlds plays fine but Zelda BotW only runs at 20 fps which to me is unplayable and a high end modern Intel CPU runs it perfectly at 30 fps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper71129 Posted October 18, 2017 Author Share Posted October 18, 2017 the fx8300 is 8 core... 3.3ghz regular, 4.2ghz turbo the i7-3770 is quad core with hyperthreading... 3.4ghz regular, 3.9ghz turbo... would the ipc of the intel make up for the more cores and greater speed of the amd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 More cores generally means nothing in emulation. Very few emulators use multiple cores and only a couple of them use 2, Dolphin is one of the only ones I know of off the top of my head that uses dual cores. I do know that RPCS3 (PS3) does take advantage of multi core CPUs but IMO that emulator is still a long ways off of being ready for general use. Yes it can play a small select few games well but that number really is extremely small. As for which is better, the AMD or Intel you listed I would have to say the Intel is probably better. But again like I said in my previous post my 8350 @4GHz handles PS2 and Dolphin without issues and with Wii U (Cemu) it depends on the game. Maybe someone with a similar Intel CPU to yours can chime in and provide some hands on answers for you. It is generally known though that Intel CPUs perform better in emulation than AMDs. AMD CPUs can do it but you may have to brute force it with raw clock speed to get equal performance to a lower clocked Intel CPU. Also keep in mind that this is purely in terms of emulation, modern gaming and video stuff can take more advantage of multi core CPUs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil9000 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 16 minutes ago, reaper71129 said: the fx8300 is 8 core... 3.3ghz regular, 4.2ghz turbo the i7-3770 is quad core with hyperthreading... 3.4ghz regular, 3.9ghz turbo... would the ipc of the intel make up for the more cores and greater speed of the amd? Personally, I would stick with the intel chip. Amd have come out with some great chips themselves recently, but the emulators have always been focused on intel as that's always in the last 5 years or so been the most prevalent chip.Stuff is just more generally optimised for that side of the fence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 I don't think it's case of the emulator devs focusing on Intel as much as it's just how emulation works. It functions better with single core performance and Intel CPUs are just better at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mothergoose729 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 (edited) How you have it now is the best setup. The FX 8300 chips have two integer cores and one floating point core per module, with four modules total. Emulators that run in software push a lot of floating point math to the CPU, which means your 8 core CPU is effectively only a four core CPU in the right workloads. The floating point precision is technically better on the AMD chips, but in practice intel chips from the same generation are much, much faster. You can expect your i7 3770 to perform as much as 50% better than your FX 8300 in certain workloads. Emulation is not a favorable workload for AMD chips from that era. Edited October 18, 2017 by mothergoose729 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 to be honest though both of those chips would handle most emulators fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper71129 Posted October 19, 2017 Author Share Posted October 19, 2017 Thanks everyone for the advice... i'll continue like i had planned... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectral Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Honestly unless it was exceptionally cheap I wouldn't even look at a pre Ryzen AMD chip now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Yeah if buying them but I believe the OP said he already has them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper71129 Posted October 19, 2017 Author Share Posted October 19, 2017 Oh, this isn't purchasing one.. it's just making the best use of the systems i currently have.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectral Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Sorry, I missed that. When he said redoing I presumed that meant buying upgrades for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper71129 Posted October 19, 2017 Author Share Posted October 19, 2017 Thanks for the advice tho... i didn't know that AMD was that far behind tho.... I had been using the FX8300 for PC games and it seamed to be holding up ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectral Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 (edited) Most PC games rely far more heavily on the graphics card so its possible to get by with fairly old CPUs for the most part. I'm in no way saying the CPU have is awful, but it wouldn't really be worth buying if you were buying now. Ryzen are a massive jump forward in performance for AMD, so much so Intel have released the new Coffeelake CPU's earlier than they had planned to help counter them. Edited October 19, 2017 by spectral Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 It really isn't that far behind but it is behind. Like I said I have and use an 8350 running at 4 GHz for PC gaming and emulation and it does the job quite well. PC gaming is also quite different than emulation because of how emulation actually works and utilizes the CPU. Emulation in the vast majority of cases only uses a single core of a processor and in a couple of cases such as the Dolphin emulator uses 2 and single core performance is most important factor when it comes to emulation speed. As far as I am aware of right now only the PS3 emulator, RPCS3 uses multiple cores effectively because the PS3 itself uses multiple core CPUs. You can overcome some single performance with raw clock speed so for example a 4GHz AMD CPU can perform equally as well as a 3.2 GHz (approx) Intel CPU but if you got equal or very close to equal clock speeds the Intel will perform better. Also keep in mind that with these levels of CPUs you will only see any real issues on the most modern of emulators such as Cemu and RPCS3. Both of those emulators are still in their infancy relatively speaking regardless of any videos showing off a few hand selected games. I have not bothered trying out the RPCS3 emulator just because I have zero interest in it but I have toyed around with Cemu a bit and my 8350 does the jobs and runs most of the games at full speed, Breath of the Wild is the one game I threw at it and does not run at full speed at all on my system. PS2 emulation with PCSX2 and Saturn emulation with Mednafen the 8350 has no problems with them. The bottom line is this. For the mature emulators out there a relatively modern AMD CPU running at or close to 4 GHz will perform perfectly fine. You will only find more benefit with an Intel CPU when it comes to the more cutting edge newer emulators such as Cemu and RPCS3. If you were to be buying a new system and emulation is something you intend on using it for quite a lot and want the best performance definitely buy an Intel based system. That is what I will be doing next year when I build my next system. But if you want to save a few bucks and focus on more the PC side with emulation up to and including PS2, Wii and maybe a dash of Wii U then something like a Ryzen is a great choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper71129 Posted October 19, 2017 Author Share Posted October 19, 2017 Thanks, no new purchases this year... i have to use what i have... I used all my wife's good will to get me a "gaming laptop" a few months agao.... i5 7300hq, 16gb ram, 128gb nvme ssd, 1tb hdd, 1050 4gb gpu... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mothergoose729 Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 47 minutes ago, reaper71129 said: Thanks for the advice tho... i didn't know that AMD was that far behind tho.... I had been using the FX8300 for PC games and it seamed to be holding up ok. Bulldozer is a particularly low point . Ryzen is really good, and there is every reason to believe Ryzen 2 could be even better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 You will be fine with the hardware you have listed but Cemu, Citra and RPCS3 will be pushing the limits if they are usable at all for you. But everything else up to those emulators should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slimskinny Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Hi guys, seeing that the core I5-8600k and I7-7700k (higher clock speed) are coming up at pretty much the same price. which one would you go for and why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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