Is AMD so bad?

[theWocky]

Ah, so much misinformation - "Macinsoft?" Really? So uninformed and obviously ignorant to using the product.

Personally I don't like AMD - I got burnt 15 years ago with a mainboard and video I bought and never touched their products again.

That's not to say they're "bad", but it's my personal preference. One of my techies loves his Radeon cards.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Windows 8. It's a polished, very optimized product. They had a few issues with 8.1, but it is a very stable product and I have been using it for months.

There are currently more copies of Windows 8 sold than there are Macintosh O/S based PC's world-wide - over 100 million copies sold - and that excludes Corporate Volume Licensing. The product is a huge success.

Hell, there were even some forums that were touting Windows 8 running Battlefield 4 better than Windows 7 during the beta.

Your "lagged" fps is probably more to do with the WoW client and network lag more so than the PC you have.

[noteworthynerd]

Why is windows 8 so bad for gaming?

It isn't. In fact, it is probably the most optimized gaming OS available right now.

Basically if you think of it this way... AMD has powerful graphics cards with crappy drivers. NVIDA has less-than-standard graphics cards with decent drivers.

All of this is outdated by about five + years. I haven't seen anything wrong with AMD drivers in quite some time, and NVIDIA has had more than a few driver problems lately.

I'm not touching the OS in question though. I'm heavily bias AGAINST Microtosh OS 8.

Biased for what reason? Most of the people who are "biased" towards W8 haven't used it and are just parroting what they've read on the internet that was in-turn written by people who have not used it. I don't use W8 on my home PC, but I've used it extensively both on client PCs and friend's PCs and it is a pretty great OS once you get used to not having a start menu (natively).

[Manabomb]

firstly; Put vsync on and no, your screen shouldn't interfere with frames tbh.
secondly; AMD cpu's aren't optimal for gaming and windows 8 is quite good.
What screen res are you running everything on and what do you have shadows on?

It's actually more like most games and a lot of software infact (even "unbiased" bench tests) are coded to work better with intel cpu's, which has been a documented occurrence on more than one event (the most public being the lawsuit amd filed against intel and won in the last few years that involved intel paying off programmers to code their product to work better with intel.)

The age old argument of amd vs. intel is getting quite old, however it should be noted that amd is a more future proof solution as with the new consoles and new games taking advantage of multicore hardware, amd will be better suited. For the "in the now" however, for games like WoW and other single/dual core/thread users, intel will be the marginal choice.

Though everything here is subjective, honestly if you're making a machine strictly to play wow and other small time gaming operations and not rendering footage or being a profession computer assembler, the mid range on either of these companies matters little. If anything the noticeable difference between running a midrange intel cpu vs. a midrange amd cpu at optimal performance peaks will be so subtle I doubt anyone would notice.

[moremana]

Hi! I recently build what i personal think is a badass computer :P But i feel like i aint getting that performance on WoW that i was looking for..

My specs:

The AMD FX-8350
Sabertooth 990fx r2
15gb hyper x 1600mhz
Radeon HD 7950
OCZ Revodrive

And im running Windows 8.1.

I can get around 45 fps in shrine or stormwind during peak hours when i should be above 80...

Yes i have the latest drivers installed.

Why is windows 8 so bad for gaming?

You are about on par. WoW is not good for AMD, although it is playable and not 100 FPS, AMD should play it fine. In my video editing machine I have the FX8320, a MSI HD 7870, 16GB 2133 MHz Adata Ram, Crucial M500 SSD and in the same areas you have low fps, I get around 55-70, In 25 mans I get around 38-45, sometimes dips to low 30's depending on the fight. I run Ultra settings. This is the norm for AMD, It is completely playable though and a whole lot cheaper than the intel offerings.

- - - Updated - - -

Its more or less about how much money you want to spend compared to what quality you want to have. If you got the money, there is no reason to not go Intel CPU and nVidia GPU. If you wanna save, go the other way.

Im lucky enough to get to see sales and return numbers from most hardware companys in the world, and i would be caught dead with an ATI GPU currently. But its not as bad as it sounds, fanboys will tell you that their choice is the only choice. Check around on forums, try to learn how good your stuff is by checking tests from actual gamers and you will find out what you need to make an informative decision about hardware.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html Your CPU is in the middle of the pack, so no its not as bad as some might say.

I would not use Windows 8 for gaming tho, its not stable enough yet to be worth it.

You could not be more wrong in all your statements.

It all depends on the games you play, software you run. etc.

AMD video cards have more vibrant colors than Nvidia, its been that way for years, I have both, In my Intel machine I have the GTX 670, in my AMD machine I have the 7870, its much more clear and vibrant than the nvidia. WoW is the only game that runs better on my intel i5-3570k, BF3, skyrim all run about the same.

Im no amd fan, but when I needed a multicore machine to do some flash, photediting and photoshop, the AMD was plainly a better deal and less expensive.

Onto Windows 8, it blows Windows 7 out of the water, its more stable, faster and it plays all the games better and they load alot faster.

[Mathswk]

I have never had any driver problems with Radeon, Nor do i have had problems with nvidia until this year, Oboy the damn kernel error irritateded me like hell. I know that AMD likes FAST ram so i got 1600mhz but is that enough? Should i upgrade to 16gbs of 2000mhz? Will it make any difference? :P

Correct me if im wrong but isnt there a way to make WoW run on 4 cores instead of 2? And to top the notch my revo drive has 1700mbs read write speed back and forth and my internet speed is 50/10 so that aint a issue.

When it comes to overclocking i will definitly need a water cooler since im running stock one atm and it works fine. And my Radeon HD7950 3GB is a BADASS grapich card.


Ill try to download some benchmark tests when i get home tonight, ill post results as i finish the tests.

[Deleted]

Correct me if im wrong but isnt there a way to make WoW run on 4 cores instead of 2?

http://www.wowwiki.com/CVar_processAffinityMask

Yes there is by adding a line of text to the WoW WTF config file like this SET processAffinityMask "255" I think for 8 cores.

[Deleted]

Short answer: No.

Slightly longer answer:
In terms of GPU performance, AMD and nVidia have basically been extremely close for the last couple of generations. Sure, one or the other pulls ahead at a certain price point, but none have been able to objectively argue one or the other as a clear cut victor.

In terms of CPU, things are slightly more complicated. The IPC of AMD's offerings is pretty good, in some cases on par or even better than intel, but for games - and especially MMOs - history has shown that per core performance is of far greater importance. Thus, because of AMD's architecture, which is based on modules that share cache, they simply do not offer the same performance as intel does.
With the new consoles being based on Jaguar cores, things are likely to change. Maybe.

[BicycleMafioso]

Technically, Intel have stronger CPUs as far as WoW is concerned, but WoW is becoming more and more of a paranthesis in terms of industry standards.
The best benefit you would get would not be to get Intel, but to get a cooler and overclock your CPU. AMD is more than fine in anything except WoW - but in WoW, it's not really up there for heroic 25mans at full settings. Otherwise, nothing bad at all.

The GPU doesn't matter.

http://www.wowwiki.com/CVar_processAffinityMask

Yes there is by adding a line of text to the WoW WTF config file like this SET processAffinityMask "255" I think for 8 cores.

You don't need to do this anymore. This should be set by World of Warcraft already.

[potis]

The answer is No, but its not the first choice.

AMD isnt bad the problem isnt that.

Games that are still coming out as using old engines that do not run well on the new CPUs...Intel offers both better old performance while having performance for the newer engines.

AMD is lacking power on the old engines, while now that the newer ones are coming out we can see the 8350 as example is close to the Intel ones its not better or worthless, its close therefor its an option but when you wanna play WoW as example the AMD CPUs are not a good choice.

Many people still play old games a lot (This forum by itself is the biggest example since WoW is one of those games) or new games with old engines like Rift/SWTOR etc..or even single player games therefor the AMD CPUs are shown to be lacking and are not a good choice for those people.

GPU wise they are exactly the same to be honest, AMD has a period of dominance, then Nvidia does..Rinse and Repeat.

As example when the Mantle support does come out and we see how it goes and it is exactly as they say it is, AMD will probably have a longer period of dominance (Price/Performance dominance i mean) instead of the usual 6 month thing they do for last ~ 4 years or so.

The good thing with AMD cards is usually their price point and marketing..As example i dont see a reason not to buy a 280X for 300$ if not lower which offers the same power as 770 which still costs way too high now that the 280X is out or 270X for 200$.

When AMD offers a card with 300$ that gives lets say 2-3% less performance than Nvidia card for 400$ ,there is no reason to buy the Nvidia one until the price goes down.. assuming the game you are gonna play performs the same, different engines like different things etc etc thats why there are reviews for that stuff.

[DeltrusDisc]

Be couse my guildies run even worse gear than me and they get above 80fps on high settings..

Have you actually seen proof? Like seen it in person? I doubt it.

Plus, maybe you have AA enabled at 8x and they only have it at 2x or 4x, or maybe completely off.

Very difficult to compare when you can't be sure who is running what.

Hell maybe you are running 1920x1080 and they are running 1680x1050, or even better, 1600x900...

[glowpipe]

After what i have been reading around on the intrawebz, a lot is complaining about windows 8.1. that may be your problem

[Majesticii]

The IPC of AMD's offerings is pretty good

What? FX-8350's IPC is 50% slower than the haswell i5's. Pretty good is really a poor way to describe it.
Adding the fact you can pretty much buy a haswell i5 system for the same money as you can buy a fx8350 system (yes you can) there is absolutely no reason to buy the FX. Period.

The problem is current CPU benchmarks only show saturated GPU's running at 1080p max settings. But i've tried to explain that already and got a lot of negative feedback so i won't bother again.

@Deltrus, in a CPU limited game, dropping the resolution won't improve your framerate by much. Unless you have a really shitty GPU.

[COLWRAITH]

Ah, so much misinformation - "Macinsoft?" Really? So uninformed and obviously ignorant to using the product.

Personally I don't like AMD - I got burnt 15 years ago with a mainboard and video I bought and never touched their products again.

That's not to say they're "bad", but it's my personal preference. One of my techies loves his Radeon cards.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Windows 8. It's a polished, very optimized product. They had a few issues with 8.1, but it is a very stable product and I have been using it for months.

There are currently more copies of Windows 8 sold than there are Macintosh O/S based PC's world-wide - over 100 million copies sold - and that excludes Corporate Volume Licensing. The product is a huge success.

Hell, there were even some forums that were touting Windows 8 running Battlefield 4 better than Windows 7 during the beta.

Your "lagged" fps is probably more to do with the WoW client and network lag more so than the PC you have.

He should check his addons. Not a hardware issue.

[lloose]

NVIDA has lost it's way in the computing world that a majority of thier video cards are just renamed variants of their current top of the line video card.

Just wanted to clear up that AMD does the same thing. Right now they are both in the same boat with offering 2 new GPU's and rebranding the rest with minimal changes. For AMD the 290 and 290x are both new and the rest is just re-sticker. For Nvidia the Titan and 780 (and soon 780 ti) are not rebrands, but the rest of the 7 series is.

In terms of CPUs, if you play wow then intel is just the way to go. Its already been mentioned that you can get a lower end haswell that still performs as well if not better than the higher end amd cpu's for the same price (motherboard + cpu). If you take other things into consderation outside of gaming, AMD might pull ahead, but just speaking from a WOW point of view, intel has the lead this generation, by a noteworthy amount.

[Faithh]

Meh just get rid of that 8350, overclock that thing to 5GHz and it still won't perform close to an i3 in WoW.

[BicycleMafioso]

Meh just get rid of that 8350, overclock that thing to 5GHz and it still won't perform close to an i3 in WoW.

Yes, spending money is always the right choice! Also, it will be better/close enough that it does not matter anyway, as well as better in every other game.

[Aleksej89]

Windows 8 is problematic.

AMD/Ati always had severe issues with their software and drivers - but their products are generally cheaper than Intel/Nvidia.

If you have the money for it, consider switching to an Intel CPU and an Nvidia GPU.

[Toffie]

Windows 8 is problematic.

AMD/Ati always had severe issues with their software and drivers - but their products are generally cheaper than Intel/Nvidia.

If you have the money for it, consider switching to an Intel CPU and an Nvidia GPU.

Everything you wrote, is completely false.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Windows 8 is problematic.

No it isn't; it is a better, more stable, faster OS than any other Windows version.

AMD/Ati always had severe issues with their software and drivers

ATI had sub-par drivers, but that was over 5 years ago. Remember what else was happening over 5 years ago? AMD's Phenom series CPUs were stomping Intel's face into the "mud" at a slaughterhouse holding pen.

- but their products are generally cheaper than Intel/Nvidia.

Hardly a bad thing.

[FattyXP]

firstly; Put vsync on and no, your screen shouldn't interfere with frames tbh.
secondly; AMD cpu's aren't optimal for gaming and windows 8 is quite good.
What screen res are you running everything on and what do you have shadows on?

It won't change what your wow reports its getting for FPS, but a low quality monitor can effect how you actually see it. I was running at a smooth 60 fps constantly but my eyes noticed bad lag even though the frames never dropped by even one.

Do you have your ProcessAffinityMask properly setup in your config.wtf? (or is that even still a thing? lol) This allows you to assign wow to use 3 specific cores. Default out of the box it will try to use the first three, which of course Windows is also using. Setting the mask properly allows it to use the last three (or any in between) so that only wow is using those cores. I got about a 10fps jump after properly setting mine up, but this was a while ago since I don't play anymore.

- - - Updated - - -

Its more or less about how much money you want to spend compared to what quality you want to have. If you got the money, there is no reason to not go Intel CPU and nVidia GPU. If you wanna save, go the other way.

Im lucky enough to get to see sales and return numbers from most hardware companys in the world, and i would be caught dead with an ATI GPU currently. But its not as bad as it sounds, fanboys will tell you that their choice is the only choice. Check around on forums, try to learn how good your stuff is by checking tests from actual gamers and you will find out what you need to make an informative decision about hardware.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html Your CPU is in the middle of the pack, so no its not as bad as some might say.

I would not use Windows 8 for gaming tho, its not stable enough yet to be worth it.

Stable... its like a rock. I haven't had a single issue gaming on Win8 yet, and the windows store games are pretty fun. In fact I haven't had a single issue with Windows 8 since installing it.