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Author Topic: Is the new AMD FX-8350 the best DF CPU?  (Read 5366 times)

Starver

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Re: Is the new AMD FX-8350 the best DF CPU?
« Reply #15 on: November 09, 2012, 03:02:05 pm »

Something useful to contribute, I think...  I read a review in a computer magazine which generally praised the latest AMD FXs (four core to eight core versions) and said they did quite well in using those multiple cores... but that they scored lower than the equivalent Intel chips for single-threaded applications.  So perhaps the subject-titled chip is not the best DF CPU.

(Pity, I've quite liked AMD, for quite a while now, and having turned around the early Bulldozer stuff for this newer (Piledriver?) set of chips that don't disappoint as much, I'd quite like to be able to say that AMD is the way to go.  However, as the above is second-hand information and (what's more) only half-remembered, and I've not been seriously comparing chips and chipsets personally for a while, grains of salt may be needed.)

((To go Geeky again... I wonder how Crusoe chips would have fared, if they had successfully become the mainstream "third option" in the Intel/AMD marketplace?))
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muzzz

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Re: Is the new AMD FX-8350 the best DF CPU?
« Reply #16 on: November 09, 2012, 04:06:58 pm »

Ramdisks? Seriously? Has anyone ever benchmarked that with DF?

My current save (a 10 year old fort) is slightly below 32 Mb. And even my cheap, crappy 5400 rpm disk can write that in a few seconds. I seriously doubt that HD speed is the bottleneck when it comes to saving...

USB's actually slower when it comes to data transfer rate than internal hard drive

Not necessarily. While SATA is generally faster, the bottleneck is usually the storage device. So a solid-state USB device (read: memory stick) will often be faster than a spindisk.
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de5me7

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Re: Is the new AMD FX-8350 the best DF CPU?
« Reply #17 on: November 09, 2012, 06:04:43 pm »

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/08/hard-choices-amd-cpu-update/

heres what i think is an informed opinion on the new AMD chips vs Intel with gaming in mind (probably not DF mind you).
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martinuzz

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Re: Is the new AMD FX-8350 the best DF CPU?
« Reply #18 on: November 09, 2012, 09:04:11 pm »

I've always been a content AMD fan. It was with great difficulty that my computer hardware geek friends convinced me that for DF, I'd be better off with Intel than AMD this time.
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noobnubcakes

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Re: Is the new AMD FX-8350 the best DF CPU?
« Reply #19 on: November 10, 2012, 08:34:54 pm »

Anyone running one of these new piledriver CPU's yet?  Are these the best CPU's for DF now?  Not because of the 8-core because I know DF doesn't use that but because of the natural 4.0/4.2 clock speed.  I seem to remember reading on the forums that DF favored single high clock speeds.

Have any of you zealots with huge fortresses tried revisiting some of your lag-death fortresses on this CPU?

What other CPU features does DF prefer?

The best CPU for DF is an Intel Ivy Bridge.
AMD is far behind intel in IPC (Instruction per clock) and this is what's important to DF. Choosing an AMD cpu for DF is a poor choice.

My 2600k Sandy Bridge (one generation behind Ivy) is clocked at 4.7Ghz and excel as playing DF.

To speed up DF load and save, put your DF folder in a RAM Drive.
That is, a folder in your RAM. This is an order of magnitude faster then the best SSD. You can use the free software imdisk to setup your ram drive, and automatically keep a backup.
4.7 GHz?? Back in 2008 the fastest processer was 3.6 GHz.
 I guess Moore's law applies in this situation.
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Haytrid

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Re: Is the new AMD FX-8350 the best DF CPU?
« Reply #20 on: November 15, 2012, 11:55:44 am »

We'll, I AM the IT guy at work so it's not a problem.  My system at home is a Raid-5 array on a nice 3-ware card with SSD boot drive running at 300 mb/s consistently so drive speed I think is definitely not an issue!

If you want a boost in frame rate and are on a spinning hard drive, copy the game to a usb key, and play it from there.  Also this is a good way to get the game spread throughout your company at whatever job you have, and you could probably pass it off as some super heavy number crunching whizbang manifold making piece of engineering software.  No worries boss, it's just something too technical for you to understand.   :o 

And if this game ever goes multiplayer, you'll be able to play with your IT guys(Trust me, if they haven't heard of this game, introduce it to them, you'll be their best friend FOREVER.)
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Haytrid

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Re: Is the new AMD FX-8350 the best DF CPU?
« Reply #21 on: November 15, 2012, 01:35:59 pm »

I found this review that seems to agree.  I'm assuming performance with single-threaded applications would be the relevant review when applied to DF?  The 8350 FX in single threaded apps lags behind even older generation I5's.  It would probably do better than my really old I5-750 but for a comparable price for both DF and general gaming the newer generation I5's are still the way to go, or spend another $100 on an I7 and completely blow this chip away.  It is worth noting that it almost matches an I7-3770 in multi threaded/multi-core apps like video encoding and such but for all around gaming and general home use the Ivy bridge seems to have it locked up still.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/57446-fx-8350-cpu-review-amds-vishera-arrives-10.html

It seems like it would be fun to develop some kind of DF specific benchmark that people could run on their rigs and post on these forums somewhere.  Any thoughts on how that could be accomplished?

[/quote]

The best CPU for DF is an Intel Ivy Bridge.
AMD is far behind intel in IPC (Instruction per clock) and this is what's important to DF. Choosing an AMD cpu for DF is a poor choice.

My 2600k Sandy Bridge (one generation behind Ivy) is clocked at 4.7Ghz and excel as playing DF.

To speed up DF load and save, put your DF folder in a RAM Drive.
That is, a folder in your RAM. This is an order of magnitude faster then the best SSD. You can use the free software imdisk to setup your ram drive, and automatically keep a backup.
[/quote]
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