:( CPU Crossroads: i7-4770k vs. FX8350 vs. FX9590

[ne6togadno]

change xfx with sapphire trix, powercolor pcs+ or msi tf

 

[R00kie]

change xfx with sapphire trix, powercolor pcs+ or msi tf

I +1 that, The XFX model doesn't have adequate VRM cooling, just a bit of plastic covering it, which means the card will get throttled. Out of the above cards, get the one thats cheaper, theyre all good anyways.

 

[anandsap123]

didnt buy cpu and mobo....cuz i have to actually go to a microcenter for that

xfx has the limited lifetime warranty which i value more than the slight performance boost of the tri-x which is the only other option for me

 

[Jetster]

XFX warranty is a crap shoot. You never know what they will say. Ive had warranties be replaced with no issues and others that they denied for no go reason. Ive never had this issue with any other company.

BTY I'm sold on the i7 4790K. Its like butter for encoding

 

[FlanK3r]

both, if you are enthusiast
One system with I7 and second with FX8350

 

[Shambles1980]

sapphire's rma sucks big time.. just thought id mention that. i know xfx are a bit 50/50 with warranty. but sapphire are always terribe. and even worse if your in the usa.

 

[anandsap123]

lol...just curious what brands DO have good support?
G.Skill maybe?

 

[iamApropos]

With graphics cards and warranty look at a few different things.
1. how easy is it to find and call the company?
2. What does the company provide as a warranty?
3. Overall how does the market view that companies warranty (not someones limited experience but a vast pool of experiences overall)

Now I've spent 2 months calling nearly all AMD manufacturers and or emailing them to compile a list of what each company offers and how easy it is to get in contact with their customer service and or tech support.
Sure your personal experience may vary but overall this is what I've found.

XFX and VisionTek are the only companies that offer a life time warranty.
VisionTek is the only company that offers USA based tech support and easy to find phone #. One thing to note was each time I called I got different answers about their warranty. I finally was able to get someone from PR / Marketing to email me official responses to all my questions.
XFX was the easiest to call and get technical help from people who knew what they were talking about. This company has some hoops you must jump through to get the full life time warranty such as keep your receipt, register the card within 30 days of purchase. But they do allow overclocking of the graphics card without voiding the warranty and they allow you to replace the stock cooler with an after market cooler. On top of that if you aren't comfortable replacing the stock cooler they encourage you to send it to them and they'll do it for you.

Sapphire, ASUS, PowerColor, where some of the worst experiences I had with either trying to get their contact information (not email) and or finding a knowledgeable person to answer my questions. I couldn't find Sapphire's tech support phone number on their website, I had to find it from a forum somewhere and the answers I got from calling were different than the ones I received from an official email from someone in marketing. ASUS I was transferred 3 times and even out of the graphics card department into the laptop department and back. Each time I asked a simple question about Graphics card warranty they seemed confused and or had to put me on hold to get someone else to answer it.

These are just a few of the experiences I had with AMD graphics card manufacturers. There is much more I can share which I'm actually writing an article about the entire experience so that everyone who may be interested can see if it might help them with choosing a card and its warranty. This article should be posted by the end of this weekend.

I wont share every single experience but here are a few I've had with other companies
Some of the best customer service I've encountered thus far including graphics card companies and other component manufactuers:
EVGA - great customer service and encourages you to overclock your product and post results on their forums. Step up program is amazing and I wish more companies offered something similar.
XFX - best tech support I've ever spoke with on the phone.
G.Skill - when it comes to memory has been amazing and quick if with RMA
Corsair - usually goes out of their way to make sure the customer is taken care of and satisfied.


With dealing with companies for 20+ years I know no company is flawless and I'm sure we can find someone who has had a bad experience with even the best companies on the market but overall I think I have a good idea in my opinion who provides the best services to date.

 

[Naito]

Like HardwareCanucks said, the only real downsides are the power consumption (who cares...I have an 850w PSU)

Who ever is paying the power bill might

 

[Nordic]

Saphire has decent RMA's. Mine was quick turn around and all.

 

[Vario]

My recent experiences:
I don't think XFX does a lifetime anymore, my HD 7850 isn't. However my HD 7850 has been pretty reliable for the last year and a half. I have two XFX HD 6850s that were run non stop by a friend of mine before I acquired them and they are solid too. XFX was pretty friendly to me when I asked them if I could remove the cooler and replace the thermal paste, they said okay and said it wouldn't void warranty.
Gigabyte RMA was pretty easy to get approval but it took about 3 months to get a working refurb, first time they just sent the same card back and said it tested okay. I sent it back, finally got the replacement 3 months from the start of the ordeal, and I sold the refurb. The refurb was obviously a repaired card. At the time, they were going through a supply shortage due to litecoin miners frying 7970s and RMAing them so I likely received a repaired card that was in the door out the door.
Haven't RMA'd anything else recently. With everything you should register it immediately, retain all copies of receipts, and try to make sure that you do not physically damage any component, don't damage the circuit boards, or mess up the tape on the screws for the VGA unless you get approval to remove the cooler.

 

[iamApropos]

My recent experiences:
I don't think XFX does a lifetime anymore,.

I've spent the last two months contacting all the AMD graphics card manufacturers and found out that actually XFX still provides / offers a lifetime warranty however they no longer offer a double lifetime warranty. The double lifetime warranty was a transferable warranty.

I had a similar experience with GIGABYTE about a little over a year ago in which they had replaced one of my graphics cards over 4 times and ended up actually giving me back my money in full even after owning the card for nearly a year.

 

[Vario]

I've spent the last two months contacting all the AMD graphics card manufacturers and found out that actually XFX still provides / offers a lifetime warranty however they no longer offer a double lifetime warranty. The double lifetime warranty was a transferable warranty.

I had a similar experience with GIGABYTE about a little over a year ago in which they had replaced one of my graphics cards over 4 times and ended up actually giving me back my money in full even after owning the card for nearly a year.

Nice. I was offered a refund on the 7970 didn't have proof of purchase.

XFX has a bad reputation for the overclocking set because they sometimes cheap out on the non reference PCB design or use cheaper ram (Elpida instead of Hynix) but I think for stock usage they are pretty decent and their cooling system is definitely very attractive looking. After I repasted my Double Dissipation, the temperatures went from average to amazing.

 

[OneMoar]

This kid keeps changing his story last week the machine was all built and up and running I am done user blocked

 

[de.das.dude]

If u have the money Intel is a good choice

 

[sttubs]

I have an 8350 (in my system specs). It plays every game without any issues & is able to handle Photoshop without any difficulties. I'm still running stock clocks. IMO, save your money & go for AMD cpu. When they say that Intel is faster, that is in seconds faster, not minutes.

 

[anandsap123]

Already ordered everything...thanks for your help everyone!!!

 

[yogurt_21]

1. Microcenter brother! You get those prices in instant savings when you checkout, you don't even have to worry about mail in rebates!
2. 8.1 works better with games and i dont mind it

AVAILABLE FOR IN-STORE PICKUP ONLY.

bah 100$ in savings I couldn't take part in. smh

 

[suraswami]

Go with MSI video card, they only send you a new one, they don't send you a half repaired broken one like some others do. (At least that was my experience with one of my mobos and recent call to tech support for my video card said the same, send in ur old one, we will send in a new one).

 

[fullinfusion]

Go with MSI video card, they only send you a new one, they don't send you a half repaired broken one like some others do. (At least that was my experience with one of my mobos and recent call to tech support for my video card said the same, send in ur old one, we will send in a new one).

Yup its true plus the V2 TF cards over clock like a sob!

 

[eidairaman1]

1. Microcenter brother! You get those prices in instant savings when you checkout, you don't even have to worry about mail in rebates!
2. 8.1 works better with games and i dont mind it

I got my board and cpu from there for less than the others

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Just to clarify, FX9590 does not have 8 cores. It has four modules which accepts two threads each. Because of how Intel design its cores and AMD designs its modules, which benefits more from heavy multitasking depends on the task itself. AMD will benefit from tasks that use a lot of floating point operations where Intel will run away with it in most other circumstances.

1TB HDD is pretty small these days. I would go bigger. Also, wired network > wireless network.

 

[Nordic]

Just to clarify, FX9590 does not have 8 cores. It has four modules which accepts two threads each. Because of how Intel design its cores and AMD designs its modules, which benefits more from heavy multitasking depends on the task itself. AMD will benefit from tasks that use a lot of floating point operations where Intel will run away with it in most other circumstances.

1TB HDD is pretty small these days. I would go bigger. Also, wired network > wireless network.

Hdd space needed is incredibly relative. Just an OS drive no games for me requires 20gb's minimum. Put games on there and I will use up to 120gb at most. All my stored files are on a separate drive and only have 80gb worth of data. In total I personally only use about 200gb of hdd space, so a 320gb would be about perfect in my circumstance. That number does go up with time though, so for me a 500gb is more future proof, of which I have.

 

[eidairaman1]

256 Gig Samsung 840 Pro.

750 Gig Seagate Momentus XT (7200 Rpm with 8gig SSD)

Ill add more drives when needed

 

[BiggieShady]

AMD will benefit from tasks that don't use a lot of floating point operations

Fixed that for you. AMD cpus have shared floating point module per core.