Setsul where are you when we need you

PC Build Thread

http://www.teamfortress.tv/12714/pc-build-
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http://www.teamfortress.tv/12714/pc-build-\

edit ninjad

If you're streaming tf2 only don't upgrade your gpu

Absolutely correct, but OP if you do want a new GPU anyway, this is much better for your money than a gt 740: http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-GDDR5-Graphics-04G-P4-3748-KR/dp/B00KJGYOGG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439220668&sr=8-1&keywords=Nvidia+4gb+DDR5

No, computer video games are the devil's backgammon.

Isn't the 750Ti the same price?

the 8350 would benefit streaming, but would likely be a downgrade in most other areas. the 8350 is good at multi-threading due to its 8 cores (so streaming games wouldn't impact performance quite as much as your current cpu), but the cores are very weak individually, making it suck for anything that uses less than 8 cores (which most things do).

you would also have to buy a new motherboard if you wanted to get an 8350, so i would just say put that money towards an i7 4790k. the 8350 is priced nicely but most people (me included) regret buying them in the end after realising they're just way behind intel. like i say though, you'd also be spending almost as much on the 8350 on a motherboard to go with it, which is going to cost something similar to the i7 (which wont need a new motherboard).

and about the DDR5 VRAM, its just like normal system RAM; more of it would give you a huge boost in performance if you were to run out of it; if you weren't running out of normal system RAM in your computer, it would be pointless buying more. 1GB is still enough for the majority of modern games (big titles like GTA 5 or witcher 3 would certainly need more though) and definitely enough for older games including tf2. in your current situation, you don't need to worry about VRAM or a new gpu.

in short; for streaming tf2, an i7 would be the best option. the 8350 is also pretty good at streaming, but shit at everything else (you would probably get a lower fps on tf2 when not streaming than your current 4570) and you would need a new motherboard anyway. an i7 still beats an 8350 at streaming, just not with as much of a difference as everything else.

hope this helps!

you can encode your stream on your gpu btw

NVENC is still noticeably worse quality than x264 or even quick sync. You need a very high bitrate to achieve similar quality to software encoding.

https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-benchmarking-1080p-60fps-cpu-vs-nvenc-vs-quick-sync.15963/

Is it possible to move posts in this forum? I'm going to post here since everything I'm refering to is here aswell and OP's links aren't in the PC Build Thread.

1. Yes, your CPU and GPU are mismatched for everything except TF2/streaming. TF2 puts almost no load on the GPU, you could even get away with the iGPU integrated in the i5-4570. All the work for streaming is done by the CPU, absolutely nothing by the GPU. Don't ask why, it's difficult to explain. So even though your GPU is low end, it's enough for what you're doing and upgrading it won't help at all.

2. No, the GT 740 is not a huge upgrade. Apart from the fact that upgrading your GPU won't do anything (see 1.) it's barely faster than the 550 Ti. At that price you could indeed get a 750 Ti (see #8) which is twice as fast.
Then there's the difference between VRAM size and GPU speed. They are not related. The same applies to RAM, HDDs, SSDs and even motor vehicles. A truck is definitely larger than a car, does that mean it's faster? I think you know the answer to that question.
Now why would you need larger VRAM? For the pretties. Higher resolution (e.g. 1440p or even 4K instead of 1080p), Antialiasing, Anisotropic Filtering, etc. all these things increase VRAM usage. If you don't have enough VRAM for 16x AA you'll have to live with 8x AA. But all these things also take time to compute. More than 1GB on a low end card like the 550 Ti or 740 doesn't make sense because even though you could crank up the settings to use more than 1 or 2, maybe even close to 4GB the card just doesn't have the performance. You'd be getting very "cinematic" 5fps. On "normal" cards VRAM increases the higher up you go on the food chain, which is only logical.
GTX 960 2GB, 970/980 4GB, 980 Ti 6GB.
Now why do 2 and 4GB versions of the 740 exist? To make money. They are mostly used in pre-builts and when you don't even mention the GPU model "4GB nVidia™ Graphics Card" sells a lot better than "1GB nVidia™ Graphics Card". It's not any faster, but that doesn't matter.
As to why the GTX 980 is 500$, it's simple: It's very fast.
Against the 550 Ti the graphs just look ridiculous.
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1133?vs=1351
The 750 Ti is twice as fast as the 550 Ti and still can't hold a candle to it.
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1130?vs=1351
I'll leave the last question unanswered since you shouldn't go by VRAM size and you don't need a new GPU anyway.

3. No, the FX-8350 isn't exactly better than the i5-4570. It's complicated, basically it is slightly better for streaming, but you'd be getting lower fps in TF2. For now I'm not going to explain why.
It also won't fit in your motherboard so you'd have to buy a new one aswell. Spending >200$ for a tiny difference and less fps in TF2, both while you're streaming and while you're not, is just a waste of money.
Now for FX vs i7. I have a less technical analogy than #9's.
Imagine two persons. Person A(MD) takes 4.0 steps per second, person I(intel) takes only 3.2 steps per second.
Which person is faster? Trick question, person I's steps are twice as long. For the i7 which has sort of 8 cores, similar, but not quite like the FX-8350 has sort of 8 cores (difficult, don't ask), it's not even close. With the i5 it's not as easy since it has only 4 cores. It's complicated but the break points is ~6 threads. Less and the i5 is definitely faster, more and the FX-8350 might be faster.

4. The FX-8350 is 3 years old. You don't buy 3 year old CPUs. The only CPUs that fit in your motherboard are the same architecture as your current CPU and there aren't any i5s with significantly higher clockrates. Spending >200$ on an i5-4690 (3.5 vs your 3.2GHz) for <10% improvement isn't worth it. i7s really are your only option. If you live near a microcenter and can afford it you could pick up an i7-4790K for 280$. You're looking at a 25% improvement just through the higher clockrates. When streaming Hyperthreading comes into play and the difference will be a lot greater.
If that's not possible you could get a Xeon E3-1231 v3. It's basically an i7 without the iGPU, which you don't need since you have a dedicated GPU already, so why pay 50$ for something you won't use? It's clockrates aren't much higher so in TF2 alone the difference won't be much, but for streaming it should improve performance significantly.

EDIT: fixed typo.
EDIT: another fix.

Aww c'mon setsul, don't you like explaining hyperthreading and CPU bottlenecks from scratch every thread?

Serious unrelated question though: thoughts on upgrading from a 2500k to a 6700k, assuming the 6700k is $80?

1. How?
2. Depends on the mobo price and RAM (new DDR4 or reusing DDR3).
If you don't need any more performance it's obviously a waste of money.
That said you're looking at around +25% single threaded both overclocked, both not overclocked more like +40%. If you can take advantage of Hyperthreading...
I'd probably do it, sell CPU+mobo+RAM as combo (best case 250-300$ I'd think) and upgrade to Z170 and DDR4 basically for free.

1. Sweet, sweet Retail Edge.
2. That's also about the only major issue I could foresee. Having 16GB is pretty essential to me as I'm a heavy multitasker, and having to rebuy 16GB in DDR4 wouldn't be cheap. However there are boards already with DDR3 support. And yes, I'll be able to take advantage of multithreading, I'm a heavy user. I was just asking you in case I forgot something.

Ah yes, the bribery.
Even though I don't work in retail or in America at all I should definitely be eligible considering how much I'm boosting Intel sales. Sadly Intel doesn't see it that way.

I'd make the decision based on how much you get for your old hardware. Maybe you can get more for selling it together, maybe you get more for selling CPU and mobo separately.
Also DDR4 isn't that expensive.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2k8g4d240fsa
115$ for that sweet, sweet +50% bandwidth (if you're using "only" 1600MHz, that is).

Fact of the matter is, I'll probably be salvaging this build and giving it to my girlfriend rather than selling it off. Plus, DDR4 will be cheaper by the time I'm buying the processor (winter Retail Edge sale). So I might just give her the entire build, minus storage, and build myself something new.

Do you know if Intel is planning on releasing a 6core or 8core i7 variant on an enthusiast platform, like Broadwell-E? Generally in Retail Edge they sell the top of the line 115X processor for $80 and the top of the line enthusiast socket processor for $140 or so. I just don't know if they'll have one in time.

It's usually more than 140$ and one step down from the totl model (so the x930K), but yes, you can get a 600$ CPU for 150-160$ and you're reminding me of it and I'm crying inside.

For Broadwell-E I'm guessing 8/6/6 cores again, same as Haswell-E.
It also got delayed from Q3 2015 to Q1 2016 so
a) You won't be able to get it in the Intel Retail Edge winter deals.
b) I doubt it'll overclock better than Haswell-E.
Hw-E already got DDR4 so if the 5930K isn't worth it for you the 6930K probably won't be either.

Sorry man. For what it's worth, I like to think of Retail Edge as Intel trying to apologize for the bullshit retail employees have to go through.

I'll nab whatever the enthusiast processor is at the time of the sale. I was just wondering which it'll be. Probably Skylake and Haswell-E again then.