I see.

In that case yes, it's worth waiting. Not only you'll get better performance, but they will also use less power with the move to 20nm.

What was the old PC you were upgrading from? I'm curious.

I was looking into the FX-8320....deciding to go with the i5-4670 instead since I won't be doing much more intensive than gaming (as far as threading goes). Buddy of mine went with almost the same setup as you...he only went with 4GB of RAM though (I don't know why...)

Would anyone mind if I post the specs I'm looking at going with and tell me if there are any problems for what I'm looking to do? I could do this over PM's too if that's better than hijacking the thread, haha.

From the looks of it you wont be needing a strong CPU to play games in the future, thanks to the insane amount of drawcalls AMDs mantle can push.

I'd say wait or possibly reconsider going with FX-8320, or alternatively get an APU since that seems to be the future according to AMD, if you're planning on playing any game that will be using AMDs mantle API. It can use the APUs GPU/extra cores for rendering purposes and some other tasks.

Oxide stated that a fully utilized 8 core 8350 can match i7 4770k in gaming performance during a tech demo demonstration in APU13 last week, they even ran the demo with an underclocked 2ghz 8350 without any framerate drops. No confirmation yet on how mantle will affect Intel CPUs so you might curse your decision later on. Better to just wait out for now for news.

Some results they showed at APU13 after the tech demo

Also note that mantle will only work on 7xxx/Rx 2xx series AMD GPUs right now, no confirmation whetever Nvidia will cooperate with their competitor.

I'd go against relying only on the promise of Mantle to decide what to buy now. Not many studios have announced their support for it, so the choice of a CPU should be purely done on a price/performance basis.

Also, if Mantle succeeds it will benefit both AMD and Intel CPUs, so whatever you get, you'll benefit from it.

Given that Mantle must work with AMD's next architecture (otherwise it would be a waste of money and resources on their part), it's hard to believe that it couldn't be ported to work with Nvidia GPUs, although knowing Nvidia they'll probably launch their own (and incompatible) version of Mantle.

EA will be using it on 15 different games so far, so its gonna be worth it if u play any of their games, there's also Oxide games, Cloud Imperium Games,  Eidos and Activision. I would think they got even more unannounced partners.

.http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Frostbite-3-Games-Activision-PC-Titles-Support-Mantle-API-59492.html

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Star-Citizen-Eidos-Montreal-Oxide-Games-Support-AMD-Mantle-60499.html

Its very easy to work on, especially if you're planning to port games between consoles/PC and  apparently porting a game to mantle from DX takes about 2 months of work according to Dice's Johan Andersson.

It will work on Nvidia GPUs but ONLY if Nvidia does the work themselves and after AMD release their work to the public, whetever they want to do that is all upto them. Right now only reasons to go for Nvidia for gaming is if you're planning to get a Gsync monitor/card and think PhysX effects are the most important aspect for your gaming experience.

I wouldn't buy anything right now, until we see how this turns out. Worst case you will have better experience with cheaper AMD hardware than more expensive Nvidia hw.

good PC im looking at a FX 6300 currently, failing that i may opt for an athlon x3 and unlock it

I completely 100% agree.

Not all games will support Mantle, the Intel CPU is still going to be faster even when something is designed for 8 threads.
With the Intel chip, you're going to need to upgrade less often, probably saving you cash in the long run, you also get the benefit of lightly threaded games running well.

From those you mentioned, only EA and Eidos have a number of games/franchises to make it somewhat worth it. Activision only has CoD (which once they move to a new engine they won't change it in many, many years), Starcraft (already launched), and WoW (no comments). Mantle won't be necessary to play their games.

I agree that unless you must change your PC now it's worth to wait. Not only to see what happens with Mantle but also because with the move to 20nm and new architectures, GPUs will make a new jump in performance while (hopefully) reducing the power consumption. And lower their prices!

What, Thief/Star Citizen aren't worth it!?

It's really upto the person in question to decide, he's either getting something great now or getting something good now cheaper which can become great later on. I'm personally excited to play Dragon Age: Inquisition, Thief and Star Citizen on my AMD setup using mantle. ^^