Amd or Intel for gaming?

Rafael Mestdag

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Mar 25, 2014
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I ask this because I currently have a Phenom II X4 945 and despite being from 2009 it's still pretty quick. Previously I had an i3 4130. The i3 being a lot newer was quicker overall but what about a current 4-core AMD vs the same i3? Which is best for gaming?

Thank you for any help ;-)
 
Solution
The new x4 860k is based on the steamroller, a nice upgrade over the piledriver based x4 760k. 4 cores overclockable up to 4.4 GHz.

A i3-4130 runs at 3.4, and has hyperthreading. It can not be overclocked.
A hyperthread uses residual capability of the main core, and I estimate that it is worth perhaps 1/3 of a real core.
That gives you 3.4 for each full core + 1.0 or so for each hyperthread.
You get that only if you can fully utilize all 4 threads.

Two cores plus hyperthreading and 4 cores.....
The best to pick will be determined by how many cores your normal workload can actually use.
Most apps and games are single threaded, so faster, more effective cores are a priority.
AMD cores are simply not as strong as intel, perhaps 30%...
If you are going low end, I would go with AMD hands down. The 4300 (i think that what it is) is a good quad if you can't afford anything better. But for nearly the same price you can go with the 6300 (2 more cores). Admittedly the i3 is good, but it is still only a dual core with hyperthreading.
 
Athlon 860K

or

i3-4170

Both of those are faster at gaming than the FX-CPUs. I usually tell people to go with the Haswell i3, but the Athlon is nearly as good and slightly cheaper.

Funny thing is that if you overclock, the Athlon 860K @4.5GHz not only beats the FX-9590 in gaming, but nearly catches the Haswell i5 (at stock).

But if you do overclock, maybe you should just OC that Phenom II to 4GHz. Those are still good for gaming once they are fine-tuned.
 
The new x4 860k is based on the steamroller, a nice upgrade over the piledriver based x4 760k. 4 cores overclockable up to 4.4 GHz.

A i3-4130 runs at 3.4, and has hyperthreading. It can not be overclocked.
A hyperthread uses residual capability of the main core, and I estimate that it is worth perhaps 1/3 of a real core.
That gives you 3.4 for each full core + 1.0 or so for each hyperthread.
You get that only if you can fully utilize all 4 threads.

Two cores plus hyperthreading and 4 cores.....
The best to pick will be determined by how many cores your normal workload can actually use.
Most apps and games are single threaded, so faster, more effective cores are a priority.
AMD cores are simply not as strong as intel, perhaps 30% slower on a clock for clock basis.
If you could be certain of loading all 4 cores, then it would be competitive.

In my opinion fewer, more capable cores is a better trade off than many less capable cores.
 
Solution