Hi all,
Following a recent discussion in the 'Home Builders' section (linky here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/320341-13-easy-build-good-true), i am looking at putting together a relatively budget PC for my wife to play MMO's on, and whilst i feel i have a pretty good understanding of the importance/relevance of things like GPU/PSU and RAM etc. - the choice of motherboard and in particular CPU is giving me a bit of a headache.
From the choices explored, it largely comes down to two CPU's:
The Pentium G620: http://www.ebuyer.com/264713-intel-pentium-g620-2-6ghz-socket-1155-3mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623g620
The Athlon II X3: http://www.ebuyer.com/270556-amd-athlon-ii-x3-460-3-4ghz-socket-am3-1-5mb-3x512kb-l2-cache-adx460wfgmbox
Now, they are within £10 of each other, so price isn't too much of a factor (although every little helps i guess)
The source of confusion is as follows: The Athalon has 3 x Cores operating at 3.4GHz, whereas the G620 has only one core operating at 2.6GHz, so one would imagine the Athalon to be superior - and comparing the 'Passmark CPU Mark' details this rings true:
Intel Pentium G620 2,484
AMD Athlon II X3 460 2,649
So, first glance the Athalon looks much better - BUT it has only 1.5Mb cache (split over 3 cores at half a meg each) compared to the 3MB cache of the Intel one - So how important is the cache size?
Being relatively inexperienced i don't know which would deliver the best all round performance; is a triple core with faster processors indeed better ll round than a single core with a much better cache?
Appreciate the help and advice guys and gals.
- Robert
Following a recent discussion in the 'Home Builders' section (linky here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/320341-13-easy-build-good-true), i am looking at putting together a relatively budget PC for my wife to play MMO's on, and whilst i feel i have a pretty good understanding of the importance/relevance of things like GPU/PSU and RAM etc. - the choice of motherboard and in particular CPU is giving me a bit of a headache.
From the choices explored, it largely comes down to two CPU's:
The Pentium G620: http://www.ebuyer.com/264713-intel-pentium-g620-2-6ghz-socket-1155-3mb-l3-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623g620
The Athlon II X3: http://www.ebuyer.com/270556-amd-athlon-ii-x3-460-3-4ghz-socket-am3-1-5mb-3x512kb-l2-cache-adx460wfgmbox
Now, they are within £10 of each other, so price isn't too much of a factor (although every little helps i guess)
The source of confusion is as follows: The Athalon has 3 x Cores operating at 3.4GHz, whereas the G620 has only one core operating at 2.6GHz, so one would imagine the Athalon to be superior - and comparing the 'Passmark CPU Mark' details this rings true:
Intel Pentium G620 2,484
AMD Athlon II X3 460 2,649
So, first glance the Athalon looks much better - BUT it has only 1.5Mb cache (split over 3 cores at half a meg each) compared to the 3MB cache of the Intel one - So how important is the cache size?
Being relatively inexperienced i don't know which would deliver the best all round performance; is a triple core with faster processors indeed better ll round than a single core with a much better cache?
Appreciate the help and advice guys and gals.
- Robert