Celeron and Pentium Vs. I3

[acmaster]

Now i am about to ask a simple and open ended question. I would appreciate it if there is no judging or hate on this thread. Before i continue i would like to say if you go through my recent activity you'll see i've asked several questions. Reason being i want to build a gaming pc. Now i've come to a settlement but before i proceed i wanted to ask this.

What is the difference between a Celeron/Pentium and an I3?
Is I3 better? If so how?
I would appreciate this if someone could explain.

 

[jaguarskx]

I don't know which CPU models you are referring to but the link below has a current generation CPU for each of those series.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/77769,77777,76344

The most recent Core i3 and Pentium CPUs are based on the current generation Haswell core. Celeron CPUs with the Haswell core has not been released yet so the most recent models are based on the older Ivy Bridge core. At the same clockspeed, Haswell cores are 6% more powerful than Ivy Bridge cores.

The i3 series has Hyper Threading, but the others do not. From a gaming perspective HT is not really used. The exception is Battlefield 4 multiplayer mode where performance charts does prove that HT in the Core i3 CPU are being used at close to 100% capacity. However, BF 4 is the exception. However, other programs you use might take advantage of HT like file compression / decompression. Video encoding can also benefit assuming the video codec and the encoding program can both make use of HT.

The core i3 has the most cache while Celeron has the least. I don't think it matters too much for games. But more never hurts.

Celeron only supports DDR3-1333 RAM while the other supports up to DDR3-1600. This can affect game performance a little bit.

If you are relying on the integrated graphics core to play games, then you definitely want the Core i3 CPU.

 

[acmaster]

I don't know which CPU models you are referring to but the link below has a current generation CPU for each of those series.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/77769,77777,76344

The most recent Core i3 and Pentium CPUs are based on the current generation Haswell core. Celeron CPUs with the Haswell core has not been released yet so the most recent models are based on the older Ivy Bridge core. At the same clockspeed, Haswell cores are 6% more powerful than Ivy Bridge cores.

The i3 series has Hyper Threading, but the others do not. From a gaming perspective HT is not really used. The exception is Battlefield 4 multiplayer mode where performance charts does prove that HT in the Core i3 CPU are being used at close to 100% capacity. However, BF 4 is the exception. However, other programs you use might take advantage of HT like file compression / decompression. Video encoding can also benefit assuming the video codec and the encoding program can both make use of HT.

The core i3 has the most cache while Celeron has the least. I don't think it matters too much for games. But more never hurts.

Celeron only supports DDR3-1333 RAM while the other supports up to DDR3-1600. This can affect game performance a little bit.

If you are relying on the integrated graphics core to play games, then you definitely want the Core i3 CPU.

Thanks you really hit everything i was interested in knowing and i greatly appreciate it