CPU Choose help (Intel Core i3-3220 or AMD FX 6300)

[physloww]

Hello everyone on Tom's Hardware ! First of all, thanks for the great forum - very helpful with smart, polite and friendly members, administrators and moderators.
I know here are many threads with discussions about choosing Core i3 or 6300, but I haven't found solution for me.

So, I'm going to use my PC mostly for gaming and I actually prefer to play on the highest settings.
Which CPU do you think is better for gaming ?

I plan to go with Corsair Vengeance Blue DDR1600 RAM.

For GPU I have got two options:
Sapphire Radeon HD 7770
or
ASUS Radeon HD 7790

Which of these GPUs fits more for these CPUs ? Because I've seen plenty of builds and the most people use hd 7770 with i3 3220 and hd 7790 (or later models) with fx 6300, so i'm kinda confused which one to choose.

Thank you very much in advance !

 

[BSim500]

FX6300 may be slightly faster in some newer games. i3-3220 is still pretty fast in others. Definitely get the 7790 if you can (it's around 30% faster than the 7770).

 

[physloww]

FX6300 may be slightly faster in some newer games. i3-3220 is still pretty fast in others. Definitely get the 7790 if you can (it's around 30% faster than the 7770).

Thank you for an answer ! Yes, I can, but I wanted to make sure that i3 3220 or fx6300 won't bottleneck with hd 7790.

 

[BSim500]

Thank you for an answer ! Yes, I can, but I wanted to make sure that i3 3220 or fx6300 won't bottleneck with hd 7790.

For gaming, you're better off going with a quad-core. If you can't afford an i5, the FX6300 is probably better than the i3 in the long run (though there really isn't much in it vs an i3 in most games):-
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/5
http://www.techspot.com/review/586-amd-fx-8350-fx-6300/page6.html
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/57615-amd-vishera-fx-6300-fx-4300-review-12.html

 

[physloww]

Thank you for the very useful information ! By the way, is that true that I don't need to overclock fx 6300 so much to make it perform better in games than 3220 ?

 

[BSim500]

Thank you for the very useful information ! By the way, is that true that I don't need to overclock fx 6300 so much to make it perform better in games than 3220 ?

Well it depends on the game (see links). At stock, they're both nearly equal in many games. You could OC it slightly. The main problem with the i3 is that you can't OC them at all (there's no "Turbo Boost" equivalent either).

 

[simon12]

It totally depends on the game ie Skyrim & starcraft 2 prefer 2 fast cores in the i3 while games like Crysis 3 and Farcry 3 don't run well on dual core CPUs at all and run much better on the FX 6300. It is well worth overclocking the 6300 if you get one but not essential. Note also it seems to be newer games that don't like dual core CPUs so its likely in a years time you would regret getting the i3.

 

[physloww]

Thank you, guys ! I think I will go with FX 6300, because of its overclockability and as simon12 said, newer/future games more likely to use more cores.

 

[simon12]

Good choice, I don't think either would hold back a 7790 anyway you would need a 7850 at least to see much difference.

 

[cmi86]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-a-pc-fx-6300-overclocking,3617.html

This is a link to the Q3 system builder marathon PC. The Q2 system used an i3. This article has several game comparisons that outline the strengths and weaknesses of each. I personally chose the 6300 for its combo of gaming and productivity performance. No it will definitely not bottleneck a 7790.

 

[Avro Arrow]

As an aside, AMD-based (AM3+) motherboards tend to be less expensive and more feature-rich than Intel boards in the same price bracket. Case in point, the ASRock 990FX Extreme4 and the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3.

 

[ethereal essence]

If you go with the 7790, definitely try to get a 2gb version. games are already using more than 1gb of vram at 1080p, the cost difference is not that much. Or you could go with a 2gb GTX 650ti Boost which should be around the same price.

As for the cpu, yeah, the 6300 is in a much better place than the i3 right now. as others have mentioned there are a lot of newer games that make use of 4 cores and the i3 shows its limits in those benchmarks. While the i3 will out perform the 6300 in dual thread games like skyrim and starcraft 2, and a few other games, overall the 6300 is a much better buy when considering next year.

 

[physloww]

Thanks everyone!